To John, Bishop of Squillace

Gregory to John, and so on.

The care of our pastoral office warns us to appoint bishops of their own for churches that have lost theirs, men who will govern the Lord’s flock with a shepherd’s concern. So we have thought it necessary to appoint you, John, bishop of the city of Lissus, which has been captured by the enemy, to be cardinal in the church of Squillace, so that you may carry on the care of souls you once took up, keeping in view the repayment to come. Although you have been driven from your own church by the invading enemy and must govern another church that is now without a shepherd, it must be on this condition: if the former city is set free from the enemy and, under God’s protection, restored to its former state, you are to return to the church in which you were first ordained. If, however, that city continues to suffer the calamity of captivity, you must remain in this church, in which we have incardinated you. [a]

We also charge you never to make unlawful ordinations, and never to allow into sacred orders a bigamist, or a man who has married a wife who was not a virgin, or one who cannot read, or one maimed in any part of his body, or a penitent, or one bound by any condition of service. If you find any such men, you must not dare to advance them. On no account accept Africans in general, or unknown strangers, who apply for church orders, since some Africans are Manichaeans and some have been rebaptized, while many strangers who hold only minor orders have been shown to have pretended to a higher rank. We also urge your fraternity to watch wisely over the souls entrusted to you, and to be more intent on winning souls than on the profits of this present life. Be diligent in keeping and managing the goods of the church, so that the Judge who is coming, when he comes to judge, may approve you as having carried out worthily in every respect the office of shepherd you have taken on.