To Anthemius the Subdeacon, on the Idle Bishop Paschasius

Gregory to Anthemius, subdeacon of Campania. [a]

It has reached our ears that our brother and fellow bishop Paschasius is so idle and negligent in every way that he is not recognized as a bishop in any respect. Neither his own church, nor the monasteries, nor anyone, whether the sons of the church or the oppressed poor, feels any earnest love from him toward them. He gives no help in what is just to those who appeal to him; and, what is still more serious to say, he cannot bear on any account to accept the counsel of the wise and of those who admire what is right, so that he might at least learn from another what he cannot see to by himself. Instead, passing over the things that belong to a pastor’s charge, he gives his whole attention, to no profit, to building ships. As a result, it is reported, he has already lost four hundred solidi or more. This too is added to his faults: he is said to go down to the sea every day with one or two clerics, in so mean a guise that he is the talk of his own people, and seems to strangers so vile and contemptible that he is judged to have nothing in him of the character or dignity of a bishop. If this is so, know that it is not without fault on your part, since you have put off rebuking and restraining him as you should.

Since, then, all this not only discredits him but plainly brings reproach on the office of the priesthood, we want you to summon him on this account before other priests, or before some of his noble sons, and urge him to shake off the vice of sluggishness and not be idle, but watchful in the care of his church and of the monasteries; to show fatherly love to his sons; to stand up, with discernment, in defense of the poor in causes that justice commends; and to receive gladly the counsel of the wise; so that the city may be comforted by his care, and he himself may manage to cover the faults of his idleness. If, however, as we do not believe will happen, he should dare after this exhortation of ours to be negligent in his usual way, he must by all means be sent to us, so that in our presence he may learn what it befits a priest to do, and how to do it, in the fear of God. Given in the month of March, in the sixth indiction.