Resultados25 letters/passages
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.02
And yet even this is not enough; but something besides is said to be exacted according to a custom of many years. This practice we altogether detest, and desire it to be utterly extirpated from the patrimony. But, whether in this or in other minute imposts, let your Experience consider what is paid too much per pound, …
gregory_great · c. 595 · score 0.02
… dvised connivance that neither is the fear of God maintained there, nor are the imperial commands carried out. They add that in the aforesaid province, through the bribes of the Donatists, the Catholic faith is being openly sold. The distinguished Gennadius, on the other hand, has in turn lodged a complaint against one …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.02
… contradict the orders of our most devout lords [the Emperor and Empress]. Those imperial orders had mercifully and gently removed many of the hardships suffered by landowners and citizens of the empire. We therefore ask you, at a suitable time, to present the case to our most devout lords in accordance with the just an …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.02
Gregory to the Empress Constantina. Almighty God, who holds your devout heart in His right hand, both protects us through you and stores up for you eternal rewards in return for your earthly deeds. I have learned from the letters of my representative, the deacon Sabinianus, how justly Your Serenity has taken up the cau …
gregory_great · c. 596 · score 0.02
These things having been ordained and granted by us, study in the governing of your community to show yourself so earnest and attentive in all respects that the malice of the evil one may find nothing there that can be corrupted. All these provisions, set out in this document of injunctions, we decree to be observed, u …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.02
Gregory to the Emperor Mauricius. Our most devout and God-appointed sovereign, among his many pressing cares, also watches over the preservation of peace among the clergy with genuine spiritual concern -- rightly and wisely recognizing that no one can govern earthly affairs well unless he knows how to handle the things …
gregory_great · c. 603 · score 0.01
… rejoicing, we who are glad that the kindness of Your Piety has ascended to the imperial throne. "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad" (Psalm 96:11). Let the whole people of the republic, so long and so grievously afflicted, grow cheerful at your generous deeds. Let the proud minds of enemies be brought …
gregory_great · c. 597 · score 0.01
Your appointment to oversee the poor table and the administration of the diaconia is now confirmed. This is a charge of the highest spiritual seriousness — the hungry who come to that table are the Lord Christ himself in disguise, and every loaf distributed in his name is an act of worship. I have granted you the neces …
gregory_great · c. 599 · score 0.01
Your experience is mindful of what kind of oath you swore at the most sacred body of blessed Peter the apostle; from which we too, being assured, committed the cause of investigation in the patrimony of the Syracusan region to you. It is therefore fitting that you always keep before your eyes your faith and the fear of …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.01
… e that he alone is a bishop and all the rest are nothing. I ask, then, that the imperial power prohibit this presumption, so that I may not be compelled to take measures that would sadden both me and the Church. Let the matter be resolved through Your Piety's wisdom, so that the peace of the clergy -- and through it, t …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.01
I want you to correct whatever has been done in this way without delay. Slaves taken into church possession without trial should be returned before any trial, so that if the Church has a legitimate claim, the current possessors may then be dispossessed through proper legal proceedings. Correct all this permanently. You …
gregory_great · c. 600 · score 0.01
I need you to locate Adeodatus, who bears this letter, and to look into the matter of a structure he has built on land belonging to the Roman church. I want a full account: what was built, where, under what authority, and what the current state of the matter is. If this was done without proper authorization, the situat …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.01
It has been brought to our attention that certain handmaids of God from the city of Nola, residing in the Aboritana house, are suffering extreme want of food and clothing. It is fitting that we come to their aid by God's command and relieve their poverty as far as we are able, the Lord granting it. Therefore by this pr …
gregory_great · c. 591 · score 0.01
The value of the farmland produce matters little to me if fraud is mixed in. If it comes to my knowledge that you are lax about this, you will be held responsible. Furthermore, I have learned that the Jews in Catania have been complaining that they were expelled by force from the site of their synagogue, which they had …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.01
If the captivity of my land were not growing worse by the day, I would gladly pass over in silence the contempt and ridicule directed at me. But what afflicts me deeply is that my being branded a liar means Italy is dragged further under the Lombard yoke daily. While my reports go unbelieved, the enemy's strength grows …
gregory_great · c. 592 · score 0.01
We recall that your Magnificence, during the time you were here in the city of Rome, learned that Bonifatius, a former accountant, had by his established testament left a certain portion of his inheritance to the hospice situated at the church of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. And since we said we would exe …
gregory_great · c. 599 · score 0.01
… t you receive certain grain allowances from the public treasury [i.e., from the imperial fisc], and that this causes you embarrassment, making you less effective than you should be in the affairs of the Church and in the defense of the poor. Therefore, you must abstain from that which brings embarrassment, and be conte …
gregory_great · c. 595 · score 0.01
The estate property belonging to the Roman church that has been designated for the management of guardianships [tutelas] needs a reliable administrator. I am directing you to assign Peter the defender to oversee this property and the responsibilities that come with it. The management of guardianships is a serious legal …
gregory_great · c. 591 · score 0.01
I have received troubling reports about abuses of the defensorship in Sicily — men who have arrogated to themselves the title and authority of defender without proper appointment from this see. This must stop. The office of defender exists to protect the poor and the Church's interests, not to be usurped as a tool of p …
gregory_great · c. 599 · score 0.01
Gregory to the tenant farmers [coloni] of the Syracusan patrimony. I want you to know that I have placed you under the care of our defensor [church legal officer, Romanus]. Obey him without resistance in whatever he sees fit to do or instructs you to do for the benefit of the Church. I have given him sufficient authori …
gregory_great · c. 595 · score 0.01
Gregory to Maurentius, military commander. A second matter has arisen that requires your attention. I described the first matter in my previous letter; the present matter is separate, though related in that it also requires the kind of coordination between military and ecclesiastical authority that I have come to depen …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.01
I should also inform you that I have received a letter from the most devout Emperor asking me to be at peace with my brother and fellow bishop John of Constantinople. I wish to be at peace with everyone -- and I am. But when John, in his arrogance, assumes the new and unprecedented title of Universal Bishop, effectivel …
gregory_great · c. 591 · score 0.01
Book II, Letter 23 To John, Bishop of Prima Justiniana [a major city in Illyricum/the Balkans, designated by Emperor Justinian as a metropolitan see] in Illyricum. Gregory to John, Bishop of Prima Justiniana. It is clearly a powerful testament to goodness when everyone's agreement converges on one person. Since the rep …
gregory_great · c. 594 · score 0.01
Was it not the case -- as you well know -- that the prelates of this Apostolic See, which by God's providence I now serve, were offered the title of "universal" by the venerable Council of Chalcedon? Yet not one of them ever accepted it or claimed this ill-advised name, lest by seizing the glory of singularity by virtu …
gregory_great · c. 590 · score 0.01
One more thing: I've urged our gracious lords [the Emperor and Empress] as forcefully as I can to allow you to come here to Rome — to the threshold of Peter, prince of the apostles — with your full dignity restored, and to live with me for as long as God wills. For however long I am given to be near you, we could ease …