Letter 33

33. To Aburgius.

And who knows how to honour an old friendship, to reverence virtue, and to feel grief along with those who suffer, as you yourself do? Since, then, troubles have overtaken our most God-beloved brother Gregory the bishop — troubles not otherwise to be borne, and most of all contrary to his character — it has seemed to us best to take refuge in your protection, and to try to find from you some release from his misfortunes. For it is an intolerable misfortune that a man neither fitted for it nor willing should be compelled to plead lawsuits, that a poor man should be dunned for money, and that one who long ago resolved to pass his life in quiet should be dragged into the public eye and made the object of demagoguery. Whether, then, you judge it useful to speak with the Count of the Treasury, or with certain others, will be for your sagacity to decide.