Letter 13075: **From:** Gregory I, Bishop of Rome

To Chrysanthus, Bishop of Spoleto. [Summary:] Let him restrain the priests of Nursia who are living with women not their kin. Gregory to Chrysanthus, Bishop of Spoleto. From the report of certain persons we have learned that priests of the territory of Nursia are living with women not their kin. [...] [The lines that follow here are corrupted in the source by column-bleed and intrude material from a separate letter concerning the purchase of cows, sheep, and pigs and their distribution to the individual poor tenant-farmers, done with the counsel of the most reverend lord John the bishop and of Adrian our notary and rector; and concerning whether the same provision ought to be given to those same poor tenants in gold, or in wax, or in money, and that whatever has been settled in common a written record should first be made, as has been said. This material does not belong to the present letter and the genuine connecting text is not legibly recoverable. ...] For which reason your Fraternity is to be greatly grieved that things of this kind, if indeed it knew of them, it has by no means hitherto taken pains to restrain. But since we have charged Optatus the defender that he ought by every means [...] to amend this, and if any one of them should choose to show himself stubborn in such a matter, that he ought to summon him to your Fraternity's judgment, therefore we have judged it necessary to write to your Holiness, so that if it learns that any of the priests belonging to your diocese are living with women not their kin, or assuredly any concerning whom the aforesaid Optatus shall report to your Holiness, or whom he shall have found insolent, then, a priestly admonition having first been given, and, if the matter so demands, applying also canonical discipline, [your Holiness] should make haste to amend [the offender] from outside; for in no way can we endure to hear such things. But also as for the presbyter whom they say [...], out of regard for God, to inflict violence upon very many, let your Fraternity take pains to admonish or rebuke him for such things. And if he should be unwilling to listen to you, suspend him from communion, so that even thus he may begin to withdraw himself from his depraved acts. In the month of July, in the sixth indiction.

AD CHRYSANTHUM SPOLETANUM EPISCOPUN. Habitantes cum extraneis mulicribus Nursinos gacer- dotes coerceat. Gregorius Chrysantho episcopo Spoletano. Ex quorumdam relatione cognovimus sacerdotes territorii Nursinji cum mulieribus extraneis comma- invent, Vaccas, oves porcosque comparare, et sin- nere. Pro qua re valde nos ſraternitas tua contris1a- gulis colonis pauperibus ea dis(ribuere. Quod facere tos agnoscat, quz dudum talia, si tameu cognorit, le cum consilio viri reverendissimi domni Joannis mivime passa est coercere. Sed quoniam Optato episcopi, atque Adriani chartularii nostri et rectoris precipimus deſensori ut hac debeat modis omnibus volumus. Si autem necgsse propter consilium fuerit, etiam filius noster domnus Julianus debet adhiberi, ita ut nullus alius agnoscat, 8ed omnino secretum it. Vos ergo inter vos pertractate ulrum in auro aut cerie Þ in pecuniis eisdem colonis pauperibus dari eadem continentia debeat. Quidquid vero commu- niter steterit, prius descriptionem, sicut d:xi, facito, EeisT. XXXIV | Al. 41]; — * Prius legebator Va- lerio, quod mutare coegerunt Mss. Norm., i Vatic., Colbert., etc, Modius de quo hic sexdecim $extariorum tantum esse debuit. Vide notas ad epist. 44 lib. 1. Hinc patet quanta fraus ab Ecclesiz acto- ribus ſacta, quam jure exsecratur Sauctus ponliſex. d.Tres Valic. A, B, F, in peculiis. Pecunia autem dicitur quidquid habent homines in terra; omnium quorum domini sun! pecunia vocatur ; 8ervus, vas, ager, arbor, pecus, quidquid horum es! , pecunia dicitur, in- quit Augustiaus, lib. de Discipl. Christ., c. 1, quod reſertur causa 1, q. 5, c. 6. * lie merces accipienda videtur pro beneficio. emendare, et si quisquam ex eis in tali capitulo con- tumax voluerit apparere, ad fraternitatis tuz eum debeat evocare judicium, ideo $anctitati tuz neces- sario duximus scribendum ut si quos de sacerdotibus 2d tuam diccesim pertinentibus cum extraneis cog- noverit habitare, vel certe de quibus antedictus Op= tatus tu#z renuntiaverit sanclitati * procaces invene- rit, admonitione sacerdolali praemissa, et, si res ita exegerit, eliam canonicam adbibens disciplinam, de Vide lib. 1:1, epist. 3, nolam d, Eeisr. XXXV [ Al. 42]. — ® In Anglic. et Norm. lantum legitur Catulo et Romano. Additur Wintha- rith in quinque Valic., Rhem. et Colbert. vet. In 8e- cundo e Colbert., Cartulario Romans. In tertio, Car- tulario, Romano, et Winthareth. In quario, Catulo, Romano, et Wictarith, In quinto Catulo et Romano. Editi recent., pro Wintharith, habent Victori. © Ju Norm., ignarum cf valde indecens. EetsT. XAXVI|AL. 43]. — ® In Norm., Reg., Covlb. et plur. aliis Mss., omittitur procaces invenerit . SANCTI GRECGORIL MAGNI extero emendare festinet, quia nos audire talia nulla A disponente, ad culmen imperii pervenizse cognove- p+limur ratione. Sed et presbyterum quem dicunt " gine Dei respectu plurimis violentias irrogare, admo- nere eum vel increpare pro talibus ſraternitas tua Studeat. Qui 8i te audire noluerit, a communione eum suspende, ut vel sic incipiat a pravis se actibus removere. > Mense Julii, indictione 6.