Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 711

Gregory to Paschasius, bishop of Naples. At the time when your Fraternity was advanced, by God's authority, to the office of the episcopate, you recall that we appointed that from the moneys of your Church a portion for the clergy or the poor, which your predecessor had by no means supplied — that is, four hundred solidi — ought to be set apart, which should provide for the distribution to the same clergy and poor. And because this ought not to be deferred any longer, we wish that, according to the distribution inserted in these present writings, in the presence of Anthemius our subdeacon, without any difficulty, your Fraternity should make the disbursement. There are, therefore, to be provided to your clerics, one by one, as you shall foresee, in one whole sum, one hundred solidi;

to those laid up as reserves, whom we have learned to be one hundred and twenty, there are to be given sixty-three solidi, that is, half a solidus to each; to the presbyters and deacons and to foreign clerics, fifty solidi; to honourable and needy persons, whom shame does not permit to beg publicly, one hundred and fifty solidi, in such wise that some of them be dismissed with single tremisses, some with single solidi, or, if it seem good, with more. But to the remaining poor who are accustomed to beg alms publicly, thirty-six solidi. Behold, we have distributed how much and to whom it ought to be given.

But because, as we have foreseen, it is not to be provided to all equally, it is necessary that, together with the aforesaid subdeacon, as you shall foresee, you should give to each, and that you should strive by all means, so that, by devoutly and more speedily disbursing this which another has unjustly withheld, you may be able to apply it to your own reward.