Letter 26: FEtfAGlUS HII ARIAE and IOHANNI.

Pelagius to Hilaria and Iohannes. For although it has been forbidden by legal statutes that a bishop should alienate property acquired during his term of office, it is nevertheless our concern to increase the resources of the Church not so much by material wealth as by sincerity of mind. [Editorial apparatus follows in the source edition:] [Variant reading: another reading has "litt. eras." (a letter erased) between "fa" and "cui" in manuscript B.] [The days on which the letters from this one up to letter 37 were issued are determined chiefly from the order in which they are found.] [Note on the title: The Pelagian origin of this letter, here placed under the name of Gelasius, is supported - apart from the argument of its content as it stands among the other letters of Pelagius - by the law of Justinian, dated the first of March in the year 528, cited below. Compare what I have written on letter 29, page 84. Concerning Hilaria and Iohannes, to whom the letter was sent, nothing is known.] ["forbidden by legal statutes": that which Justinian enacted, Code, I, 3, 41, 5: "Moreover, from bishops who now are or shall hereafter be, we take away entirely the power of bequeathing by will, or of alienating anything from their property which, after they have become bishops, they have acquired whether by testaments, or by donations, or in any other way - except only those things which came to them before the episcopate..."] [Heading of the following letter - Of Pope Pelagius I: Pelagius does not appoint a monk as defender of the Church, since the condition of monks is unsuited to discharging such an office.]

FEtfAGlUS HII^ARIAE ET IOHANNI. Quamuis enim pon¬ tificem episcopatus adquisita temporibus alienare legalibus sit pro¬ hibitum statutis, nostri tamen studii est, ecclesiasticas utilitates non tam facultatibus quam sinceritate mentis augere. al. litt. eras, inter fa cui B. Dies, quibus epistulae ab hac usque ad ep. 37 datae fuerunt, ex ordine quo inveniuntur potissimum definiuntur. Tit. Pelagianae origini huius epistulae, sub Gd^ii nomine positae, praeter rationem continentiae inter alias Pelagii litteras, favet sane lex lustiniani, diei 1 m. martii a, 528, infra adlegata, Cf. quae scripsi in ep. 29, p. 84. De Hilaria et loanne, ad quos missa est epistula, nihil scitur. legalibus sit prohibitum statutis: Quae tulit lusriNlANUS, Cod., I, 3,41,5: Episcopis autem, qui sunt quive erunt, facultatem omnino adimirnus testandi, vel... alienandi quid de rebus suis, quas, postquam episcopi facti sunt, sive ex testamentis, sive ex donationibus, aliove quo modo adquisierint, nisi ea sola, quae ante episcopatum ... ad eos pervenerunt... 6. —p. PELAGn I PAPAE Pelagius, defensorem Ecclesiae monachum non constituit, cum impar sit.monachorum condicio tali officio fungendi.