Letter 9016
Gregory the Great (Wisigothic)→Unknown|gregory great
From: Gregory the Great, Pope, in Rome
To: Serenus, Bishop of Ancona [on the Adriatic coast]
Date: ~599 AD
Context: Gregory directs Serenus to exhort his deacon to restore property belonging to the church of Fermo.
Gregory to Serenus, bishop of Ancona.
Your deacon has property that belongs rightfully to the church of Fermo. I direct you to instruct him to restore it.
A deacon who holds church property that should belong to another community is depriving that community of what is rightfully its. The church's resources are to be used for the service of God and the care of the poor; when they are diverted for other purposes, those services suffer.
Speak to your deacon clearly and firmly. If he restores the property voluntarily, the matter is resolved. If he refuses, bring it to my attention and I will take further action.
Gregory
AD SERENUM ANCONITANUM EPISCOPUM.
Severum diaconum suum de rexstituendo Firmane
Eeclesie argento admoneat.
Gregorius *® Sereno episcopo Þ Anconitano.
Vir reverendissimus © Passivus, frater et coepi-
Scopus noster, adveniens indicavit argentum Eccle-
Si2 SU a decessore $uo Fabio apud Serenum dia-
conum tyum pro temporis qualitale ess2 depositum,
Cujus parte aliqua restituta, partem apud eum as»
serit rejacere, et re+tituere eam quadam excusatione
differre. Proinde his ſraternitatem tuam hortamur
RB affatibus ut eum admonere $tudea!, quatenus quz
accepit sine contentione restituat. Aut $i forie ab
cjus reslilutione aliqua $e excusari ratione confidit,
necesse est ut inter eum et aclores Firmane Kecle-
Si, una cum Armenio fratre et coepiscopo nostro
cogunoscere deheatis, et, subtiliter veritale discussa,
ita huic causz finem imponere, ut nec anle dictus
diaconus pati prejudicium, nec prexfſala jnjusledam-
num videatur Ecclesia suslinere.
◆
From: Gregory the Great, Pope, in Rome
To: Serenus, Bishop of Ancona [on the Adriatic coast]
Date: ~599 AD
Context: Gregory directs Serenus to exhort his deacon to restore property belonging to the church of Fermo.
Gregory to Serenus, bishop of Ancona.
Your deacon has property that belongs rightfully to the church of Fermo. I direct you to instruct him to restore it.
A deacon who holds church property that should belong to another community is depriving that community of what is rightfully its. The church's resources are to be used for the service of God and the care of the poor; when they are diverted for other purposes, those services suffer.
Speak to your deacon clearly and firmly. If he restores the property voluntarily, the matter is resolved. If he refuses, bring it to my attention and I will take further action.
Gregory
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.