Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 382

Gregory to Leontius the bishop, visitor of the Church of Ariminum. We have learned, from the complaint of the clergy of the Church of Ariminum, of which you are visitor, that your fraternity, having removed all others, has entrusted the governance of its patrimony and its other affairs to be carried out by men of your own. If this be so, we do not believe the complaint of that same clergy to be groundless. On this account we exhort you with these words, that you dispose all things pertaining to the aforesaid Church to be governed and managed through its own men, whom you yourself shall foresee, or through the deacon the bearer of these presents, so that no just occasion of murmuring against you may be left to them. But if perchance there is some suspicion of infidelity concerning any of them,

appoint your own men also together with them in the management, so that with mutual solicitude toward one another they may be guardians, being bound to render accounts to you in every way. But whatever accrues from the revenues of that same Church ought, according to custom, to be made into four portions: one, namely, which is to be given to the clergy; another to the poor. But of the remaining two parts we wish there to be three: one to be applied to the repair of buildings; another to be directed to Castorius, its own bishop, for his sustenance; the remainder to be retained by yourself. If therefore anyone in the clergy of the aforesaid Church shall be worthy to be ordained presbyter, or deacon, or in another grade, you shall have free license by our authority of promoting him.

Be vigilant, therefore, in the winning of souls; be solicitous concerning the uprightness of the clergy. Permit not the interests of the Church, whose visitation you conduct, to perish unjustly or to be impaired by any stealth, lest — which God forbid — you incur both before God the stain of perpetual peril, and before us the guilt of a fault. We have learned, moreover, that you receive certain provisions from the public purse, and that by this you are constrained by embarrassment, and in the causes of the Church, or the defense of the poor, are not, as is fitting, effective. Therefore you must abstain from that which instills embarrassment, and you ought to be content with the stipends which you receive from the Church. For if you should wish to do otherwise after our exhortation, we shall hold another estimation of you.

For indeed you teach those entrusted to you to serve avarice as soldiers, whom, though you provide them with sufficient stipends, you instruct not to be content. Gregory to Andreas the scholasticus. How we ought to presume upon the sincerity of your Glory, the well-known constancy of your devotion, which you once displayed to the blessed Peter chief of the Apostles, makes plain. Although we are confident that you are present to his causes with a most ready mind, yet it is not out of place if we, out of abundance, demand by letter those things which you have done of your own accord. And therefore, greeting you, we ask with the affection of paternal charity, that, since we have directed the bearer of these presents, Castorius our chartulary, for necessary causes thither, you would aid him with your help in all things, and with your goodness'

counsel run to his aid, wherever it shall be necessary, so that, by the solace of your Christian countenance, he may be found diligent and fit to fulfill the things enjoined upon him. For herein you both do the things which are your own, and compel us to pray for you the more earnestly. May Almighty God fortify you beforehand with the safeguard of His grace, and so propitiously dispose your acts in His fear, as you desire, that He may strip you here of all evils, and bring you through to the eternal joys.