had upon it the stain of the worst
actions? While, deserting what belongs to us, and aiming at what is beyond
us, we add our own sins to the brute strength of barbarians. Our guilt
sharpens the swords of our enemies, and weighs down the strength of the
State. What excuse can we make who press down the people of God, over which
we unworthily preside, with the burden of our sins? Who preach with our
tongues and kill by our examples? Whose works teach iniquity, while their
words make a show of justice? We wear down the body with fasts, while the
mind swells with arrogance. This puts on poor apparel; that has more than
imperial pride. We lie in ashes, and despise dignities. We teach the
humble, and lead the proud, and hide the wolf's teeth in the sheep's face.
What result has all this but that, while we impose on men, we are made
known to God? Thus it is with the greatest wisdom that your Majesty seeks
the peace of the Church as the means of stilling the tumults of war, and
would make the hearts of bishops rest once more in its solid structure.
That is my wish: in that to the utmost of my power I obey you.

"But since it is not my cause but God's, and since not I only but the whole
Church is thrown into confusion; since sacred laws, since venerable
councils, since the very commands even of our Lord Jesus Christ are
disturbed by the invention of this haughty and pompous language, let the
most pious emperor lance the wound and overcome the sick man's resistance
by the force of the imperial authority. If you bind up that wound, you
raise up the State; and by cutting off such abuses, contribute to the
length of your reign.

"For to all who know the Gospel it is notorious that the charge of the
whole Church was entrusted by the voice of the Lord to the holy Apostle
Peter, chief of all the Apostles." And he then cites, as so many of his
predecessors cited, the three great words. He concludes: "Peter received
the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the power of binding and loosing, the
charge of the whole Church, the Principate over it; yet he is not called
the universal Apostle, and John, my colleague as bishop, endeavours to be
called universal bishop.

"All things in Europe are delivered over to the power of barbarians. Our
cities are destroyed, our fortresses overthrown, our provinces depopulated.
The ground remains untilled. Day by day idolaters exercise their rage upon
the faithful, who are cruelly slaughtered; and bishops who s