Caesarius the bishop, to the priests and deacons, to the holy and venerable abbess Caesaria, whom the Lord through my littleness has set over the monastery, and to the whole congregation which the Lord in His grace shall have gathered there, eternal salvation in the Lord. Since the piety of the Church does its customary work in an orderly manner — namely, that it may bestow the help of its bounty upon pilgrims and the destitute — how much more, when there is opportunity or need to grant something to any who are holy and who fear God, ought it to open wider the tender heart of its holy mercy?
And therefore, in accordance with this letter which I have strengthened with the subscription of my own hand, appending below for each item the day and the consul, God so disposing, I have drawn up this my testament, and have subscribed it with my own hand, and by praetorian law or by civil law have confirmed it in their stead by codicil. I, Caesarius, a sinner, when I shall have paid the debt of human flesh, will and command that the whole monastery of St. John, which I founded, be canonically under the authority of the pontiff of Arles, and that he be my heir; let all others, men and women, be disinherited. Let everything which I shall have given, bequeathed, or ordered to be given to anyone through this my testament, be given and carried out. For the rest, I leave the bishop of Arles co-heir with my monastery:
and whatever men and women I shall have ordered to be free, let them all be free. Yet I myself, since I had nothing of my parents' goods, blushed to presume upon this my testament; but this consideration nevertheless compelled me, that most of the fearful words of the Savior, which the wicked shall hear when He says, 'Go into the eternal fire' (Matt. 25:41), moved me by an affection of piety to confer something upon my church. And lest perchance after my death any of my kinsfolk should presume to trouble the church over which I preside — apart from those things which I shall have given them as bequests [perhaps: as gifts of remembrance] —
therefore I desired to set forth this my will more fully, that none of my kinsfolk, whether at the aforesaid monastery or from the pontiff of the Church of Arles, may presume to demand anything beyond what I shall have given them and given already. To my holy lord the archbishop who worthily shall succeed me, unworthy as I am — although all things are in his power — nevertheless, if it please him and he judge it fitting, let the paschal vestments which were given to me all serve him, together with the shaggy chasuble and tunic, or the coverlet, whichever I shall leave as the better. But let my remaining garments, except the hooded cloak, be divided among clerics as well as laymen, with the favor or arrangement of the lord archbishop, by his own command — nay, by his gift.
But those things which I formerly conferred upon the monastery by donation, I now affirm; and if I have conferred anything upon anyone by letter, or by note, or by word for piety's sake, I will that it hold good. This too I earnestly pray, that the cell which Augustus the subdeacon of good memory had in the courtyard of St. Stephen, on the right hand as one enters, the lord archbishop may deign to grant in perpetual right to the stewards of the monastery for their safe keeping, so that the stewards of the monastery may hold it in succession. And this I specially will, and thus, my lord archbishop, I beseech: whether it be a steward for the monastery or a priest for the basilica of St. Mary, let the holy congregation have no other than the one whom it shall itself have chosen or petitioned to be ordained.
And although I presume upon your piety, my lord archbishop, nevertheless, lest perchance you should entertain the importunate suggestions of certain persons against our monastery, I adjure you by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and by the dread Day of Judgment, that the ancient Enemy may never prevail with you, so that you should consent to grieve your handmaids, or permit anything to be taken from them of what they possess and what we have conferred upon them. For, God being propitious, it was not without discretion or justice that we sold the goods of the church by direct right to any secular persons whatsoever, except only that which is less useful and unfruitful to the church;
and what we have bestowed, with the consent or subscription of the holy brethren, upon souls that are holy and devoted to God, let it remain to them by perpetual right. But you, my lady little daughters, I adjure by the inseparable holy Trinity, and by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you entreat with all affection, as a lord, the pontiff who by God's ordaining shall worthily succeed me, unworthy as I am, and love him with a pure mind, and grieve him not by your disobedience. For we trust in the mercy of God that He will so bestow chaste love upon all the priests to whom the charge of religion belongs, that He will permit nothing that is needful for sustaining your poor body to be lacking to you.
Again and again, O best of pontiffs, I ask by divine grace that you take the greatest care of the aforesaid monastery, and strive to provide for their community with great piety. But if the person of anyone should give you unjust counsel, I beg that you answer with authority: for what is done by the word of a bishop not only ought not to be, but altogether cannot be, taken away. And this especially, because the authority of the most holy Pope Urbicus himself assented to this — that I might believe this of my holy lord the pontiff. For never will so wicked a suggestion prevail with you, that against the just will of whatever prelate the substance which by my zeal has greatly profited you should not have profited you, but should be, as it were, nearly doubled.
To this is added that the merciful God, through my littleness, granted also for the most part an immunity from tributes, both near the city and within it, as also in its suburban estates. As for the little field of Aucharianum, from which we gave a small portion to the monastery, we keep back much: for we reserved more or less a hundred arpents of vineyard and fields of three hundred modii; so that the aforesaid monastery has of the land which I myself planted only forty measures, and of the old vineyard we conferred scarcely thirty arpents. The little field of Gallicumanum, of Mercloanum, and the little field of Gemelli with their ponds and marshes, with every right and boundary thereof, and the pastures in the Stony Field, or whatever others there are;
or the field in Trifinitium above the paved road, or whatever others remain; the little field of Orvedum, and the little field of Martinatis, and the little field of Silvanum, in which is situated the church of St. Mary de Ratis; and the little field of Missiamanum, with all the pastures and marshes belonging to it, with every right and boundary thereof, we have reserved to your holy church for their maintenance. Wherefore I adjure you, O holy pontiff, that if Almighty God through the hands of those who fear Him shall have given to holy Mother Church, to the monastery of the holy virgins, any greater good, your holy love may not separate the one from the other.
But if — which God forbid — no congregation should be, or be gathered, there, or if perchance afterward, which God avert, when it has been gathered it should cease to be, let these things return to Mother Church. These things indeed I have written that I might satisfy my own fear. For far be it that you, most pious pontiff, should be blamed through ignorance; because, as I have already said above, the divine piety granted, through my humility, that an immunity of the Church should be given in so many heads. What we have given to the monastery with the consent of the brethren, I confirm by this my will. To our handmaid the abbess Caesaria, I will that the larger mantle which she made of hemp be given. To my lord Cyprian, I will that the mantle better than all the rest be given.
Whatever I conferred upon my servant Bricianus, I now confirm through this my testament. Let Agritia, my own girl, most willingly serve the monastery and the abbess Caesaria; and indeed I confirm the little slave-girls which I gave to them or to their kinsfolk. All my chamber-servants I commend to you, my lord bishop, before God and His angels.