Gregory to Serenus, bishop of Marseilles. That we send to Your Fraternity a letter so late is to be attributed not to sloth, but to occupation. The bearer of the present letter, our most beloved son Cyriacus, Father of our monastery, we commend to you in all things, that no delay detain him in the city of Marseilles, but that, God protecting, he set out to our brother and fellow bishop Syagrius with the comfort of Your Holiness. Moreover, I indicate that it has some time ago reached us that Your Fraternity, seeing certain adorers of images, broke and cast down those same images in the churches.
And indeed we praised you for having had zeal, that nothing made by hands should be able to be adored; but we indicate that you ought not to have broken those same images. For to this end is painting employed in churches, that those who do not know letters may at least, by seeing on the walls, read what they are not able to read in books. Your Fraternity therefore ought both to have preserved them, and to have prohibited the people from the adoration of them; so that both those ignorant of letters might have whence to gather knowledge of the history, and the people might in no way sin in the adoration of a picture.