Letter 11050: Agathosa, the bearer of these presents, complains that her husband has, against her will, been converted in the monastery of the abbot Urbicus. And, since this undoubtedly touches the credit and reputation of the said abbot, we enjoin your Experience to investigate the matter by diligent enquiry, so as to see whether it may not be the case that...
Gregory to Adrian, Notary of Palermo.
Agathosa, the bearer of this letter, complains that her husband has been received into the monastery of the abbot Urbicus against her will [meaning he became a monk without her consent].
Since this directly affects the abbot's reputation, I need you to investigate the matter carefully. Determine whether the husband's conversion was actually done with her consent, or whether she herself had promised to enter religious life. If either is the case, let him stay in the monastery and compel her to follow through on her promise.
But if neither is true, and you find no evidence that she has committed adultery -- which is the only lawful ground for a man to leave his wife -- then her husband must be returned to her, even if he has already been tonsured [received the monastic haircut]. We cannot allow his conversion to become an occasion of spiritual ruin for the wife he left behind.
Here is the principle: secular law may permit a marriage to be dissolved for the sake of religious conversion against either party's will. But divine law does not. Except for the cause of fornication, a man may not put away his wife. Once husband and wife have been made one body through marriage, the body cannot be partly converted and partly left in the world.
Human translation — New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
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