To Januarius, Bishop of Cagliari, on Nuns, Councils, Slaves and the Chrism

Gregory to Januarius, bishop of Cagliari. Pastoral zeal by itself ought to have moved you enough, even without our help, to protect the flock you have taken charge of, with profit and with foresight, and to guard it with careful watchfulness from the cunning schemes of enemies. But since we have found that your love also needs the written word of our authority to strengthen your firmness, we must, with the encouragement of brotherly love, strengthen your faltering disposition toward earnest religious work.

Now it has come to our knowledge that you are slack in guarding the monasteries of the handmaids of God in Sardinia. Your predecessors had wisely arranged that certain approved men of the clergy should have the task of seeing to their needs. But this has now been so completely neglected that women specially dedicated to God are forced to go in person among public officials about taxes and other obligations. They have to run back and forth through villages and farms to make up their taxes, and to mix themselves unsuitably in business that belongs to men. Let your fraternity remove this evil by an easy correction. That is, carefully appoint one man of approved life and character, of such age and position as to give rise to no evil suspicion of him, who may, in the fear of God, so help the women in these monasteries that they are no longer allowed to wander, against the rule, beyond their venerable walls for any reason at all, private or public. Whatever has to be done for them should be handled sensibly by the man you appoint. And let the nuns themselves, offering praises to God and keeping to their monasteries, no longer suggest any evil suspicion to the minds of the faithful. But if any of them, whether through former license or through a bad habit of going unpunished, has been seduced, or should in future be led, into the pit of an adulterous fall, it is our will that she first undergo the severity of a fitting punishment, and then be placed for penance in some other, stricter monastery of virgins. There she is to give herself to prayers and fasting, to profit herself by penitence, and to be an example of the stricter kind of discipline, such as may make others afraid. Further, anyone found guilty of any wickedness with women of this kind is to be deprived of communion if he is a layman. If he is a cleric, let him also be removed from his office and shut up in a monastery for his ever lamentable excesses. [b]

We also want you to hold councils of bishops twice a year, as is said to have been the custom of your province, and as the authority of the sacred canons also orders. Then, if any of them leads a life not fitting his profession, he may be convicted by the friendly rebuke of his brothers, and steps may also be taken, with fatherly watchfulness, for the safety of the flock entrusted to him and for the welfare of souls. It has also come to our knowledge that male and female slaves of Jews who have fled to the church for refuge because of their faith are either given back to their unbelieving masters, or are paid for at their value instead of being given back. So we urge you by no means to allow so bad a custom to continue. Whenever a slave of Jews flees for refuge to the venerable places, do not let him suffer any harm. Whether he had been a Christian before or has been baptized now, let him be upheld in his claim to freedom by the protection of the church’s compassion, without any loss to the poor. [c]

Let bishops not presume to sign baptized infants a second time on the forehead with the chrism. But let the presbyters anoint those who are to be baptized on the breast, so that the bishops may afterward anoint them on the forehead. [d]

Also, about founding the monasteries that various people have ordered to be built: if you see that any of those given the task are putting it off on unjust excuses, we want you to press them wisely, as the laws require, so that the devout wishes of the departed are not frustrated through your neglect, which God forbid. Further, as to the monastery that Peter is said to have once ordered to be built in his house, we have decided that your fraternity should make a careful inquiry into the amount of the revenues there. If there is enough to provide for it, once everything taken from the property and everything said to have been scattered has been recovered, let the monastery be founded with all diligence and without any delay. But if the means are not enough, or would be a burden, we want you to look closely into everything as we have ordered and send a report to us, so that with the Lord’s help we may know how to decide about building it. Let your fraternity, then, give wise attention to all the points named above, so that you are neither found to have gone against the terms of our charge nor made liable to the judgment of God for too little zeal in your pastoral office. [e]