Letter 4064: The priest John has been examined by a properly constituted council on the charge of heresy and has been found innocent.

To Theotistus. That John the presbyter, acquitted by a council convened on the charge of heresy laid against him, may be protected from all molestation. Gregory to Theotistus, kinsman of the emperor. We know that the Christian devotion of your excellency is ever intent upon good works; and therefore we provide for you occasions of reward, which it is certain that you love, so that by providing for your merits we may be joined to them. We make known to you, accordingly, that John the presbyter, the bearer of these presents, has been found free from those charges of which he had been accused. Examining his faith with subtle scrutiny in a council convened for the purpose, as he requested, we found in him no fault of perverse confession. But because [...] [a passage is here interrupted by an editorial footnote: the petition should contain the name of the accused and the accuser, the crime, the place of the crime, the day, the hour, etc. The accuser ought also to have his proofs ready; otherwise he must pay the penalty of a calumniator. AUGET. - Letter XVII. With no reason and against the manuscript evidence it is read in the recent edition, as well as we could. Letter XVII. This letter is not found in the English, Norman, Corbie and most manuscripts, but it is in the Vatican, Rheims and Regius. Patrologia LXXVII.] [the letter resumes] ... [the matter] has fallen out, we have absolved him by our own definition, especially since his very accusers professed that they did not know what the heresy of the Marcianists, which they kept mentioning, might be. Wherefore, greeting you with fatherly affection, we ask that you deign to protect him with the grace of your favor. And lest anyone wish, after this, to afflict him without cause, or to inflict upon him any molestation in any manner whatever on account of this matter, may the protection of your excellency so guard and defend him against these things, the more insistently for the sake of its own reward, that no further unjust tribulation may consume him, and that the Author and Redeemer of the human race, whom you worship with sincere confession, may recompense you in his stead, among the many good deeds that you perform. He grants the use of the pallium, and confirms the ancient privileges. Gregory to John, bishop of Syracuse. Provoked by the benevolence of the Apostolic See and the order of ancient custom, we have foreseen that the use of the pallium is to be granted to your fraternity, who, it is established, has undertaken the office of governance in the Church of Syracuse - namely at those seasons and in that order in which you do not doubt that your predecessor also made use of it. We admonish you nonetheless of this: that, just as you rejoice to have received from us the use of this ornament for the honor of the priestly office, so likewise you may strive, by uprightness of character and of deeds, to adorn the office you have undertaken, to our glory in Christ. For thus you will be conspicuous to one another with mutual honor, if to the habit of this body [the pallium] [your mind also may be in accord, according to two Vatican manuscripts]. That their mutual love may acquire heavenly joy, let them aid one another with mutual prayers. Gregory to Dominicus, bishop of Africa. The utterance of your letters, full of priestly charity, so makes your holiness cling by memory to our minds, that you are not believed to be absent in body, since indeed that which abides through affection ever remains in the heart. Therefore, that this love which we have toward one another may acquire for us the advantage of heavenly joys, let us be helpers of one another, and let us extend to one another the aid of mutual prayer; so that the divine mercy may by the gift of its clemency grant us both to preach what it loves, and to follow that which it has granted to be preached through us. And so may it dispose the ministry of our office under the protection of its piety, that we may carry back to it the fruit of the things entrusted [to us] when the Lord comes, and that we may be brought, with the gain of others and by the help of his grace, to the future rewards of equity. And because it is written, Pray for one another, that you may be saved (James 5:16), in order that we may deserve to attain to these things, it is fitting both that I press on in prayers for you before the most sacred body of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and that you do so for me before the holy martyr Cyprian. For our prayers are raised up the more swiftly to the ear of the Lord's piety, the more the ardor of charity sharpens them, poured forth in turn on your behalf. But because your holiness refused to address me with bare words, you joined gifts also to your letters. These we received with thanksgiving; yet nonetheless we are delighted more by the affection of your mind than by the abundance of things.

