Gregory to Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna. We have received the writings of your Fraternity, in which you have indicated that you wish to send your deacon Florentius to the royal city for the advantages of your Church.
And since you wished that we should commend him to our most beloved son Anatolius the deacon by the above-mentioned letters, we have taken care to write to him not to defer being present to him in those matters in which it shall be necessary and possible, and we have sent that very writing to you, so that the person whom you shall dispatch may carry it with him. But concerning the person whom you say you wish to promote to sacred orders, it seems to us that, if there is nothing which stands in the way of his life, and nothing which is objected against him by anyone in the matter you have indicated, you should do what shall seem good to you. But concerning the other matters, we wished to write to you, that you should exercise solicitude.
But since, after we had committed one matter to you, which perished through your negligence, we have chosen to be silent about the others, lest we should likewise lose them.