Letter 11039: Vitus has been appointed defender for his area of Sicily and is beginning his new responsibilities.

To the Defensor of Rome. He commends Vitus, appointed defensor. Gregory to the Defensor of Rome. Let your Experience [the addressee's title] recognize that Vitus, the bearer of the present letter, was once one of ours. [...] Since we know well [...] Gregory to the Defensor of Rome for Sicily. It has come to our notice that, if anyone has a case against any clerics whatsoever, you, in contempt of their bishops, cause these same clerics to be produced for trial in your court. If this is so, since it is exceedingly improper, we instruct you by this authority that [...] except that the ecclesiastical order ought to be preserved there [...]. [Here certain conditions necessary for obtaining and discharging the office of defensor are recited, which however are not read in the older manuscripts; for there this letter begins from these words: "of ecclesiastical advantage."] ...we have determined that, in the schola of the defensors, his fidelity and diligence having been made known, and a letter solemnly given to him, he is to serve. And therefore, if perhaps you wish to enjoin anything upon him for ecclesiastical advantages, have no doubt about him; but be wholly assured of his integrity, and do not suppose that he will do anything fraudulently or with duplicity. There is one thing: that you bestow upon him the charity which is owed to the faithful. Epistle XL. [Editorial line, garbled and untranslatable: ...] Let him moderate his fasting on account of the eruption of blood [a hemorrhage], and let him guard against all exasperation [aggravation of the condition]. Gregory to Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna. Our infirmity, most dear brother, compels us to many things, for which, if we were healthy, we should justly seem deserving of reproof. But because, placed in this frail body, we cannot subsist otherwise than by serving its ailments, we ought not to blush at what necessity imposes. And therefore, since physicians say that fasts are altogether harmful to those suffering an eruption of blood, we exhort your Fraternity with these words: that, recalling to mind those things which you are accustomed to endure from your illness, you impose upon yourself by no means the labor of fasting. But if, by God's mercy, you recognize that you have so far improved, and that your strength can suffice, we permit you to fast once or twice in the week. But this above all things it befits you to take care of: that in no way ought you to feel exasperation [aggravation], lest the illness, which now is lighter and is believed to be as it were in suspense, should afterwards, through exacerbation, be felt more grievously. Our most glorious son Faustus has approached us with a direct petition, asserting that the boundaries of his property situated there within Sicily have lately been occupied by your men, and that on this account he has petitioned that the thing violently taken from him ought to be restored to him through the terms of our directive. Since, if it was done as he asserts, we believe it altogether foreign to the knowledge of your Fraternity, inquire diligently. And if, as he asserts, his boundaries have been taken from the possessor against the order of law, let the thing seized return into the ownership of the possessor. And then, if there is anything which may usefully be brought forward by your Church by right of property, the judgment of chosen men ought to ensue, and the matter be determined by their judgment, provided that the right of the possessor be in no way improperly disturbed. But, the cause once defined by judicial term, let the manifest matter recognize its lord and justice without priestly ill-will.

| AD ROMANUM DEFENSOREM. Vitum. deſensorem constitutum commendat. Gregorius Romano-defensori, Vitum, prescntium * portitorem, experientia tua D olim nostrum fuisse cognoscat. Cujus quoniam hene Gregorius Romano deſensori Siciliz. Pervenit ad nos ( Grat. 41, 9.1, c. 39) quod si quis contra clericos quoslibet cansam habeat , de- speclis eorum episcopis, eosdem clericos in tuo facias Judicio exhiberi. Quod si ita est, quia valde constat e882 incongruum, hae tibi auctoritale precipimus ut EerisT, XXX VII [Al. 32]. — © Yatie. D et E, nisi ul praterquam ecclesiasticus custadiri illic ordo debuil, cunſundatur. Cxteri Yaticani in nonnullis ab invicem , diserepant. | Eeisr, XXXVIH (Al. 33] — * Hic quedam econdi- lwnes ad ofiiciem defen-oris obtinendum et exer- centum necessarie recensentur, que tamen in Ms. alc. A twinime loguntur; ibi evim h.vc epistola in- Clvit ab bis verbis ecclesiaslice ulilitatis. In hoc $010 fidem et solertiam noyimus, in defensorum Þ itlum schola , data ei solemniter epistola, militandum es8e previdimus. Et ideo si quid ei pro ecclesiaslicis uti- litatibus injungere forte volueris, nullam de eo du- bietatem habeas; sed omnino de puritate ipsins cer- ' tus esto, nec eum (raudulenter vel dupliciter aliquid fere Codice epistola ista continetur. EetsT. XX XIX. [Al. 32]. -- * Hujus voeis originem quartoy sxculo tribuunt, sed male ; nam Arnobius ea 1515 est, et al:i. Vide lib. 1, epiz!. 42, nune 44, GUSSANY. Larivrium, etc. Vide lib. Sacran., col. 64, et notam 253. $151 SANCTI GREGORIL MAGNI 1152 acturum existimes. Unum est ut ei charitalem, quz-A Gloriosissimus filius noster Faustus direcla peti- fivelibus debetur, imnpendas. tione nos adiit, asserens fines pos8es$Sionis Sue illic EPISTOLA XL. jatra Siciliam posilos a vestris nuper hominibus oc- | cupatos, alque ob hoc rem violenter ablatam sibi per ones one mveromraneaten at prece/tionis nostrz seriem debere petiit reformari, Quod quia, si ita ut asgerit ſactum est, a ſraternilatis vestre cognitione omnino credimus alienum, diligen- ler inquirite. Et si, ut asserit, contra juris ordinem ſines ipsius a possidente sublati sunt, * in pos$es50- ris redeat res pervasa dominium. Et tunc $i quid est quod a vestra Ecclesia proprietalis jure uliliter op- ponatur, electorum debet judicium provenire, eo» rumque judicio terminari, dummodo indecenter pos- Ob eruptionem 8anguinis temperet & jejunio, atque ab omni exasperuiione caveat. Gregorius Marimano episcopo Ravennze. Multa nos, frater charissime, cogit infirmitas, ex quibus si sani essemus, jure reprehensibiles videre= mur. Sed quia aliter subsistere in hoc fragili corpore Positi non valemus, nisi ejus languoribus serviamus, erubescere quod imponitnecessitas non debemus. Et ideo quoniam * eruptionem sanguinis patientibus je= geggoris jus minime perturbetur. Sed causa judiciali junia medici omnino dieunt esse contraria, his frater- ytermino deſinita , sine $acerdotalj invidia dominum nitalem tuam Þ hortamur affatibus, ut, reducens 3d p atque justitiam res manifesla cognoscat. animum ea quz est solita de zgritudine sustinere, jejunandi sibi laborem minime imponat. Si autem Deo miserante adeo melioratam $e esse, ac virtutem Suam $uflicere posse cognoscit, semel aut bis in beb- domada jejunare permittimus. Sed ilſud te pre om- nibus studere conveuit , ut exasperationem sentire nullo modo debeas, ne zgritudo, quz modo levior est et quasi suspensa creditur, per exacerhationem postlmodum gravius sentiatur.