To Amos, Patriarch of Jerusalem, on a Runaway Acolyte

Gregory to Amos, bishop of Jerusalem. [a] We are confident that your fraternity has regard for the rulings of the canons and the strength of discipline. So, in case the deceit of one of your clerics should succeed in imposing on you and he should escape the strictness of church order, we have thought it right to inform you of his fault, so that through your care he may be brought under the discipline he has fled from. We understand, then, that Peter, an acolyte, whom we had placed in the service of our son Sabinianus the deacon, our church’s representative in the royal city, has fled and gone to your church. If this is true, let your fraternity take care to secure him and send him back here when an opportunity arises. But if, perhaps fearing this, he has left your church and is hiding in various places to avoid being found, order a careful search to be made for him in all your parishes, and when he is found, send him back to us, as we said before. We also wish it to be made known through you that he is deprived of communion. Let him not dare to receive the mysteries of the Lord’s body and blood until he returns to us, unless perhaps he should be in immediate danger of death. [b]