To Queen Brunhild, on Wicked Priests in Her Kingdom

Gregory to Brunhild, and so on. [a]

Since it is written, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin makes peoples miserable” (Proverbs 14, verse 34), a kingdom is believed to be stable when a fault that is known is quickly corrected. Now it has come to our ears by the report of many, what we cannot mention without the deepest grief of heart, that certain priests in those parts live so shamelessly and wickedly that it is a shame for us to hear of it and a sorrow to tell it. Now that the rumor of this wickedness has reached even here, we must rise up with ardor to avenge these things, so that the wrongdoing of others may not strike either our soul or your kingdom with the dart of its sin, and the wickedness of a few may not be the ruin of many. For bad priests are the cause of a people’s ruin. For who can offer himself as an intercessor for a people’s sins, if the priest who ought to have prayed for it commits more serious offenses? But those whose place it is to pursue these things are moved neither by concern to look into them nor by zeal to punish them. So let a letter from you be sent to us, and, if you order it, let us send over a person with the consent of your authority, who together with other priests may search into these things thoroughly and correct them according to the will of God. For indeed what we speak of is not something to be overlooked, since one who can correct a fault and neglects to do so without doubt makes himself a sharer in it. So look to your own soul, look to your grandsons, whom you wish to reign happily, look to the provinces. And before our Creator stretches out his hand to strike, take the most earnest thought for correcting this wickedness, so that he may not strike all the more sharply afterward for waiting now so long and so mercifully. Know, moreover, that you will offer a great sacrifice of atonement to our God if you quickly cut off from your territories the infection of so great a sin. [b]