Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 803

Gregory to Thalassia, abbess. When to those things toward which the hearts of catholic kings are to be provoked by pontifical admonitions they are so kindled with ardent desire, by divine grace going before, that these things are asked of them of their own accord, they are to be granted with a mind so much the more eager and joyful, inasmuch as those very things which they desire ought to have been begged of them, had they been unwilling to do them.

Accordingly, in accordance with the writings of our most excellent sons the sovereigns, king Brunichild and her grandson Theoderic, to the monastery of holy Mary, where a congregation of handmaids of God has been established in the city of Autun, founded by Syagrius, bishop of reverend memory, over which you are known to preside, we grant, concede, and confirm privileges of this kind by the decree of our present authority, ordaining that no king, no bishop, no one endowed with any dignity whatsoever, nor any other person, may under the pretext of any cause or occasion diminish or take away, or apply to his own uses, or grant to others as though for pious causes as an excuse for his greed, any of those things which have already been given to that same monastery by our above-mentioned sons the kings, or which in future may be conferred upon it by any others out of their own right.

But all things that have been offered there, or that may happen to be offered, we will that they be possessed both by you and by those who shall succeed to your office and place, from the present time undiminished and without any disturbance—yet in every way to be profitable for the uses of those for whose sustenance and governance they were granted. Likewise we establish that, when the abbess of the aforesaid monastery dies, no other be ordained there by any cunning of stealth, but only her whom the king of that province, with the consent of the nuns, according to the fear of God, shall have chosen and provided for ordination.

This also we append by the present chapter, in order to shut out any place for greed: that none of the kings, none of the bishops, nor any other, by himself or by an interposed person, may dare to receive, in gold or in any other kind of gain, anything concerning the ordination of that abbess, or in any matters pertaining to the monastery itself; nor may that abbess presume to give anything on account of her ordination—lest on this occasion those things which are offered by the faithful to pious places, or have already been offered, be consumed.

And since many occasions are sought out, as is said, for the deceiving of religious persons by those depraved men, we judge that the abbess of that same monastery is in no way to be deprived or deposed, except when a case of crime specifically demands it. Whence it is necessary that, if any such complaint should arise against her, not the bishop of the city of Autun alone should examine the case, but, taking to himself six other of his fellow bishops, should investigate this by subtle inquiry, so that, with all judging in concord, the censure of canonical strictness may either strike the guilty or be able to absolve the innocent.

All these things therefore which the page of this precept and decree of ours contains, we decree are to be observed in perpetuity, both by you and by all who shall succeed you in that order and place in which you are, and by those whose interest it may be. But if any of the kings, priests, judges, or secular persons, recognizing this page of our constitution, shall attempt to come against it, let him be deprived of the dignity of his power and honour, and let him know himself to stand guilty before the divine judgment for the iniquity he has perpetrated, and so forth as above.