To Senator, Abbot of the Guesthouse at Autun

Gregory to Senator, presbyter and abbot of a hospital, or guesthouse. [a]

When the hearts of catholic kings, and so on. [b]

This letter agrees throughout with the letter that follows, to Thalassia, as does the letter after that, to Lupo, except for the different titles of the persons addressed and of the places named. But the letters to Senator and to Thalassia add, after the words “or absolve her (or him) as innocent,” the following paragraph. [c]

By a like ruling, in keeping with the wishes of the founders, we decree that none of those who may in future be ordained abbot or presbyter of this same guesthouse and monastery shall dare, by any secret scheming whatever, to take the office of bishop, unless he has first been removed from the office of abbot and another has been put in his place. Otherwise, by spending the property of the guesthouse or monastery in unfair expenditure, he might bring the most serious pressure of want on the poor and the strangers, or on others who live from its resources. Moreover, we forbid the bishop to have license, without the consent of the abbot and presbyter, to remove any monk from this place to promote him to a church order, or for any cause whatever; lest encroachment in this matter be carried so far that places which must be built up by gaining men are destroyed by their removal.