Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 388

Gregory to John, archbishop of Corinth. The fairness and diligence of Secundinus, our brother and fellow-bishop, which were well known to us long ago, have now been made evident to us also by the account he has sent. In this matter we were greatly pleased and gladdened, because in the case of Anastasius, once a bishop, which we had charged him to examine, he exercised his vigilance both carefully and diligently, and, once the crimes were known, he passed judgment as justice demanded and as was fitting. But in all these things we render thanks to Almighty God, who, when certain accusers had drawn back, disclosed the truth to his investigation, lest the cause of such great crimes might have remained hidden.

Now since, in the very sentence by which the aforesaid Anastasius is established to have been justly condemned and deposed, our aforesaid brother and fellow-bishop reserved certain persons to our judgment, we have therefore seen fit to indicate in the present letter what is to be held and observed concerning them. And so Paul the deacon,

the bearer of the present letter—although his own fault gravely troubles and convicts him, in that, deceived by a promise, he lately desisted from the accusation of his bishop who had been deposed, and out of covetous eagerness consented rather to keep silent against his own soul than to bring forward the truth—nevertheless, because it befits us to be more merciful than severe, we pardon him this fault, and we have decreed that he is to be received back into his rank and place. For we believe that the affliction he has endured from the time the sentence was pronounced can suffice as punishment for this fault. But Euphemius and Thomas,

who received sacred orders in exchange for abandoning the accusation, we will that they be stripped of those same sacred orders and remain deposed just as they now are, and we decree that they shall never, under any pretext of accusation, be restored to sacred orders. For it is exceedingly unworthy, and contrary to the rule of ecclesiastical discipline, that they should exercise an honor which they received not by merit but as the reward of a crime. Yet, because it befits us to give more heed to mercy than to strict justice, we will that these same Euphemius and Thomas be restored only to the rank and place from which they had been promoted to sacred orders, and that all the days of their life they receive the maintenance of those same places as they were accustomed to before.

Likewise, out of the same regard of kindness, I establish that Clematius the lector is to be restored to his rank and place. To all of these, that is, to Paul the deacon, to Euphemius, to Thomas, and to Clematius, let your Fraternity take care to grant, without any diminution, their allowances according to the place and rank in which each of them stands, just as each was accustomed to receive, from the present thirteenth indiction onward.

Since, therefore, the aforesaid Paul the deacon records that he has spent much for the benefit of your Church, and desires to be helped by the support of your Fraternity so that he may recover it, we exhort you that, if this is so, you should with all possible means assist him in recovering what he gave, and aid him with your help; for no reason permits that in those things which he spent for the common benefit he should unjustly suffer any loss.

Moreover, the three pounds of gold which it is established that the same Paul the deacon gave for the benefit of your Church, at the pressing instance of our aforesaid brother and fellow-bishop Secundinus—let your Fraternity restore them without delay, lest, which God forbid, it should seem that you have burdened him not on reasonable grounds but merely out of arbitrary will. Gregory to Virgilius, bishop of Arles. Oh how good is charity, which by an image renders things absent present to one another through love, unites what is divided, sets in order what is confused, joins together what is unequal, and completes what is imperfect.

How rightly does that excellent preacher call it the bond of perfection, since the other virtues indeed beget perfection, yet it is charity that binds them fast, so that they can no longer be dissolved from the mind of the one who loves. With this virtue, then, most dear brother, I find you filled, as both those who come from the regions of Gaul testify to me concerning you, and as the words of your letters addressed to me bear witness. But as for the fact that in them, according to the ancient custom, you requested the use of the pallium and the office of vicar of the apostolic see—far be it from me to suspect that you sought in our vicariate and in the pallium the summit of a transitory power or the ornament of outward display.

