Gregory the Great (Wisigothic)→Unknown|gregory great
From: Pope Gregory I
To: Maximus, Bishop of Salona
Date: ~603 AD
Context: Gregory says he will no longer trust Maximus's representatives without a legally signed mandate
My brother Maximus, I must address something that has caused repeated difficulties: your representatives have been presenting themselves at this see and speaking on your behalf in ways that I can no longer simply accept at face value. There have been too many instances where what they claimed to represent was not what you actually intended or authorized. Going forward, I will not act on anything your representatives bring to me unless it is accompanied by a mandate written by your own hand and legally subscribed. This is not distrust of you personally; it is prudence in dealing with the inevitable gap between what a representative says and what his principal actually intends.
AD MAXIMUM SALONITANUM EPISCOPUM.
Ittins hominibus non crediturum 8e deinceps, nisi
mendatum fegaliter subscriptum habeant.
Gregorins Maximo episcopo Salonitano.
Alia quidem scripta ad fraternitatem tnam antea
. ſeceramus; ®* 8ed tempore quo homines tuos quos
ad nos misisti relaxare volnimns scripsisse te qui-
busdam nostris comperimus quod Þ Veteranum pfe-
sbyterum atque Optatum defensorem tunc minime in
causa transmiseris, et ideo ea que cum eis acta sunt
non debere subsistere. Sed et Thomas, Eeclesize tua
defensor, sibi verbo a te dictum perhibuit. Ex qua
re jam nec praentium portitoribus judicavimus
es8e credendum, ne de ipsis quoque post hzec $imi-
liter diceretur. Quia ergo hc res nos valde ſecit
ambigere, et cantos esse _debere praemonuit, si
causam vultis dicere, instructam de cxtero pers0-
nam * cum mandato 1226 legaliter facto, tuis ac
presbyterorum $sen diaconorum 4. in testimonium
s1Þscriptionibus roborato, gestisque ex more in-
dito, transmitlite, ut quidquid cum ea actum fue-
rit possit jure subsistere. Nam nos non solum tibi,
8d etiam omnibus quod justum legitimumque fuerit
parati 8umus, Deo juvante, per omnia custodire ;
lantum est ut tu quod lege pracipitur facere non
omittas. |
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From:Pope Gregory I
To:Maximus, Bishop of Salona
Date:~603 AD
Context:Gregory says he will no longer trust Maximus's representatives without a legally signed mandate
My brother Maximus, I must address something that has caused repeated difficulties: your representatives have been presenting themselves at this see and speaking on your behalf in ways that I can no longer simply accept at face value. There have been too many instances where what they claimed to represent was not what you actually intended or authorized. Going forward, I will not act on anything your representatives bring to me unless it is accompanied by a mandate written by your own hand and legally subscribed. This is not distrust of you personally; it is prudence in dealing with the inevitable gap between what a representative says and what his principal actually intends.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.