To Luminosus the Abbot

Gregory to Luminosus, abbot of the monastery of Saint Thomas of Rimini. [a]

We were glad to receive the petition of you and your community, and we grant your requests, in keeping with the decrees of the fathers and with the form of law. For by our order a letter has been sent to our brother and fellow bishop Castorius by which we have taken from him and his successors all power to harm your monastery. So he may no longer come among you and be a burden to you; no inventories are to be made of the monastery’s property; and no public procession is to take place there. The only jurisdiction still left to him is this: when an abbot dies, he must ordain in his place another whom the common consent of the community has chosen as worthy. But now that these things have been settled in this way, be diligent in the work of God and devote yourselves constantly to prayer. Otherwise you may seem not so much to have sought peace of mind for prayer as to have wanted to escape a bishop’s strict control while you live badly. [b]