5 surviving letters between Natalis, of Salona and Pope Gregory the Great, spanning c. 590–592.
The acts of your synod which you have transmitted to us, in which the Archdeacon Honoratus is condemned, we perceive to be full of the seed of strifes, seeing that the same person is at one and the same time advanced to the dignity of the priesthood against his will, and removed from the office of the diaconate as though unworthy of it. And, as ...
We have received at the hands of the deacon Stephen, whom you sent to us, the letters of your Reverence, wherein you congratulate us on our promotion. And truly what has been offered in the kindness and earnestness of charity demands full credence, reason having prompted your pontifical order to rejoice with us. We therefore, being cheered by yo...
I have learned, dearest brother, from many who have come from your city that, neglecting your pastoral charge, you occupy yourself wholly in feastings: which report I should not have believed had not my own experience of your conduct confirmed it. For that you in no wise art intent on reading, in no wise give attention to exhortation, but art ev...
As though forgetting the tenour of former letters, I had determined to say nothing to your Blessedness but what should savour of sweetness: but, now that in your epistle you have recurred in the way of argumentation to preceding letters, I am once more compelled to say perhaps some things that I had rather not have said. For in defense of feasts...
Gregory to Natalis, archbishop of Salona. Whilst every kind of business demands anxious investigation of the truth, what pertains to deposition from sacerdotal rank should be considered with especial strictness, since here the matter in hand is not concerning persons constituted in a humble position, but, as it were, concerning reversal of divin...