教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 636 章

Gregory to the bishops Venerius and Stephen. A direct report has made known the death of Paulinus, bishop of the Church of Tauriana, and also of the bishop of the illustrious Church of Turris. Wherefore we solemnly delegate to your fraternity the care of the Church deprived of visitation; which task it befits you so to discharge that nothing of the promotions of clerics, of revenue, of ornament, of ministries, or whatever it may be in the patrimony of those same Churches, be presumed by anyone in any way.

And therefore let your love hasten to go to the aforesaid Churches, and be quick to admonish the clergy and people of those same Churches with constant exhortations, so that, with partisanship removed, with one and the same consent they may seek out for themselves such priests to be set over them as may be found worthy of so great a ministry, and by no means rejected by the venerable canons. And when these men have been requested, strengthened by the subscriptions of all with the solemnity of a decree, and by the testimony of your love in a letter, let them come to us for consecration.

We also admonish your fraternity to permit no one to be elected from another Church, unless perchance among the clerics of the city itself in which you exercise the office of visitation, no one worthy of the episcopate could be found — which we do not believe will happen. Providing above all things that persons of any lay conversation or merit do not presume to aspire to it, and that you not incur the peril of your own order, which God forbid.