Letter 9018: Our care for the purpose before us prompts us to commit the looking after ecclesiastical interests to active persons. And so, since we have found you, Romanus, to have been a trusty and diligent guardian, we have thought fit to commit to your government from this present second indiction the patrimony of the holy Roman Church, which by the mercy...

Gregory to Romanus, Defensor [church legal officer]. Our concern for the Church's interests compels us to entrust its affairs to capable people. Since I have found you, Romanus, to be trustworthy and diligent in your work as defensor, I am placing under your management -- effective from this second indiction [tax cycle] -- the patrimony [landed estates] of the holy Roman Church in the regions around Syracuse, Catania, Agrigento, and Mile in Sicily. Go there immediately. Bearing in mind both the divine judgment and my instructions, conduct yourself with such efficiency and integrity that you incur no blame for negligence or dishonesty -- which God forbid. The more faithfully and industriously you serve, the more you will commend yourself to divine grace. I have also sent the customary orders to the workforce of these estates, so that nothing hinders you in carrying out your assignment.

Book IX, Letter 18 To Romanus, Guardian (Defensorem). Gregory to Romanus, etc. Our care for the purpose before us prompts us to commit the looking after ecclesiastical interests to active persons. And so, since we have found you, Romanus, to have been a trusty and diligent guardian, we have thought fit to commit to your government from this present second indiction the patrimony of the holy Roman Church, which by the mercy of God we serve, lying in the parts about Syracuse, Catania, Agrigento, and Mile (partibus Milensibus). Hence it is needful that you go there immediately, that, in consideration of the divine judgment, and in memory also of our admonition, you may study to acquit yourself so efficiently and faithfully that you may be found to incur no risk for negligence or fraud, which God forbid should be the case. But act thus all the more in order that you may be commended to divine grace for your faithfulness and industry. Moreover, we have sent orders according to custom to the familia of the same patrimony , that there may be nothing to hinder your carrying out what has been enjoined you. About this page Source. Translated by James Barmby. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 13. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1898.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/360209018.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.