To Virgilius, Bishop of Arles, on the Privileges of King Childebert’s Monastery

Gregory to Virgilius, and so on. [a]

Since the desire of a devout purpose and the bent of a praiseworthy devotion ought always to be helped by the earnest efforts of priests, anxious care should be taken that neither slackness, neglect nor presumption disturbs whatever has been ordained for the quiet of monks and of the religious way of life. But just as it was right that what reason required should be usefully prescribed, so what has been prescribed ought not to be violated. Now Childebert of glorious memory, king of the Franks, fired with love for the catholic religion, founded for his own reward a monastery for men within the walls of the city of Arles, and, as we find set down in writing, granted it certain things for the support of those living there. And so that his purpose should never be frustrated, nor what had been arranged for the quiet of the monks be disturbed, he asked in his letters that whatever rights he granted to that monastery might be confirmed by apostolic authority. To his petition he added this as well: that certain privileges might at the same time be granted to the same monastery, both in the management of its affairs and in the ordination of its abbot. He did this because he knew that the faithful pay such reverence to the Apostolic See that no harassment by unlawful seizure would afterward shake what had been settled by its decree. So, since both the king’s purpose and the thing he desired pressed urgently to be carried out, our predecessor Vigilius, bishop of the Roman see, sent letters to your predecessor Aurelius, in which everything that the wish to carry out that purpose required was willingly confirmed with the support of apostolic authority, since a request of this kind could not be allowed to meet with difficulty. And so that your fraternity may know what was decreed at that time, we have had the written orders of our predecessor attached to this letter. When you have read them through, we urge you to keep them all unbroken with a priest’s earnestness, as befits you, and to allow nothing improper or unlawful to be imposed on that monastery, and no encroachment to infringe those orders. For although what has once been sanctioned by the authority of the Apostolic See lacks nothing of its force, we nonetheless, over and above that, confirm once more by our authority, in every respect, everything our predecessor ordained for the monastery’s quiet in this matter. Let your fraternity, then, so conduct yourself in observing them as both to shut out every occasion of disturbance and to persuade others to carry these things out, while you show yourself careful and devoted, as befits you, in observing the most devout wishes of the one who has departed. [b]