Letter 11027: I have been asked to intervene on behalf of Bonitus in his effort to obtain a prefecture.

To Quertinus, the former prefect. [Rubric: Why he is unwilling to act on behalf of Bonitus, who is seeking the administration of the prefecture.] Gregory to Quertinus, the former prefect. We have received the letter of your Glory, in which you wrote that we ought to act on behalf of our glorious son Bonitus, so that the administration of that prefecture might be entrusted to him. For our part, we have known this same son of ours not merely recently, but for many years now, and for that reason we hasten to support him in all things, yet not in that matter from which he might incur bitterness and tribulations. For that very administration was offered to a former holder of it and to another, a lesser man than he, and they were by no means willing to involve themselves in it, knowing full well that it is a heavy burden, and especially at this time, to undertake the administration. If, therefore, it was a heavy burden to them, how much more must it be difficult for this man, who is in our service? It is added that it is also unprofitable and exceedingly laborious for a literate man to take up the business of accounts, and to bind himself in matters which we have not learned from those who assert them. But concerning this matter, that consideration calls us back, namely that we do not recall anyone to have come out well from this administration, except your Glory, for whom we beseech the almighty Lord that he may guard you with his continual protection even unto the end. And therefore, [out of regard for him], we are unwilling to involve ourselves in his harm. For what is now reckoned useful, it is certain that afterward it will be full of toil and loss. But if he judges that it ought to be so for his advantage, and wishes to act so that this administration may be entrusted to him, we are not opposed; but even so we grieve in advance over his future tribulations, since we are not ignorant, by the example of those who went before, of what he is going to suffer. Letter XXVIII. To Columbus, bishop of Numidia. [Rubric: That Paulinus the bishop must be restrained, who had raged against his own clergy, and was selling sacred orders by sacrilegious trafficking.] Gregory to Columbus, bishop of Numidia. Since it has long been well known to us that your Fraternity is adorned both with priestly gravity and with ecclesiastical zeal, we have judged it altogether fitting that you should take part in examining those matters which require correction, lest, if they are set aside through dissimulation, anyone should believe that whatever he is able to do is permitted to him. But in what manner our brother Paulinus, bishop of the city of Tegessis, has transgressed against his own clergy, or against those who are established in sacred orders, in bodily fashion, you have no need to be told, since, before this complaint reached us, it had already been done to you, as we have learned manifestly from those who assert it. And since it ought not to be lawful for those set over others to rage savagely unto the punishment of their subjects, we have taken care to write to our brother and fellow bishop Victor, who holds the place of primate among you, that together with your Fraternity, or with the other brothers and our fellow bishops whom you shall have foreseen fit to call in, he ought to examine with subtle investigation the case between the aforesaid brother, our fellow priest, and his clergy. And therefore let your Charity be diligent and exercise solicitude, that the things which have been brought to us may not pass unheard, lest discord in the Church, from which it must by all means be driven out, be nourished. And if indeed there is a true complaint of his clergy against him, [let him] amend his own fault, which of his own accord he has scorned to amend; so let him learn by such a definition of ecclesiastical rigor, that he may both perceive in the present how grave is what he has done, and learn for the future that he can do nothing more than is permitted. Above all things, therefore, we exhort you to strive more ardently to exercise the zeal which we know you to have for God's sake. And since our aforesaid brother Paulinus is said to confer ecclesiastical orders through the simoniacal heresy, which is unlawful even to hear of, together with the aforesaid primate, or with others, let it be your care to inquire into this more subtly and with all diligence. And if it shall be found so - which God forbid - it must be striven for and done, that the sentence of canonical punishment may strike both him who does not fear to receive a reward and him who does not fear to give one, so that the amendment of these men may be a correction for many. And before this death-bearing root takes hold and destroys still more, let it be condemned by the definition of a full council, so that no one ever may dare to receive anything for any order, and no one to give anything, and that no one may be promoted out of favor, but out of merit, lest both the ecclesiastical order be confounded, and the uprightness of a life be held in contempt, if an unworthy man receives the reward of merit. We have moreover enjoined Hilarus, our chartulary, that, if the case shall require it, he should not refuse to be present at your examination. If, therefore, it shall be necessary, make him certain by your letters that he ought to come there, so that, treating the matter together with him, you may be the better able to decide what things ought to be established.

