Incapable as you are of defending your Roman subjects, the maritime situation of the city may perhaps expose it to your depredation but we can remove to the distance of four-and-twenty stadia, to the first fortress of the Lombards, and then--you may pursue the winds.

Are you ignorant that the popes are the bond of union, the mediators of peace, between the East and West?
The eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility; and they revere, as a God upon earth, the apostle St.Peter, whose image you threaten to destroy.

[35] The remote and interior kingdoms of the West present their homage to Christ and his vicegerent; and we now prepare to visit one of their most powerful monarchs, who desires to receive from our hands the sacrament of baptism.

[36] The Barbarians have submitted to the yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice of the shepherd.

These pious Barbarians are kindled into rage: they thirst to avenge the persecution of the East.