Letter 8031: A monastery is in danger of falling under the control or power of a layperson.

To Secundinus. That he should not allow a monastery to come into the power of a lay person. Gregory to Secundinus, bishop of Tauromenium [Taormina]. The complaint of the monks of the monastery of Castellium, set forth in a petition offered by them, has made plain what is contained among the matters subordinate to it. Accordingly, let your Fraternity take anxious care to investigate the things which they assert; and if you find [...] them to subsist in truth, provide them with redress, and [...] let the monastery which is united to their monastery, according to custom, be provided with an ordained head from among the monks of their congregation appointed there. For the order of reason does not permit that a lay person in particular should withdraw that monastery itself from their disposition to his own discretion - and most of all against the will of the founders - or that anyone should claim a right over it for himself. Your Blessedness has also been concerned to inform me that to certain persons I do not write the proud titles which have issued from the root of vanity, and you speak to me, saying: "As you have commanded." This word "command" I beg you to remove from my hearing, for I know who I am and who you are. In rank you are my brothers, in character my fathers. I have not therefore commanded, but have taken care to indicate the things that seemed useful. Yet I do not find that your Blessedness has been willing to retain perfectly this very thing which I brought to your memory. For I said that neither to me nor to any other ought such a thing to be written; and behold, in the preface of the letter which you directed to me myself - the very one who forbade it - you have taken care to imprint the word of proud appellation, calling me universal pope. This I beg your sanctity, most sweet to me, to do no longer, because that is subtracted from you which is offered to another beyond what reason requires. For I do not seek to prosper in words, but in conduct. Nor do I reckon it an honor in which I know my brothers to lose their own honor. For my honor is the honor of the universal Church. My honor is the solid vigor of my brothers. Then am I truly honored, when due honor is not denied to each and every one. For if your sanctity calls me universal pope, you deny yourself to be that which you acknowledge me to be universally. But far be this from us. Let words depart which inflate vanity and wound charity. And your Sanctity knows that this was indeed offered to my predecessors in the holy synod of Chalcedon, and afterward by the Fathers who followed. But nevertheless none of them ever willed to use this title, so that, while in this world they loved the honor of all priests, before almighty God they might preserve their own. [Editorial notes: In some recent editions, "but since truly in the good things which you do it increases what also to others, etc." In the same recent editions there has crept in, against the manuscripts, "perfidia" [perfidy]. He means Saint Augustine, the provost of the monastery of Saint Andrew. He hints at the bishops of the Franks. The Franks, because they had sprung from the Germans, were also called Germans. Apollinaris Sidonius, in Book V, Letter 7, calls the province of Lugdunensis, from the Burgundians who were German in origin, Lugdunensian Germania.] LETTER XXXII. To Scholasticus the Defensor. That he should pay a tenant of the Church a wage according to the measure of his labor. Gregory to Scholasticus the Defensor. Alexander Frix, the bearer of this letter, a tenant of our Church, has complained to us that on the house - that is, the church which was built at Catania by our beloved son Cyprian the deacon - he labored for the space of three years, and did not receive a wage as is fitting. And although he is said to have labored for many persons during that same period - whereof you also received knowledge while you were here - nevertheless by this authority we instruct you to inspect the matter diligently; and if he has worked more on that same house than he has received in wages, we wish that, according to the measure of his labor - if he has deserved anything above the four solidi and two tremisses which he is said to have received from the aforementioned deacon - you should add to him what you see to be just, knowing that it is to be charged to your accounts.

