To Boniface, Deacon at Constantinople, on the Fortress of Cassiopus

Gregory to Boniface, deacon at Constantinople. Whenever the discord of those who ought to have been preachers of peace makes us sad, we should work with great care to remove the cause of the quarrel, so that those who disagree among themselves may come back to harmony. Now it would take very long to tell what has been done about the fortress of Cassiopus, which lies on the island of Corcyra, and how the bishop of Euria is trying to take it out of the jurisdiction of the bishop of Corcyra and wrongfully bring it under his own. But so that your love may understand everything fully, we have sent you the letters of our brother Alcyson, the bishop of Corcyra, and we have had his man go to you to tell you everything in more detail by word of mouth. [a]

This much, however, we mention briefly. An order was obtained by stealth from the late emperor Maurice; but since it was given against the laws and the sacred canons, it had no effect. And since the dispute between the parties remained undecided, the emperor gave another order to our late brother Andrew, then metropolitan of Nicopolis, directing that, since both parties were under his jurisdiction, he should hear the case and settle it according to the canons. That metropolitan heard the case and pronounced sentence, a copy of which we are sending you. He decided that the fortress of Cassiopus was under the power and jurisdiction of the bishop of Corcyra, in whose diocese it always was; and we, approving his sentence, have thought fit to confirm it by the authority of the Apostolic See. And so that what we decreed would not be so strict as to seem to have no mixture of kindness in it, we took care to order the matter for the present, as the text of our sentence that we are sending you shows, so that neither would the bishop or clergy of the city of Euria be put under any constraint as to where they live, nor would the privileges of the church of Corcyra be disturbed in any way.

But at the very beginning of the proceedings an order was obtained by stealth from our most serene lord the emperor; and, contrary to the judgment of the metropolitan of Nicopolis, which rested on church propriety and the reasoning of the canons, the fortress of Cassiopus is said to have been handed over to the bishop of Euria. We cannot hear of it without grief or tell it without groans. This has done still greater wrong to the bishop of Corcyra and his clergy, so that, sad to say, it takes away the jurisdiction of the church of Corcyra entirely, and gives the bishop of Euria, as it were, the whole principal jurisdiction there. That being so, we have thought it right to deliver our sentence to no one, so that we may not seem to do anything against the order of our most merciful lord the emperor, or, God forbid, in contempt of him. So let your love carefully lay the whole matter before his piety, and firmly insist that the thing is wholly unlawful, wholly wrong, wholly unjust, and gravely opposed to the sacred canons; and so may he not allow a sin of this kind to be brought in during his reign, to the injury of the church. Set before him what is contained in the judgment the late metropolitan gave on this business, and how his decision was confirmed by us. And work to bring it about that our sentence may be sent to those parts together with an order from him, so that we may be seen to have shown due deference to his serenity, and to have corrected by reason what had been presumptuously done wrong. In this affair every effort must be made, if it can be done, to have him add his own order as well, requiring that what we have decided be observed. For if this is done, all room for gaining orders by underhand means will be shut out from now on. Hurry, then, with the help of Almighty God, to use your watchfulness to put down these wrongs, so that the will of those who attempt perverse things may gain no advantage now against the long-standing settlement of church custom, and so that a wicked proceeding may not later gain ground as a precedent.

Furthermore, so that you may know what wrongs and what oppression our brother and fellow bishop Alcyson, named above, says he suffers from the agents of the church of Thessalonica, we have forwarded to your love the letter he has sent us. So have the representative of that church come to you, hear the case in his presence, and write to our brother and fellow bishop Eusebius on whatever points reason may suggest to you, so that he may forbid his men to act unjustly and warn them not to oppress those below them, but rather to help them in whatever is just. This also we wish: that your love write to whoever may have been ordained metropolitan in the city of Nicopolis, so that he may hear the case of the injuries our brother Alcyson complains have been done to his church, and decide what is just; for the matter itself is said not to have been decided by his predecessors, but held over. [d]