Letter 9058: Seeing that questions arising in civil affairs need, as is known to your Greatness, very full enquiry, let your wisdom consider with what care and vigilance the causes of bishops should be investigated. But, in the letter which you have sent us by the bearer of these presents on the questions with respect to which you were sent to us by our brot...

Gregory to Martin, Scholasticus. As Your Greatness is well aware, even questions arising in civil affairs require thorough investigation. Consider, then, how much more care and vigilance must be devoted to cases involving bishops. Yet in the letter you sent us through the present bearer — regarding the matters our brother and fellow bishop Crementius commissioned you to bring before us — you have given only a surface account and said nothing at all about their root causes. Had you made the origin and true nature of these questions clear to us, we would have known what to decide and could have given our brother a straightforward and fitting response. What does trouble us greatly is your report that certain bishops have gone to the imperial court without letters from their primate, and that they are holding unauthorized assemblies. But since, as I have said, we know nothing of the origin or substance of the questions involved, we cannot issue any definitive ruling. To pronounce judgment on matters only half-understood would be deeply irresponsible. It would have been far better, for our full understanding, if Your Greatness had come to us in person while you were still in Sicily, so we could have put questions to you directly. Nevertheless, now that you have met with our brother and fellow bishop John, I trust that in meeting him you have effectively met with us as well. He has taken the trouble to write to us about these same questions, and we have written back to him with our judgment. Since he is a priest of mature and careful discernment, if you are willing to work through these matters with him, I am confident you will find his counsel both sound and fair.

Book IX, Letter 58 To Martin, Scholasticus . Gregory to Martin, etc. Seeing that questions arising in civil affairs need, as is known to your Greatness, very full enquiry, let your wisdom consider with what care and vigilance the causes of bishops should be investigated. But, in the letter which you have sent us by the bearer of these presents on the questions with respect to which you were sent to us by our brother and fellow bishop Crementius, you have given only a superficial account of them, and hast been entirely silent about their root. But, had their origin and intrinsic character been manifest to us, we should have known what should be decided about them, and would then settle the mind of our aforesaid brother by a plain and suitable reply. This, however, is altogether displeasing to us, that you give us to understand that some of the bishops have gone to the court without letters from their primate, and that they hold unlawful assemblies. But since, as we have before said, the origin and nature of the questions are entirely unknown to us, we cannot pronounce anything definitely, lest, as would be very reprehensible, we should seem to pass sentence about things imperfectly known. Hence it was very needful that, for our complete information, your Greatness should have proceeded hither to reply to our questions during the time of your lingering in Sicily. Nevertheless, now that you have seen our brother and fellow bishop John, we believe that in him you have seen us also. And so since he has been at pains himself also to write to us about the same questions, we have written in reply to him what seemed to us right. And, since he is a priest of ripe and cautious judgment, if you are willing to treat with him on the questions which he has been commissioned to entertain, we are sure that you will find in him what is both advantageous and reasonable. 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/360209058.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.