Letter 8027: **From:** Gregory I, Bishop of Rome

To the bishops Victor and Columbus. That they compel Valentio the bishop to restore to Crisconius the churches seized from Crisconius's diocese, and likewise the property of this bishop's deceased predecessor that has been carried off. Gregory to Victor and Columbus, bishops of Africa, and the rest. The more the order of the Church, blamelessly preserved, pours gladness into our heart, the more, when it is torn apart, does it lay upon us a weight of grief, because the recklessness of depravity strives toward the overthrow of discipline, both to dissolve things once laudably established and to presume to seize things that ought rather to be punished. And so by the complaint of the bearer of this letter, Crisconius our brother and fellow bishop, it has reached us through his appeal that, with no fault requiring it nor any sentence of a council determining it, the parishes of his church, anciently assigned to it, were nearly fifteen years ago unreasonably seized by Valentio our brother and fellow bishop, and that he moreover carried off the property of that man's predecessor at his own discretion -- which is a grievous thing to say. And if the truth of the matter is so, how perverse it is, and how detestable -- above all in a man of religious profession -- we have not strength to say. In this matter, therefore, since there ought to be neither leniency nor any delay, [let] your fraternity [look into it]. [Editorial footnote: They use [these] in the Mass; from the Greek word kampe, a bending. Read Suicer's Panoplia, bishop's [Thesaurus?], book 7, chapter 1, article 4. Salmasius, in his commentary on Trebellius, contends that these lampagi were the same as the ancient patrician shoes. Isidore says that these patrician shoes were customarily fastened crosswise; Hesychius calls them a hollow and deep footwear, because they rose up to the middle of the shins. Rubenius, On Clothing, book 1, chapter 15, holds that the campagi were similar to sandals. Amalarius, On the Offices of the Church, book 1, chapter 18, says: "Since [Bede] reaches as far as the feet" -- discoursing on linen garments -- "so that we ourselves may finish with the sandals, or by another name the campagi, which remain upon the feet." -- It is to be read thus, not "campobi" as it has been printed. Honorius of Autun, in the Gemma Animae, book 1, chapter 210, on the campagi or sandals of bishops, says: "It is a kind of cut footwear, by which the foot is partly covered and partly seen bare." [Variant readings:] Otherwise in the Colbert manuscript and in three Vatican manuscripts, namely [...]. In Vatican B, which the printed editions follow, [it has?] the month [...]. Letter 28 [alias 45]. -- In three Vatican manuscripts and [...] of Normandy, "ab Avalentione"; in Vatican B, "a Va[lentione]" [...].] [Resuming the letter:] ...you are to make lawful inquiry. And if his complaint proves to be manifestly established, let your charity provide that without delay he be assisted by the restitution of the property carried off and of the parishes seized; and so let him recover everything -- with you giving him relief, all excuse ceasing, and justice favoring -- in such a way that neither may the labor of observance afflict this man, nor may the usurper gain any profit from his loss. Let zeal for equity therefore fire you; let the uprightness of justice fire you. Apply yourselves diligently to guarding in all things the ancient arrangement of the ecclesiastical order; show yourselves strict and vigilant between the guilty and the innocent, so that both those who have justice may have great confidence in the zeal of your rectitude, and to the restless every occasion of transgressing in the future may be cut off.

AD VICTOREM ET COLUMBUM EPISCOPOS. V alentionem episcopum occupatas ex Crisconii paro- chia Kceclesias, necnon ablalas deſuncti parochic hujus episcopi res, Crisconio reslituere compellant. Gregorius Victori et Columbo episcopis Aſricz, a paribus. | Quanto cordi nostro Ilzlitiam Ecclesiz ordo incul- pabiliter custoditus infundit, tanto rescissus 91G [zdium doloris imponit, quod pravilatis temerilas in eversionem disciplinz teniat et quz Suut olim lauda- biliter statuta_ dissolvere, et quz fortius punienda prxsumere. Prsentium itaque porlitoris Crisconii fratris et coepiscopi nostri querela ad nos insinuante pervenit quod, nulla exigente culpa, vel concilii de- liniente sententia, Ecclesize ejus parochie antiquitus deputatze ® a Valentione ſfratre el coepiscopou nostro ante ſere quindecim annos siut irrationabiliter 0Ccu- patz, alque eum insuper res decessoris ipsius ad wum, quod dici grave esl, arbilrium abslulisse. uod $i ita veritas se habet, quam perversum, quamye Sit exsecrandum, przcipue ® religios0 pro- posito, dicere non valemus. Hac igitur in re, quia nec lenilas, nec aliqua debet esse dilatio, fraternila- in MiS8a utuntur, a graca voce x«pry, flexura. Lege Saus8aium Panopliz episc. lib. vn, c. 1, art. 4, Lampagos eosdem ſuisse cum calceis antiquis patri- ciis contendit Salmasius in Trebellium. Palricios hosce calceos decussalim adnecti consuevisse ait Isi- dorus, illos Hesychius cavum et proſundum calcea- mentum appellat, quod usque ad medias tibias ascen- derent. Rubenius, de Re vestiaria, lib. 1, c. 15, san- daliis vult Similes ſuisse campagos. Amalarius, lib. 1 de Eccles. officiis, c. 18 : Quia, inquit, usque ad pe- des Bedu perventt, disserendo de lineis veslibus, ut nosmeltpst absolvamus de 8andaliis, sive alio nomine campagts, qui 8upersunt in pedibus, -Ita legendum, non campobis ut editum est. Honorius Auguslod., mn Gemma aniimz, lib. 1, c. 210, de campigis Sel Sandaliis episcoporum : es!, inquit, genus calcea- D menti incisi, quo pes parlim tegitur, partim nudus cernilur. : d lia in Colbert. yet. et in tribus Vatie., scilicet rac. E. In Vatic. B, quem sequuntur Excusi, mense 0, EeisT, XX VIII [AL 45]. — * In tribus Vatie. et — Norman., ab Avalentione. In Vatic. B, a Va- io, fa licitus requiratis. Et si querela ejus manifesta c55e consliterit, ablatarum rerum et occupatarum paro- chiarum reslitutione dilectio vestra Sine Mora SUC- curri provideat, et ita omnia, vobis solatiantibus, cessante excusatione, juslitia favente, recipiat, ut nec hunc labor observationis afliciat, nec de ejus damuo aliquid lucri invasor acquirat. Accendat ergo vos zelus zquitatis, accendat justitiz rectitudo. © Ad custodiendam in cunctis antiquam ecclesiastici ordi- nis dispositionem, operam inslanter impendite, di- $trictos Sollicitosque vos inter culpas et innocentiam ' exhibete, quatenus et -jusLlitiam habentibus magna de-rectitudinis vestre <Sit zelo fiducia, et inquielis de ſuturo omais excedendi awmputetur-occasio 9,