To Virgilius, Bishop of Arles

Gregory to Virgilius, and so on. [a]

Since by the testimony of Holy Scripture greed is called the service of idols, everyone acknowledges how earnestly it ought to be banished from the temple of God. And yet, we say it with groaning, some priests pay no attention to this. For fierce craving holds the heart captive and persuades it that whatever it commands is lawful, and it goes so far as to kill with the same sword both the one who gives and the one who receives. What safe place, then, can hold out against greed from now on, if the church of God is opened to it by bad priests? How can he keep the sheepfolds unharmed who invites the wolf to come in? Oh, the shame of it! He defiles his hands with an unlawful bribe, and thinks he can raise up others by his blessing, while he himself lies prostrate under his own wickedness and is a captive to his own ambition all the same. Since, then, this evil of grasping has never entered the citadel of your mind, and you say that your hands are clean in the matter of ordinations, give thanks to Almighty God, and acknowledge that you are in his debt, since under his protection you have remained untouched by the infection of this disease. But this good in you will profit you less than it might have done if you have not also carefully forbidden this thing in others. As this evil displeased you in yourself, you ought to have been zealous against it in your brother as well. For since the divine commands admonish us to love our neighbors as ourselves, it is no small fault to disregard them, and not to fear for others what we shrink from for ourselves. Even now, then, most beloved brother, set your mind to repairing what you have lost in others through your negligence in correcting them. Restrain whomever you can from this wickedness, and press for a synod to be assembled to root out this same heresy, so that, with reward to your love, what has been condemned, God granting it, by the decree of all may be better guarded against by all. [b]

Furthermore, it has come to our ears that our brother and fellow bishop Serenus of Marseilles receives bad men into his close company, so much so that he has as his intimate friend a certain presbyter who, after his fall, is said to wallow in his wickedness still. You ought to look into this closely. If it proves to be so, take care to correct the matter in our place, so that the one who has received such a man may learn not to encourage him by familiarity but rather to restrain him by punishment, and the one who has been received may learn to wash away his sins with tears and not to pile up wickedness by unclean living. Let your fraternity hold as commended to you in every respect the monks whom we have sent to our brother and fellow bishop Augustine. Take pains to help them on their way and to work with them, so that through your assistance they may, under the protection of God, reach their destination quickly.