Letter 4012: Brother Peter, I have received the report regarding the situation in your diocese and I want to address it directly.

To Bishop Peter. [Summary:] He assigns a fourth part of the revenues of the Church of Agrigentum as a stipend for the visitation. Gregory to Peter, bishop of Trecalitanum [Tricala]. Since the Church of Agrigentum has been entrusted by us to the care of your Fraternity's visitation, we have provided that something out of it should be allotted to you for your labors. For this reason we have written to our brother and fellow-bishop Maximian, that the fourth part, which it was fitting for the bishop of that same Church to receive, ought to be assigned to you from the day of your visitation, or for as long as you shall have exercised that charge there. Whence it is necessary for your Fraternity to consider with anxious mind, that you should strive diligently to expend that whose fruits you receive from the Church, and there to gather souls to God, to restrain the wicked from iniquity, and to nourish with the word of exhortation those who are beginning good works, mindful of what is written concerning the universal Church: She does not eat her bread idle (Proverbs xxxi, 27). [Editorial notes follow.] Processions are not seldom called litanies by ancient authors, because in those processions litanies, that is, prayers and supplications, were contained. Book xvi of the Theodosian Code, On Heretics. Arcadius Augustus forbids all those persons from coming together, for the purpose of holding a litany outside the city, by night or by day, in profane assemblies. And, to pass over the rest, by Gregory himself a procession is called a litany, in the Sermon On Mortality: "Let the litany," he says, "of the clergy, that is, the assembly of the clergy proceeding to the station, go forth," etc. See Book vi, Letters 54 and 61. When the anniversary day of our ordination arises, then especially the honor of this office, as though first imposed, is observed [or: attended to]. [Note:] We have read this in no manuscripts. In the Turonensis [manuscript] of St. Gatianus it is said to have been given in the month of November, indiction 13. Letter XV. [Note:] So it is read in four Vatican manuscripts and in the Corbeiensis, instead of Tricalitano, which the more recent printed editions have. In the Gemeticensis there occurs Trecasino. In the Corbeiensis, with the old editions agreeing, Troecalitano. Tricala, or Triocla, was once an episcopal city of Sicily, on the southern coast, between Agrigentum and Mazara. It now lies in ruins, and its site is called Santa Maria del Monte Virgine. Partly from Gussanvillaeus.

AD PETRUM EPISCOPUNM. Agrigenline Ecclesie redituum quariam partem in vi- 8ilationis s[1pendium assignal. Gregorius Petro episcopo * Trecalitano. Quoniam Agrigentina Eeclesia a nobis ſratervitatis uz visilationis eurzx commissa e$t, laboribus tuis aliquid ex ea ut le prospeximus consulendum. Prop- erea Maximiano fratri et coepiscopo no-tro <Cripsi- pus, Þ ut quarta, quam ejusdem Ecelesia: episcopun yportebat accipere, a die visitationis lux, vel quons- que illic eam sollicitudinem gesseris, tibi debeat ap- plicari.. Unde ſraternitatem tyam necesse est mente tollicita cogilare, nt enjus fructus Ecciesiz percipit, era $tudeat solerier impendere , alque ad Denin lic animas congregare, Pravos ab ini-juitate compes- :ere, et incipientes hona opera , verbo exhiortationis nutrire, memor quod de Ecclesia universali scriptum est : Panem otiosa non comedit (Prov. xxx1, 27). indietum process10nes non raro litaniz appellantur 2pud antiquos avctores ; quod in pro essionibus ill:s lianie Seu Preces ac Suppheationes conrinerentur. Lib. xxx Cod. Theodos., de hareticis. Arcadtius Aus gu-tns interdicit iis omnibus ad lilaniam * ſaciendam tulra civitatl-m, nociu rel interdiu proſanis coire con- venſibus. Alque, ul cxteros taceam, Gregorio ipsi processio dicitur lifania Sermon. de morialilate : Li:aria, inquit, clericorum, id est clericorum ccetus ad $fationem procedens, exeat, etc. Vide lib. vi, epist. 54 et (1. Cum dies anniversarins noslr@ ordinationis exoritur, tunc marime /:onor hujus officii tanquam prino impo- na/ur, attenditur. 4 In nullis mss. id legi:vns. In Turon. S. Gat. data dicitur, Mense Norembri, indict. 13. Eersr. XW. — * Sic legitur in quatuor Valic. et in Cort., pro Tricaliiano, quod haben Vulgati recent. In Gemet. accurrit Trecasino. In Corb. , consentien- libus veteribus Ed., Troecali:ano. Tricala seu Trio- cla urbs ohm episcopalis Sicilire, in ora australi, Agrigentum inter et Mazarum. Nuvc jacet in ruinis, ejusque locns dicitur Sancla Maria dt monte virgine. Pariim ex Gussanv. —_