Gregory to Theodore, duke of Sardinia. The justice which you bear in your mind you ought to demonstrate to men by the light of your works. For Juliana, abbess of the monastery of Saint Vitus, which Vituta of once-worthy memory had built, has informed us that a possession belonging to the right of the aforesaid monastery is being wrongfully held by Donatus, your official. And he, while he sees himself girded with the patronage of your Excellency, disdains to come to the examination of judgment. But now let your Glory command the same official to submit, with the aforesaid handmaid of God, to arbitral judgment, so that whatever shall have been determined by the judgment of the arbiters concerning such a controversy may be carried into effect;
so that whatever he shall perceive himself to lose or to retain, this may be reckoned to be done not by the work of power, but by the justice of law. Besides, Pompeiana, a religious woman, who is known to have built a monastery in her own house, has complained that the mother of her once son-in-law, now deceased, wishes to annul his testament, so that the last will of her son may be brought to nought. On which account, out of fatherly charity, we have deemed it necessary to exhort your Glory, that you should gladly, with justice preserved, lend yourself to pious causes, and that whatever reason of law grants to these, you should kindly command to be observed. And we beseech the Lord that He may propitiously direct the way of your life, and dispose with prosperity the dignity of the administration you have undertaken.