AD THEOTISTUM. Joannem presbyterum, ab imposito 8ibi hereseos crimine facto concilio absolutum, lueatur ab omni moleslia. Gregorius Theotisto cognalo imperatoris. Scimus excellentie vesire Christianitatem bonis intentam semper operibus; et idcirco mercedis yobis causas, quas vos diligere cerium est, providemus, ut nos veslris meritis providendo jungamur. Indicamus itaque vobis Joannem presbyterum Ja- torem presentium liberum ab his quibus accusatus ſuerat exslitisse. Cujus fidem facto concilio subtili examinatione , * ut peliit, perscrulantes, nullam in eo culpam pravz conſessionis invenimus. Sed quia ptioners, quz contineat nomen accusati et accusan- tis, crimen, criminis locum, diem, horam, etc. De- bet etiam accusator paratas habere probationes; alioquin pcenas calumnjatoris luere. AUGET. Eerisr. XVII. — * Nulla ratione ac contra Mss. fidem in recent. Ed. legitur, ut potuimus. Eet-r. X Vil. — * Hzec epistola non reperitlur in Anglic., Norm., Corb. et plerizque Mss., es lamen in Vatic., Rbem. et Reg. PaTRrROL. LXXVII. PR ruit, nostra eum definitione absolvimus, presertim cum accusatores ipsius quz esset Marcianistarum quam commemorabant hezresim $e nescire proſessi sunt. Eapropter, paterno salutantes affectu, quzesu- mus ut ſavoris vesiri YQG eum gratia tueri digne- mini. Et ne quisquam illum ſrustra post hoc velit aſfligere, aut aliquam ei pro hac re quolibet modo molestiam irrogare, ita eum excellentiz vestre de- ſensio contra hc inslantius pro sua mercede prote- gat ac deſendat, ut nec bunec awplius tribulatio inju- sta consumat, et ejus vobis vicem humani generis conditor ac Redemptor, quem sincera conſessione colitis, inter bona plurima que agitis recompenset. Pallii usum concedit, et antijua firmat privilegia. Gregorius Þ Joauni episcopo Syracusano. | Apostolice sedis benevolentia et antique consue- tudiais vrdine provocati, fraternitati tuz, quam in Syracusana Ecclesia gubernationis officium constat $vSCepisse, pallii usum previdimus concedendum, Illis videlicet temporibus © atque eo ordine quibus decessorem quoque luum usum es8enon ambigis : hoc nihilominus admonentes, ut sicut a nobiz hujus deco- ris usum ad $acerdotalis officii honorem accepisse te gaudes, ila etiam morum atque actuuw probitate, ad gloriam in Chrislo nostram, $usceptum adornare conlendas officium, Sic enim allerno eris invicem C decore consp-cuus, si ad hujus corporis habitum Ut mutua ipsorum dilectio celeste gaudium acquirat, muluis 8ese orationibus adjuvent. Gregorius * Dominico episcopo Aſricano., Epistolarum vestrarum plena sacerdolalicharitate elocutio ita $Sanctilatem vestram memoriter nostris - ſacit mentibus inh@rere, ut non credatur abesse cor- pore, quippe quz per afſectum semper manet in corde. Ut ergo hazc quam ad alterutrum habemus D consecratus an. 596. Imitator ſuit virtatum decess0- ris Sui, nam episl. 9, lib. vi, nunc lib. vu, laudat eum Gregorius quod eleemosynas ad se miserit pay- peribus erogandas. Obiit sanctissime an. 609. Ejus ſestum recolit Ecclesia Syracusana die 28 Uctobris. GussAanv: | 4d Duo Vatic., mens quoque tua concordet. EeisT. XIN. — © Carthaginensi episcopo, ad quem plures exslant epistole. Gussanv. SANCTI CRECORIT MACNI $12 dilectio celestium nobis commodum acquirat gau- A coepiscopus noster Joannes, quantum ego in ejus diorum, nostri simus invicem adjutores, et anxilium nobis orationis mutue porrigainus; quatenus divina misericordia clementie suzr nobis dono concedat, et pr:rdicare quod diligit, et sequi hoc quod per nos przedicari concessit. Sicque officii nostri ministerium pietatis $uz protectione disponat, ut ſructum de cre- - ditis GO7 eidem venienti Domino reportemus, et. ad ſutura zquilatis premia cum aliorum lJucro, cjus ad- juvante gratia, Þ perducamur. Quia vero scriptum est : Orate pro invicem, ut salvemini (Jac. v, 16), ut ad hc pervenire mereamur, et me pro vobis apud Sacratissimum beati Petri apostolorum principis corpus, et vos pro me apud $sanctum Cyprianum martyrem, orationibus decet incumbere. Preces ete- nim nostrz tanto celerius in dominicz pietatis aurem Sublevantur, quanto eas vicissim pro vobis ſusas charitatis ardor exacuit. Sed quia $anctitas veswa nudis me verbis alloqui recusat epistolis. quoque © xenia conjunxit. Quz nos cum gratiarum actione SuScepimus ; £*d tamen plus mentis vestrz affectu quam rerum copia delectamur.