Letter 2058: Gregory to Cyprianus, deacon [papal agent managing Church estates in Sicily].

To Cyprian the Deacon. If Cosmas has nothing with which to pay, let him come to terms with his creditors; and, paying the agreed-upon sum, let him free his sons. Gregory to Cyprian the deacon. Cosmas says that, from various pressures of dangers, he has bound himself to many men, so that on account of these debts he says his sons are being detained by his creditors. And if this matter is so, it has altogether moved us. Wherefore we exhort your Charity that, since it concerns the giving away of the goods of the poor, you investigate his case with the utmost care; and if you find him truly entangled in the aforesaid debts, so that there is no means by which he himself can pay this off, you should approach those aforesaid creditors of his, and, for the recovery of his sons, you should settle with them at whatever amount you have ascertained. And because, as has been said, he has nothing here with which to make restitution, pay it from the goods of the poor by our present authority, knowing that whatever shall be given there at your discretion is to be reckoned among the disbursements of our patrimony. In the month of August, in the eleventh indiction. [The remainder of the manuscript text following this letter is editorial apparatus -- a learned footnote on Roman debt law -- and a separate, distinct letter (Epistle LIX, to Bishop Secundinus, concerning the removal of a baptistery from a monastery), both of which were concatenated into this record and do not belong to this letter; they are omitted here.]

AD CYPRIANUM DIACONUM. Si non habet Cosmas unde 80lvat, cum illius credito- ribus paciscatur ; atque ejusdem filios, pactam 8um- mam persolvens, liberet. Gregorius Cypriano diacono. Cosmas ex variis periculorum necessitatibus mu'tis Se dicit * debilis obligatum, ita ut pro eis a credito- C ribus $uvis $v0s dicat filioz detineri. Qnz res si ita esl, nos omnino commovit. Quamobrem hortamur dilectionem tuam, ut quia de rebus pauperum dandis agitur, causam £ecjus cum summa S$ubltilitate perqui- ras ; et si inveneris eum predictis debitis veraciter involutum, ut non $it substantia unde possit hc ipsa decessores tni habuisse noscuntur, presenti aucto- ritale concedimus, atque ea omnia Circa honoris tvi privilegium volumus permanere, que anterioribus temporibus Ecelesiz tuz constat esse $ervala, ut nj- hil prorsus de privilegiis ejus doleas diminutum. Et, 8subscriptio domini pape; Deus te incolumem custodiat. Data x Kalend. Octobris , imperante dom. Justino Augusto. » Docti-simus Baluzius , qui ex Cod. Colb. prece-lum hoc edidit, Miscellan. l:b. v, recte censet scribendum ut in dicto Colb. Justiniano , pro Ju- 8lino. | Eersr. LV [Af. 56]. — * Nota historia vidue V Reg. iv, et parabola Maltth. xvin. Romanorum vetustissimi lege x1 tabularum permiserant viventis debitoris corpus $ecari, distrahi , dividi inter credi- lores. A. Gellius , lib. xx, c, 1. Postea debilores et qui 5e pro eis in nexum dabant, carceri mancipaban- tur, et \erberibus ad creyitoris nutum $ublebantur. Livius, Annal. lib. vin, meminit causamque notat refixi woris. Constantinus imp. pena carceris liberat debitores fiscalium, Cod. lib. x, tit. 19, leg. 2. Dio- cletianus et Maximianus imperatores crudelissimi, ob Xs alienum $Servire liberos creditoribus nolunt, ut habetur Cod. lib. rv, tit. 10, leg. 12. Justinianus in authent, 154, c. 7, cavet ne debitoris filius pro paire relineatur aut in pignus, aut in servile minislerium, aut in conductionem, cred-:loremque qui hanc in legem peccavit $ubdit paenis corporalibus. Carcef amem est Species Servitutis. Vide Sanctum Gregv- rium, dial-g. lib. uv, c. 27. In Gallijs, mortui debi- _—_ -O__—_— 657 - EPISTOLARUM LIB. NI. — INDICT. XI. — EPIST. LXI. | 658 persolvere, przedictos creditores ejus adeas, et propter A pulchritudo in superficie corporis, si vulnus latet recolligendos filios ejus, quanta cognoveris quantitate componas. Et quia , /sicut dictum est, hic non habet unde restituat, de rebus pauperum ex pr$enti no>lra :ucloritate persolve; sciens quidquid illic te provi- dente datum fuerit, patrimonii no$tri pensionibus essc reputandum. > Mense Augusto , indictione 11. (Vid. ep. 45 indict, 12. Cf. Joan. Diac. l. n1, c. 55.) G71 EPI->TOLA LIX. AD SECUNDINUM EPISCOPUM. Bapligterium de monaslerio auſeratur , ut monachis diceat opus Dei 8ecurius celebrare. Gregorius Secundino episcopo * Tauromenitano. Pridem praecepimus ( Grat. 18, 9.2, c. 7) ut de monaslerio sancti Andre, quod est Super Mascalas, baptisterium Þ propter monachorum insovlentias de- buisset auſerri, atque in eolem loco quo fontes sunt allare ſundari. Cujus rei perſectio hactenus est pro- tracta. Admonemus igitur ſraternitatem tuam ut nul- lam jam moram posl $susceptas przsentes litteras nostras inserere debeas; sed, repleto © loco ipsorum ſontiom, altare ad $acra celebranda mysteria illic 8ine aliqua dilatione fundetur; quatenus et pradictis monachis opus Dei $ecurius li: eat celebrare, et non de negligentia vestra contra ſraternitatem tuam no- v{er avimus excitetur.,