教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 745 章

Gregory to Agapitus the abbot. Our care ought solicitously to provide that the service of cultivation be not lacking to venerable places, even when it is permitted. Since therefore the monastery which is situated on the estate of Marcianus in the province of Campania is said, by reason of hostile action, to have been utterly desolated of its congregation, so that not even one monk should have remained thence who ought to bestow any solicitude or

care there remained, we have judged it useful that it be united to your monastery with all its goods, or the actions which belong to it, so that you may have free and unhesitating license both to hold its property and to reclaim it from those who detain it. In which it shall also be your zeal to appoint monks who, at the time when there shall be respite from the enemy, ought both to celebrate the work of God there and to serve becomingly. Nor presume by any excuse to neglect it, because it is for this reason committed to your care, that you ought to bestow solicitude there.

But know that we have committed this same monastery to your ordering in such wise, that nevertheless not the bishop of Surrentum, in whose city your monastery is, but the bishop of Nuceria, whose diocese it is, shall have jurisdiction there. For thus do we arrange the ordering of this place, that nevertheless we preserve their own rights inviolate to the several bishops.