To Anthemius the Subdeacon, on the Negligent Bishops of Campania

Gregory to Anthemius, subdeacon of Campania. [a]

Whenever we hear things of our brothers and fellow bishops that show them to be at fault and cause us sorrow, necessity compels us in no small degree to take thought for their correction. It has been reported to us that the bishops of Campania are so negligent that, forgetting the dignity and character of their office, they show the care of fatherly watchfulness neither toward their churches nor toward their sons, nor concern themselves about monasteries, nor give their protection to the oppressed and the poor. We therefore order you, and hereby give you authority, to call them together and admonish them strictly by virtue of our command, that they be idle no longer. Let them so show their priestly zeal and concern, and be so watchful in what it befits them to do justly and according to God, that no complaint about them may provoke us any more. If, however, after this has been done, you find any one of them negligent, send him to us without accepting any excuse, so that through the regular exercise of discipline they may be made to feel how serious a matter it is to refuse correction in things that deserve blame and the strongest condemnation.