To Romanus the Defensor, on Peter’s Children and the Estate of Vitelas

Gregory to Romanus, and so on. [a]

Your experience knows well that Peter, whom we have made a defensor, was born on the estate of our church called Vitelas. Now we ought to show him kindness, but in such a way that the church suffers no loss by it. So we command you by this order to charge him strictly not to presume, on any pretext or excuse, to marry his children anywhere but on the estate to which they are bound by law and by their condition. In this matter too your experience must be very careful, and must warn them with threats, so that on no occasion whatever do they leave the property to which they are subject by their birth. For if any one of them should presume to leave it, which we do not believe will happen, let him be assured that we will never give our consent to any of them living or marrying outside the estate on which they were born, and further, that their land will be superscribed. And then know that you yourself will run no slight risk if, through your negligence, any of them tries to do any of the things we forbid. [b]