Letter 2057: Your most reverend fellow servant Castorinus, notary of your apostolic see, delivered to me the letter of my lord —...

JOHN, BISHOP OF RAVENNA, TO POPE GREGORY. He replies humbly to the several charges laid against him, and defends the privileges of his Church according to custom; he begs that they not be diminished. My most reverend fellow-servant Castorius, notary of your apostolic see, has delivered to me the letter of my lord, a mingling of honey and of wound. Yet it so tempered its stings that it did not withdraw the place for healing. For he who, following the divine judgment, rebukes pride, deservedly professes himself in some measure meek and gentle. You have therefore recalled that I, out of ambition for novelty, had usurped the use of the pallium beyond what had been granted to my predecessors. Let the conscience of my own lord, which is governed by the divine right hand, in no way allow itself to believe this thing, nor open its most sacred ears to the uncertainty of rumor. First, because, sinner though I am, I now know how grave it is to overstep the bounds fixed for us by the fathers, and that all self-exaltation has nothing else but ruin. For if our forefathers did not endure pride in kings, how much more is it not to be tolerated in priests? Next, I recall that I was nourished in the bosom and lap of your most holy Roman Church, and, by God's help, advanced. And with what audacity should I have presumed to oppose that most holy See, which transmits its rights to the universal Church, for the preservation of whose authority, as is manifest to God, I have gravely stirred up the envy of many enemies against me? But my most blessed lord does not think that I have attempted anything against ancient custom, [reckoning] this to my sins, that after so many labors and anguishes which I endure within and without, I should deserve to find such a recompense. Yet again that consideration consoles me among others, that sometimes the most holy fathers chastise their sons only for this purpose, that they may make them better; and that after this devotion and satisfaction of the holy Church of Ravenna, which is peculiarly yours, you will not only preserve its old privileges, but also confer greater ones in your times. For as to what your apostolate writes was presumed concerning the napkins by my presbyters and deacons, I truly confess that it wearies me to recall anything thereof, since the truth itself, which alone prevails with my lord, suffices of itself. For since this is permitted to the lesser Churches established around the City, the apostolate of my lord will also be able, if he deigns to inquire of the venerable clergy of his own first apostolic see, in every way to discover that, as often as priests or levites of the Church of Ravenna came to Rome for the ordination of the episcopate or for a response, they all, in the sight of your most holy predecessors, [proceeded] with napkins without any rebuke. Wherefore even at the time when I was ordained there a sinner by your predecessor, all my presbyters and deacons, proceeding with me in attendance upon my lord the pope, made use of them. And since our God, foreseeing all things, has placed everything in your hand and in a most pure conscience, I adjure you by that same apostolic see, which formerly by your character, and now also by your due honor, you govern, that you in no way diminish for the Church of Ravenna, which is your familiar, on account of my merit, the privileges which it has hitherto enjoyed; but rather, according to the prophetic voice, let it be transferred upon me, and upon the house of my father, according to its merit. Since therefore I have subjoined, for greater satisfaction, all the privileges which were granted to the holy Church of Ravenna by your predecessors, having found them no less in the venerable archives according to the records of the consecration of my predecessors' times, faith likewise, now indeed it is in God's and in your power to command whatever, when the truth is known, you shall order to be done; since I, desiring to obey the commands of the apostolate of my lord, although ancient custom obtained, took care to abstain until the second command. [There follows the privilege granted to the Church of Ravenna by the supreme pontiff in these words:] "A copy of the precept: To his most beloved brother Peter, John. We have known it to accord with reason that we adorn with the vesture of the pallium those whom in those cities the honor of the priesthood illumines, by the inspiration of the divine mercy, in which cities it is established that this also was granted by the apostolic See to those who were pontiffs in times past. And therefore [we grant] to your charity the use of the pallium, just as [...]."

