To John, Bishop of Prima Justiniana

Gregory to John, bishop of Prima Justiniana. After long afflictions at the hands of his fellow priests, who treated him as though they were his enemies, Adrian, bishop of the city of Thebes, has fled for refuge to the city of Rome. His first petition was against John, bishop of Larissa: that he had given judgment in money matters without regard to the laws. But after this he complained far more bitterly against your fraternity in person, accusing you of having unjustly deposed him from the rank of the priesthood. We, however, give no credit to petitions that have not been looked into, so we read through the records of the proceedings, both those before our brother and fellow bishop John and those before your fraternity. As for the judgment of John, bishop of Larissa, which was suspended on appeal, the most pious emperors have decreed sufficiently about it in their orders sent to the bishop of Corinth; and with Christ’s help we too have decreed about it in our letter to John of Larissa, sent by the bearers of this one. We then examined the conflicting judgments, which the imperial commands had committed to you to review, and inspected the course of the proceedings held before bishop John concerning the accused persons. We find that you investigated almost nothing that belonged to the questions named and assigned to you for decision. Instead, by certain schemes, you produced witnesses against the deacon Demetrius, who were to state, so that this same bishop might be condemned, that they had heard Demetrius testifying about him. That is a thing not lawful even to listen to. And when Demetrius in person denied having done so, it appears that, against the custom of the priesthood and the discipline of the canons, you handed him over to the praetor of the province as a deacon deposed from his rank. Torn by many lashes, he might perhaps have said some false things against his bishop under the pressure of torture. Yet we find that to the very end of the business he confessed absolutely nothing of the things he was questioned about. Nor do we find anything else to the bishop’s disadvantage in the proceedings themselves, whether in the statements of witnesses or in Adrian’s own declaration. It is simply that your fraternity, from what motive I do not know, in contempt of law both human and divine, pronounced a hasty sentence against him. Even if it had not been suspended on appeal, that sentence, pronounced against the laws and the canons, could not rightly have stood on its own terms. Further, the appeal was handed to you, as is abundantly clear. After that, we wonder why you have not sent your people to us to give an account of your judgment, as the representatives of your church undertook to our deacon Honoratus. This failure convicts you either of defiance or of a troubled conscience. If, then, the things laid before us are backed by the bulwark of truth, then, since we consider that you are presuming unjustly on the jurisdiction you hold as our vicar, we will with Christ’s help decree further on these matters, according to the outcome of our deliberations. [a]

For the present, however, by the authority of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, we decree that the decrees of your judgment are first annulled and made void, and that you are deprived of holy communion for thirty days, so that you may beg pardon of our God for so great a transgression with the utmost penitence and tears. But if we learn that you have been slack in carrying out this our sentence, know that your fraternity will have to be punished more severely, not for injustice only, but also for defiance. As for our brother and fellow bishop Adrian, whom your sentence condemned, a sentence which, as we have said, agreed with neither the canons nor the laws, we order that he be restored, with Christ at his side, to his place and rank. So he will not be harmed by the sentence your fraternity pronounced in departure from the path of justice, nor will your love go uncorrected; and so we may turn away the anger of the judge who is to come.