Gregory the Great (Wisigothic) → destinatário desconhecido
Tradução moderna em inglês
Your most reverend fellow servant Castorinus, notary of your apostolic see, delivered to me the letter of my lord — a letter mingling honey and wounds. Yet it applied its stings in such a way that it did not withdraw the possibility of healing. For one who rebukes pride, following divine judgment, rightly shows himself to be gentle and mild in some measure.
You stated, then, that I had presumed to use the pallium [a wool vestment symbolizing metropolitan authority] beyond what had been granted to my predecessors, out of ambition for novelty. But the conscience of my own lord, which is guided by God's right hand, should in no way allow him to believe this, nor should he open his most sacred ears to uncertain rumors. First, because although I am a sinner, I have long known how grave a thing it is to overstep the boundaries fixed for us by our fathers, and that all pride leads to nothing but ruin. For if our ancestors did not tolerate pride even in kings, how much less should it be endured in priests? Furthermore, I recall that I was nurtured in the bosom and lap of your most holy Roman Church, and advanced by God's help. With what boldness would I have presumed to oppose that most holy see, which transmits its rights to the universal Church — for whose authority, as God is my witness, I have gravely provoked the hatred of many enemies against myself?
But my most blessed lord should not hold it against me that after so many labors and distresses, which I endure both within and without, I should deserve to find such a return. Yet again, among other things, this consoles me: that sometimes the holiest fathers chastise their sons for no other reason than to make them better. And after this expression of devotion and satisfaction, I trust that you will not only preserve the ancient privileges of the holy Church of Ravenna, which is especially your own, but will even bestow greater ones in your time.
Now, as for what your apostleship writes regarding the use of mappulae [liturgical hand-cloths carried in procession] by my priests and deacons — I confess truly, it wearies me to say anything further about this, since the truth itself, which alone prevails before my lord, should be sufficient. For since this is permitted even to lesser churches established around the city, your apostleship may also discover, if you deign to inquire of the venerable clergy of your own first apostolic see, that whenever the priests or deacons [levites] of the Church of Ravenna came to Rome for the ordination of a bishop or for the response [a formal liturgical ceremony], they all appeared before the eyes of your most holy predecessors carrying mappulae, without any reproof proceeding from it.
For this reason also — and this is attested by many, indeed by nearly all the citizens of this city, and could have been confirmed in the official records if they had been consulted, and the aforesaid most reverend notary could also have attested — that when the sons of the Church have already descended from the secretarium [sacristy], and the deacons enter so that the procession may soon begin, the first deacon customarily vests the Bishop of the Church of Ravenna with the pallium, which he likewise customarily wears in solemn litanies [public penitential processions].
Therefore, let no one attempt to deceive my lord against me, because if he wishes to investigate, with God as my protector, he cannot prove that any novelty was introduced by me. How I have obeyed your commands and served your interests, whenever the occasion required, may Almighty God make manifest to your most pure heart. And I do not attribute this to my sins — that at the time when I, a sinner, was ordained there [in Rome] by your predecessor, all my priests and deacons who accompanied me in attendance upon the lord pope made use of them.
And because our provident God has placed all things in your hand and in your most pure conscience, I adjure you by that apostolic see itself — which you govern first by your character, and now also by the honor due to it — that you in no way diminish the privileges which the Church of Ravenna, which is intimately yours, has enjoyed until now, on account of any fault of mine. Rather, according to the prophetic voice, let punishment fall upon me and upon my father's house, according to its own merit. Because therefore I have submitted all the privileges that were granted to the holy Church of Ravenna by your predecessors, for the sake of greater satisfaction, to the venerable archives according to the records of my predecessors' consecrations — finding the evidence consistent — it is now in God's power and yours to command whatever you judge right once the truth is known. For I, desiring to obey the commands of my lord's apostleship, although ancient custom prevails, have taken care to abstain until receiving a second directive.
