Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 521

Gregory to Januarius, bishop of Cagliari. That for those entering a monastery for the sake of conversion there is thenceforth no further liberty of making a will, but that their property becomes of the right of that same monastery, has been decreed by open definition of the law. Since this is known to almost all, the intimation of the abbess Gavinia, of the monastery of Saints Gavinus and Luxorius, brought us into great astonishment, in that she asserted that Sirica, abbess of her monastery, after she had undertaken the office of governing, made a will and left legacies to certain persons.

And when we inquired of your Holiness's solicitude why property belonging to the monastery was being detained by others, our common son Epiphanius, your archpriest, being found present, replied that the said abbess, up to the day of her death, refused to be clothed in the monastic habit, but remained in the garments which the presbyterae of that place use. To this the aforesaid Gavinia rejoined that this had been permitted almost by custom, so much so that she alleged that the abbess who had been before the above-written Sirica had used such garments.

Since therefore we had begun to be somewhat in doubt concerning the quality of the garments, it seemed necessary to treat, both with our counsellors and with other learned men of this city, of what ought to be done according to the law. Those who deliberated replied that, after an abbess has been ordained by a bishop according to solemn usage and has presided over the government of the monastery for very many years up to the passing of her life, the quality of the garment might perhaps look to the fault of the bishop, who permitted her to be thus, yet could not have brought prejudice to the monastery, but that her property belongs by manifest right to that same place, into which she entered and was appointed abbess.

And therefore, since the xenodochium (hospice) is asserted unduly to detain possession out of things unlawfully bequeathed, we exhort you with these words that—because both the monastery and the hospice itself are situated in your city—you ought with all care and zeal to provide that, if that possession descends from no preceding contract but from the legacy of the said Sirica, it be restored to the aforesaid monastery, all clamour and excuse being set aside. But if it is said perchance to have come from some other contract, either let your Fraternity, the truth being ascertained between the parties, define what the legal order shall have advised, or by mutual consent let them choose arbitrators who may be able to distinguish their allegations.

Whatever shall have been established by these, let it be so kept by your provision that no dispute may remain between the venerable places, which are greatly to be cherished by mutual concord of peace. All the other things, therefore, which are detained by virtue of the testament of the aforenamed Sirica—inasmuch as it is permitted by legal sanction to be null—it is necessary that they be, by your Fraternity's priestly solicitude, in all things zealously restored to the right of the monastery; for by imperial constitution it is openly sanctioned that those things which are done contrary to the laws are to be held not only useless, but even as though undone (Gratian 25, q. 2, c. 13).