To Candidus the Presbyter, on Buying English Boys for the Monasteries

Gregory to Candidus, presbyter, on his way to the patrimony of Gaul. [a]

Now that you are setting out, with the help of our Lord God Jesus Christ, to govern the patrimony in Gaul, we want your love to use the money you may receive to buy clothing for the poor, or English boys of about seventeen or eighteen, who may profit by being given to God in monasteries. In this way the money of Gaul, which cannot be spent in our country, may be spent profitably in its own region. Further, if you succeed in getting anything from the revenue money that is called ablatae, we want you to use this too to buy clothing for the poor, or, as we said before, boys who may profit in the service of Almighty God. But since any who can be found there are pagans, I want a presbyter to be sent here with them, in case any sickness occurs on the way, so that he may baptize those he sees to be about to die. So let your love go about this in such a way as to lose no time in carrying these things out diligently. [b]