7 surviving letters between Fortunatus and Pope Gregory the Great, spanning 595-600 AD.
Gregory to Fortunatus, Bishop of Neapolis (Naples). We have written before now to your Fraternity that, if any [slaves] by the inspiration of God, desire to come from Jewish superstition to the Christian faith, their masters have no liberty to sell them, but that from the time of their declaring their wish they have a full claim to freedom. But ...
Gregory tells Fortunatus to dedicate Theodosius' monastery, allow masses there, and leave offerings for the monks who serve the place.
As it is reprehensible and deserving of punishment for any one to sell consecrated vessels except in cases sanctioned by law and the sacred canons, so it is not a matter for reproach or penalty if they should be disposed of with a compassionate purpose for the redemption of captives. Since, then, we find from the information given us by your Fra...
Gregory to Fortunatus, bishop, and Anthemius, guardian (defensori). Catellus, the bearer of these presents, has informed us that his sister, who had been betrothed to one Stephen, has, through divine mercy moving her, been converted in a monastery at Naples, and that the same Stephen improperly detains a house and some other things belonging to...
Having learned what zeal inflames your Fraternity in behalf of Christian slaves whom Jews buy from the territories of Gaul, we apprize you that your solicitude has so pleased us that it is also our own deliberate judgment that they should be inhibited from traffic of this kind. But we find from Basilius, the Hebrew, who has come here with other ...
Inasmuch as the Father of God's servants whom I had sent to the city of Naples has, by the ordering of God as it has pleased Him, departed this life, it has seemed good to me to send the bearer of these presents, the monk Barbatianus, for the government of the same monks. For the present we decide that he shall be Prior, so that, if his life sho...
When your Fraternity pays too little attention to the monasteries that are under you, you both lay yourself open to reproof, and make us sorry for your laxity. Now it has come to our ears that one Mauricius, who lately became a monk in the monastery of Barbacianus, has fled from the same monastery, taking other monks with him. In this case the h...