Letter 4019: Leo, the care of the church of Saint Agatha in the Subura is now in your hands, and I want you to understand what...

To Leo the acolyte. He commends the church of Saint Agatha in Subura. Gregory to Leo the acolyte. The care of venerable places admonishes us to think in every way about their usefulness. Therefore, since the church of Saint Agatha in Subura, which was once a den of heretical depravity, has by God's favor been brought back to the cultivation of the catholic faith, you are accordingly warned by the tenor of this authority not to cease gathering each year the rents of all the houses established in this city which it shall be established that the aforesaid church possessed in the times of the Goths; and you shall strive by every means to disburse as much as shall be necessary for the maintenance of the roofs [the church's fabric and repairs], or for the lamps, and for the other repair of the same church. But whatever may be left over, we order you faithfully to bring into the ecclesiastical accounts. In the month of April, in the twelfth indiction. [The remainder of the source consists of editorial apparatus from the Patrologia edition, not part of Gregory's letter. It comprises variant readings from the Vatican, Norman, Reg., Corbie and other manuscripts; a note discussing the canon of the Mass and the admission of the people as fellow-ministers in the offered sacrifice; a note observing that this concerns a monastery scarcely begun, whose abbot Maurus is named but to whom few or no monks were yet attached, so that a foreign priest, perhaps from some neighboring monastery, had to be sought, since a priest who had not professed the monastic life could not fittingly dwell in the monastery and lead the stricter life of the monks; a note that already at the beginning of the sixth century it was the custom that, in places where relics of the saints were preserved, the divine offices should be performed by their own or by neighboring clergy, citing the Council of Epaon, canon 25: "Let relics of the saints not be placed in the oratories of country estates, unless perhaps it happen that clergy of some neighboring parish be at hand who may serve the holy ashes with frequent psalmody"; and a topographical note on the church, referring to the Dialogues, book II, chapter 30, and on Subura as a well-known district of the City of Rome, quoting Martial, book VI, epigram 30 ("All Subura is born to me") and Horace, epode 5 ("that the dogs of Subura may bay at the old adulterer, whom all may laugh at"), and discussing whether the modern church stands on the site of the ancient Subura. ("This matter we may by no means call a consecration.")]

Ab LEONEM ACOLYTHUM. Ecclesiam sancte® Agathe in Subura commendat. Cregorius Leoni acolytho- Locorum venerabilium cura nos admonet de eorum vtilitate per omnia cogitare. Quia ergo eccle- Sia * gancte Agathe giia in Subura, que spelunca in omnibus Vatic., Norm., Reg., Corb., etc. Aliunde populum in consortium oblati sacrificii, tanquam com- minislrum et symmyslam adinittere nihil vetat. lino In can, miss tegumus, pro quibus libi offerimus, vel qui tivi offerunt hoc sacrificium. Vide nolau 36 ad lib. SACTam. | C © Vatie. B, in monte eidem ecclesi@ coherenti, 4 Al, mysleriis, ut habet Valic. A et alii. * Ne hic ex aliena d-cecesi presbyterum cogites, cardinali seu titulato, ac forsan domestico opponi peregrinum. Ex hoc loco Gussanvilleus captata oc- casione, observal priscis Lemporibus in monasteriis, aut nullum, aut unum tanium, et hunc ascititium fuisse presbylerum. Sed perperam. Hic agitur de monasterio» vix inchoato. Vesignatur quidem abbas Maurus, $sed aut nulli aut pauci ipsi adjunguatur monachi, ex quibus ne unum quidem presbyterum ſuisse quid mirum ? Quzrendus ita jue fuit presbyter peregrinus , foriasse ex aliquo vicino monasterio : nam $i monaslicam vitam proſrssus non fſuisset hic presbyter, 4uvmodo in monasterio habitare, ac ar- ctivrein| monauch rum vitam ducere CouSeunsisset ! Prius lectum, illic debeas adhibere. Jam $exto sculo incuute- mos erat, ut in locis ubi Sanctorum reliquiz a>servabantur, oificia divina per p10prios aut vic.nos clericos persolverentur. Concil. Epaon., can. 25 : Sanctorum rel:quic in oratoriis villa- ribus non ponantur, nisi forsan clerics cujuscungue parochie vicinos es8e contingat qui 8acris Cineribus paallendi ſrequentia ſamuleniur. EersT, XIX. — * De hac ecclesia Vide lib. ut Dia- log., C. 3V. Subura est Urbis Komz regio $Satis nula, de qua Martialis, lib. vi, epigr. 30: P Id tota mihi nascitur Subura. Et Horat., epod. 5: Senen, quod omnes rideant, adulterum Latrent Suburauez caues. : Verum in antiqua Subura sitam esse hodiernam $an- & fuit aliquando Þ pravitatis hzrelice, ad catholice A Quam rem nos consecrationem dicere nullo mod® fidei culturam Deo propitiante reducta est, ideo hujus auctoritatis tenore commonitus, © pensiones omnium domorum in hac urbe conslitutarum, quas p:#dictam ecclesiam temporibus habuisse Gothorum consliterit, annis Singulis congregare non desinas, et quantum in sartis lectis, vel luminaribus, aliaque reparatione ejusdem ecclesie necessarium ſuerit, erogare modis omnibus studebis. Quidquid vero exuberare potue- rit, (ideliter rationibus te ecclesiastcis inferre pre- cipimus. 4 Mense Aprili, indictione 12.