To Marinianus, Archbishop of Ravenna, on a New Bishop for Rimini

The Pastoral Rule and Letters

Letters, Book 7

To Marinianus, Archbishop of Ravenna, on a New Bishop for Rimini

Gregory to Marinianus, archbishop of Ravenna. Your fraternity has long known how the church of Rimini has until now been deprived of a pastor’s government, because of the well-known bodily illness of the priest who was ordained by us. Moved by the prayers of the people of that place, we often urged him to return to his church, with the Lord’s help, if he should feel himself relieved of the affliction of the head that kept him away. He has now been waited for four years since the leave of absence given him. And when, at the urging of clergy and citizens who came from there and pressed us with entreaties, we earnestly urged him to go back with them, the Lord helping him, if he was able, he begged us in a written petition to ordain a bishop for that church. For because of the affliction that holds him, he can in no way rise to the government of that church, or to the office he took up.

So, since the charge laid on us of caring for all the churches compels us to see that the flock of the faithful is no longer left without a pastor’s guardianship, and since we are pressed by their entreaties and by his resignation on the ground of his own inability, we have resolved that a bishop should be ordained for this church of Rimini. Having issued our decree according to custom, we have not failed to urge the clergy and people of that church to come together in united agreement to choose a prelate for themselves.

We therefore urge your fraternity to have the man whom all choose with one consent, as they themselves have asked leave to do, summoned before you, and to test him by careful inquiry on every side. And if, by the Lord’s favor, none of the things that are punished by death in the text of the Heptateuch are found in him, and if his life proves itself to you on the report of trustworthy persons, send him to us with the certificate of his election, adding a letter of your own bearing witness, so that, under the Lord’s ordering, a prelate of this same church may be consecrated by us.