Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 173

Gregory to Peter, subdeacon. The venerable Paulinus, bishop of the city of Taurus, in the province of the Bruttii, has asserted to us that his monks were dispersed on occasion of the barbarian incursion, and that they now wander throughout all Sicily, and that they, being without a rector, neither bear the care of souls nor observe the discipline of their habit. Wherefore we command that these same monks, sought out by you with all care and solicitude, be brought back into one, and be placed with the aforesaid bishop and their rector in the monastery of Saint Theodore situated in the city of Messina, so that both those who are now there, whom we have ascertained to lack a rector, and those whom you shall bring back, having been found from his congregation, may under that leader serve Almighty God as one.

Know that we have signified this matter to the venerable Felix, bishop of the same city, lest he be grieved that anything is ordained without his cognizance in the diocese committed to him. (Above, epistle 40.) Gregory to Anthemius, subdeacon. John, our brother and fellow-bishop, in the memorandum which he directed hither to us through Justus, his ... , is known to have intimated among other matters, that certain monks of the monasteries situated in the diocese of Sorrento migrate from monastery to monastery as it pleases them, and depart from the rule of their own abbot out of desire for worldly gain; and moreover—what it is shameful to make known—that they severally devote themselves to private property.

Therefore by the present order we command your Experience, that neither be it permitted henceforth to a monk to migrate from monastery to monastery, nor allow any of them to have anything private. But if anyone shall have presumed to do this, let him, in the monastery in which he was first professed and under the rule of the abbot from whom he had fled, be given back with fitting correction, lest, if we let so great an iniquity go loose and uncorrected, the souls of the perishing be required from the soul of their superiors. But if it happens that any come from the clerical state into the monastic conversion on any occasion whatsoever, let it not be permitted them to return of their own will to the same or another church,

in which they had formerly served, unless he be a monk of such a life that the bishop under whom he had formerly served should foresee him worthy of the priesthood, so that he may be chosen by him and ordained in the place he shall judge. And because we have learned that some of the monks have leaped forth to so great a wickedness that they publicly take wives, seek them out with all vigilance, and, once found, send them back with fitting correction into the monasteries whose monks they were (Gratian 16, q. 1, can. 32; and 27, q. 1, can. 39). But also concerning clerics coming to the monastic state, as we said above, do not fail to attend. For thus you will appease the eyes of God, and be found a partaker of the reward fulfilled. Gregory to Leander, bishop of Seville.

I would have wished to reply to your letters with all attention, had not the labour of pastoral care so wear me down that it pleases me rather to weep than to say anything. Which your Reverence too vigilantly perceives in the very texture of my letters, when I speak carelessly to him whom I vehemently love. For I am so tossed in this place by the surges of this world, that I can by no means steer to port the old and rotting ship which, by the hidden dispensation of God, I have undertaken to govern. Now from the front the waves rush in, now from the side the foaming heaps of the sea swell up, now from behind the tempest pursues.

And amid all these things, being troubled, I am now compelled to steer the very helm against adversity, now, with the side of the ship bent over, to avert obliquely the menaces of the waves. I groan, because I feel that through my negligence the bilge-water of vices increases, and, with the tempest violently opposing, the wreck of the rotten plank already at every moment resounds. Weeping, I remember that I have lost the placid shore of my repose, and, sighing, I gaze upon the land which nevertheless, with the winds of affairs opposing me, I cannot hold. If therefore, dearest brother, you love me, stretch out to me the hand of your prayer amid these floods; that, in helping me who labour, you may from that very exchange of reward prove the stronger also in your own labours.

But I am by no means able to fill up my joy in speaking, that I have learned our common son Reccared, the most glorious king, to have been converted to the catholic faith with the most upright devotion. His character you express to me in your writings, and you make me love even one whom I know not. But because you know the snares of the ancient enemy, since he has set up a harder war against victors, now let your Holiness watch more skilfully over that same king, that he may perfect what he has well begun, nor exalt himself over his perfected good works, that he may hold the faith he has known also by the merits of his life, and show by his works that he is a citizen of the eternal kingdom, so that after many courses of years he may pass from kingdom to kingdom. But concerning the triple immersion of baptism (Gratian, de Consecratione,

distinction 4, can. 89), nothing truer can be answered than what you yourselves have perceived: that in one faith a diverse custom in nothing harms the holy Church. Now our custom, that we immerse thrice, signifies the sacraments of the three-day burial, so that while the infant is thrice raised from the waters, the resurrection of the three-day span may be expressed. But if anyone perhaps should think it is done also for veneration of the supreme Trinity, neither does anything oppose to this the immersing of the one to be baptized once in the waters, since, while there is one substance in three subsistences, it can in no way be reprehensible to immerse an infant in baptism either thrice or once, when both in three immersions the trinity of persons, and in one the singularity of divinity, can be designated.

