Letter 2039: Your church has been without settled episcopal leadership, and I have appointed the bishop John to serve as your...
To the clergy, the order [of officials], and the people of Crotona.
That they should obey John, the bishop appointed as visitor, and request a suitable priest for themselves.
Gregory to the clergy, the order, and the people residing at Crotona.
Learning of the death of your prelate, it has been our care to entrust solemnly the visitation of the bereaved Church to our brother and fellow-bishop John. To him we have given it in charge that he should suffer nothing to be usurped by anyone with respect to the promotions of the clergy, the revenue, the ornaments, and the ministries. It is fitting that you obey his constant exhortations, to the end that a priest be sought out for the ecclesiastical office who differs in no respect from the venerable canons. When he has been requested, with the solemnity of a decree strengthened by the subscriptions of all, and with the document of the visitor accompanying him, let him come to us to be ordained, taking care above all things that you do not presume to elect a lay person of whatever life or merit. For know that not only is such a one in no way to be advanced to the height of the episcopate, but also that you yourselves can obtain no pardon by any intercessions; rather, know without doubt that all those among you who shall be shown to have aspired from the lay condition are to be made strangers to office and to communion. (Cf. John the Deacon, book III, chapter 22.)
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
AD CLERUM, ORDINEM, ET PLEBEM CROTONE.
Ut Joanni episcopo visitatori obediant , atque idoneum
sibi postulent sacerdotem.
Gregorius * clero, ordini et plebi consistenti Þ Cro-
tonze.
Vestri antistitis obitum cognoscentes, curz nobis
ſuit destitutze Ecclesiz visitationem ſfratri et coepi-
SCoP0 Nnos1iro © Joanni solemniter delegare. Cui de-
dimus in mandatis ut nibil de provectionibus cleri- g
corum, reditu, ornatu, ministeriisque a quoquam
vsurpari patiatur. Cujus vos assiduis adhortationibus -
obedire convenit , © quatenus in ecclesiastico officio
Sacerdos exquiratur qui et a venerandis. canonibus
nulla discrepet *© ratione. f Qui dum ſuerit postula-
tus, cum $0lemaitate decreti omnium subscriptioni-
bus roborati, et visitatoris pagina prosequente, ad
nos veniat ordinandus, provisuri anle omnia ne cu-
juslibet vitze vel meriti laicam personam presumatis
eligere. Nam non $8olum talem ad episcopatus apicem
GON nulla ratione provehendum, verum etiam 5 vos
nullis intercessionibus veniam promereri posse. cog-
noscite; sed omnes quos ex - vobis de laica persona
a$pirasse constiterit, ab officio et a communione alie-
nos ſaciendos procul dubio noveritis. (Cf. Joan. Diac.
l. m, c. 22.)
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern gregory great retranslated v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_1849_77
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