Letter 2039: Your church has been without settled episcopal leadership, and I have appointed the bishop John to serve as your...
Gregory to the clergy, order, and people of Crotone [a city in Calabria].
Your church has been without settled episcopal leadership, and I have appointed the bishop John to serve as your visitor [a bishop delegated to oversee a church during a vacancy]. I direct you to obey him in the exercise of this function.
At the same time, I direct you to turn your attention to the selection of a suitable permanent bishop for your church. The visitor arrangement is temporary; what your community needs is a permanent, properly elected and ordained bishop who can give his full attention to your church's governance.
Begin the process of identifying and evaluating candidates. The man you choose should be of blameless life, sound faith, and the pastoral ability your church requires. Bring your recommendation to me in due course, and we will proceed from there.
Obey the visitor in the meantime. And take the episcopal election seriously.
Gregory
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
AD CLERUM, ORDINEM, ET PLEBEM CROTONE.
Ut Joanni episcopo visitatori obediant , atque idoneum
sibi postulent sacerdotem.
Gregorius * clero, ordini et plebi consistenti Þ Cro-
tonze.
Vestri antistitis obitum cognoscentes, curz nobis
ſuit destitutze Ecclesiz visitationem ſfratri et coepi-
SCoP0 Nnos1iro © Joanni solemniter delegare. Cui de-
dimus in mandatis ut nibil de provectionibus cleri- g
corum, reditu, ornatu, ministeriisque a quoquam
vsurpari patiatur. Cujus vos assiduis adhortationibus -
obedire convenit , © quatenus in ecclesiastico officio
Sacerdos exquiratur qui et a venerandis. canonibus
nulla discrepet *© ratione. f Qui dum ſuerit postula-
tus, cum $0lemaitate decreti omnium subscriptioni-
bus roborati, et visitatoris pagina prosequente, ad
nos veniat ordinandus, provisuri anle omnia ne cu-
juslibet vitze vel meriti laicam personam presumatis
eligere. Nam non $8olum talem ad episcopatus apicem
GON nulla ratione provehendum, verum etiam 5 vos
nullis intercessionibus veniam promereri posse. cog-
noscite; sed omnes quos ex - vobis de laica persona
a$pirasse constiterit, ab officio et a communione alie-
nos ſaciendos procul dubio noveritis. (Cf. Joan. Diac.
l. m, c. 22.)
Revision history
- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from Unreviewed source import.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_1849_77
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