To John, Bishop of Corinth, on the Pallium and Simony

Gregory to John, bishop of Corinth. Our God, from whom nothing is hidden, has cast out a dreadful plague of pollution from the government of his church, and has been pleased to raise you to rule it. Now you must take anxious care that the Lord’s flock, after the wounds and the many evils its former shepherd inflicted on it, may find comfort and healing medicine in your fraternity. So let the hand of your action wipe away the stain of the earlier contagion, and let not even a trace of that detestable wickedness remain. [a]

So let your care for those under you be worthy of praise. Let discipline be shown with gentleness, and rebuke with discernment. Let kindness soften anger, and let zeal sharpen kindness. Let the one be so seasoned with the other that punishment does not go beyond measure and afflict more than it should, and that slackness does not weaken the uprightness of discipline. Let the conduct of your fraternity be a lesson to the people entrusted to you. Let them see in you what to love, and perceive what to hurry to imitate. Let them be taught how to live by your example. Let them not stray from the straight course through your leading; let them find their way to God by following you. Then you will receive from the Savior of the human race as many rewards as the souls you have won for him. So labor, dearest brother, and direct the whole effort of your heart and soul in such a way that you may later be counted worthy to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.” [b]

As you asked in your letter, which we received through our brother and fellow bishop Andrew, we have sent you the pallium. You must use it just as your predecessors are shown to have used it, by the allowance of our predecessors.

Furthermore, it has come to our ears that in those parts no one attains any sacred order without paying a fee. If this is so, I say it with tears, I declare it with groans: when the priestly order has fallen inwardly, it will not stand long outwardly either. For we know from the Gospel what our Redeemer did in person: how he went into the temple and overturned the seats of those who sold doves. To sell doves is to take a payment in this world’s goods for the Holy Spirit, who is of one substance with Almighty God, and whom Almighty God gives to people through the laying on of hands. And what follows from this evil is hinted at, as I said before, for the seats of those who presumed to sell doves in the temple of God fell by the judgment of God. And in truth this transgression spreads and grows among those below. For a man who attains a sacred rank tainted at the very root of his promotion is all the more ready to sell to others what he has bought. And then where is what is written: “Freely you have received; freely give”? Since the simoniac heresy was the first to arise against the holy church, why is it not considered, why is it not seen, that whoever ordains anyone for a price makes him a heretic by promoting him? Seeing, then, that the holy universal church utterly condemns this most dreadful wickedness, we urge your fraternity in every way to put down this so detestable and so enormous a sin, with all the urgency of your care, in every place under you. For if we find anything of the kind done from now on, we will correct it not with words but with the punishment the canons lay down; and we will begin to think differently of you, which ought not to happen. [d]

Further, your fraternity knows that in the past the pallium was not given unless a fee was received. But since this was unfitting, we held a council before the body of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and under a strict ban forbade taking anything, whether for this or for ordinations. [g] It is your duty, then, not to consent to anyone being advanced to sacred orders, whether for a fee, or for favor, or at the urging of certain persons. For it is a grave sin, as we have said, and we cannot let it go on unrebuked.

I put off receiving Andrew, our brother and fellow bishop named above, because we learned from the report of our brother and fellow bishop Secundinus that he had forged letters, as though from us to himself, in the proceedings against John of Larissa. Had your goodness not persuaded us, we would on no account have received him. Given on the 15th of August, in the thirteenth indiction. [h]