Letter 6021: Three churches in your area are without bishops.

To Bishop Peter. [Summary:] He commends three Churches, deprived of their own bishops. Gregory to Peter, Bishop of Hydruntum [Otranto]. Our pastoral care compels us to look out, with anxious consideration, for the Churches that have been deprived of the governance of a bishop, lest, when their own ruler has died, anything contrary to the rules of the Fathers should arise among them, which God forbid. Since, therefore, we have learned that the Churches of Brundisium [Brindisi], of Lippiae, and of Gallipolis [Gallipoli] have been left altogether destitute by the deaths of their pontiffs, we have for this reason judged that the task of visiting them must be enjoined upon your Fraternity. This you ought so to discharge that you suffer nothing to be diminished by anyone in respect of the advancements of the clergy, the revenue, the ornamentation, the ministries, or whatever else there may be in their patrimony. And therefore your Fraternity shall hasten to go to the aforesaid Churches, and shall make haste to admonish, with constant exhortations, the clergy and people of those same Churches that, with partisanship set aside, with one and the same consent, they should await for themselves the appointment of such bishops as may be found worthy of so great a ministry, and may in no way be rejected by the venerable Canons. And when these men have been petitioned for, confirmed by the subscriptions of all with the solemnity of a decree, and by the testimony of your Charity's letters, let them come to us to be consecrated; you taking care above all things that no persons of lay station, whatever their manner of life or merit, presume to aspire to this, and that you, which God forbid, do not incur peril to your own order. But the monasteries, if there are any established in their parishes, we grant to be under your care and disposition, until their own bishop has been ordained there, so that they may, with God's help, by an action suited to their purpose, correspond to the vigilance of your solicitude. In the month of January, in the fourteenth indiction. [Editorial notes:] Brundisium. Pliny, book III, chapter 10, calls the garrison-post of the soldiers "Lupia." It is now a village called La Rocca, between Brundisium and Hydruntum, according to the testimony of Galateus, a native of the region. See above, epistle 45, book I, indiction 11, now epistle 46, book II. Gussanville. "To be petitioned for" [postulari] is said by Gregory of one who is chosen for the episcopate by the common decree of the clergy and people; book I, epistle 60; book II, epistle 39; book VI, epistle 20, 21; book IX, epistle 88. But indeed among the canonists "postulation" is a unanimous request, by which one who according to the canons cannot be taken up either into the clergy or to an ecclesiastical dignity, even a regular one, is nevertheless admitted by a superior, out of dispensation and grace, the case having been examined. But since postulation is contrary to the common law, it ought therefore to be made by a concordant unanimous vote; so much so that, if postulation should concur with an election, the number of those petitioning ought to be twice as great. Chapter 5 and 4, On the postulation of prelates. The manuscripts do not have these things, except the Reg[inensis], Turon[ensis] of St. Gat[ianus], the old Colbert[inus], and the Vatican. [OCR-corrupt run; no legible letter content: ...] 815 OF THE EPISTLES, BOOK VI. — INDICTION XIV. — EPISTLE XXIV. 814

AD PETRUM' EPISCOPUM. * Commendat Keclesias tres propriis episcopis deslitu- las. Gregorius Petro episcopo ®* Hydruntino. Pastoralis nos cura consiringit Ecelesiis 8acerdolis moderamine destitutis 8olijcita consideratione prospt- cere, ne, proprio decedente rectore, contrarium, quod absit, aliquid Patrum regulis JOS oriatur. Quia igitur Ecclesias > Brundusii, © Lippias, atque Galli poli, obeuntibus earum pontiſicibus, omnino deslitu- las agnovimus, idcirco fraternitati tuz visitationis earum operam duximus injungendam. Quam ita te convenit exlibere, ut nihil de provectionibus clerico- rum, reditu, ornatu, ministeriisque, vel quidquid illud est in patlrimonio earum, a quoquam patiaris im- minnj. Et ideo ſraternitas tua ad przdictas Ecclesias ire properabit, et assiduis adhortationibus clerum plebemque earumdem Ecclesiarum admonere feslinet, ut, remoto studio, uno eodemque consensu tales $ibi preſiciendos expeltant $acerdotes qui et tanto mini $terio digni valeant reperiri, et a venerandis Ccano- nibus nullatenus respuantur. Qui dum ſuerint © postt- lati, cum solemnitate decreti omnium - subscriptioni- bus roborati, et dilectionis tute testimonio litterarum, ad nos veniant congsecrandi; provisurus ante omnia ne ad hoc cujustibet conversationis seu meriti laice personz# aSpirare presumant, et tu periculum ordinis tui, quod absit, incurras, Monasteria autem $i qua Sunt in earum parochiis constitula, $ub tua cura dis- positioneque, quousque illic fuerit proprius episco- pus ordinatus, esse concedimus, ut sollicitudinis tue vigilantia proposito $y0 congrua, Deo adjuvante, actione respondeant. f Mense Januario, indictione 14s Brundusio. Plinius, lib. m, c. 10, stationem militum Lupiam nuncupat. Nunc pagus la Rocca dictus inter Brundusivm et Hydruntum, teste Galateo indi- gena. 4 Supra, epist. 45, lib, 1, indict, 11, nunc 46, lib, HW. Gussanv. * PosLulari Gregorio dicitur qui communi cleri et populi decreto eligitur ad episcopatum, lib. 1, epist. 60 ; lib. 1, epist. 39, lib. vi, epist. 20, 21; lib. 1x, epist. 88, Jam vero apud canonistas postulatio est unanimis pevlio, per quam is qui Secundum canones vel ad clerum, vel ad dignitatem ecclesiaslicam, eliam rezularem, asSumi non potest, ex dispensatione lamen et gralia, causa cognita, a Superiore admittitur, Cum autem postulalio adversetur juri communi, ideo col- cordi vmniam calculo fieri debet ; adeo ut $i concur- rat poslulatio cum electione, duplo major debeat essC posLulaulium numerus, Cap. 5 et 4,de postul. prelat. _ | { Hac non habent M+s. praeter Reg., Turon. S. Gat., Colbert. vet. ac Vatican. WOOTEN SOR COTE To - nis 1ua lis- 0 - uB te, 1s um tus 1di- lib. $. 815 EPISTOLARUM LIB. VI. — INDICT. XIV. —- EPIST. XXIV. 814