AD QUERTINUM EXPREFECTUM. Cur pro Bonito prefecture adminislrationem expelente agere nolit, Gregorius Quertino exprxſecto. « Epistolam gloriz vestre suscepimus, in qua bato et edito an. 1509, art. 78, legem $sequentem : Homines conditionis 8erve nec poszunt nec debent absque venia el indulgentia 8eniorum guorum uxores ducere liberas, aut. alterius quam sint et in qua int conditionis. Si quid autem int con!rarium altentare- rint, damnabuntur mull& quam vulgo dicunt de ſor de mariage, que cedet in rem 8eniorum quorum $unt - 8ervi.Exemplum tamsimile quam lac lacti ext, nisi quod hic multa irrogatur, -illic terrore agitur. Gussavv.” ' b De originariis lege et conditione alicui mass2 ligatis, 8upra, epist. :1 lib. iv. Gussanv. © [nterpretor, volo illis imperari augmentum pen- Sitationis annuz. Kodem fere sensu legiste dicunt s1perindictum. Diclal creditor, scribit debitor, terra scribitur, quando Lanta mercede econducitur, $uper 8Cribitur aucto pretio. Gussanv. In Remig. et Victor. qui soli nobis exhibent hanc epist. cum Yatic. A, legitur cl srperscriptam lerram eorum. lic guperscr'bi terram idem esse videtur, ac appositis Llitulis Eccle- $i2 Roman possessioui vindicari, quod vulgo dici- mus Etre reunie. Lege nolam b ad epist. 65 lib. 1. EeisT, XXVI [Al. 29]. — *® Yatie. A, 82d 80la fa- clum inimicitia. | EerisT, XX VII | Al. 30].— © Prius Jegebatur Gratie veslr@, quod mutavimus viso Ms. Rem:giano, in qus 1237 EPISTOLARUM LIB. XII. — INDICT. V:— EPIST. XXVYIN. 1238 * scripsistis nt pro glorioso Bonito ſilio nogtro 1 198 A nos querela pertingeret, tibi jam factum est, sicut agere debeamus, quatenvs prefecture illi admini- stratio commiltatur. Equidem nos eumdem -ſilium nostrum non modo, sed multi sunt anni quod novi- mus, et idcirco concurrere jl1i per omnia ſestinamus, sed non in illa re de qua amaritudines posset ct tri- hulationes Þ assumere. Nam administratio ipsa uni priori ipsiug el alteri minori ipsivs oblala est, et miscere $e nullo mado voluerunt, scientes omnino grave esse et preserlim hoc tempore, administra- tionem suscipere. Si ergo illis grave fuerit, quanto magis is1i debet esse diſſicile, qui nobis in actione est? © Additur quia et inutile (Grar. dist. 88, c. 8) et valde laboriosum est hominem litteratum ratio- einiorum causas assumere, et in eis $e, quod non eis as8erentibus didicimus, manifestum. Et quo- niam prepositis in $ubjectorum penam ſas esse non debet szviendi, Victori fratri et egepiscopo nostro, © qui primatus inter vos locum tenet, curavimus scribendum, ut una cum tua fraternitate yel cum aliis ſratribus et ccepiscopis nostris, quos. adbiberec - prospexeritis, inter memoratum fratrem consacer- dotem nostrum et clerum © jipsius causam $ubtili debeat investigatione cognoscere. Et ideo dilectio tua immineat atque sollicitudinem gerat, ut ea que ad nos perlatla sunt inaudita non transeant, 1199 ne discordia in Ecclesia, unde magnopere pellenda es[, nutriatur. Et sj quidem contra eum clericorum Suorum vera querela est, culpam suam quam sponte expedit, obligare, Super hc autem res illa nos B « emendare despexit, ita Ecclesiastici vigoris deſini- revocat, quia nullum de hac actione bene exisse re- colimus, nisi gloriam vestram, de qua omnipotentem Þominum petimus ut eam usque ad finem continua protectione custodiat. Et ideo h iderantes, in ejus l:esjione miscere nos nolumus. Nam quod modo pulatur utile, certum est quia postmodum plenum Jaboris erit atque dispendii. Si autem sic utilitatibus guis 2$timat oportere, et vult agere ut hc admini- $tratio $ibi commillatur, nos