To Peter the Subdeacon in Sicily, on the Church’s Estates

Gregory to Peter, and so on.

I have learned from information sent by Romanus the defensor that the monastery of handmaidens of God on the farm of Monotheus has been wronged by our church of Villa Nova over a farm belonging to that church, which is said to have been leased to the monastery. If this is so, your experience is to give the farm back to them, together with the payments from that same farm for the two years of the indiction in which you have collected them. Further, since many Jews live on the church’s estates, it is my wish that if any of them are willing to become Christians, some small part of their dues be let off, so that others too, drawn on by this kindness, may be moved to want the same.

Cows that are now barren with age, and bulls that seem quite useless, should be sold, so that at least some profit may come from their price. As for the herds of mares, which we keep to very little profit, I want them all broken up, and only four hundred of the younger ones kept for breeding. These four hundred should be handed out to the tenant farmers, so many to each, so that they may make us some return from them in the years to come. For it is very hard for us to spend sixty solidi on the herdsmen and not get back sixty pennies from these same herds. So let your experience go about it in this way: some of the mares are to be shared out among all the tenant farmers, and the rest broken up and turned into money. But make arrangements with the herdsmen themselves, throughout our estates, so that they can earn something by working the land. All the implements that the church can claim, whether at Syracuse or at Palermo, must be sold before they are completely ruined by age. [c]

When the servant of God, brother Cyriacus, arrived in Rome, I questioned him closely about whether he had spoken with you about the taking of a bribe in a certain woman’s case. The same brother says that he learned the facts of the case from you yourself, since you had commissioned him to find out who the person was who had been told to pay the bribe. I believed this, and at once took him into my favor and friendship. I introduced him to the people and the clergy, increased his allowance, and placed him in a higher rank among the defensors, praising his faithfulness before everyone because he had served you so faithfully. And so I have sent him back to you. But since you are in great haste, and I, sick as I am, want to see you, leave someone you have thoroughly tested to take your place in the district of Syracuse, and hurry to me yourself. Then, if it pleases Almighty God, we can consult together about whether you should go back there or someone else should be appointed in your place. At the same time I have sent Benenatus the notary to take your place in the estate of the district of Palermo, until Almighty God arranges whatever pleases him. [e]

I have sharply rebuked Romanus for his carelessness, because in the guesthouse he ran he has been more taken up, as I have now found out, with his own profits than with heavenly rewards. So, if it should perhaps seem good to you, leave him in your place. See how you can best strengthen him by frightening and warning him, so that he treats the peasants kindly and carefully, and shows himself changed and active toward strangers and townspeople. In saying this, however, I am not choosing anyone; I leave it to your judgment. It is enough for me to have chosen someone to fill your place in the district of Palermo, and I want you to see to providing one for the district of Syracuse yourself. When you come, bring with you the money and ornaments from Antoninus’s share, or from his estate. Bring also the payments you have collected for the ninth and tenth years of the indiction, and with them all your accounts. If it pleases God, take care to cross the sea to this city before the feast of Saint Cyprian, so that no danger may follow (which God forbid) from the constellation that always threatens the sea at that season. [f]

I would also have you know that my heart is pierced with no small sorrow for having been so badly set against the servant of God Pretiosus, for no serious fault of his, and for having driven him from me sad and embittered. I wrote to the lord bishop asking him to send the man to me, if he was willing to do so, but he was entirely unwilling. Now I ought not to distress the bishop, and I cannot do it, since a man busy as he is with the causes of God ought to be supported with comfort, not weighed down with bitterness. But Pretiosus, I hear, is deeply distressed that he cannot come back to me. Yet, as I have said, I cannot distress the lord bishop, who does not want to send him, and I am torn between the two. So, if you have the greater wisdom in that small little body of yours, manage the matter so that I get my wish and the lord bishop is not distressed. Still, if you see that he is at all distressed, say no more about it. I have, however, taken it badly that he has excommunicated the lord Eusebius, a man so old and in such poor health. So you must speak privately to the lord bishop, telling him not to be hasty in passing sentence, since cases that are to be settled by sentence must first be weighed with careful and very frequent thought. [h]

