To John, Bishop of Ravenna, on the Pallium and the Napkins

Gregory to John, bishop of Ravenna. Not long ago certain things were told us about your fraternity, on which we remember having spoken our mind in full when Castorius, notary of the holy church over which we preside, went to your parts. For it had come to our ears that some things were being done in your church contrary to custom and to the way of humility, which alone, as you well know, raises up the office of a priest. Now, if your wisdom had taken our warnings kindly, or with the seriousness of a bishop, you should not have been angered by them, but should have corrected those very things and thanked us. For it is against the church’s practice not to bear even unjust correction (far be that from us) with the greatest patience. [a]

But your fraternity has been too much stirred up. When, in the swelling of your heart, you wrote as if to justify yourself that you did not use the pallium except after the sons of the church had been dismissed from the sacristy, and at the time of mass, and in solemn litanies, you admitted in words, with the plainest truth, that you had usurped something contrary to the practice of the church at large. For how can it be that in a time of ashes and sackcloth, through the streets amid the noise of the people, you could lawfully do what you have disowned doing as unlawful in the gathering of the poor and the nobles, and in the sacristy of the church? Yet this, dearest brother, is not unknown to you, we think: it has hardly ever been heard of any metropolitan, in any part of the world, that he has claimed the use of the pallium for himself except at the time of mass. And you have shown most plainly in your letters that you knew this custom of the church at large well. For you sent us, attached to them, the order of our predecessor John of blessed memory, to the effect that all the customs granted by way of privilege to you and your church by our predecessors should be kept. You admit, then, that the custom of the church at large is different, since you claim the right to do what you do on the ground of privilege. So, as we think, no doubt can remain for us in this matter. For either the practice of all metropolitans should be kept by your fraternity too, or, if you say that something has been specially granted to your church, it is for your side to show the order of former pontiffs of the Roman city in which these things have been granted to the church of Ravenna. But if this is not shown, then, since you base your claim to do such things neither on general custom nor on privilege, it remains that you prove yourself to have usurped in what you have done. And what shall we say to the Judge to come, most beloved brother, if we defend the wearing of that heavy yoke and chain on our neck for the sake, I will not say of a church dignity, but of a kind of worldly one, thinking ourselves lowered if we are without so great a weight even for a short time? We want to be adorned with the pallium while perhaps we are unadorned in character; and yet nothing shines more splendidly on a bishop’s neck than humility. [b]

It is therefore your fraternity’s duty, if you are firmly determined to defend your honors with arguments of any kind, either to follow the practice of the generality without written authority, or to defend yourself by privileges shown in writing. Or if, after all, you do neither, we will not have you set an example of presumption of this sort to other metropolitans. But lest you should perhaps think that in writing to you like this we have neglected what belongs to brotherly love, know that a careful search has been made in our archives for the privileges of your church. Some things have indeed been found, enough to defeat your fraternity’s aims entirely, but nothing to support the claims of your church on the points in question. Even as to the very custom of your church that you put forward against us, which we wrote before should be proved by your side, we want you to know that we have already given it enough thought. We have questioned our sons Peter the deacon and Gaudiosus the primicerius, and also Michael the defensor of our see, or others who have been sent to Ravenna on various commissions by our predecessors; and they have most firmly denied that you did these things in their presence. It is therefore clear that what was done in secret must have been an unlawful usurpation. And so what has been brought in on the quiet can have no firm ground to justify its continuing. So whatever you or your predecessors have presumed to do beyond what is proper, study to correct it, with regard for love and with brotherly kindness. Do not attempt in any degree to stray from the rule of humility, I will not say of your own accord, but after the fashion set by others, even by your predecessors. For, to sum up shortly what I have said above, I warn you to this effect: unless you can show that this has been allowed you by my predecessors by way of privilege, do not presume any longer to use the pallium in the streets, lest you come to lose even for mass what you boldly usurp even in the streets. But as to your sitting in the sacristy and receiving the sons of the church with the pallium on (a thing your fraternity has both done and denied), we make no complaint for the present, since, following the decisions of synods, we decline to punish lesser faults that are denied. Yet we know this to have been done once and again, and we forbid its being done any more. But let your fraternity take careful heed, lest presumption that is pardoned at its start be punished more severely if it goes further. [d]

Furthermore, you have complained that certain members of the priestly order in the city of Ravenna are caught up in serious criminal charges. We want you either to examine their case on the spot, or to send them here so that the case may be examined here, unless the difficulty of proof caused by the distance of the places stands in the way. But if, relying on the patronage of great people (which we do not believe), they scorn to submit to your judgment or to come to us, and stubbornly refuse to answer the charges made against them, we want you, after your second and third warning, to forbid them the ministry of the sacred office, and to report their defiance to us in writing, so that we may consider how you ought to make a thorough inquiry into their doings and correct them according to the rulings of the canons. So let your fraternity know that we are fully cleared of responsibility in this case, since we have committed the thorough investigation of the matter to you; and that if all their sins go unpunished, the whole weight of this inquiry falls to the peril of your soul. And know, beloved, that you will have no excuse at the judgment to come if you do not correct the excesses of your clergy with the utmost severity of canonical strictness, and if you allow anyone against whom such excesses have been proved to profane sacred orders any longer.

Further, what you have written in defense of the use of napkins by your clergy is strongly opposed by our own clergy. They say that this has never been granted to any other church whatever; that the clergy of Ravenna, to their knowledge, have never presumed to do any such thing, either there or in the Roman city; and that if it has been attempted by stealthy usurpation, it sets no precedent. And even if there had been such presumption in some church or other, they assert that it ought to be corrected, since it comes not by grant of the Roman pontiff but merely by a stealthy presumption. But to save your fraternity’s honor, though against the wish of our clergy just mentioned, we still allow the use of napkins to your first deacons, whose former use of them has been testified to us by some; but only when they are in attendance on you. The use of them at any other time, or by any other persons, we most strictly forbid. [e]