Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 419

Gregory to Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna, together with the rest of the brethren and fellow bishops, the priests, levites, clergy, nobles, people, and soldiers dwelling in the city of Ravenna, or living outside it. A certain man, filled with the counsel of the malign spirit, in the nocturnal silence set up in a place of the city, against Castorius our notary and legate, a protestation speaking against his character, and cunningly contradicting also us concerning the making of peace. And because whoever speaks truthfully ought not to fear to make himself known, it is fitting that he come forth publicly, and show whatever he presumed to speak in his protestation;

but if he shall not come forth, nor have publicly confessed, whoever he be that presumed to do this, or lent his consent to the counsel of so great an iniquity, by the Spirit of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ we define that he be deprived of the participation of His holy Body and Blood. But if, because he lies hidden and is not known, the man conscious of so great an evil cannot be held by discipline, and, though already forbidden, presumes to receive the Body and Blood of the Lord, let him be smitten with the vengeance of anathema, and, as false and pestilent, be divided from the body of the holy Church.

But if perchance he is such a man as we, not knowing him to be the author and partaker of this deed, transmit letters on his behalf, wishing him well, let that very entreaty for him before the Almighty Lord be void. But if, having come forth to the public in the same city, he shall be able to prove the things he said, or if, knowing certainly that he cannot show what he wrote, he shall have openly confessed his error, let him not be deprived of the participation of the Lord's Body and Blood, nor be alien from the body of the holy Church; because we ourselves before the Almighty Lord acknowledge daily our own faults, so that, though the moderation of discipline is preserved, we may nevertheless, by sparing, indulge the errors of others. In the month of April, the fourteenth indiction.