Letter 3022: Gregory to Antoninus, Subdeacon, Rector of the patrimony in Dalmatia. It is commonly reported in these parts that our brother and fellow bishop, Natalis of the Church of Salona, is dead. If this is true, let your Experience with all speed and all care hasten to admonish the clergy and people of that city that with one consent they elect a priest...

Book III, Letter 22 To Antoninus, Subdeacon, Rector [administrator] of the Patrimony in Dalmatia. Gregory to Antoninus, Subdeacon, Rector of the Patrimony in Dalmatia. It is widely reported here that our brother and fellow bishop Natalis [of Salona/Split] has still not reformed his conduct despite our many admonitions. Feasting continues, pastoral duties remain neglected, and the case of Archdeacon Honoratus remains unresolved. We have already outlined the consequences of continued disobedience in our previous letters, and we direct you to enforce them. If, upon receiving this letter, you find that Natalis has still not restored Honoratus to his position, proceed with the penalties we have authorized. Furthermore, investigate the state of church affairs in Salona generally. Are the poor being cared for? Are the clergy behaving properly? Is church property being well managed? Send us a detailed report. We also want you to assist our brother Bishop Florentius of Epidaurus, who, as we wrote to you before, appears to have been unjustly expelled from his see. This matter requires your urgent attention. Above all, remember that you represent the Apostolic See in Dalmatia. Conduct yourself with integrity, firmness, and charity. You are there not to make yourself feared but to ensure that justice prevails and that the Church's interests and the welfare of the faithful are protected. Handle the revenues of the Church's patrimony with scrupulous honesty. Keep detailed records. Protect the tenants from exploitation. What you manage belongs not to us but to the poor, and you will give account for every coin.

Book III, Letter 22 To Antoninus, Subdeacon. Gregory to Antoninus, Subdeacon, Rector of the patrimony in Dalmatia. It is commonly reported in these parts that our brother and fellow bishop, Natalis of the Church of Salona, is dead. If this is true, let your Experience with all speed and all care hasten to admonish the clergy and people of that city that with one consent they elect a priest for ordination; and, when the nomination of the person who may be elected has been made, you will take care to transmit it to us, that he may be ordained with our consent, as has been the case from ancient times. And this above all things you must look to, that in this election neither any bribery in any way whatever come in, nor the patronage of any persons whatever prevail. For if one is elected through the patronage of certain persons, he is obliged out of deference to them to comply with their wishes after his ordination, and so it comes to pass that the possessions of that church are lessened, and ecclesiastical order is not maintained. They must, therefore, under your superintendence, elect such a person as will not be unsuitably subservient to the will of any one, but one who in the adornment of his life and conversation may be found worthy of such a high degree. But of the possessions or ornaments of the same church cause an inventory to be faithfully written out in your presence. And, lest any of the possessions themselves should be lost, admonish Respectus the deacon and Stephanus the chief notary (primicerium notariarum) to take sole charge of these possessions, warning them that they will have to make good out of their own substance any diminution of them that may have arisen from their negligence. Moreover, strictly charge Malchus , our brother and fellow bishop, that he refrain entirely from intermeddling in this matter. For, should we learn that anything has been done or attempted by him against our will, let him know that he will incur no slight guilt and danger. But of this also take care to warn him, that he must be careful to set down and complete the accounts of our patrimony which he has had in charge; for doing which let him make haste, laying aside all excuses, to come to us from the Sicilian parts. Let him, then, in no wise presume to meddle with the affairs of the Church of Salona, lest he should be under further liability to it, and possibly found culpable. For he is said to have many things belonging to the aforesaid church; and report goes that he was nearly the prime mover in the sale of its possessions, and in other unlawful doings. And, should this be found in manifest truth to be as it is said to be, he may be certain that it will by no means remain unavenged. Let any necessary expenses be defrayed by the steward who was in office at the time of the aforesaid bishop's death, that so he may explain his accounts to the future bishop as he knows them to be. All the things that we have enjoined on you to be done it is certainly necessary that you should do with the advice of our son, the magnificent and most eloquent Marcellus , to the end that you may be able to carry out carefully and effectively all that is contained in this paper of directions, and that no blame for negligence may belong to you About this page Source. Translated by James Barmby. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 12. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/360203022.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.