When the recruiting officers come, who I hear are already raising recruits in Sicily, tell the man who takes your place to offer them some small present, so as to make them well disposed toward him. And before you come away, give something too, as the old custom is, to the praetor’s officials, but do it by the hand of the man you leave in your place, so as to win their favor for him. And so that we may not seem to them in any way ungracious, tell those who take your place to carry out in every respect the orders we gave your experience about what is to be given to particular persons or monasteries. When you come, with God’s help, we will consider together how these things should be arranged. As for the three hundred solidi that I sent to be given to the poor through you, I do not think they should be left to the discretion of those who take your place. So let them carry out the directions I mentioned, concerning particular places and persons. [i]

I remember having written before now to say that the legacies which, according to the statement of Antoninus the defensor, are owed by us to monasteries or to others, were to be paid as they had been set down. I do not know why your experience has put off doing this. So we want you to pay our share of these legacies in full from the church’s money, so that when you come to me you do not leave behind you there the groans of the poor against you. Bring with you at the same time the securities that have been found concerning the estate of the same Antoninus. I have learned from information sent by Romanus that the wife of Redemptus, when she was dying, gave word by mouth that one silver shell was to be sold and the money given to her freed slaves, and that she also left a silver platter to a certain monastery. We want her wishes on both bequests carried out in full, so that we are not led on from the smallest things into greater sins.

I have also learned from information sent by the abbot Marinianus that the building at the Praetorian monastery is not yet even half finished. Since that is so, what can we praise in this but your experience’s zeal? But even now let this warning rouse you, and as far as you can, exert yourself in building this same monastery. I said that nothing was to be given them toward the cost, but I did not forbid them to build the monastery. So go about it in this way: charge whoever you appoint in your place at Palermo, in every possible way, to build this same monastery at the expense of the church’s revenue, so that I have no more private complaints from the abbot. [j]

I have also learned that you know of certain things on the farms, and in considerable numbers, that belong to other people, but that because of the pleading of certain persons, or out of timidity, you are afraid to give them back to their owners. But if you were truly a Christian, you would fear the judgment of God more than the voices of men. Take note that I warn you about this without ceasing; and if you fail to set it right, you will have my voice too as a witness against you. If you find any laymen who fear God and who could receive the tonsure and become agents under the rector, I give my full consent. Letters will also have to be sent to them. [k]

In the case of the son of Commissus the scholasticus, you have taken advice, and it appears that what he claims is not just in law. We do not want to burden the poor to their loss. But since he has gone to some trouble in this matter, we want you to give him fifty solidi, which must of course be entered in your accounts. As for the expense you have incurred on the church’s business in the case of Prochisus, either repay yourself there out of his revenues, or, if his revenues are clearly not enough to repay you, you must receive what is owed you here from the deacon. But do not presume to say anything about Gelasius the subdeacon, since his crime calls for the severest penance, to the very end of his life.

Furthermore, you have sent me one wretched nag and five good donkeys. The nag I cannot ride, because it is so wretched; and the good donkeys I cannot ride, because they are donkeys. But we ask that, if you mean to satisfy us, you let us have something suitable. We want you to give the abbot Eusebius a hundred gold solidi, which must of course be entered in your accounts. We have learned that Sisinnius, who was a judge in Samnium, is suffering from severe want in Sicily; we want you to supply him every year with twenty measures of wine and four solidi. Anastasius, a religious, is said to be living near the city of Palermo in the oratory of Saint Agna; we want six gold solidi to be given to him. We also want six solidi, to be entered in your accounts, given to the mother of Urbicus the prior. As to the case of the handmaiden of God Honorata, this is what seems good to me: when you come, bring with you all her property that clearly existed before the time when John, bishop of Laurinum, held office. And let the same handmaiden of God come with her son, so that we may speak with her and do whatever pleases God. We want the volume of the Heptateuch from among the goods of Antoninus to be given to the Praetorian monastery, and the rest of his books brought here by you. [m]