Letter 3039: Dispute has arisen between your brother bishop Adrian and others in your ecclesiastical province.

To the bishops of Corinth. [He sends a deacon to inquire into the reconciliation, of which he has heard, between Adrianus and the bishops who accused him.] Gregory to all the bishops of Corinth. It is our desire that those who are at discord should return to concord, and that those whom diversity of will causes to be divided from mutual affection should be made one in grace. Reading over, therefore, the writings of your fraternity, we have learned that those who had said certain things against our brother and fellow-bishop Adrianus have now come together in friendship with that same bishop, and great gladness over their unity has been brought to us for the present. But since we do not permit the things that have been said to remain unexamined, we are directing a deacon of our See to investigate them; for the nature of the offence reported to us strongly impels us that we ought by no means to disregard the things we have heard, especially since you have indicated that the accusers and the accused have made peace between themselves. It is necessary for us to scrutinize this more subtly, lest perhaps their concord has been procured; for if this, which God forbid, should be established as having been made not out of charity but out of a reward, it must be punished with greater correction. For we who, with God revealing it, hasten canonically to cut away preceding evils, if indeed they are true, in no way dismiss without punishment a fault committed thereafter.

AD EPISCOPOS CORINTHI10S, Diaconum mittit , qui de audita Adrianum _ inter et episcopos ejus accusalores reconciliatione in- quirat, Gregorius universis episcopis Corinthiis. Desiderii nostri est ad concordiam * redire discor- des, et unitos esse in gratia eos quos divisos ab alte- rutra dilecti'one voluntatis facit esse GY diversitas. Scripta igitur ſraternitatis vestre relegentes, agnovi- mus quod hi, qui contra Þ Adrianum fratrem et co- episcopum nostrum aliqua dixerant, modo cum eodem episcopo in amicitiam convenissent, et magna nobis ad prexsens fſacta est de eorum unilate l:etitia. Sed quoniam ea quze dicta Sunt indiscussa remanere non patimur, Sedis nostrz diaconum ad ea investiganda dirigimus ; quia nuntiati nos facinoris qualitas vehe- menter impellit nt ea quz audivimus dissimulare nullatenus debeamus , przsertim cum accusatores et accusatum inter $e fecisse gratiam indicastis, hoe nobis necesse est sublilius perscrutari, ne fortasse eorum sit comparala concordia ; quz $i, quod absit, non ex charitate, sed ex przemio ſacta constiterit, majori hoc emendatione plectendum est. Nam nos qui canonice, revelante Deo, mala, si quidem vera sunt, resecare precedentia lestinamus, commissam postmodum culpam Sine vindicta nulla ratione di- miltimus ©. |