Texto latino / grego
JOANNIS RAVENNATIS EPISCOPI AD GREGORIUM PAPAM. Singulis sibi objectis submisse respondet, et Ecclesie 8nE@ privilegia ex consueſudine {uetur; que ne mi- nuant:y postulad. Reverend:s8imus congervus meus Cavtorins , apo- $lolice sedis vesirze notarius, reddidit mihi Þ domi- ni mei epistolam, consoriem mellis et yulneris. Quz Sic lamen ialixit aculeos, ut locum non subtraheret medicinz. Nam qui superbiam, divinum $equens judicium, reprebendit, merito se mitem ac placidum quodammodo proſitetur. | Commemorastis igitur quod ego, noritatis amb1i- lione, pallii usum Supra quam antecessoribus meis indulium fuerat usurpassem. Quam rem proprii do- ra'ni- mei conscientia , que diving regitur dextera, aullo modu credere patiatur, nee Opinionis incerto aures Sacratlissimas aperire. Primum, quia licet pec- Calor, Novi Jamey quam grave git terminos nobis a palribus aſſixos trauscendere, et quod omnis elatio 1ihil aliad habeat quam ruinvam. Nam $i majores nostri in regibus © Superbiam non tulerunt, quanto magis non est in sacerdotibus sustinenda? Beinde re- cvlo me in sigu alque in gremie gacrocancte Fecle- Si vesire Romanz enutiitum , et Deo auxiliante provectum. 4 Et quibus augibus ego $anctivime illi 8edi, quz universali Ecclesiz jura 8ua trangmitiit, G69 presumpserim obviare, propler cujus conger- vandam auctoritatem, 8icut Deo maniſestum est, inultorum contra me inivicorum invidiam graviler excitavi? Sed beatissimus dominus meus nihil me D lib. r, c. 24, F 1, et notam 736 nostri Menardi is librum Sacramentorum. Eeisr. LV | Al. 55]. — ® He epistola desidera- tur in Mss. Vatic. , Anglic. , Norm. , Corb. , Turon., _—OO__ in Rhemensi, duobus Colbert. ac duobus eller, Victor Utic.. lib. 1 Yand. Persecul., c, fo; Cypria- m1s epist, 5) nove Edit. Oxon., versus finem : Navigare audent, et ad Pelri cathedram, alque ad Ercclesiam principalem unde unitas sacerdotalis exoria es!, @ schizm icts et proſanis litteras ſerre. D SANCTI GREGORY MAGNI contra priseam consuetudinem exislimet attentasse, A reprehensione aliqua procedebant. Quare etiam eo quod et a mvltis et prope * ab omnibus civibus huyjus urbis alteslatur, inter gesla etiamsi acquievisset, et SupraScriptus reverendissimus notarius potuerat at- testari, quoniam jam de $ecretario descendentibus filiis Ecclesiz, et ingredientibus diaconibus * ut mox procedatur, tunc primus diaconus episcopo Raven- natis Ecclesize pallium consuevit induere, quo et in litaniis solemnibus uti pariter consuevil. Nullus ergo contra me domino meo conetur $ub- repere, quia si vult, Deo custode, non potest probare quod a me aliqua novitas ſuisset introducta. Qualiter enim jussionibus vel ulilitatibus vestris, ubi causa exegerit, paruerim , omnipolens Deus cordi vestro * purigsimo ſaciat maniſestum ; et hoc peccalis meis tempore quo islic a predecessore vestro peccator ordinatus Sum , cuncti pre>byteri et diaconi mei in obsequium G7Q vJomni pape mecum procedentes usi Sunt. Et quia previdens Deus. noster omnia in manu veslra et in conscientia purissima collocavit, adjuro vos per ipsam sedem apostolicam, quam antea moribus, nunc- etiam honore debilo gubernatis, ut in nullo Ravennali Ecclesiz , quz familiariter vesira est, pro meo merito privilegia quibus hucusque usa est, minuatis ; $:d et 8ecundum vocem propheticam, in me, et in domo patr.s mei, secundum $8unm meri- tum transſeratur. Quia ergo universa privilegia que canctz Ravennati Ecclesiz a predecessoribus vestris indulta- Sunt, pro majori satisfactione subjeci ea in imputo, quod post tot labores atque anguslias, quas BR scriniis venerabilibus secundum consecrationis de- intus ſorisque suslineo, Lalem vicissitudinem merear invenire. Sed iterum me illa res inler alia consola- tur, quod interdum sanctissimi patres ob hoc tan- wmmodo £5 castigant (ilios suos ut eos faciant potio- recs ; et post hanc devotionem ac $atisſactionem sanclaz Ravennati Ecclesiz, que peculiariter vestra eEs1, non solum velera privilegia conservelis , sed et majora vestris temporibus conſeralus: Nam quod de mappulis a presbyteris et diaconibus meis prezumplum apostulatus vester scribit , vere ſateor, txdet me aliquid exinde commemorare, cum per $e verilas, quz apud dominum meum $ola pre- valet, ipsa suſficiat. Nam cum hoc minoribus circa urbem conslilutis Ecclesiis licitum sit, poterit etiam apostolatus domini mei, si venerabilem clerum prim:e apostolice sedis su:e requirere dignatur, modis om- nibus invenire, quia quoties ad ordinationem episco- palus seu responsi sacerdoles vel levitz Ravennalis Ecclesiaz Romam venerunt, omnes in oculis sanctis- Simorum decessorum vestrorum cum mappulis sine * Rhem. et Colhb. antiq., civibus hujus wrbis, etiam inler gesla, 8i acquievissel 8anctus reverendissimus no- larius potnerat allestari. n. 1: | Ast ego quz divum incedo regiua. lbidem : | Et vera incessu patuit dea. De hoc verbo s&pe alibi, maxime in nota 471 ad lib. Sacram, | Climacus refe:t exempla in guarto Scala gradu, num. 26, 2v, 31, 53, 54, etc., et agnosces pralatorum mi- ram prudeniiam in puniendo, subditorum stupendam in p-ticndo obedientiam; ab illis decreta merito im- merentibus suppiicia, ab iis quasi mererentur 2qua- nimiter ſuisse tolerala. Gussaxv. Summo punt:fice Ravennati Ecclesize concessuin his verbis : « Exemplum precepli : Dilectissimo fratri Pet:o, Joannes. Coavenire ' novimus rationi ut eos amictu pallii decoremus, quos in illis civitatibus di- vina inspirante misericordia sacerdotii honor illumi- nat, in quibus hoc etiam illis qui preteritis tempori- lus (uere ponlifices ab aposlolica Sede conslat esse indultum. Jdevque charitati tua uswm pallii, 'Sicut cessorum meorum tempora, fidem nihilominus repe- rienles, nunc vero in Dei et in vestra est poleslale quidquid veritate coguita fieri jusseritis, quoniann ego jus8ionibus apostolatus domini mei parere desiderans, quamvis antiqua consuetudo obtinuit, usque ad $e- cundam jussionem abstinere curavi >,