To Cyprian the Deacon, on Petronilla and Agnellus

Gregory to Cyprian, deacon and rector of Sicily. It has been reported to us that a woman of the province of Lucania, Petronilla by name, entered the monastic life through the urging of the bishop Agnellus, and that, though all her property was in her own power, she nevertheless gave it to the monastery she entered, even by a formal deed of gift. We are also told that the bishop died leaving half of his estate to his son, one Agnellus, who is said to be a notary of our church, and half to that monastery. But when they had fled to Sicily for refuge because of the disaster hanging over Italy, this Agnellus is said to have corrupted her morals and defiled her. Finding her with child, he is said to have lured her away from the monastery and carried off all her belongings with her, both those that had been her own and whatever had been given her by his own father. And after committing such a great crime, he claims these things as his own. So we urge your love to have this man and this woman brought before you at once, and to make a most thorough inquiry into the case. If you find it to be as it has been reported to us, deal with an affair stained by so many wrongs with the utmost severity, to purge it. In this way strict punishment will overtake the man, who has had no regard for his own state or for hers. As for her, she is first to be punished and placed in a monastery to do penance. Then all the property that was taken from the monastery so often named above is to be restored, with all its produce and increase. [a]