Letter 5001: I must address a practice that has been reported to me and that I regard as problematic: the appointment of clerics...

To John, bishop of Ravenna. That clergy serving the churches are not to be preferred over monasteries. Gregory to John, bishop of Ravenna, etc. It has come to me [editorial citation: Gratian, Decretum, part 18, question 1, chapter 26] that in the church of your Fraternity certain places long ago consecrated as monasteries have now been turned into dwellings of clergy or even of laymen; and while those who are in the churches pretend that they live religiously, they seek to be preferred over the monasteries, and through their way of life the monasteries [...]

AD JOANNEM RAVENNATEM EPISCOPUNM. Non preponendos monasteriis clericos Ecclesiis de- 8ervientes, | Gregorius Joanni Ravennali episcopo, elc. Pervenit ad me (Grat. 18, g. 1, c. 26) * quod in Eeclesia fraternitatis tuz aliqua loca dudum mona- sLler.is consecrala nunc habitacula clericorum aut eliam laicorum ſacta sunt ; dumque hi qui sunt in ecclesiis fingunt $e religiose vivere, monasteriis pre- pon: appetunt, et per eorum vitam monasteria de-