To John, Bishop of Larissa

Gregory to John, bishop of Larissa. Our brother Adrian, bishop of the city of Thebes, has come to Rome bitterly complaining that he has been condemned on certain charges, neither lawfully nor according to the canons, by your fraternity, and also by John, bishop of Prima Justiniana. For a long time we saw no representative of the other side arrive here who might have answered his objections. So, to find out the truth as we had to, we had the records of the proceedings held before you handed over to be read. From these we learned that John and Cosmas, deacons who had been deposed from their office, the one for frailty of the body and the other for fraud in handling church property, had sent a petition to our most pious emperors against him, about money matters and also about criminal charges. [a]

In their orders sent to you, the emperors desired you to take up the matter, with strict observance of law and canons, so as to pass a sentence firm in law on the money questions, but on the criminal charges to report to their clemency after a searching examination. Now if your fraternity had received these right commands in a right frame of mind, you would never have accepted, for a general accusation of their bishop, men who had been removed from their own office for their wrongdoing and were already hostile to him. This is all the more true because their own petition to our most pious lords exposes their untruthfulness, since they declared that they made it with the consent of all the clergy. [c]

After this, to touch briefly and in summary on some of the proceedings before you: the first count of the accusation concerned the Theban deacon Stephen, whom bishop Adrian had failed to strip of the rank of his order, though he was supposed to have known of his most shameful life. On this count no witnesses were produced to show that bishop Adrian knew anything of the matter. Only Stephen himself, a man of shameful life who by his own confession deserved condemnation, is alleged to have said so. The second charge made against him seems to have been that infants were barred by his order from receiving holy baptism, and so died with the filth of sin not washed away. But none of the witnesses brought against him declared that they knew of anything of the kind coming to bishop Adrian’s notice. They said they had learned it from the mothers of the infants, whose husbands, it is said, had been put out of the church for their crimes. Even so, they did not declare that the hour of death had overtaken those infants while they were unbaptized, as the spiteful petition of the accusers had claimed, since it is clear that they had been baptized in the city of Demetrias. So much, then, for the criminal charges.

But as to the money matters, the way you judged them is shown by the inquiry of the men whom the prince deputed under the most pious order of the most serene princes. For when the often-named Adrian had appealed against your sentence, then, as far as we have learned from the statements of four witnesses laid before John, bishop of Prima Justiniana, he was thrown into the closest confinement and forced by your fraternity to produce a document in which he confessed the charges brought against him. It is true that in the document he produced he is found to have agreed to your sentence on the money matters. But he touched on the criminal charges in a vague and doubtful way, so that your purpose might be frustrated by raising a kind of fog, and he might more easily escape his confession afterward in the obscurity of tangled wording. The appeal handed in by his people, and the rest of the proceedings heard by you, were reported to the most pious princes, and Honoratus, deacon of our see, and the glorious antigraphus Sebastian were deputed, as we have said. Then the most serene lords exempted him from all further orders. But by what contrivances I do not know, another imperial order was again obtained, requiring John, bishop of Prima Justiniana, to examine closely and pass judgment on all the charges named above. In that trial all of bishop Adrian’s clergy, and the deacon Demetrius in the midst of torture, declared that this whole slander against bishop Adrian had been got up by the contrivance of your fraternity. Nor were any of the criminal charges made against bishop Adrian in your hearing proved. Instead, against canons and laws, another cruel and crafty inquiry arose, aimed at his deacon Demetrius and other persons. In its course nothing was discovered for which the often-mentioned Adrian could lawfully have been condemned; rather, grounds were found for acquitting him. As for John, prelate of the city of Prima Justiniana, and his most unjust and abominable judgment, we will take further measures. As for bishop Adrian, we find both that he has suffered under your hostility in a way ill-suited to your priestly character, and that he was condemned in money matters for no just cause by the sentence of your fraternity. [d]

Since, then, he was also deposed against law and canons by John, bishop of Prima Justiniana, named above, he could not be left stripped of his rank and honor. We have decreed that he be reinstated in his church and recalled to the order of his proper dignity. You ought to have been deprived of the communion of the Lord’s body, because, setting at nothing the warning of my predecessor of holy memory, who exempted him and his church from your authority, you have presumed once more to keep some jurisdiction over them. Yet we decree more mildly, and still allow you the sacrament of communion. We decree that your fraternity shall refrain from exercising any of the jurisdiction you formerly held over him and his church. According to the written instructions of our predecessor, if any case should arise against Adrian, our fellow priest, whether touching the faith, or criminal, or about money, it is either to be heard, if the question is a slight one, by those who are or may be our representatives in the royal city, or, if it is a difficult one, to be brought here to the Apostolic See, so that it may be heard and decided before us. But if at any time, on any pretext or by any underhand device, you try to go against these our ordinances, know that we decree you deprived of holy communion, not to receive it except at the close of your life, unless leave is granted by the Roman pontiff. For we lay this down as a rule, in agreement with the teaching of the holy fathers: whoever does not know how to obey the holy canons is not worthy to minister or to receive communion at the holy altars. Moreover, let your fraternity restore to him without any delay the sacred property, and any other property, movable or immovable, which you are said to be keeping until now. A list of it has been handed to us, and we attach it to this letter. If any question arises between you about it, we wish it to be considered by our representative in the royal city. [e]