Letter 1051: Gregory to all monks established on the island of Monte Cristo [a small island off the Tuscan coast with a monastic...

To all the monks established on the island of the Mount of Christ. [Editorial summary:] He orders those wayward monks to obey the abbot Horosius. Gregory, to all the monks established on the island of the Mount of Christ. [Editorial apparatus on the heading and place-name: So it reads in all the Vatican, Norman, and other manuscripts. In the old edition the name "Orphiana" was formed by corruption from "Eumorphiana." Finally in the more recent editions it is read as "Orphiaria," which Gussanville says is a small island of the Tyrrhenian Sea, not far from Palmaria and Pontia. From the situation of "Eumorphiana" we conjecture that it is the very same island which is now called the island of Saint Mary. Concerning the monks inhabiting it, a letter is written to Anthemius, governor of Campania, to the effect that, like Palmaria, it lay off the coast of Campania.] [Editorial note: This law, which provides that boys should not be received into monasteries before eighteen years of age, is to be understood only of the monasteries of those islands, as will at once be plain to the reader. Hence this prohibition is in vain set against the rule of Saint Benedict, which permits the admission of boys below these years.] [Editorial note: It is likewise a small island of the Tyrrhenian Sea opposite Terracina, about thirty-seven miles distant from it (Gisinus).] It has come to our notice that you observe none of the precepts of the monastic rule; for which reason we have been compelled to send to you the bearer of the present command, the abbot Horosius, so that, examining all your acts thoroughly, he may set in order whatever shall seem to him correct, and report back to us the things that have been ordained by him. We therefore admonish you that you render him every obedience; and whatever he shall have ordained, keep it with due reverence, as though it had been ordained by me.

AD UNIVERSOS MONACHOS IN CHRISTI MONTE INSULA CONSTITUTOS. Abnormes illos monachos H orosio abbati obedire jubet. Gregorius universis monachis * in Christi monte insula constitutis, | EersT. L (Al. 48). — * Sic legitur in omnibus Va- tic., Norm., etc. In vet. Ed. ex Eumorphiana con- flatum ect Orphiana. Tandem in recenlioribus legi- tur Orphiaria, quam insulam esse parvam Tyrrheni maris, non longe a Palmaria et Ponlia, Gus-anvil- leus ait. Ex Eumorphiane situ conjicimus illam ip- Sam esse insulam, qua? nune 8ancle Marie ivsula dicitur. De monachis eam incolentibus ad Anthe- mium Campanie rectorem scribitur, quod, uti et Palmaria, Campaniz liuttori objaceret. © Hzc lex qui cavet ve pueri ante decem et oclo annos jn monasleriis recipiantur, de itlarum insula- rum monasterbs tantum inteſlligitur, ut l-egenti Sta- um patevit. line regule sanct Benedicti puerorum Inſra hos annos admissivnem permittent} ſrustra op- ponitur hc probibitio. C |nsula eliamn paryva maris Tyrrheni contra Toer- racinam, - ab ea Circiter xxxvit mill. (Gisins. Has A Pervenit ad nos nulla vos monachicz regula: pre» cepla cusltodire : pro qna re -compulsi 8umus pre- sentis precepti portitorem Horosium abbatem ad vos dirigere, ut omnia acta vesira 6ubliliter exqui- rens, quzque ei recta ſuerint visa disponal, el nobis quze ab eo ordinata ſuerint renuntiet. Proinde ad- monemus ut omnem ei obedientiam prebealis; et quidquid disposuerit, velut a me dispositum, cum debita reverentia cuslodite.