JOANNIS RAVENNATIS EPISCOPI AD GREGORIUM PAPAM. Singulis sibi objectis submisse respondet, et Ecclesie 8nE@ privilegia ex consueſudine {uetur; que ne mi- nuant:y postulad. Reverend:s8imus congervus meus Cavtorins , apo- $lolice sedis vesirze notarius, reddidit mihi Þ domi- ni mei epistolam, consoriem mellis et yulneris. Quz Sic lamen ialixit aculeos, ut locum non subtraheret medicinz. Nam qui superbiam, divinum $equens judicium, reprebendit, merito se mitem ac placidum quodammodo proſitetur. | Commemorastis igitur quod ego, noritatis amb1i- lione, pallii usum Supra quam antecessoribus meis indulium fuerat usurpassem. Quam rem proprii do- ra'ni- mei conscientia , que diving regitur dextera, aullo modu credere patiatur, nee Opinionis incerto aures Sacratlissimas aperire. Primum, quia licet pec- Calor, Novi Jamey quam grave git terminos nobis a palribus aſſixos trauscendere, et quod omnis elatio 1ihil aliad habeat quam ruinvam. Nam $i majores nostri in regibus © Superbiam non tulerunt, quanto magis non est in sacerdotibus sustinenda? Beinde re- cvlo me in sigu alque in gremie gacrocancte Fecle- Si vesire Romanz enutiitum , et Deo auxiliante provectum. 4 Et quibus augibus ego $anctivime illi 8edi, quz universali Ecclesiz jura 8ua trangmitiit, G69 presumpserim obviare, propler cujus conger- vandam auctoritatem, 8icut Deo maniſestum est, inultorum contra me inivicorum invidiam graviler excitavi? Sed beatissimus dominus meus nihil me D lib. r, c. 24, F 1, et notam 736 nostri Menardi is librum Sacramentorum. Eeisr. LV | Al. 55]. — ® He epistola desidera- tur in Mss. Vatic. , Anglic. , Norm. , Corb. , Turon., _—OO__ in Rhemensi, duobus Colbert. ac duobus eller, Victor Utic.. lib. 1 Yand. Persecul., c, fo; Cypria- m1s epist, 5) nove Edit. Oxon., versus finem : Navigare audent, et ad Pelri cathedram, alque ad Ercclesiam principalem unde unitas sacerdotalis exoria es!, @ schizm icts et proſanis litteras ſerre. D SANCTI GREGORY MAGNI contra priseam consuetudinem exislimet attentasse, A reprehensione aliqua procedebant. Quare etiam eo quod et a mvltis et prope * ab omnibus civibus huyjus urbis alteslatur, inter gesla etiamsi acquievisset, et SupraScriptus reverendissimus notarius potuerat at- testari, quoniam jam de $ecretario descendentibus filiis Ecclesiz, et ingredientibus diaconibus * ut mox procedatur, tunc primus diaconus episcopo Raven- natis Ecclesize pallium consuevit induere, quo et in litaniis solemnibus uti pariter consuevil. Nullus ergo contra me domino meo conetur $ub- repere, quia si vult, Deo custode, non potest probare quod a me aliqua novitas ſuisset introducta. Qualiter enim jussionibus vel ulilitatibus vestris, ubi causa exegerit, paruerim , omnipolens Deus cordi vestro * purigsimo ſaciat maniſestum ; et hoc peccalis meis tempore quo islic a predecessore vestro peccator ordinatus Sum , cuncti pre>byteri et diaconi mei in obsequium G7Q vJomni pape mecum procedentes usi Sunt. Et quia previdens Deus. noster omnia in manu veslra et in conscientia purissima collocavit, adjuro vos per ipsam sedem apostolicam, quam antea moribus, nunc- etiam honore debilo gubernatis, ut in nullo Ravennali Ecclesiz , quz familiariter vesira est, pro meo merito privilegia quibus hucusque usa est, minuatis ; $:d et 8ecundum vocem propheticam, in me, et in domo patr.s mei, secundum $8unm meri- tum transſeratur. Quia ergo universa privilegia que canctz Ravennati Ecclesiz a predecessoribus vestris indulta- Sunt, pro majori satisfactione subjeci ea in imputo, quod post tot labores atque anguslias, quas BR scriniis venerabilibus secundum consecrationis de- intus ſorisque suslineo, Lalem vicissitudinem merear invenire. Sed iterum me illa res inler alia consola- tur, quod interdum sanctissimi patres ob hoc tan- wmmodo £5 castigant (ilios suos ut eos faciant potio- recs ; et post hanc devotionem ac $atisſactionem sanclaz Ravennati Ecclesiz, que peculiariter vestra eEs1, non solum velera privilegia conservelis , sed et majora vestris temporibus conſeralus: Nam quod de mappulis a presbyteris et diaconibus meis prezumplum apostulatus vester scribit , vere ſateor, txdet me aliquid exinde commemorare, cum per $e verilas, quz apud dominum meum $ola pre- valet, ipsa suſficiat. Nam cum hoc minoribus circa urbem conslilutis Ecclesiis licitum sit, poterit etiam apostolatus domini mei, si venerabilem clerum prim:e apostolice sedis su:e requirere dignatur, modis om- nibus invenire, quia quoties ad ordinationem episco- palus seu responsi sacerdoles vel levitz Ravennalis Ecclesiaz Romam venerunt, omnes in oculis sanctis- Simorum decessorum vestrorum cum mappulis sine * Rhem. et Colhb. antiq., civibus hujus wrbis, etiam inler gesla, 8i acquievissel 8anctus reverendissimus no- larius potnerat allestari. n. 1: | Ast ego quz divum incedo regiua. lbidem : | Et vera incessu patuit dea. De hoc verbo s&pe alibi, maxime in nota 471 ad lib. Sacram, | Climacus refe:t exempla in guarto Scala gradu, num. 26, 2v, 31, 53, 54, etc., et agnosces pralatorum mi- ram prudeniiam in puniendo, subditorum stupendam in p-ticndo obedientiam; ab illis decreta merito im- merentibus suppiicia, ab iis quasi mererentur 2qua- nimiter ſuisse tolerala. Gussaxv. Summo punt:fice Ravennati Ecclesize concessuin his verbis : « Exemplum precepli : Dilectissimo fratri Pet:o, Joannes. Coavenire ' novimus rationi ut eos amictu pallii decoremus, quos in illis civitatibus di- vina inspirante misericordia sacerdotii honor illumi- nat, in quibus hoc etiam illis qui preteritis tempori- lus (uere ponlifices ab aposlolica Sede conslat esse indultum. Jdevque charitati tua uswm pallii, 'Sicut cessorum meorum tempora, fidem nihilominus repe- rienles, nunc vero in Dei et in vestra est poleslale quidquid veritate coguita fieri jusseritis, quoniann ego jus8ionibus apostolatus domini mei parere desiderans, quamvis antiqua consuetudo obtinuit, usque ad $e- cundam jussionem abstinere curavi >,