Letter 9139: The resignation of Castorius from the episcopate has left your community without its shepherd, and I write to urge...

The care of the pastoral office constrains us to attend with anxious consideration to the churches that have been deprived of priestly governance. And therefore, since your church has long been deprived of pastoral rule through the obstruction of an illness, of which you are aware, in the very body of its own priest, we, moved by your prayers, did not cease to admonish that same bishop that, if he should perceive himself to have been restored to better health from that same illness, he ought to return to the ministry of the priesthood he had undertaken. He, having once and again been admonished by us, while the same illness pressed upon him, is now known to have indicated to us, by a petition presented in writing, that he can in no way rise up to the governance of that same church or to the office he had undertaken, the illness obstructing him. Compelled therefore by the hopeless state of his person, we have judged it necessary to take thought concerning the ordination [of a bishop] for your church. We exhort you, then, that all of you, with one and the same consent, all uproar set aside, should choose, with the Lord's help, such a priest to be set over you as may in no way be rejected by the venerable canons and may be found worthy of so great a ministry. And when he has been requested, let him come to us to be ordained, with the solemnity of a decree strengthened by the subscriptions of all, and with the document of the visitor accompanying him, so that your church, by the Lord's disposing, may be able to have its own priest. We wish, moreover, that the man whom your unanimity has chosen you should bring without any delay to our brother and fellow-bishop Marinianus at Ravenna, so that, carefully examined and inspected by him, he too may, by the testimony [given] upon his coming to us, be confirmed. [A separate, fragmentary letter follows in the source:] ... weighing the good intention of their undertaking, we have received them with fitting exhortation into the bosom of mother Church, and, as they desire to serve our church, we have graciously granted [their request]. Having therefore first sent the affection of our paternal greeting to Your Excellency, we ask that, for the sake of their good desire, by which they hastened to the solid rock that is the foundation of the apostles, lest, still mingled with the errors of the wavering, they should incur the shipwreck of a hopeless salvation, you may deign to hold them as commended, so that, returning to their own [homes], they may not on account of this good which they are known to have sought be disturbed by the disquietudes of perverse men, but rather may in all things find the help of your protection, so that from their tranquility the hearts of others still placed in schism may be bent, and, provoked through the good of your patronage, may at this very hour come to be [its] followers. For it pertains to the increase of your reward if, amid the cares of war, just as [you protect] the body from the enemy without, so you protect the soul from the assault of the inward plotter.

Paatoralis nus cura coastringit ccclcsiii) Haccrdotia moderaminc dcstitutis sollicita considerationo concurrere. Et ideo quiii' ccclesia vestra diu sacerdotis proprii corporia u qua nostis impedicnte molestia pastorali est regiminc destituta, vestris precilius permoti eundvm episcopum non destitimus ammonere, ut, si cx eadem molcatia ae mclioratum essc sentirct'', ad suscepti sacerdotii debuisset ministcrium remcare. Qui scmel a nobis saepiusvc commonitus cadem urguente'' molcstia nunc scriptis nobis supplicatiunc por- recta noacitur intimassc nullatcnus se ad rcgimcn eiusdem ecclesiue vel'' susceptum v> oflicium impedientc molcstia adsurgero posse. Qua pcrsonae eius" dcspcraljonc com- pulsi nocossarium duximus de ordinationc nos vcstrae ecciesiae cogitaro. Hortamur crgo, ut uno omncs eodemque consensu rcmoto' atrepitu talem vobis pracficicQdum cligatis auxilianto Domino sacerdotcm, qui et a vcncrandis canonibus nullatcnus rcBpuatur ot tanto ministerio dignus valeat rcppcriri. Qui dum fuerit postulatus cum soUemnitatc » decrcti omnium subscriptionibus roborati ct visitatoris pagioa pruscquonte ad nos veniat ordinandus, quatcnus ccclcsia vcstra disponcnte Bomino proprium habcre valcat sacer- dotem. Volumus autem, ut cum qucm unanimitasB vcstra clcgerit ad fratrem ct co- epiacopum nostrum Marinianum Uavennac sinc dilationc aliqua pcrducatis, ut ab oo suptilitcr inquisitus atque perspcctus ipsius quoquc ad nos vonione tostimonio roborctur. < t) ipsa codd. n. ') cHule q* 1. ■) eplatice p*i. '') ita q* 3. 3; muuUt Rt. q' l. <=) kie in nutrg. add.: \A eit i»i in iiullij mGmbrurum debililsluB fuerit q' 3. *') ta ventr» e' i. ') addita ora. Q*li abditit Jl 1. f) cuimecmrclur if* I. s) antiititeB Jtl. IX, 13ti ia lituio: cuiiHinleiili om. K* 1 — Arimin oUr. q* 1. 4; Arimiiiine q* '2.3; ArimineiiBe R I; Arimineusi R* 1. *) quia um. eodd. u. *■) et add. Q* I. ^) srguente eodd. ». '^) velut R I. •) eiuB Sl; eiuadem q*. premolo Rl. B) uQiainilaB Q* I. 3) Nota efedwm epwwpuffl Arimiiu, urlii» in Pentapoli nitae, ab epiacopo Bavetm. txaminari, Romae a papa amsecrari, epiicopam Fori Qtmelii, iirovinciae AemUiae, cuius me^opoli» tam tunc Ravenna eral, ab epiecvpo Sartnn. conaeerari: cf. ep. VII, 30 (n. 1); Loemng, 1. 1. I p. 443 s». Sed aliaa neque eituh Modi examinatio per ep. Bavennatem comtnenoraliw (ef. ep. I, 55 ». II, 28.) IX, I3ii. Cf. rp. in-aeced. et neq. alque de formula tp. 1, 76. VI, 31 et ep. II, 40 n. Heo. anKa. U. 18 yGoogle ,GoogIe boni intentionem operia perpendentes in einu matris eccleaiae competenti cnm ezhorta- tione su&cepimns eosque noBtrae desiderantes ecclesiae mtlitare grate concesBimua. PniemiBso quapropter excellentiae Testrae patemae Balntadonis alTectu petimuB, ut eos pro bono desiderii aui, quo ad" apoBtolorum principia petram Bolidam concurrerunt, ne fluctuantium adhuc erroribus mixti naufragium deaperatae salutia incurrerent, habere dignemini commeadatOB'' quatenua ad propria remeantes nullia propter hoc bonum, quod appetiBae noacuntur, perreraorum inquietudinibus perturbentnr, sed magia in omnibua auxilium vestrae tuitionis iQveniant', ut ex corum quiete aliomm adhuc in scismate poBitomm corda tlectantur atquc boram per bonum veatri patrocinii provocati^ sequaces ' existant. Ad augmentum namque mercedis vestrae pertinet', si intcr curaB bellicaa, sicut corpus ab exteriori" hoate, sic animam ab interai insidiatoris impugnatione protegitia.