contrarii non. SUmus, sed etiam modo ſuturis tribulationibus ipsius condo- lemus, quia quid passurus sit, exemplo prazceden- tium non neSCIimus. EPISTOLA XXVUL AD COLUMBUM EPISCOPUM NUMIDLE. Coercendum Paulinum antislitem, qui in clerum guum C s@vierat , et 8acrilega nundinatione 8acros ordines vendebat. | Gregorius columbo episcopo Numidiz. Quia bene olim nobis est cognitum ſraternitatem tam sacerdotali gravitate et zelo esse ecclesiastico decoratam., satis oportere prosPeximus ut interesse ad cogaoscenda ea que correplionis indigent debeat, ne, si ſuerint dissimulatione postposila, licitum es86 sibi credal quisque quod polest, Qualiter autem fra- lrem nostrum Paulinum, * Tegessis civitatis episco- pum , clerus $uus, vel hi qui in sacro sunt ordine constituti, in se perhibeant Þ corporaliter, excessisse, audire non indiges, quippe quia -priusquam hc ad tione cognoscat, ut et de praenti sentiat quam it grave quod fecit, et discat de ſuturo nil se plus agere posse quam licet. Pra omnibus igitur hortamur ut zelum quem propter Deum habere te novimus ar- dentius studeas cxercere. Et quia memoratus Trater noster Paulinus eccle- Siasticos ordines per simouiacam dare hzresim , quod audire nefas est, dicitur; una cum antedicts primate vel aliis subtilius hoc et cum omni tibi dili- gentia sit cure perquirere. Et si ita, quod absit, inventum fuerit, studendum atque agendum est ut et eum qui premium accipere, et eum qui dare nog metuit, canonice ultionis sententia ſeriat, quatenus horum emendatio multorum possit esse correplio. Et priusquam hec radix morliſerat ! coalescat , et plures interimat, totius concilii deſinitione damnue- tur, ut nullus unquam pro quovis ordine accipere, nullus dare aliquid audeat, nec quisquam ex gratia, sed promoveatur ex merito , ne et ordo ecclesiasti- cus confundatur, $8 ct sit probilas vitz despeclui, si premium meriti indignus acceperit, | Hilaro autem chartulario nostro injunximus ut $i causa poposcerit, cognitioni vestre interesse non renuat. Si ergo necessarium fuerit, vestris illum apicibus ut jilluc venire debeat facite certiorem, qualenus simul cum jpso tractantes melius decer- nere quz staluenda sunt debeatis Þ. s0lo ex Mss. Gallic. a nobis examinatis exstat hzc D episcopos Mauritaniz recensetur Victor Regiensis , epist. Praxtzrea hoc titulo, gratia vesira, nunquam compellat Sanctus Gregarius eos ad quos SCribit. Infra occurrit gloriam vesiram, licet in paucissimis exstet Ms3., adeo ut in solis Kemig., Victor. et Vatic. A, nobis occurrerit. Eeisr. XXV:1 [Al. 32].—* lia plerique Mss. Codd. quidam tamen habent Tagesis, ut et antiquiores Editj. In nolitia Aſrice, tum apud Sirmondum, tomo I, col. 435, tum apud Ruinartum , flist. per- 8ecut. Vandal., pag. 12+, legitur Domnicolus Tigi- Sitanus. Holstenius, annot. in Geogr. Sacram., pag. 69, yult legi Tuggensis vel Tuccensis, a Tncea nrbe Aſrice mediterranea;, olim episcopali, $nÞ archie- piseopo Carthaginensi. In Edit. Vatic. legitur Re- gensis. Et quidem in Notitia Affrice Ruinartii, inter Pp. 435, et inter episcopos Numidiz Fortunius Re- gianensis, pag. 128. At cum nullis in Mss. habeatur Regensis, 8ed conslanter Tegessis, aut Tegesis, quid vitra juvat ariolari de hujus episcopi sede? Veteres Editi mannscriptis consentiunt. © Hic in primatu Numidize 8uccessit Adeodato, quem lib. m, indict. 2, epist. 49, legimus hujus pro- vincize primatem. ; 4 Recent., ipsius causa subtili debeat investigatione cognosct. © Omnes Norm., cognoscere despexit. Valic. B, exsecrari despexit. Vatic. F, considerare desperit. -F