AD -SECUNDINUM. Ne patiatur Monaslerium in laice persone poteslatem venire. Gregorius Secundino episcopo Tauromenitano. Querimoniam monachorum * monaslerii Castellien- Sis oblata ab cis petitio quz tenetur in $ubditis pate- ſecit. Proinde fraternilas vestra hxc quz asserunt, sollicita perscrutari cura studeat, Et si ea invenerit Indicare quoque vestra beatitudo 8tuduit, jatu se B veritate subsistere, Luitionem illis impendat, et mo- quibusdam non scribere ® superba vocabula, quz ex vavilalis radice prodierunt, el mihi loquitur, dicens : Sicut jussistis. Quod verbum jussionis pelo a meo auditu removete, quia $scio qui sum, qui estis. Loco enim mihi ſratres estis, moribus patres. Non ergo jussi, 8ed quz utilia visa sunt, indicare curavi. Non {fainen invenio veslram beatitudinem hoc ipsum quod memoriz vestre intuli, perſecte relinere voluisse., Nam dixi, nec mihi vos, nec cuiquam 3lteri tale ali- quid scribere debere ; et ecce (Grat. dis. 99, c. 5) in prefatione epistole quam ad we ipsum. qui prohi- bui direxistis, i superbe appellationis verbum uni- yersalem, me papam dicentes, imprimere curastis. Quod peto dulcissima mihi sauctitas vesira ultra non faciat, quia vobis subtrahitur quod alleri plus quan C ratio exigit prebetur. Ego enim non verbis quzro prosperari, Sed moribus. Nec honorem esse deputo, in quo ſratres meos honorem $uum perdere cognosco. Mens namque honor est honor umversalis Ecclesiz. Meus honor est ſratrum meorum $olidus vigor. Tunc ego vere honoratus sum, cum singulis quibusque honor debitus non negatur. Si enim universalem me papam vestra $anctitas dicit, negat se hoc esse quod me ſatetur universum. Sed absit hoc, Recedant verba quz vanitatem inflant, et charitatem vulne- rant, Et quid#in in sancta Chalcedonensi synodo, atque post a_subsequentibus Patribus hoc decessoribus meis oblatum vestra Sanctitas novit. Sed tamen nul- Jus eorum uti hoe unquam vucabalo volnit; ut dum in hoc mundo honorem sacerdotum diligerent om- nium, apud omnipolentem Deum custodirent suum. © In recent., 8ed quoniam vere in bonis que agilis accrescit quod et aliis, etc. þ In eosdem recent. irrepsit , invitis Mss., perf6- ia. * Sanclum Angu<tinum monasterii sancti Andree prepositum inteiligit. { Innnit Franciz episcopos. Franci, quod a Ger- manis orti essent, Germani quoque sunt appellati. Apullinaris Sidon., lib, v, episl. 7, 3ppellat provin- cam Lugdunensem a Burgundionibus, origine Ger- mauis, Lugdunensem Germaniam. rnaslerium quod monasterio eorum umtum est Se- cundum consuetudinem deputatis de congregatione eorum illic monachis provideat ordinari. Quia ratio- nis ordo non palitur ut monasterium ip$um, et ma- xime contra voluntatem ſundatorum, ab eorum dis- positione ad arbitrium svum preserilim laica persona subducat, aut aliquis sibi in id jus debeat vendicare (Grat. 16, g. 7, c. 34), «a EPISTOLA XXXII. AD SCHOLASTICUM DEFENSOREM. Ecclesi@ colono mercedem juata laboris modum 80lvat. Gregorius Scholaslico deſegsori. Alex#nder Frix, presentium porlitor, colopus Ee- clesie notre, queslus est nobis in domo, id et ec- clesia que Catanz a dilecto filio nostro Cypriane diacono ſabricata est, triennii se tempore laborasse, et mercedem non ut dignum est accepisse., Et quan- quam per tempora ipsa dicatur ad plurimos labo=- rasse, unde etiam dum hic esses nolitiam accepisti, hac tibi tamen auctoriate precipimus ut diligenter inspicias ; et si plus in eadem domo quam mercedis acceperit operaius est, volumus ut secundum laboris modum, $i quid super quatuor $olidos et fremis$es duos quos a memoralo diacono accepisse Cictus est meritus sit, addere ei quod juslum- videris debeas Sciens tuis rationibus imputaudum.