To Natalis, Bishop of Salona, on Restoring Honoratus

Gregory to Natalis, and so on. [a]

I have learned, dearest brother, from many who have come from your city, that you neglect your charge as pastor and give yourself wholly to feasting. I would not have believed this report if my own experience of your conduct had not confirmed it. For that you give no attention at all to reading and none to exhortation, but are even ignorant of the very use and purpose of church order, there is this evidence: you do not know how to show reverence to those who are set over you. For you had been forbidden in writing by our predecessor of holy memory to keep in your heart the bitterness of your long displeasure against Honoratus your archdeacon, and this had been strictly forbidden you by me as well. Yet you disregarded the commands of God, treated our letters with contempt, and tried by a cunning device to degrade this Honoratus, your archdeacon, under the pretense of promoting him to a higher rank. It was arranged in this way so that, once he was removed from the post of archdeacon, you could call in another man who would fall in with your way of life. As I think, he displeased you for no other reason than that he kept you from giving sacred vessels and vestments to your relatives. Both I now and my predecessor of holy memory before me have wanted to examine this case carefully. But you, knowing what you had done, have put off sending here a representative instructed for the trial of the case. [b]

So let your fraternity, after admonitions repeated so often, repent of the error of your wrongdoing, and restore this Honoratus to his post as soon as you receive my letter. If you put off doing so, know that the use of the pallium granted to you by this see is taken from you. And if, even when you have lost the pallium, you still persist in your defiance, know that you are deprived of sharing in the body and blood of the Lord. After this it will be necessary for us to inquire more fully into the charges against you, and to consider with the utmost care and investigation whether you should keep even your office as bishop. We also depose from the rank of archdeacon the man who, against the rule of justice, has agreed to be promoted to another man’s place. And if he presumes to serve any longer in that office, let him know that he is deprived of sharing in holy communion.

So, dearest brother, do not provoke us any further in any way, or else, having scorned us when we came to you in love, you may find us very hard in our severity. Restore the archdeacon Honoratus to his place, then, and send us quickly a person instructed in the case, who can show me by his statements how the matter should fairly be handled. For we have ordered this archdeacon to come to us, so that, having heard what both parties assert, we may reach whatever decision is just and pleasing to Almighty God. For we defend no one out of personal affection; with God’s help we keep the rule of justice and set aside respect for any man’s person.