Letter 8034: It is evidently a very serious thing, and contrary to what a priest should aim at, to wish to disturb privileges formerly granted to any monastery, and to endeavour to bring to naught what has been arranged for quiet. Now the monks of the Castilliensian monastery in your Fraternity's city have complained to us that you are taking steps to impose...

Gregory to John, Bishop of Scyllacium [Squillace, in southern Italy]. It is a serious matter -- and entirely unbefitting a priest -- to try to strip a monastery of privileges it has long held, or to overturn arrangements made to ensure its peace. The monks of the Castilliensian monastery in your city have complained to me that you are attempting to impose new conditions on their house that contradict what your predecessors allowed and what long custom has confirmed. You are introducing disruptive changes where none are needed. If this is true, I urge your Fraternity: stop troubling this monastery under any pretext. Do not use any opportunity to overturn what has been long established. Preserve all its privileges intact, and understand that you have no more authority over this monastery than your predecessors had. They also complain that you have taken certain items from the monastery, disguising the seizure as a kind of offering. If you recall having taken anything improperly, return it without delay. The sin of greed is a serious charge against someone whom priestly generosity should have made a patron of monasteries, not a predator. That said, while you must preserve everything your predecessors allowed and upheld, you should also keep careful watch over the conduct and lives of the monks there. If you find anyone living badly, or -- God forbid -- guilty of any sin of impurity, correct it with strict monastic discipline. Just as I want you to stop these inappropriate seizures, I also want you to be fully attentive to matters of proper discipline and the spiritual guardianship of those monks.

Book VIII, Letter 34 To John Bishop of Scyllacium. Gregory to John, etc. It is evidently a very serious thing, and contrary to what a priest should aim at, to wish to disturb privileges formerly granted to any monastery, and to endeavour to bring to naught what has been arranged for quiet. Now the monks of the Castilliensian monastery in your Fraternity's city have complained to us that you are taking steps to impose upon the said monastery certain things contrary to what had been allowed by your predecessors and sanctioned by long custom, and to disturb ancient arrangements by a certain injurious novelty. Wherefore we hereby exhort your Fraternity that, if this is so, you refrain from troubling this monastery under any excuse, and that you try not, through any opportunity of usurpation, to upset what has been long secured to it, but that you study, without any gainsaying, to preserve all its privileges inviolate, and know that no more is lawful to you with regard to the said monastery than was lawful to your predecessors. Further, inasmuch as they have likewise complained that your Fraternity has taken certain things from the monastery under the guise of their being, as it were, an offering , it is necessary that, if you recollect having received anything unbecomingly, you restore it without delay, lest the sin of avarice seriously convict you, whom priestly munificence ought to have shown liberal towards monasteries. Therefore, while you preserve all things which, as we have said, have been allowed and preserved by your predecessors, let it be your care to keep careful watch over the acts and lives of the monks residing there, and, if you should find any one living amiss, or (which God forbid) guilty of any sin of uncleanness, to correct such by strict and regular emendation. For, as we desire your Fraternity to abstain from incongruous usurpations, so we admonish you to be in all ways solicitous in what pertains to rectitude of discipline and the guardianship of souls. The monks of the aforesaid monastery have also informed us that the camp which is called Scillacium is built on ground belonging to their monastery, and that on this account those who live there pledged themselves in writing to pay a solatium every year; but that they afterwards thought scorn of it, and idly withheld their stipulated payment. Let then your Fraternity take care to learn the truth accurately; and, if you should find it so, urgently see to their not delaying to give what they promised, and what also reason requires; that so both they may possess quietly what they hold, and the rights of the monastery may incur no damage. Furthermore, the monks of the aforesaid monastery have complained to us that their abbot has granted to your Fraternity by title of gift land within the camp of Scillacium, to the extent of six hundred feet, under pretext of building a church: and accordingly it is our will that as much land as the walls of the church, when built, can surround shall be claimed as belonging to the church. But let whatever may be outside the walls of the said church revert without dispute to the possession of the monastery. For the ordinances neither of worldly laws nor of the sacred canons permit the property of a monastery to be segregated by any title from its ownership. On this account restore this gift of land which has been granted against reason. About this page Source. Translated by James Barmby. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/360208034.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.