Letter 5007: The matter of Saturninus is serious and the canonical response is clear: a presbyter who has been deprived of his...

To Venantius the Bishop. That he deprive Saturninus, the former presbyter, of communion until the day of his death, if he ministered after his fall. Gregory to Venantius, bishop of Luni. Going to the island of Gorgona, let your Fraternity examine that which has been reported to us concerning Saturninus, the former presbyter. For it has reached us that, after he was cast down from the order of the priesthood for the crime of his lapse, he presumed to approach the fulfilling of the ministry of the presbyterate, and to offer up victims to almighty God. And if your Fraternity finds that this was so done, let him reduce the man, deprived of participation in the sacred Body and Blood of the Lord, to penance, in such a way that until the day of his own death he remain under that same excommunication, and that he receive the viaticum [the Eucharist given to the dying] only at the time of his own departure. But if your Fraternity comes to know that he is performing such penance that, even before his departure, he ought justly to be shown mercy as to receiving communion among the laity, this we place within the power of your Fraternity. In the month of October, in the thirteenth indiction. Letter VIII. To Cyprian the Deacon. Let him persecute the Manichaeans. But as for the Jews who have been converted to Christ, the burdens of their rents are to be lessened. Let him give loans to the peasants. Gregory to Cyprian, deacon and rector of the patrimony of Sicily. Concerning the Manichaeans who are upon our estates, I have frequently admonished your Charity, that he ought above all to persecute them, and to recall them to the catholic faith. And if time permits, inquire diligently through yourself; but if for other reasons it is not permitted, then through others. Now it has come to me that there are Jews upon our estates. But it seems to me that you ought to send letters throughout all the possessions in which these Hebrews are known to be, promising them specially on my behalf that whoever among them shall be converted to our true Lord God Jesus Christ, the burden of his possession shall be diminished in some part. And I wish this likewise to be done in such a way that, if any one of them shall be converted, if he holds a rent of one solidus, a third part [tremissis] ought to be remitted to him; if of three or four, let one solidus be remitted. If anything more, the remission ought henceforth to be made according to the same measure, or else according to what your Affection foresees, so that both the burden may be lightened for him who is converted, and the ecclesiastical interest may not be pressed with grievous loss. Nor do we do this unprofitably, if for the lightening of the burdens of their rents we lead them to the grace of Christ, because, even though they themselves come less faithfully, yet those who shall be born of them are baptized already more faithfully. Therefore we win either themselves or their children. And so it is not a grave thing, whatever we remit of the rent for Christ's sake. Moreover, before this time your Affection wrote me something by John the deacon, all of which, reading it through at the same hour, I postponed for many days; and after the delay of many days, as though retaining in memory the things I had read, I replied to each point. But now, as I think, one chapter escaped me, and I suspect that I made no reply concerning it. For you had written that loans of solidi should be given to the peasants through the hands of certain trustworthy contractors, lest, in taking from others, they be burdened either in forced services or in the prices of goods. Which chapter was most pleasing to me. And if indeed I have already written, keep those things which were written. But if, as I suspect, I wrote back nothing at all upon it by a sure reminder, you ought not to delay in giving the solidi for the advantage of the peasants, since both the ecclesiastical estate does not perish, and from it the advantage of the peasants is increased. But also, if there are any other things which you consider to be useful, you ought, with all ambiguity laid aside, to carry them out. Letter IX. To Peter the Notary. That the appointments of the Church of Miria are then to be restored, when a bishop shall have been ordained there. Gregory to Peter, notary in Reggio. The appointments of the Church of Miria, which a certain bishop Severinus had carried off with himself to Squillace, the bearers of these presents demanded to be restored to themselves. Since, therefore, ecclesiastical affairs ought to be safeguarded with care, it has seemed good to us that a bishop be ordained in that same city, to whom those appointments may be handed over. But since they report that Leo the archdeacon and other clerics of that same Church are there, we charge your Experience that you admonish them to set out to their own Church, and to choose a bishop to be ordained for themselves, so that when, God being favorable, he shall have been consecrated there, he himself may receive the goods of his Church without any ambiguity.

