Gregory the Great (Wisigothic)→Unknown|gregory great
Your most reverend fellow servant Castorinus, notary of your apostolic see, delivered to me the letter of my lord — a letter mingling honey and wounds. Yet it applied its stings in such a way that it did not withdraw the possibility of healing. For one who rebukes pride, following divine judgment, rightly shows himself to be gentle and mild in some measure.
You stated, then, that I had presumed to use the pallium [a wool vestment symbolizing metropolitan authority] beyond what had been granted to my predecessors, out of ambition for novelty. But the conscience of my own lord, which is guided by God's right hand, should in no way allow him to believe this, nor should he open his most sacred ears to uncertain rumors. First, because although I am a sinner, I have long known how grave a thing it is to overstep the boundaries fixed for us by our fathers, and that all pride leads to nothing but ruin. For if our ancestors did not tolerate pride even in kings, how much less should it be endured in priests? Furthermore, I recall that I was nurtured in the bosom and lap of your most holy Roman Church, and advanced by God's help. With what boldness would I have presumed to oppose that most holy see, which transmits its rights to the universal Church — for whose authority, as God is my witness, I have gravely provoked the hatred of many enemies against myself?
But my most blessed lord should not hold it against me that after so many labors and distresses, which I endure both within and without, I should deserve to find such a return. Yet again, among other things, this consoles me: that sometimes the holiest fathers chastise their sons for no other reason than to make them better. And after this expression of devotion and satisfaction, I trust that you will not only preserve the ancient privileges of the holy Church of Ravenna, which is especially your own, but will even bestow greater ones in your time.
Now, as for what your apostleship writes regarding the use of mappulae [liturgical hand-cloths carried in procession] by my priests and deacons — I confess truly, it wearies me to say anything further about this, since the truth itself, which alone prevails before my lord, should be sufficient. For since this is permitted even to lesser churches established around the city, your apostleship may also discover, if you deign to inquire of the venerable clergy of your own first apostolic see, that whenever the priests or deacons [levites] of the Church of Ravenna came to Rome for the ordination of a bishop or for the response [a formal liturgical ceremony], they all appeared before the eyes of your most holy predecessors carrying mappulae, without any reproof proceeding from it.
For this reason also — and this is attested by many, indeed by nearly all the citizens of this city, and could have been confirmed in the official records if they had been consulted, and the aforesaid most reverend notary could also have attested — that when the sons of the Church have already descended from the secretarium [sacristy], and the deacons enter so that the procession may soon begin, the first deacon customarily vests the Bishop of the Church of Ravenna with the pallium, which he likewise customarily wears in solemn litanies [public penitential processions].
Therefore, let no one attempt to deceive my lord against me, because if he wishes to investigate, with God as my protector, he cannot prove that any novelty was introduced by me. How I have obeyed your commands and served your interests, whenever the occasion required, may Almighty God make manifest to your most pure heart. And I do not attribute this to my sins — that at the time when I, a sinner, was ordained there [in Rome] by your predecessor, all my priests and deacons who accompanied me in attendance upon the lord pope made use of them.
And because our provident God has placed all things in your hand and in your most pure conscience, I adjure you by that apostolic see itself — which you govern first by your character, and now also by the honor due to it — that you in no way diminish the privileges which the Church of Ravenna, which is intimately yours, has enjoyed until now, on account of any fault of mine. Rather, according to the prophetic voice, let punishment fall upon me and upon my father's house, according to its own merit. Because therefore I have submitted all the privileges that were granted to the holy Church of Ravenna by your predecessors, for the sake of greater satisfaction, to the venerable archives according to the records of my predecessors' consecrations — finding the evidence consistent — it is now in God's power and yours to command whatever you judge right once the truth is known. For I, desiring to obey the commands of my lord's apostleship, although ancient custom prevails, have taken care to abstain until receiving a second directive.
Your most reverend fellow servant Castorinus, notary of your apostolic see, delivered to me the letter of my lord — a letter mingling honey and wounds. Yet it applied its stings in such a way that it did not withdraw the possibility of healing. For one who rebukes pride, following divine judgment, rightly shows himself to be gentle and mild in some measure.
You stated, then, that I had presumed to use the pallium [a wool vestment symbolizing metropolitan authority] beyond what had been granted to my predecessors, out of ambition for novelty. But the conscience of my own lord, which is guided by God's right hand, should in no way allow him to believe this, nor should he open his most sacred ears to uncertain rumors. First, because although I am a sinner, I have long known how grave a thing it is to overstep the boundaries fixed for us by our fathers, and that all pride leads to nothing but ruin. For if our ancestors did not tolerate pride even in kings, how much less should it be endured in priests? Furthermore, I recall that I was nurtured in the bosom and lap of your most holy Roman Church, and advanced by God's help. With what boldness would I have presumed to oppose that most holy see, which transmits its rights to the universal Church — for whose authority, as God is my witness, I have gravely provoked the hatred of many enemies against myself?
But my most blessed lord should not hold it against me that after so many labors and distresses, which I endure both within and without, I should deserve to find such a return. Yet again, among other things, this consoles me: that sometimes the holiest fathers chastise their sons for no other reason than to make them better. And after this expression of devotion and satisfaction, I trust that you will not only preserve the ancient privileges of the holy Church of Ravenna, which is especially your own, but will even bestow greater ones in your time.
Now, as for what your apostleship writes regarding the use of mappulae [liturgical hand-cloths carried in procession] by my priests and deacons — I confess truly, it wearies me to say anything further about this, since the truth itself, which alone prevails before my lord, should be sufficient. For since this is permitted even to lesser churches established around the city, your apostleship may also discover, if you deign to inquire of the venerable clergy of your own first apostolic see, that whenever the priests or deacons [levites] of the Church of Ravenna came to Rome for the ordination of a bishop or for the response [a formal liturgical ceremony], they all appeared before the eyes of your most holy predecessors carrying mappulae, without any reproof proceeding from it.
For this reason also — and this is attested by many, indeed by nearly all the citizens of this city, and could have been confirmed in the official records if they had been consulted, and the aforesaid most reverend notary could also have attested — that when the sons of the Church have already descended from the secretarium [sacristy], and the deacons enter so that the procession may soon begin, the first deacon customarily vests the Bishop of the Church of Ravenna with the pallium, which he likewise customarily wears in solemn litanies [public penitential processions].
Therefore, let no one attempt to deceive my lord against me, because if he wishes to investigate, with God as my protector, he cannot prove that any novelty was introduced by me. How I have obeyed your commands and served your interests, whenever the occasion required, may Almighty God make manifest to your most pure heart. And I do not attribute this to my sins — that at the time when I, a sinner, was ordained there [in Rome] by your predecessor, all my priests and deacons who accompanied me in attendance upon the lord pope made use of them.
And because our provident God has placed all things in your hand and in your most pure conscience, I adjure you by that apostolic see itself — which you govern first by your character, and now also by the honor due to it — that you in no way diminish the privileges which the Church of Ravenna, which is intimately yours, has enjoyed until now, on account of any fault of mine. Rather, according to the prophetic voice, let punishment fall upon me and upon my father's house, according to its own merit. Because therefore I have submitted all the privileges that were granted to the holy Church of Ravenna by your predecessors, for the sake of greater satisfaction, to the venerable archives according to the records of my predecessors' consecrations — finding the evidence consistent — it is now in God's power and yours to command whatever you judge right once the truth is known. For I, desiring to obey the commands of my lord's apostleship, although ancient custom prevails, have taken care to abstain until receiving a second directive.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.