To Vitalis, Defensor of Sardinia

Gregory to Vitalis, and so on. [a]

From what your experience has told us, we find that the guesthouses founded in Sardinia are suffering from serious neglect. For this our most reverend brother and fellow bishop Januarius would have had to be very sharply rebuked, were we not held back by his old age and his simplicity, and by the sickness that you tell us has come on him besides. [b] Since, then, he is in such a state that he cannot be fit to set anything in order, warn the steward of that church, and Epiphanius the archpresbyter, under our strict authority, that they themselves, at their own peril, must work carefully and to good purpose to set those same guesthouses in order. For if there is any neglect there from now on, let them know that they will not be able to excuse themselves before us in any way or to any degree. [c]

Further, since the landowners of Sardinia have asked us to let you go to Constantinople to obtain relief for them, because they are weighed down by various burdens, we give you leave to go. We have also written to our most beloved son Boniface, asking him to do his best to help you obtain relief for that province. [d] Moreover, as to the churches that you have told us are without priests, we have written to our most reverend brother and fellow bishop Januarius, whom we named above, to supply them. Yet he must not choose all of them for the office of bishop from his own church. For it is fitting that he supply other churches in such a way as not to leave his own short of people who may be useful to it. [e]

As to what you have told us about men put in charge of certain monasteries who had fallen into sin while they were in a lower monastic rank: they ought indeed not to have taken up the office of abbot except after a complete reform of life and after due penance beforehand. But since, as you say, they have taken up the office of abbots, attention must be paid to their life, their conduct, and their care for their duties. If their conduct is not found to be out of keeping with their office, let them continue in the rank in which they are. Otherwise let them be removed, and let others be ordained who may do good to the souls entrusted to them. Furthermore, in the case of the monastery of Saint Hermas, which was founded by our brother in the house of the religious lady Pomponiana, it ought to be handled with gentleness rather than with strictness. So let your experience try to deal kindly with that lady, so that she does not, to her own sin, disregard the will of the founder, and you do not fail to make wholesome provision for the good of the monastery. Further, as to the girls whom this same Pomponiana had earlier clothed in the religious habit and received into the monastic life in the monastery, you must by no means allow them to be taken away from her or disturbed. Let them continue, under God’s protection, in the state of life in which they are. [f]

As for recovering the property of churches or monasteries, or any other property given to holy uses, about which you have written: those concerned must be told that it is up to them to seek in every way to recover it, with your support and help. But if they should happen to be negligent, or if in any case no one is found whose duty it is to recover it, then search it all out yourself, and when you have found it, get it back in such a way that you do not seem to take legal action against anyone high-handedly. As to what you have told us about the guesthouses of Hortulanus and Thomas, we know nothing of it so far. So let your experience look carefully into the order the emperor has so far given, arrange everything according to its terms, and let us know whatever you have done.

You have written about our brother and fellow bishop Januarius, that when he celebrates the sacrifice he often suffers such distress that he can hardly find his way back, after long breaks, to the place in the canon where he left off; and that many are in doubt whether they should receive communion from his consecration. They are to be told not to be alarmed at all, but to receive communion with full faith and confidence, since a person’s sickness neither changes nor defiles the blessing of the sacred mystery. Nevertheless our brother should by all means be urged in private that whenever he feels any attack coming on, he should not go on to celebrate, so that he does not expose himself to contempt and give offense to the minds of the weak. [g]

Furthermore, the religious lady Pomponiana has complained to us about the inheritance of her late son-in-law Epiphanius. Epiphanius had made his wife Matrona, Pomponiana’s daughter, its life tenant, to hold its use and income for the benefit of the monastery he had directed to be founded in his house, and he left it to that monastery’s benefit in every way after her life interest ended. She complains that this inheritance, together with other things that are shown to belong to the same Matrona by right of possession, has been unjustly taken away by your experience and by our most reverend brother and fellow bishop Januarius, so that nothing from it has so far been paid to her daughter or been of use to the monastery. Now, if this is true, and you know that you have done anything improper, restore what was taken away without any delay. Or at any rate, if you think the matter stands otherwise, then, so that the other side may not seem to be wronged by a judgment made in advance, by no means put off submitting the case to arbitrators chosen with her agreement, so that a definite decision may declare whether her complaint is true and just. [h]