To All the Bishops of Sicily, Forbidding the Sale of Church Property

Leo the pope to all the bishops of Sicily. [a]

Specific complaints have come before us, and since we have “the care of all the churches,” they call on us to make a permanent decree. It is to prevent all bishops from making a practice of what has been unscrupulously proposed and wrongly carried out in two churches of your province. The clergy of the church in Tauromenium were lamenting the poverty they had been left in, because their bishop had squandered all its estates by selling them, giving them away, and disposing of them in other ways. Then the clergy of Panormus, who have recently received a new bishop, raised a similar complaint about the mismanagement of the former bishop, in the holy synod over which we were presiding. We have already given instructions for the good of both churches. But so that this corrupt example of abominable plundering may not be taken as a precedent in the future, we wish to make this our formal command binding on you, beloved, forever.

We decree, therefore, that no bishop whatever shall dare to give away, exchange or sell any of the property of his church, unless he foresees that some advantage is likely to come of it, and, after consulting the whole of the clergy and with their consent, decides on what will undoubtedly benefit that church. For presbyters, deacons or clergy of any rank who have shut their eyes to the church’s losses must know that they will be deprived both of their rank and of communion. It is entirely right, beloved brothers, that not only the bishop but the whole of the clergy should advance the interests of their church, and keep undiminished the gifts of those who have given their own property to the churches for the salvation of their souls. Dated the 20th of October, in the consulship of the illustrious Calepius (in the year 447).