But because up to now the infant has been thrice immersed in baptism by heretics, I judge that it ought not to be done among you; lest, while they count the immersions, they divide the divinity, and, while they do what they used to do, they glory that they have overcome our custom. But to your most sweet Fraternity I have sent the codices, a note of which I have appended below. Now those things which had been spoken in the exposition of blessed Job, and which you write are to be sent to you, since I had said these in homilies with lukewarm words and thoughts, I have somehow striven to alter into the manner of books, which are even now still being copied out by the scribes.

And had not the haste of the bearer straitened me as he sensed it, I would have wished to transmit all things to you without any diminution, especially because I wrote this very work also for your Reverence, that I might seem to have laboured and sweated in my toil for him whom I love before all others. Moreover, if you come to know that times of relief are granted you from ecclesiastical occupation, you know now what to do; although, even though absent in body, I always behold you present to me, because I place the image of your countenance impressed within the depths of my heart. Given in the month of May. (Cf. John the Deacon, book II, ch. 32.) Gregory to Peter, subdeacon of Sicily. That we have dismissed your representative late, being entangled with the occupations of the Paschal festivity, we were by no means able to send him back sooner.

But investigating subtly all the cases concerning which you took care to inform, you will learn below how we have disposed of them. We have learned that the peasants of the Church are grievously burdened in the prices of grain, so that the established sum is not observed for them in a time of abundance in the comparison of price. And we wish that, according to the public prices at all times, whether grain be born in lesser or greater amount, in these the measure of comparison be kept for them. But the grain that perishes by shipwreck we wish to be reckoned in all respects; yet so that no negligence in transmitting be committed by you, lest, while the time of transmitting is neglected, loss be generated from your fault.

But we have observed it to be exceedingly iniquitous and unjust, that from the peasants of the Church something be taken by way of the sextarius-tax, and that they be compelled to give by a larger modius than is brought into the Church's granary. Wherefore by the present admonition we command that grain should never be received from the peasants of the Church by a modius of more than eighteen sextarii. Unless perchance there be anything which the sailors take over and above according to custom, which they themselves attest to be lost to them in the ships. We have learned also that in some estates of the Church a most unjust exaction is made, so that—which it is shameful to say—the tenant-farmers are exacted at seventy-three and a half; and even this does not suffice, but beyond this something more is said to be exacted according to a usage now of many years.

This matter we utterly detest, and wish to be cut off from the patrimony root and branch. But let your Experience weigh, both in this which is exacted in excess by way of the pound, and in other petty burdens, and whatever is taken from the peasants beyond the equity of reason; and let it reduce all into the sum of the rent, and, according as the strength of the peasants can bear, let them pay a full and just rent at seventy-two; and let them be obliged to exact neither carob-pods beyond the pounds, nor a larger pound, nor burdens greater than the pound; but by your estimation, according as their strength suffices, let it grow into the sum of the rent, and thus let a base exaction by no means be made.

But lest, after my death, these same burdens which we have subtracted from what was imposed over the reckoning, and which we have made to grow in the principal of the rent, be again added to any, and the sum of the rent be found to be increased, and the peasants be compelled to pay besides the burdens of the addition, we wish that you draw up the receipts of the rent-payments in such a way that you impress, saying that each one owes to pay so great a rent, the carob-pods, burdens, or granary-dues being therein set aside. But whatever from these petty items used to accrue to the use of the rector, we wish that this, by our present order, from the sum of the rent come into your use. Above all we wish you to attend carefully to this, that unjust weights be not employed in exacting the rent-payments.

But if you find any such, break them, and set up new and just ones; for my son also, Diaconus, the servant of God, has already found such things as displeased him, but he had not the licence to change these. Above just weights therefore, besides the excepted and cheap victuals, we wish nothing else to be exacted from the coloni of the Church. Moreover, we have learned that the first payment of the burdatio grievously distresses our peasants, so that before they are able to sell their labours' produce, they are compelled to pay the tribute: who, while they have not of their own whence to give, borrow from the public auctioneers, and pay heavy interest for the same benefit; from which it comes about that they are straitened with grievous losses.

Wherefore by the present admonition we command that whatever loan for this same cause they could receive from strangers, be given by your Experience from the public funds, and be received from the peasants of the Church little by little as they may have it; lest, while they are straitened in a hard time, that which afterwards could suffice them for payment, being first compelled, they sell too cheaply, and this suffice them not at all. It has also reached us that from the marriages of the peasants immoderate profits are received: concerning which we command that all the profits of a marriage in no way exceed the sum of one solidus. If any be poor, they ought to give even less; but if any be rich, let them in no way transgress the sum of the aforesaid solidus;

which marriage-profit we in no way wish to be reduced into our account, but to profit the advantage of the tenant-farmers. We have learned also that, when some tenant-farmers die, their relatives are not permitted to succeed them, but their goods are dragged to the uses of the Church; concerning which matter we determine that the relatives of the dying, who dwell in the possession of the Church, ought to succeed them as heirs, nor should anything be subtracted from them out of the substance of the dying. But if anyone leave little children, until they reach such an age that they can manage their own substance, let cautious persons be chosen to whom the goods of their parents ought to be handed over for safekeeping. We have learned also (Gratian 16, q. 6, can.