AD VENANTIUM EPISCOPUM. Salurninum expresbyterum, 8i post lapsum miniztra- verit, communione privet usque ad diem ohitus. Gregorius Venantio episcopo Lunensi. Accedens ad Gorgonam insulam ( Grat. dist. 50, c. 10) fraternilas vestra discutial id quod ad nos de Saturnino expresbytero est perlatum. Pervemt nam- que ad nos quia postquam * pro crimine lapsus $ui a Sacerdotii ordine est dejectus, ad explendum » mi- nisterium presbylerii pratSumpsit accedere, el om- nipotenti Deo hostias immolare. Quod si ita factum ſraternitas vestra repererit, eum $acri corporis et sanguinis Dominici parlicipatione privatum in p@- D. Cellam autem hic pro monaslerio usurpari mani- ſestum est. Ita quoque passim sumitur in Dialogis, maxime libris primo et secundo. Sanclimonialium monasteria, ex quibus unum ill ud D erat quod a D. Gregorio conditum fui>8e vetus tra - ditio est, et postea monachis Cassinensibus essc da- tum. Vocatur hodie S. Martini de Scalis. Gussavv. © Id est, [ranslatam ; migrare enim aliquando pro lransſerr e.usurpaut. Sic Gellius, lib. un, c. 2). Cas- sita nidum migravit. GUSSANV. LPISTOLARUM LIB. V. — INDICT. XIN. — EPIST. VII. nitentiam redigat, ita ut usque ad diem obitus 8ui © A $jonibus nostris qui converti ad Deum nullatenus in eadem excommunicatione permaneat, et 4 yiati- cum tantummodo * exitus s8ui tempore percipiat. Sin autem eum fraternitas tua lalem pcenitentiam agere cognoveril, ut ei juste f ad recipiendam inter laicos communionem et ante exitum debeat misereri, hoc in tuz fraternitatis ponimus potestale. 8 Mense Uc- tobri, indictione 13. | EPISTOLA VIH. AD CYPRIANUM DIACONUM. Persequatur Manichmos. Judeis vero qui ad Christum ſuerin! conversi minuenda pensionum onera. Mutuos det rusticis 80lidos. Gregorius Cypriano diacono *® et rectori patrimo- nii Siciliz. volunt. Sed videtur mihi ut per omnes possessiones in quibus ipsi Hebrzi esse noscuntur epistolas trans- mittere debeas, eis ex me $pecialiter promittens quod quicunque ad verum Dominum Deum nostrum Jesum Christum ex eis conversus ſuerit, 4 onus pos- Sessionis ejus ex aliqua parte imminuetur. Quod ita quoque fieri volo, ut si quis ex eis conversus ſuerit, * sj 80lidi pensionem habet, tremissis ei relaxari de- beat; $i tres vel quatuor, unus Solidus relaxetur. Si quid amplius, jam juxta eumdem modum debet re- laxalio ficri, vel certe juxla quod dilectio tua pre- videt, ut et ci qui converlitur onus relevetur, et ecclesiastica ulilitas non gravi dispendio premalur. Nec hoc inutiliter facimus, si pro levandis pensio- De Þ Manichzis qui in possessionibus nostris sunt, B num oneribus eos ad Christi gratiam perducamus, frequenter dilectionem tuam admonui, JZ& ut eos persequi © $ummopere debeat, atque ad lidem catho- licam revocare. Quod si tempus exigit, per te, $i au - tem pro causis aliis non licet, per >lics s0lerter in- quire. Pervenit vero ad me esse Hebrzos in posses- 4 Hic encharisticam communionem <ignificat. Du- dum obtin!it 'usus ut via'ici nomine sola Encharistia jamjam morituris miristrata intelligatur ; secus apud veleres qui viaticum id omne dicebant quod ad $e- curum ex hac vita discessum proderat. lgitur pro penitentibus absolutio, baptismus pro catechume- nis, viaticum erat necessarium, quo Cx COrPore re- cedentes defraudari vetat ex antique leg's regula Ni- cxnus, can, 12, Sic communio etsi jam pro $sola fere Euchari-ti:e perceptione sumatur , etiam dic-batur olim concessa penitentibus absolutio, reconcil.atin, pax, communicatio, apud (Cyprianum epist. 52; concil, Arel.t. 1, can. ult. ; Innoc. I, epist. 