To Columbus, Bishop in Numidia, on the Bishop Peter and Donatist Baptism

Gregory to Columbus, bishop of Numidia. [a]

We have received your fraternity’s letter, full of a priest’s sweetness, by the hand of Rogatianus the deacon, who carries this one. Its kind words gave us great joy, especially because through it we learned what we long to hear about, your well-being. But we have known your holiness’s devotion of old, and we hold it to be just as you now write. For we need nothing to assure us of what your fraternity’s sincerity toward us is like, since we know it from the love in our own heart that embraces you. To the bearer named above, whom you commended to us by letter, we have given letters addressed to the rector of the patrimony of Sicily, telling him to urge the other party to do what is just, so that idle excuses may be set aside and the whole case in dispute may be quickly brought to an end.

We now inform your holiness that a certain man named Peter has come to us, who claimed to be a bishop and asked us for a remedy for his complaint. At first, indeed, he told us things that might have deserved pity; but on inquiry we found matters to be very different from what he told us, and his behavior has distressed us greatly. But since we are separated by so great a distance, we could by no means learn the heart of his case thoroughly, and so, being in doubt, we have been unable to decide it. Now the deacon named above, who is returning to you, has asked that this man be allowed to go with him, and Peter himself has asked to be sent to you, both of them knowing that your holiness has, as befits you, zeal for the faith and love of justice. The proposal pleased us, and we have granted what they asked. Since, then, you are on the spot and can find out the merits of the case more thoroughly, we urge you to observe what is just and according to the canons toward this Peter, so that the demands of what is right may be fulfilled by you in every respect, and his case may be seen to have been judged in the fear of God and by the rules of the church. And if anyone is said to have known of, or taken part in, the things this Peter is accused of, careful inquiry must be made, and when the truth is known, judgment must likewise be given according to the canons.

Furthermore, something altogether intolerable, and hostile to the right faith, has come to our ears: that catholics, which is dreadful to say, and religious persons, which is worse, are consenting to have their children and their slaves, or others under their authority, baptized in the heresy of the Donatists. So, if this is true, let your fraternity strive with all your power to correct it, so that through your care the purity of the faith may stand unbroken, and innocent souls that might be saved by catholic baptism may not perish from the infection of heretics. Whoever, then, of the persons just mentioned has allowed anyone belonging to him to be baptized among the Donatists, strive with all your power and all urgency to call him back to the catholic faith. But if any such person should, on any pretext, put up with this being done in future to those who are his, let him be cut off entirely from the communion of the clergy. [b]