5) that if anyone of the household commits a fault, vengeance is taken not on himself, but on his substance; concerning which matter we command that whoever commits a fault, on him indeed, as is fitting, let vengeance be taken. But let them abstain altogether from his goods, unless perchance there be some little thing that could profit the use of the executor who shall have been sent to him. We have learned also (Gratian 16, q. 10) that, whenever a tenant-farmer has unjustly taken something from his colonus, this indeed is exacted from the tenant-farmer, but is not restored to him from whom it was taken: concerning which matter we command that whatever has been violently taken from any of the household, be restored to the very one from whom it was taken, and not profit our advantage, lest we ourselves seem to be authors of the violence.

Moreover, we wish that whenever you dispatch those who are in the service of your Experience upon any business that arises outside the patrimony, they should indeed receive some small compensation from it, yet in such a way that it may serve to their benefit; for we do not wish the treasury of the Church to be defiled by base gains. We also command that your Experience take the greatest care that leases in the estates of the Church never be granted through mere gratuities; lest, while gain is being sought, the tenant-farmers be frequently changed. And from such changing what else results but that the Church's lands are never cultivated? But let the very lease-contracts also be regulated in proportion to the amount of the rent.

We do not wish you to take from the Church's estates for the storerooms and cellars any more than is customary; but those things which we have ordered to be purchased are to be bought from outsiders. It has come to our knowledge that three pounds of gold were unjustly taken from Peter, the tenant of Subpatriana. Investigate this matter carefully through the defensor Fantinus; and if they were plainly, unjustly, and improperly taken, restore them without any delay. We have also learned that the peasants paid again the levy which Theodosius had by no means paid over though it had already been exacted from them, so that they were charged double. This came about because his substance was not sufficient for the debt owed to the Church.

But since we have been informed through our son, the servant of God the deacon, that this same loss can be sufficiently made good out of the goods of his estate, we wish five hundred and seven solidi to be restored to those same peasants without any diminution, lest they appear to have been charged double. But if, over and above the peasants' loss, there yet remain forty solidi from Theodosius' goods, which you are said to have with you, we wish them to be returned to his daughter, so that she may recover her property which she had given in pledge. To her also we wish her father's small vessel to be restored. Campanianus, the glorious master of soldiers, had bequeathed twelve solidi yearly to John his notary from the Varronian estate:

these we command you to pay every year without any hesitation to the niece of Euplus the tenant, although he has received all the movable property of that same Euplus, save only the solidi; and from his solidi we also wish you to give twenty-five solidi. A certain silver stand is said to have been pledged for one solidus, and a chalice is said to have been pledged for six solidi. Having questioned Dominicus the secretary, or others who may know, recover the debt and restore the aforesaid vessels. We also give thanks to your solicitude, because concerning the matter of my brother I charged you that you should send back his silver; and yet you consigned it to oblivion as though something were being said to you by the lowest of your servants;

let it now be your care to fulfil this not through negligence but through diligence, and send back with all speed whatever of his you shall have found to be with Antoninus. Concerning the case of Salpingus the Jew, a certain letter has been found which we have had transmitted to you, so that, reading it over and carefully learning his case—and that of a certain widow who is said to be involved in the same affair—you may give an answer concerning the fifty-one solidi which are known to be owed, as shall seem just to you, in such a way that the goods of others may in no way be unjustly defrauded from their creditors. To Antoninus half of his legacy has been given, and half shall be redeemed:

which half we wish to be made up to him out of the common substance, and not only to him, but also to the defensores and the pilgrims to whom he bequeathed anything under the title of a legacy; and we wish the legacy to the household to be paid, which nevertheless pertains to us. Therefore, the account having been gathered, pay it for our part, that is, for nine unciae. Concerning the solidi of the Church of Canusium, we wish that you bestow something upon the clergy of that same Church, so that both those who now suffer want may have some sustenance, and, if God shall be willing that a bishop be ordained there, he may have whereon to subsist. Concerning the lapsed priests, or any of the clergy, we wish you to take care that you meddle in their goods with no defilement;

but seek out the poorest of the regular monasteries, which know how to live according to God, and hand over the lapsed for penance in those same monasteries; and let the goods of the lapsed be applied to the benefit of the same place in which they are handed over to do penance, so that those who bear the care of correcting them may have support from their goods. But if they have parents, let their goods be given to their lawful parents, yet in such a way that the maintenance of those who have been assigned to penance ought to be sufficiently provided for. And if any of the ecclesiastical household—priests, or levites, or monks, or clerics, or any others—should have lapsed, we wish them to be given over to penance, but their goods not to be withdrawn from ecclesiastical right.

