Letter 11084: I am granting you the use of the pallium [the wool vestment worn across the shoulders that signified metropolitan or...

To John, Bishop of Palermo. He grants the use of the pallium. Gregory to John, bishop of Palermo. Prompted by the benevolence of the Apostolic See, we have determined that the use of the pallium ought to be granted to your Fraternity, who are known to have undertaken the office of overseer of the Church of Palermo - namely at those times [...] when they [were accustomed], they too, urged on by gladness, hasten to come to your footsteps, men who before had been greatly afraid to approach that place. But because certain of them are so weakened by old age that they can scarcely bear the labor, while certain others are vehemently entangled in ecclesiastical cares, and the bearer of the present letter, who was the first of all the defenders, is well known to me from long and assiduous acquaintance, and is approved in life, faith, and character, I have judged him fit for the footsteps of your Piety. Wherefore, with God as author, I have made him a deacon, and have taken care to send him in haste, so that he may be able, when an opportune time is found, to report to your Clemency all the things that are done in these parts. To him I ask that your Serenity deign to incline pious ears, so that he may be able the more quickly to [...] us, the more truly [he reports] our affliction from his own [account] [...] and in that order, so that you may make [other] priests of the island of Sicily as well [...] you do not doubt that your predecessors or forerunners have made use of it. This, moreover, we admonish: that the reverence of the Apostolic See be disturbed by no one's presumption. For then the condition of the members remains whole, if no injury strikes the head of the faith, and if the authority of the canons remains unharmed and always inviolate, so that, just as you rejoice to have received from us the use of this kind of adornment for the honor of the priestly office, so also you may strive to adorn the office you have received by uprightness of character and conduct. For thus you will be conspicuous, each in turn by a reciprocal honor, if the good qualities of your mind also accord with this kind of bodily attire.

AD JOANNEY. PANORMITANUM EPISCOPUN. Pallii usum concedit. Gregorius Joanni episcopo Panormitano. Apostolicz sedis benevolentia provocati, ſraterni- tati luz, quam Panormilanz Ecclesiz ® speculatoris constatl suscepisse officium, pallii usum previdimus concedendum, illis videlicet 1 244 temporibus, at - runt, ipsi quoque 8uadente Izlitia Þ. ad vestra vesli- gia venire ſestinant, qui prius illuc accedere valde timuerant. Sed quia eorum quidam ita senectute sunt debiles, ut laborem ſerre vix possint, quidam vero ecclesiasticis curis vehementer implicantur, et * lator presentium, qui primus omnium defensorum ſuit, bene mihi ex longa as8iduilale compertus est, vita, fide, ac moribus approbatus, hunc aptum pietalis vestre vesligiis esse judicavi. Unde eum, auclore . Deo, diaconum feci, et 8ub celerilate transmiltere studui, qui cuncta que in his partibus aguntur, inven- to opportuno tempore, valeat clementiz veslrz 8ug- gerefe. 4 Cui rogo ut serenilas vestra pias aures in- clinare dignetur, ut tanto nobis valeat celerius mise- que eo ordioe, ut alios quoque insulz Sicilize sacer- B 771 quanto afflictionem nostram verius ex ejus re- doltes vel decessores tuos us0s esse non ambigis. Mud autem admonemus, ut apostolice sedis reve- rentia nullius presumptione turbetur. Tunc enim slatus membrorum integer manet, > si caput fidei nulla pulset injuria, et © canonum maneat incolumis atque intemerala semper aucloritas, ut sicut a nobis hujuscemodi decoris usum ad sacerdotalis officii ho- norem accepisse te gaudes, ita etiam morum atque actuum probitate susceptum adornare contendas of= ficium. Sic elenim alterno eris invicem decore con- spicuus, i ad hujuscemodi corporis habitum mentis quoque tuz bona concordent.