Letter 6036: The charge against Sincerus — that he improperly succeeded his father-in-law in the episcopal see — has been examined.

To Bishop Secundinus. [Summary:] He is not to allow Sincerus, if he has abstained from succeeding to his father-in-law's estate, to be harassed by that man's creditors. But if [he wishes], in order that he may find the means of supporting his life, let him procure for him free leave to go wherever he wishes. Gregory to Secundinus, Bishop of Tauromenium [Taormina]. Both the principle of the laws and natural equity admonish us that whoever either refuses an inheritance, or abstains from succeeding to his parents, ought not to bear the burdens of the inheritance. Since therefore Sincerus, the bearer of the present letter, has made known that Hilarus, his father-in-law, died altogether destitute, and that his wife, the daughter of that same man, in no way involved herself in any part of his estate, and complains that she is being pressed by his creditors to pay her father's debt, on this account let your Fraternity diligently inquire into the matter. And if those things which he says hold true, let him strive to extend priestly protection to them, and not permit them to be harassed contrary to the order of reason, or to sustain any loss. For it is exceedingly hard that, from a source whence he has felt no benefit, he should unjustly bear a loss. Moreover the aforesaid bearer, if he should wish to come here with his wife, because he says that he cannot subsist there, let them enjoy your consolations for God's sake, and let no one's hostility detain them there merely according to his own will, or be unreasonably troublesome to them, but let them have free leave to go wherever they may wish, so that they may find elsewhere the means of living, God at least granting it. In the month of June, the fourteenth indiction. [The following line is an unrelated fragment intruding from the adjacent column of the source page, belonging to another letter, and is given only as it stands: "...he asked to be released, and he himself petitioned that he owed to be transferred to you..."]

AD SECUNDINUM EPISCOPUM. Sincerum, 8i a 80ceri 8ui successione abslinuerit, ab hujus creditoribus rexari non 8inat. [li vero, ut . vite subsidium reperiat, hberam procuret quo vo» luerit eundi licentiam. | Gregorius Secundino epise. * Tauromenitano. Et legum ratio, et aquitas admonet naturalis, ut qui-quis Þ hzreditatem aut renuit, 2ut p2rentum Successione $e abstinet, hzreditaria non GY] de- beat onera sustinere. Quia ergo Sincerus , lator presentivm, Ililarum socerum $uum omnino inopem defunctum innotuit, et uxorem $8uam , © filiam ip- Sius, in qualibet re ejus se Substantiz minime mis- cuisse, et ad persolvenduw paternum debitum eam ab ejus creditoribus queritur perurgeri, idcirco ſra- ternitas vestra diligenter inquirat. Et si ea quz ait yeritale subsistunt, sacerdotalem illis studeat tvitio- nem impendere, nec eos cpntra rationis ordinem vexari, aut damnum permittat aliquod sustinere. D Nam valde durum est ut unde nullum $sensit com» modum, sustlineat injuste dispendium. Supradictus aulem portitor, 8i huc cum uxore Sua venire Tolue- rit, quia illic 86 dicit non posse Subsistere, vestris propter Deum so0latiis potiantur, nec cujusquam eos illic adversitas pro sua lantum voluntate retineat, aut eis irrationabiliter moles1us exislat, sed liberam ha- EeisT. XXXVI [Al. 35]. — ® Tres Valic, et alii, Tawromenia episcopo. SANCTI GREGURII MAGN] beant quo vyoluerint eundi licentiam, quatenus vivendi A laxari poposcit, et ipse ad vos se peliit debere trags- subsidium alibi saliem Deo largienle reperiant. « Mense Junii, indictione 14.