To King Childebert, on Arles and the Sale of Orders

Gregory to Childebert, king of the Franks. [a]

Your excellency’s letter has made us exceedingly glad, for it shows that you care, with devout affection, for the honor and reverence owed to priests. In this way you show everyone that you are faithful worshipers of God, since you love his priests with the fitting veneration due to them and hurry, with Christian devotion, to do whatever may advance their standing. So we have gladly received what you wrote, and we willingly grant what you want. Accordingly, with God’s favor, we have entrusted the jurisdiction of our vicar to our brother Virgilius, bishop of the city of Arles, in keeping with ancient custom and with your excellency’s wish. We have also granted him the use of the pallium, as has been the custom from of old. [b]

But some things have been reported to us that gravely offend Almighty God and throw into confusion the honor and reverence owed to the priesthood. We ask that they be set right in every way, with the backing of your power’s correction. Otherwise, while headstrong and perverse doings run counter to your devotion, your kingdom or your soul (God forbid) may be weighed down by the guilt of others.

Further, it has come to our knowledge that when bishops die, some men are tonsured straight from being laymen and climb to the office of bishop in one sudden leap. So a man who has never been a disciple is made a master by his thoughtless ambition. And since he has not learned what he is to teach, he holds the office of priesthood in name only, for in speech and action he goes on being a layman as before. How, then, is he to intercede for the sins of others, when he has not first wept over his own? Such a shepherd does not defend the flock but deceives it. Out of sheer shame he cannot try to persuade others to do what he does not do himself. So what else follows but that the Lord’s people are left as prey to robbers, and meet destruction from the very source that should have given them great support and wholesome protection? Let your excellency’s Highness consider how bad and how perverse a proceeding this is, even from your own management of affairs. You certainly do not put a commander over an army unless his work and his loyalty have first been seen, and unless the virtue and diligence of his earlier life have shown him to be a fit man. But if command of an army is given only to men of this kind, it is easy to gather from the comparison what sort of man a leader of souls ought to be. Yet it is a reproach to us, and we are ashamed to say it, that priests snatch at leadership who have not seen even the beginning of the warfare of the religious life. [c]

Something else has been reported to us as well, a most abominable thing: that sacred orders are conferred through the simoniac heresy, that is, for bribes received. It is exceedingly pernicious, and contrary to the universal church, for anyone to be promoted to any sacred order for a price and not for merit. So we urge your excellency to order so detestable a wickedness to be banished from your kingdom. For a man shows himself thoroughly unworthy of this office when he is not afraid to buy the gift of God with money, and presumes to try to get by payment what he does not deserve to have through grace. [d]

So, most excellent son, I admonish you about these things because I want your soul to be saved. I would have written about them before now, had not countless occupations stood in the way of my wish. But now that a suitable time for answering your letter has come, I have not left undone what it was my duty to do. Therefore, greeting your excellency with the affection of a father’s love, we ask that everything we have directed our brother and fellow bishop named above to do and to observe may be carried out under the protection of your favor, and that you not allow it to be upset in any way by anyone’s conceit or pride. As these things were observed by his predecessor in the reign of your glorious father, so let them be observed now as well, with your help and with eager devotion. It is right, then, that we should be repaid in this way: as we have not put off fulfilling your wish, so you too, for the sake of God and of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, should have our ordinances observed in every respect. In this way your excellency’s reputation, praiseworthy and pleasing to God, may spread on every side. Given on the 12th of August, in the thirteenth indiction. [e]