To the Clergy and People of Rimini, on Choosing a New Bishop

Gregory to the clergy, and so on. [a] Our pastoral charge obliges us to come with anxious care to the help of any churches that are left without the government of a priest. Your church, as you know, has long been without pastoral rule because of the illness of its own priest. So, moved by your appeals, we did not fail to urge that bishop to take up again the ministry of the priesthood he had undertaken, if he should feel himself recovered from that illness. We warned him again and again. Now, still weighed down by the same illness, he has let us know, in a petition sent to us in writing, that because of this illness he is in no way able to rise to the government of that church or to the office he undertook. Compelled, then, by his hopeless condition, we have thought it necessary to take thought for putting your church in order. We urge, therefore, that all of you, with one consent, without noise or disturbance, choose with the Lord’s help such a priest to preside over you as the venerable canons will not reject, and who will also be found worthy of so great a ministry. And when he is called for, let him come to us to be ordained, bringing a formal decree signed by all of you and backed by the written approval of the visitor, so that by the Lord’s ordering your church may have its own priest. [c] We also want you to take the man whom you have chosen together, without delay, to our brother and fellow bishop Marinianus at Ravenna, so that, once he has been thoroughly examined and tested by him, he may come to us supported by his testimony as well. [d]