To Sabinianus the Deacon, on Maximus and the Death of Bishop Malchus

Gregory to Sabinianus, and so on. [a]

You know what has been done in the case of Maximus, who betrayed his trust. For after our most serene lord the emperor had sent orders that he should not be ordained, he broke out into still greater pride. The men of the glorious patrician Romanus took bribes from him and had him ordained, and in such a way that they would have killed Antoninus, the subdeacon and manager of the church’s estates, if he had not fled. But when I learned that he had been ordained against reason and custom, I sent him letters telling him not to presume to celebrate the solemn rites of the mass until I had first found out from our most serene lords what they had ordered about him. These letters of mine were published, that is, posted up, in the city, and he had them publicly torn down, and so burst out more openly into contempt of the Apostolic See. You know how I was likely to bear this, since I was already prepared to die rather than let the church of the blessed apostle Peter fall away in my days. Moreover, you know my ways well: I bear things for a long time, but once I have decided not to bear them any longer, I go gladly to meet every danger. So with God’s help it is necessary to meet the danger, so that he is not driven to sin beyond all measure. Look at what I say, and consider what great grief inspires it. [b]

But it has come to my ears that he has sent a cleric to Constantinople, I do not know whom, to say that the bishop Malchus was put to death in prison for money. Now on this there is one thing you may briefly put before our most serene lords: if I, their servant, had been willing to have any part in the death of Lombards, the nation of the Lombards today would have neither king nor dukes nor counts, and would be divided in the utmost confusion. But since I fear God, I shrink from having any part in the death of anyone. Now the bishop Malchus was neither in prison nor in any distress. On the day he pleaded his case and was sentenced, Boniface the notary took him, without my knowledge, to his own house, where a dinner was prepared for him. There he dined and was treated with honor by Boniface, and in the night he suddenly died, as I think you have already been told. Moreover, I had intended to send our Exhilaratus to you about that business; but since I considered the case already finished, I refrained from doing so. [e]