Yet let them receive for their own use enough to subsist on while doing penance, lest, if they be stripped bare, they become a burden to the places in which they are placed. If any have parents in possession, their goods are to be handed over to them, so that in these very persons they may be preserved for the right of the Church. Three years ago the subdeacons of all the Churches of Sicily had been forbidden, after the manner of the Roman Church, to have any relations with their wives. This seems to me harsh and improper, that one who has not found the practice of such continence, nor promised chastity beforehand, should be compelled to be separated from his wife, and through this—which God forbid—fall into something worse.

Wherefore it seems to me that from the present day it should be said to all the bishops that they presume to make no man a subdeacon unless he has promised to live chastely; so that both what in time past was not sought after by a purpose of the mind may not be violently exacted, and what is to come may be cautiously guarded against. But those who, after that same prohibition which was made three years ago, have lived continently with their wives, are to be praised and rewarded, and are to be exhorted to remain in their good conduct.

But those who, after the prohibition was made, have been unwilling to restrain themselves from their wives, we do not wish to advance to sacred orders; for no one ought to approach the ministry of the altar unless his chastity has been approved before the ministry was undertaken. To Liberatus the merchant, who commended himself to the Church, who dwells in the Cincian estate, we wish a yearly allowance to be made by you. Estimate for yourself the amount of that allowance, what it ought to be, so that, when it has been reported to us, it may be credited in your accounts. Concerning the present indiction's revenue, I have already received it from our son, the servant of God the deacon.

A certain John, a monk, dying, left the defensor Fantinus his heir to the extent of six unciae; hand over to him indeed what has been left, but charge him not to presume to do this further. Yet for his labour appoint what he is to receive, so that his labour may not be for him in vain; and let him remember this, that one who subsists on the stipends of the Church should not pant after property of his own. But if anything without sin, without covetous appetite, should have accrued to the Church through those who conduct the Church's affairs, it is fitting that they themselves should not be without recompense for their labour, but let it be reserved to our judgment in what manner they ought to be rewarded. Concerning the silver of Rusticiana, investigate the matter carefully, and carry out what seems just to you.

Admonish Alexander, a magnificent man, that he ought to settle his case with the holy Church. But if perchance he should neglect to do so, prosecute that same case, as best you can, with the fear of God and with honesty preserved. In this matter we also wish you to be liberal in something; and if it can be done, let that which is to be given to others be remitted to him, provided only that the case which he has with us may come to an end. Restore, with all delay set aside, the donation of the handmaid of God who has lapsed and been given into the monastery, so that that very place, as I said above, may have the maintenance of her goods, since it bears the labour of her care. But also gather back whatever of her substance is held by others, and hand it over to the aforesaid monastery.

The rents of the hospice on the New Way, as many as you have indicated to me are with you, send to us. But to the agent whom you have appointed in that same patrimony, bestow something upon him, as seems good to you. Concerning the handmaid of God who was with Theodosius, named Extranea, it seems to me that you should make her an allowance for continence, if you judge it useful, or else that you should return the donation which she made. The house of the monastery, which Antoninus had taken from the monastery by giving thirty solidi, restore, the solidi being received back, with all delay set aside. Restore the onyx flasks, the truth having been carefully ascertained, which I have sent back by the bearer of the present letter. Saturninus, if he is well and is not occupied with you, send to us.

Felix, the tenant of the Lady Campana, whom she had left free and had ordered to be exempt from all inquiry, said that seventy-two solidi had been taken from him by the subdeacon Maximus, and to pay these he asserted that he had either sold or pledged all his property which he had in Sicily. But the scholastici said that he cannot be exempt from inquiry regarding frauds. Yet while he was returning to us from Campania, a storm arising, he died: we wish you to seek out his wife and children, and whatever he had pledged or sold, release what was pledged, restore from what was sold the price, and moreover provide them with some maintenance, because Maximus had sent him into Sicily and there had taken from him the things he claimed.

Ascertain therefore what has been taken away, and restore it to his wife and children without any delay. Read over all these matters carefully, and set aside all that familiar negligence of yours. Cause my writings which I have directed to the peasants to be read through in all the estates, that they may know what they ought to defend themselves against violence by our authority, and let either the originals or copies of them be given to them. See that you keep all things without diminution, for concerning those things which I write to you for the preservation of justice, I am absolved, but if you neglect them, you are bound. Consider the terrible Judge who is coming; and let your conscience now tremble at His coming, lest then it fear without cause, when before Him heaven and earth shall tremble.

You have heard what I wish; see what you do. (Cf. John the Deacon, Book II, ch. 59.)