Letter 11006: The death of Constantius, your bishop, has left a wound in the Church that must be carefully healed.

How great a grief the death of our brother and fellow bishop Constantius inflicts upon us, we cannot fully express in written speech. But how many good things those regions have lost in one man [...] would that the neighboring districts might not feel it through a sudden calamity! For how watchful he was over the discipline of the ecclesiastical rule, and how vigilant he was in the oversight of your city, is not unknown to us. But since, with your shepherd dead, it is not fitting that you should be without a bishop of your own, we have received it altogether with gratitude that you [chose] your deacon Deusdedit, with one accord, for the office of the episcopate [...]. But let not that which you have reported to us was written to you by Agilulf disturb your charity. For we in no way grant our consent to a man who is not chosen by Catholics and especially by the Lombards; nor, if by the usurpation of some presumption such a man should be made, do we receive him into the place or order of a bishop, since he who is elected by such persons is plainly shown to be an unworthy vicar of Saint Ambrose, if he is ordained. Nor is there anything in this matter that should deter you or lay any necessity upon you, since the means by which sustenance may be supplied to the clerics serving Saint Ambrose lie not in the territories of the enemy, but, by God's protection, consist in Sicily and in the other parts of the commonwealth. Therefore, so that in the ordaining of him who has been elected by you no delay may occur, we have sent Pantaleo our notary, who shall have him consecrated, as is the custom, with the support of the authority of our consent. To whom also, since concerning the small possessions which Magnus, formerly a presbyter, had held in his charge, or concerning the other interests of our church, [he should take] care [...].

Quantus* nos de obitu fratris^ et coepiscopi nostri Constantii^ maeror afificiat, paginali explere locutione non^ possumus. Sed quam multa bona partes illae in uno XI, 5 in tihdo: illustri ex illastris corr. BLq*2; inlastris q* 1.4. gl^ vrQ Bl. b) prwA- dentis B 1. re q*1. vestra devotione miracolo q3. ^) et add. q3. 8) benedic- XI, 6 in tikUo: populo ante presb. add. B*l — ppbbdd (pro presb^rteris diaconis) abbreviant omnes eodd. Q.Q* et Bl ^ Mediolanens abhr. Bl, Mediolan q1; Mediolanensis Q*. q3. B*1 ecclesiae add. B* 1. •) quantum Q- Q** ^) fri B 1. ^) locutione, om. non Bl; locutionem, om, non Q*L2, ted eorr. q*2 in locutione. XI, 6. Haec epistida non concordat ctim formulia Diumi de aimUibus rebus dictatis. De Adeodata cf. ep. Vin, 34 n. XI, 6. Hanc ep. refert etiam Landulfus in Mediolan. hist. II, 9 (SS. VIII p. 48 s.). — Eandem superscriptionem hahent ep. III, 29. XI, 11 sede vacante scriptae. 1) Ultimatn episttdam Constantio misit noster m. Maio ind. III: ep. X, 11; eum III. die mens. Sept. obiisse referunt catalogi (SS. Vm p. 101 8S., Diimmler Oesta Bereng. p. 163), sedisse annos XVIII (l. Vm), sepuUum esse „in lenua in domo 8. Ambrosii". Reo. Greo. II. 34 GREGORII I. REGISTRI homine perdidenmt, utinam vicinae^ rcpentina calamitate non® sentiant! Nam quem ad modum soUicitus in' ecclesiasticae regula^ disciplinae vel quam fuerit Tigilans in tuitione civitatis vestrae, non habemus incognitum. Sed quoniam obeunte pastore sine proprio vos esse non decet antistite, omnino grate suscepimus, quod Deusdedit diaconem vestrum ad episcopatus officium vos^ una- Illud autem quod vobis ab Agilulfo indicastis scriptum dilectionem vestram non moveat. Nam nos in hominem, qui non a catholicis^ et maxime a Langobardis^ eli- gitur, nulla praebemus ratione* consensum^ nec, si^ alicuius praesumptionis usur- patione' factus* fuerit, in locum vel ordinem illum sacerdotis^ suscipimus^, quia vicarius sancti Ambrosii indignus evidenter ostenditur, si electus a talibus ordinatur. Neo enim est, quod vos hac^ ex causa deterreat vel aliquam vobis necessitatem incutiat, quia, unde possint® alimenta sancto Ambrosio servientibus clericis ministrari', nihil in hostium locis, sed in Sicilia* et in« aliis' rei publicae partibus Deo protegente consistit. Ut igitur in ordinando eo qui a vobis electus est nulla possit mora contingere, Pantaleonem notarium nostrum transmisimus , qui eum, ut moris est*, adnitente*» consensus nostri auctoritate faciat consecrari. Cui etiam, quia* de"^ possessiunculis quas Magnus quon- dam* presbyter"^ commissas habuerat vel de aliis"^ ecclesiae nostrae utilitatibus curam minime Vat, D (ed. M.) — velim ne cani. Mommsen. non Vat. E. F (ed. M.), aed om. eodd, n.; repentinam calamitatem Bl. q1. q* et Vat. E. F (ed. M.). 0 sollicitis sine B 1. 8) regole ») ita B 1, q; factum q*. ^) ex sacerdotem corr, sacerdotum q1. c) suscepimus q*, q 1, $ed corr. q 1, 2) Deusdedit, episcopo Medidianenn, missae sunt ep. XII, 14. XIII, 33; catalogi tn n. sup. citaH referwnt eum sedisse a, XXV lU m, I d. XTV et ohiisse III kal. Nov.; iiaque consecratus esse mdetur c, d, XV m. Sept. Cf, OUrocchi, eccl Mediolanensis hist. Ligustica (1795) p, 432 ss. 608 s. 3) Ex hoc loco apparet nuUos cum Gregorii auctoritate qnscopos intra fines Langdbardorum exstitisse, — Cf, ep. ni, 29 n. V, 18 n, 4) De patrimonio ecd, Medioianetisis in Sicilia sito cf. ep, I, 80 n. I. 6) Cf, ep. XI, 14 et de dectione et ordinatione episooponim Mediol. in universum notam EuxMi 8 ad ep, III, 29 et Wisbaum l. l p. 44 s. 6) De Magno presbytero cf. ep. III, 26. 29. MENSE OCTOBRI INDICTIONE im.