To Syagrius, Bishop of Autun, on the Wrongs Done to Ursicinus of Turin

Gregory to Syagrius, and so on. [a]

If in worldly affairs every man should have his right and his proper rank kept for him, how much more ought no confusion to be let into the arrangements of the church, so that discord may not find a place where the blessings of peace ought to come from. And this will be secured in this way: if nothing is yielded to power, but everything to fairness.

Now it has been reported to us that our most beloved brother Ursicinus, bishop of the city of Turin, after the captivity and plundering he endured, has suffered serious injury in his parishes, which are said to lie within the borders of the Franks. It has gone so far that another man has been made bishop there, against the church’s rules, though no crime of his called for it. And in case this injury should seem a light matter, a further hardship has been added: the property of his church that he might have held has been taken from him. Now if these things are really so, since it is a very cruel thing, and contrary to the sacred canons, that anyone’s ambition should remove from his own altar an innocent priest who has committed no crime for which he deserves to be replaced, let everyone regard his cause as his own, and strive against having done to others what they would not want to endure themselves. For if the door to an evil thing is not shut before it has stood long open, use makes it wider, and what reason plainly forbids, custom will allow. But above all others, let your fraternity’s care, out of regard for our commendation and your own sense of what you owe to God, give itself earnestly to his defense, and not allow him to be kept out of his parishes any longer against reason. Rather, both in your own person and by appealing to the most excellent kings, who, we believe, give you no cause for sorrow in any way, bring it about that what has been done wrongly is corrected, and that what has been taken by force is restored under the protection of truth. For since it is written, “A brother helping a brother will be exalted” (Proverbs 18, verse 19), your love may know that you will receive from Almighty God all the more, the more gladly and steadily his commands have been carried out in helping a brother. [b]