Letter 2025: I delegate to your fraternity the visitation and care of the church of Cumae [an ancient city near Naples], which is...

To Bishop Benenatus. He delegates the visitation of the Church of Cumae, so that he may both protect that Church and see to it that a suitable priest is chosen from its own clergy. Gregory to Bishop Benenatus. Since it has come to our knowledge that Liberius, formerly bishop of the Church of Cumae, has departed from this light, we therefore solemnly delegate to your fraternity the office of visitation of that bereft Church; and it befits you to discharge this office in such a way that nothing [is neglected] concerning the advancement of the clergy, the revenue, the adornment, the ministries, or whatever else there may be, [so that there be found] a priest who may both prove worthy of so great a ministry and in no way be rejected by the venerable canons. When such a one has been requested, let him present himself to us to be consecrated, with the solemnity of a decree confirmed by the subscriptions of all, and with the testimony of a letter of your love. We also admonish your fraternity that you permit no one to be chosen from another Church, unless perhaps among the clergy of that very city in which you are exercising the office of visitation no one worthy of the episcopate can be found (which we do not believe will happen). Providing above all that no person of any way of life or of lay rank presume to aspire to this, and that you [thereby] incur (which God forbid) peril to your own order. [The following are editorial notes appended in the source edition, not part of Gregory's letter:] Epistle 25 (alias 19). - This bishop was of Misenum, as is clear from Epistle 45, where he joins to his see of Misenum the Church of Cumae, of which in this present letter he [Gregory] had made him visitor. Mention is also made of him in Epistle 54 of Book 5, and in Epistles 4 and 50 of Book 9. Previously it was read, "to the bishop visitor of the Church of Cumae," which words are absent from the Corbie, Norman, Rheims, and three Vatican manuscripts. [Cumae was] episcopal, on the coastal shore near the promontory of Misenum, now entirely destroyed, whose episcopal see was transferred to Aversa. We read in the Bollandists, at 16 February, that it was destroyed by the Teutons in the year 1207. In the manuscripts one often reads "Cumensis Ecclesia" for "Comensis." See Mabillon, Museum Italicum p. 219, where he displays a charter of the Emperor Lothair given at the request of Amalric of Cumae, that is, the bishop of Como in Liguria. Elsewhere [it concerns] their stipends, which the most holy pontiff forbids to be diminished. In the Vulgate editions, "by the zeal of various parties"; which two true [readings] the Vatican, Norman, Corbie, and other codices have advised be omitted. Would that this rule, sanctioned, repeated, and inculcated by the councils and the holy Fathers, did not lie idle in our times! In the decrees of Pope Celestine, chapter 18, it is thus stated: "Then another is chosen from another Church, if among the clergy of that very city no one worthy can be found to be ordained bishop. For first they themselves must be rejected, so that some from among other clergy may deservedly be preferred. Each one had the fruit of his service [as a soldier] in the Church in which he discharged his every office..." [text breaks off]

AD BENENATUM EPISCOPUM. Cumane Ecclesie visitationem delegat, ut tum Eccle- Stam. illam tueatur, lum ex ipsius clero idoneum 5acerdotem eligt procuret, Gregorius * Benenalo episcopo. (Qnoniam » Camanz Ecclesiz Liberius quondam antisles de hac luce migrasse' cognoscilur : Hg pro- pterea vicitationis destitulze Ecclesiz fraternitati tux operam solemniter delegamus, quam ita te convenit exhibere, ut nihil © de provectionibus clericorum, reditu, ornatu, ministeriisque, vel quidquid illud est, Sacerdotem, qui et lanto ministerio dignus valeat reperiri, et a venerandis canonibus nullatenus res- puatur. Qui dum ſuerit postulatus, cum solemniiate _ decreti, omnium $subscriptionibus roborati, et dile- clionis tuz lestimonio litterarum, ad nos $acrandus occurrat. Commonemus etiam ſraternitatem tuam ut - © nullum de altera eligi permittas Ecclesia, nisi forte inter clericos ipsius civitatis in qua visitationis im- pendis oflicium nullus ad episcopatum dignus (quod evenire non credimus) poutuerit inveniri. Provisurus ante omnia * ne ad boc cyjuslibet conversatiouis vel merit 5 laic pers0u# aspirare praumant, et lu pe- . riculum ordinis tui (quod absit) incurras. ' EeisT. XXV (AL. 19). — *® Erat hic episcopus Mi- senas, ut liquet ex episl. 45, ubi Cumanam Ecclesiam, cujus eum visilalorem in h.c epistola le-crat, Mise- ali >u#e adjungit. De eo etiam fit wentio epi>l. 54 lib. v, et 4 ac 50 lib, noni. Prius legebalur, epi>copo visitatori Cuman@ Leccl. qua absunt a Corb., Norm., Rhem:. et tribus Vaticanis. Scopalis, in ora lilloralijuxta Migenum promonLrium, Nunc prorsus excisa, Cujus Sedes episcoupalis Aversam lrauslata est. Ever-am luis>e a Teutonuibus an, 1207, legimus apud Bolland., ad 16. Febr. In Mss. s&pe legitur, Cumensis Eccl. pro Comensis. Vide Mabill., Musei lial. p. 219, ubi exhibet chartam Lolarii imp. datam rogante Awalrico Cumensi, id est Comeusi epi>c. in Liguria. Aiteserra eorum sLlipendia, quz minui vetat Sancts- Shnus pounlilex. * In Vulgatis, sfudio diversarum pariium, que duo vera omillere sua>erunt Codd. Vatic. , Norm. , Lorb.,, etc; © Utlinam hzc regula, a conciliis et sanctis Patribus $ancita, repelila, inculcata, nosIris nou jaceret tem- poribus Gtiosa ! In decretis Cweleslini papa, cap. 18, Sic habetur : Tunc alter de altera eligutur Ecclesia, $i de civilalis ipsius clericis cut es. episcopus ordinandus nullus tignus poluerit inveniri. Primum 'enim illi re- orobandi sunt, ut aliqui de alienis clericis merito pra@- ſerantur. Habebat unusquisque 8ue ſructum militice in Eccl5iz in qua 8uam per omnia officia transegit wa1a-