Letter 4045: Gregory to Fantinus, defensor [a church legal officer responsible for protecting ecclesiastical property and rights].

To Fantinus the Defender. He sends sixty solidi to be paid out on behalf of Cosmas. Gregory to Fantinus the Defender. The bearer of these presents, Cosmas the Syrian, has declared that in the business he was conducting he contracted a debt, which we have believed to be true, since many others and his own tears bear witness to it. And because he owed a hundred and fifty solidi, we wished that his creditors might come to some agreement with him, since [...] the law also holds that a free man is in no way to be held liable for a debt, if there are no goods that can be assigned toward that same debt. Therefore his creditors, as he asserts, can possibly be brought to consent to eighty solidi. But because it is a great deal to demand eighty solidi from a man who has nothing, we have sent you sixty solidi by your notary, so that you may speak carefully with those same creditors and render an account, that if [the debt arises] from him whom they are said to hold, they cannot, according to the laws, hold him. And if it can be done, let them come down to something less than what we have given. And whatever remains of those sixty solidi, hand it over to him, so that he may be able thereafter to live on it with his son. But if nothing remains, take care that his debt be reduced even to that same sum, so that afterward he may be able to work freely for himself. This, however, do skillfully, so that, once the solidi have been received, they may make out for him in writing a full release. (Cf. John the Deacon, book II, no. 55.)

AD FANTINUM DEFENSOREM, Solidos 8exayqinta mittit pro Corma persblvehtios. Gregorius Fintino deſensori. Lator presentium * Cosmas Syrus In negotio quod agebat debitum se contraxi-se perhibuit, T4 quod elmullis aliis et lacrymis ejus attesfantibus verum esse credidimus. Et quia CL Solidos debebat, volui ut cre- D etc., quos Supra laudavimus. Eeist. XLIY [Al. 42]. — * Suos clericos in Siciliz fuisse partibus ordinatos dicit, bello, ut quidem reor, EerisT. XLV [ Al. 45]. — * Eumdem esse pulamus de quo lib. 11, epist. 58. Hieronymus in illud Eze- chielis xxviu, 16 : Syrus negotiator Iuus-... usque ho- die autem, il1juit, permanet in Syris ingenitus nego- liationis ardor, qui per lotum mundum lucri cupiditate discurrunt, et. tantam mercandi habent vecaniam, ut orcupato tunc orbe Romano, inter yladios et mise2rorum neces quuarant divitias, et paupertutem periculis ſugiant. Idewm ad Leatam ; Negottutoribus avidissimes morta- lium Syris. Sidou., lib. 1, epist. 8, de Ravennatiun perversivne ; ſexerantur, inquit, clerici, Syri psal- luxt. SANCTI GREGORI MACNI ditores illius cum eo aliquid paciscerentur, quoniam A nullo modo recessit, suspicor quia excellentia vesira ct Þ Jex habet, ut homo liber pro debito nullatenus leneatur, si res defuerint quz possint eidem debito addici. Creditores ergo $uos, ut asserit, ad Lxxx $0- litos consentire possibile est. Sed quia multum est ut a nil habente homine Lxxx $0lidos petant, LX $0- lidos per nvtarium tuum tibi transmisimus, ut cum eisdem creditoribus subtiliter loquaris, rationem reddas, quia fi jum e;us quem lenere dicuntur, $e- cundum leges tenere non pos8unt., Et si p Les fieri, ad aliquid minus quam nos deiimus condescendant. Et quidquid de eisdem Lx s$olidis remanseril, ipsi trade, ut cum filio $uv exinde vivere valeat. Si au- lem nil remanet, vel ad eamdem summam debitum ejus incidere $stude, ut possit sibi libere postmodum jiaborare. tloc tawen $olerler age, ut, acceptis $0li- dis, ei © plenariam munitionem $8cripto faciant. (Cf. Joan. Diac, l. 11, n. 55.)