Letter 12003: A dispute has arisen between Victor and another party whose resolution requires the authority of your provincial...

How grave a complaint, and intolerable in the very hearing of it, is the one lodged by Donatdeus, the bearer of the present letter, who asserts that he was a deacon: the petition submitted by him, which is contained below, will make it plain to Your Fraternity. But because it has come to our notice that he was deposed on account of a bodily [offense], let Your Charity investigate this by a careful inquiry, and, if it is so, he must be confined to penance, so that by his tears he may be able to loose the bond of the disgraceful act he committed. If, however, he cries out that he is innocent of having perpetrated anything of this sort, then, together with the primate of the council and our other brothers and fellow bishops, all the matters that his petition contains must be sought out by you with diligent examination. And if his complaint is upheld by the truth, then in the case of his bishop Victor himself, who did not fear to commit so great a crime against God and against the priestly purpose, let the strictness of canonical rigor likewise be maintained, so that from your decision he may understand how wicked is the thing he has done, and that this man [Donatdeus] may be restored to his rank; for it is proved to be sufficiently perverse and contrary to ecclesiastical censure that anyone should be deprived in vain for the wishes of certain persons, whom his own fault or crime does not cast down from the offices of the grade in which he serves. [The remainder of the source record consists of editorial apparatus only: a critical apparatus of manuscript variant readings, scholarly footnotes (citing Matthew 6:19 and cross-references to other letters of the Register), and the editorial dating notations "In the month of October, in the fifth indiction" and "In the month of November, in the fifth indiction" - not part of the letter text.]

Quam gravis et auditu ipso intolerabilis Donatdeum*^ latoris praesentium, quise^ asserit fuisse diaconem, sit querella, data ab eo petitio, quae tenetur in subditis, fratemitati*' vestrae faciet*" manifestum. Sed quia pervenit ad nos, quod pro corporali fuisset*^ depositus, dilectio vestra suptili hoc inquisitione^ perquirat, et, si ita est, in paenitentia retmdendus est^f, ut commissi flagitii*' vinculum* lacrimis possit absolvere ''^. Si vero insons ab huius modi perpetratione clamerit, una cum primate^ concilii*' vel aliis fratribus coepiscopisque nostris omnia quae petitio eius continet diligenti a vobis examinatione quaerenda sunt. Et si querella eius veritate fulcitur, et in episcopo ipsius Victore *, qui contra Deum et sacerdotale propositum" tantum committere nefas" non metuit, canonici** vigoris ita districtio teneatur, ut ex definitioneP vestra, quam sit iniquum quod fecit, intellegat et hic suo ordini reformetur^, quia satis perversum et contra ecclesiasticam probatur' esse censuram, ut fmstra pro" quomndam voluntatibus quis privetur, quem sua culpa vel facinus ab officiis^ quo fungitur gradu non deicit. ») Buflicit Jil; suKcepit q*]. *) nec q3. ") ad q1. beati om. 111. ^) tranniniMC q1. XII, 3 in Htulo: Numidiae q*3. ») ito RI.qI; donat et ras. 112; Donadeum q*1.q3; Donatdei, tU videtur, q*2.3. se om. q*1. c) frateniitato Ji 1 ; fraternitatis q1. ^) faciat q1. •) /tic 1) Cf. MaUh. 6, 19. 2) De Hilaro cf. ep. I, 73 n. 2. 3) Cf. ep. I, 26 n. 6. XII, 3 una, ut ridetur, cum ep. praeced., ned per alium latorem transmissa. — De Colutnbo cf. ep. II, 46 n. 1) De huius modi nominihus cf, ep. VII, 32 n. 1. 2) De lapgis cf. ep. V, 6 n. 2. V, 18 n. 1. IX, 147 p, 146 n. 1. 3) De primatibtis cf. ep. I, 72 n. 2. V,3 n.3. 4) Idem, ut videtur, secundum ep. XII, 8 (quam cf.) primatus locum in Numidia tenuU mense Martio huius qumtae indictionis. MENSE OCTOBRI INDICTIONE V. MENSE NOVEMBRI INDICTIONE V.