To the Bishops of Dalmatia, on the Election at Salona

Gregory to all the bishops throughout Dalmatia. [a] Your fraternity ought to have kept the eyes of the flesh closed, out of regard for the judgment of God, and to have left out nothing that belongs to God and to a right bent of mind, and not to have put the favor of any man at all before the uprightness of justice. But now your ways have been so twisted by worldly concerns that you have forgotten the whole path of the priestly dignity that is yours, and all sense of heavenly fear, and you are eager to do what pleases yourselves and not God. So we have thought it necessary to send you these specially strict written orders. By them, with the authority of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, we command that you not presume to lay hands on anyone at all in the city of Salona for ordination as bishop without our consent and permission, nor to ordain anyone in that city except as we have said. [b]

But if, of your own accord or under pressure from anyone at all, you presume or attempt to do anything against this command, we will decree that you are deprived of a share in the body and blood of the Lord. In this way your very handling of the business, or your very inclination to break our order, will cut you off from the sacred mysteries, and no one you may ordain will be counted a bishop. For we want no one to be rashly ordained whose life can be found fault with. And so, if the deacon Honoratus is shown to be unworthy, we want a report sent to us about the life and character of the man who may be elected, so that whatever is to be done in this matter we may allow to be carried out wholesomely, with our consent. For we trust in Almighty God that, as far as it lies with us, we will never allow anything to be done that may harm our soul, and never anything that may harm your church. But if the free consent of all should settle on one person so that, by the favor of God, he is proved worthy, and no one objects to his ordination, we want him consecrated by you in this same church of Salona, under the permission granted in this present letter. We except, however, the person of Maximus, about whom many evil reports have reached us. Unless he stops coveting the higher order, it remains, I think, that after a full inquiry he should be deprived even of the office he now holds.