Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 775

Gregory to Quertinus, former prefect. We have received the letter of your Glory, in which you wrote that we ought to act on behalf of our glorious son Bonitus, that the administration of that prefecture might be committed to him. Indeed we have known this same son of ours not merely a short while, but for many years, and therefore we hasten to assist him in all things—yet not in that matter from which he might take bitterness and tribulations. For that very administration was offered to a former superior of his and to another lesser than him, and they were by no means willing to involve themselves in it, knowing it to be altogether grievous, and especially at this time, to undertake an administration. If therefore it was grievous to them, how much more difficult ought it to be for this man, who is engaged in our service?

It is added that it is also unprofitable and exceedingly laborious for a lettered man to undertake the business of accounts, and to bind himself in them, which is not expedient. But over and above these things, that consideration recalls us, that we recall no one to have come out well from this office, except your Glory, for whom we beseech the Almighty Lord that he may guard you with continual protection even unto the end. And therefore, considering this, we are unwilling to involve ourselves in his hurt. For what is now thought useful, it is certain that afterward it will be full of labour and loss.

But if he judges that this ought to be done for his own advantage, and wishes to act so that this administration may be committed to him, we do not stand opposed; yet even so we grieve with him over the tribulations that lie ahead, for we are not ignorant, from the example of those who went before, of what he is destined to suffer. Gregory to Columbus, bishop of Numidia. Since it has long been well known to us that your Fraternity is adorned with priestly gravity and with zeal for the Church, we have judged it altogether fitting that you should take part in examining those things which stand in need of correction, lest, if they be passed over through connivance, each man should believe that whatever he is able to do is lawful for him.

But of what manner our brother Paulinus, bishop of the city of Tegesta, is charged by his own clergy, and by those who are constituted in sacred orders, to have bodily transgressed against them, you have no need to hear from us; for indeed, before this complaint reached us, it had already, as we have learned from their assertions, been made manifest to you.

And since it ought not to be lawful for those set over others to vent their rage upon the punishment of their subjects, we have taken care to write to our brother and fellow bishop Victor, who holds the place of primate among you, that together with your Fraternity, or with the other brethren and fellow bishops whom you may see fit to bring in, he should investigate with subtle inquiry the case between the aforesaid brother and fellow priest of ours and his clergy. And therefore let your Charity be urgent and take diligent care that the matters brought to us do not pass unheard, lest discord, which above all must be driven out of the Church, be there nourished.

And if indeed the complaint of his clerics against him is true, let him come to know by the sentence of ecclesiastical severity the fault which he scorned to amend of his own accord, so that both in the present he may feel how grave is the thing he has done, and may learn for the future that he can do nothing more than is permitted. Before all things, therefore, we exhort you that you strive ardently to wield the weapon which we know you possess for God's sake. And since our aforesaid brother Paulinus is said to confer ecclesiastical orders through the simoniacal heresy—a thing it is impious even to hear—let it be your care, together with the aforesaid primate or others, to inquire into this the more subtly and with all diligence.

And if it be found so—which God forbid—we must strive and act that both the man who did not fear to receive and the man who did not fear to give be struck by the sentence of canonical punishment, so that the correction of these may be a chastening to many. And before this deadly root grows strong and destroys many more, let it be condemned by the decree of the whole council, that no one may ever presume to receive anything for any order, and no one to give it, nor may any be advanced by favour, but by his merit, lest both the ecclesiastical order be thrown into confusion, and uprightness of life fall into contempt, if the unworthy man should receive the reward of merit. To Hilarus, our chartulary, moreover, we have given charge that, should the cause require it, he not refuse to be present at your inquiry.

If, therefore, it be needful, make him readily certain by your letters that he ought to come thither, so that, deliberating together with him, you may the better decide what things ought to be determined.