But since it is clear to all whence the holy faith went forth into the regions of Gaul, when your Fraternity seeks again the ancient custom of the apostolic see, what else is this but that a good offspring runs back to its mother's bosom? With a willing spirit, therefore, we grant your requests, lest we should seem either to withdraw anything from the honor owed to you, or to have despised the petition of our most excellent son, King Childebert. But now the matter requires greater zeal, so that as the honor increases, the solicitude too may advance, and vigilance may grow in the guarding of others; that the merits of your life, set beneath as an example, may come forth, and that your Fraternity may never seek its own through the favor of the honor received, but rather the gains of the heavenly homeland.

For you know what the blessed Apostle says, groaning: For all seek the things that are their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ's (Phil. 2:21). For, as certain persons have related to me, I have learned that in the regions of Gaul or Germany no one attains to sacred orders without a payment of money. If this is so, weeping I say it, groaning I declare it, that when the priestly order has fallen within, it cannot long stand upright without as well. For we know from the Gospel what our Redeemer did by his own act, when, entering the temple, he overturned the seats of those who sold doves (Matt. 21:12).

For to sell doves is to receive temporal gain from the Holy Spirit, whom Almighty God, consubstantial with himself, bestows upon men through the laying on of hands. From which evil, as I said before, it is already intimated what follows. For those who presumed to sell doves in the temple of God—their seats, with God as judge, fell down. And this error is propagated among their subordinates with increase. For the very man who is brought to a sacred order at a price, being already corrupted in the very root of his advancement, is the more ready to sell to others what he bought. And where is that which is written: Freely you have received, freely give (Matt. 10:8)?

And since the first heresy, the Simoniac, arose against the holy Church, why is it not weighed, why is it not seen, that in advancing to office the man whom one ordains for a price, he makes him become a heretic? Another matter also has been reported to us as most detestable: that certain men, of lay condition, out of appetite for temporal glory, when bishops die, are tonsured and suddenly become priests. In which matter it is now plain of what sort he is who comes to the priesthood, who passes suddenly from a lay condition to sacred leadership. And one who was never even a soldier does not shrink from being made a leader of the religious. What preaching will he have to give who has perhaps never even heard another's? Or when will he correct others' evils, who has not yet wept over his own?

And since the Apostle Paul forbids a neophyte to come to sacred orders, we must understand that, just as one was then called a neophyte who had been but newly planted in the faith, so now we reckon among neophytes anyone who is still new in holy conduct. For we know that walls, once built, do not receive the weight of the beams until they have dried out from the moisture of their newness, lest, if they receive the load before they are firm, they bring down the whole structure at once to the ground.

And when we cut down young trees for a building, we wait until the moisture of their greenness ought first to dry out, lest, if the weight of the structure is placed upon them while they are still fresh, they should bend from that very newness, and, broken, should the sooner fall—those which, raised prematurely on high, had seemed sound. Why then is this not carefully observed in men, which is weighed with such consideration even in timbers and stones? On which account it is necessary that your Fraternity take pains to admonish our most excellent son, King Childebert, that he root out utterly from his kingdom the stain of this sin, so that Almighty God may repay him the greater things before himself, in proportion as he sees him both love what he himself loves and shun what he hates.

And so, by God's authority, we commit our vicariate to your Fraternity in the churches which are under the kingdom of our most excellent son Childebert, according to the ancient custom—the proper honor being reserved to each of the metropolitans according to the ancient custom. We have also sent the pallium, which your Fraternity is to use within the church only at the solemn celebration of Mass. But if any of the bishops should perhaps wish to travel somewhat far, let it not be permitted him to go to other places without the authority of your Holiness. And if any inquiry concerning the faith, or perhaps some cause concerning other matters, should arise among the bishops which can be settled only with difficulty, let it be examined and decided by an assembly of twelve bishops.

But if it cannot be decided, then, the truth having been examined, let it be referred to our judgment. And may Almighty God guard you by his protection, and grant that you preserve in your conduct the honor you have received. Given on the twelfth day of August, in the thirteenth indiction.