5, ad Ex>uperium Tolosanum episcopum, cap. 2, cujns (Innocentii) 8ententiam ne cum Gussanvill:eo ab illis fieri Novatianam pules, qui communionem (denega- tam, non degacro viatico sed de reconciliatione pie- nitentium in{erpretantur, latissimum observa discri- men, I erat Novatianorum. error, {Juod morlale pec- catum Ecclesia donare non possil, imo ipsa pereat recipiendo peccantes. lide lapsis, etiam plena pceni- tentia funclis, reconciliationem negabant. At de illis lantum Exsuperio respondet [unocentius, qui post baptisgmum omni tempore incontinentize et volupta- tibus dedi!i, in extremo vile $uz penitentiam simul et reconciliationem communionis ex puscebant. De his, inquit, consueludo prior tenuit, ut concederetur eis penilentia, 8ed communio negarelur... ne communio- ns concessa ſacilitas homines de reconciliatione 8ecu- ros non revocaret a lapsu. * In recent. Ed. legitur, in die exitus 84i , invilis Mss., quibus consentit Gratianus. Sed el excommunicatus; cui vero communio -altem laica relinqueretur, is Svlum ab officio depositus censerelur. Hic vero alque epist. olim 16, nonc 5, recipiendam inter laicos commumonem, de ipsa Eu- charistiz perceptione inlelligere cogit epist. olim 17, Fa quia f etsi ipsi minus fideliter veniunt, hi tamen qui de eis nati ſuerint jam (idelius baptizantur. Aut ips0s ergo, aut eorum filios lucramur. Et ideo non est grave quidquid de pensione pro*Christo dimitti- mus. Praterea ante hoc tempus, Joanne diacono ve- nunc 4, ubi de jisdem omnino puniendis c'ericis Gregorius : Lapsos, inquit, a 8u0 semper vacare ac decernimus privalos officio, quibus nihil aliud quam inter laicos 8acra est prebenda communio. Scilicet illis vetitum $acris ſungi ministeriis, non vyetitum corpori et $sanguini Domini communicare inter laicos. - SE & [ta Turon. S. Gat., Colbert. vet. et Valic., aliis Mss. saltem plerisque silentibus. | Eersr. VIIL [ AL. 6]. — * In plur. Mss. desideralur, el rectori, etc. | © In Vatic. A et nonnullis Mss., summopere 8tu- deat. : Supra diximus epist. 26 lib. 11, nunc lib. i. Hane persuasionem vucarentaliqui Thessalicam xeIva;;znv, ut ait Cicero ad Allicum. Vide lib. 1, epist. 52, Par- tim ex Gus8avv. © Duo Vatic., si solidum pensione debet. Leo, epist. 4, ad episcopos Siciliz, c. 6 : In baptt- zandis electis qui secundum apostolicam regulam et exorcismis scrutandi, etc, De is1s Scrutiniis praeviis ad baptismum, ac septies repelilis, vide Rupertum, de div. Olliciis, Alcuinum, de div. Ullic. ; Ordinem Rom:num, Amalarium, Fortunatum, etc. De Judzis autein qua cautione recipi debeant, vide conctl, Septimum, can. 8. Gussaxv, SANCTI GREGORH MAGNI | 752 nienls, mihi wa dilectio aliqua 8cripsit, quiz omnia A exhibenda, ex tus quoque $ubjectis jpse non ambigis, hora eadem relegens, multos dies interposui, et post multorum dierum moram, tanquam in memoria retinens que legeram, ad singula respondi. Sed nunc, ut arbiiror, unum mikli capitulum excidit, et de eo me suspicor nihil respondisse. Scripseras enim ut mntui $0lidi rusticis per manus quorumdan £E de- biti conductorum darentur, ne tollentes ab aliis, aut in angariis, aut rerum pretiis gravarentur. Quod capitulum mihi gratissimum ſuic. Et siquidem jam scripsi, ea serva que Scripta Sunt. Si autem ex ev, ut suspicor, minime aliquid rescrips! © commoni- tione certa, ad dandos solidos pro ulilitate rustico- rum non debes immorari, quando et res ecclesiastica non perit, et ex ea utilitas rusticorum levatur. Sed et alia $i qua sunt, quz ulilia esse consideras, omni ambiguitate , postposita dehes exhibere. ( Cf. Joan. Diac. |. n, n. 43.) 735 EPISTOLAIX. AD PETRUM NOTARIUM, | Miriensis Ecclesice tunc reddenda ministeria, cum ibi ordinatus ſuerit ep'8copus, Gregorins Petro © notario in Regio. Ministeria Þ Ecclesiz Miriensis, que $8ecum Squ11- laciom quoadam episcopus Severinus detulerat, pra- Sentium $ibj portilores reslitui postulabant, Quia ergo res ecclesiastice cauia debent sollicitudine premuniri, hoc nobis visum est ut ©.j1 eadem civitate episcopus, cui minisleria ipsa Llradi possint, debeat ordinari. Sed quoniam Leonem archidiaconum alios- que clericos ejusdem Ecclesize il!ic esxe commemo- rant; experientiz tu.e procipimus, quatenus eos ad Suam Ecclesiam proficisci, ac cligere ordinandum episcopum sibi commoneat,, ut du: Deo illic fuerit propitio consecratus, ipse Ecclesiz suz res sine aliqua ambiguitale recipiat.