Letter 4065: My dear Maurus, the monastery you govern is known to me, and the work of your community is something I follow with...

Gregory to Maurus, abbot. The care of churches, which is evidently fixed upon priestly offices, compels us to be so solicitous that no fault of neglect may appear in them. Since we have learned that the church of Saint Pancratius, which had been committed to presbyters, frequently suffered neglect — so that people coming on the Lord's Day to celebrate the solemnities of the mass would return grumbling, having found no presbyter — it has seemed good to our mature deliberation that, removing those priests, we ought by the grace of God to establish a congregation of monks in the monastery attached to that church, so that the abbot presiding there should by all means have the care and solicitude for the aforesaid church. In which monastery we have also seen fit to appoint you, Maurus, as abbot, decreeing that the lands of the aforesaid church, and whatever may come to it, and whatever accrues from its revenues, shall be applied to your aforesaid monastery, and that whatever needs to be done and repaired in the aforesaid church shall without doubt be repaired by you without any diminishment. But lest, with the removal of the presbyters to whom the church had previously been committed, it should seem to lack services, we therefore by the tenor of this authority direct you not to fail to employ a visiting presbyter there, who may celebrate the sacred solemnities of the mass. He must, however, both live in your monastery and receive from it the necessities of life. But above all, let this be your care: that at the most sacred body of the blessed Pancratius the divine office be performed daily without fail. These things, then, which we appoint for you to do by the series of this directive, we wish not only to be performed by you, but also to be observed and fulfilled in perpetuity by those who succeed you in your office and place, so that henceforth no neglect may be found in the aforesaid church.

AD MAURUM ABBATEM. Dat monachis in perpetuum ecclesiam s8anc!i Pancratii, fum ne miszarum celebratio deinceps negligatur, tum nt ad martyris corpus opus Det peragatur quotidie. Gregorius Mauro abbati. Ecclesjiarum cura, que Sacerdotalibus officiis evidenter infixa est, ita nos cogit esse sollicitos, E977 ut nulla in eis neglectus culpa appareat. Quo- niam vero * ecclesia sancti Pancratji, Þ quz erat commissa presbyleris, ſrequenter neglectum habnisse cognovimus, ita ut venientes Dominico die populi missarum solemnia celebraturi, non invento presby- lero, murmurantes redirent, hoc matura delibera- tione nostro sedit arVitrio ut, eis remotis, monacho- rum congregationem © in monaslerio eidem ecclesiz cohzxrenii constituere cum Dei gratia deberemus, quatenns abbas qui illic preesset curam et sollicitu- dinem ante faiz ecclesiz habere modis omnibus debuisset. In quo etiam monasterio te Maurum ab- batem previdimus preponendum, statuentes ut ter- ras preſalz ecclesi#, vel quidquid illuc intraverit, seu de reditibus ejus accesserit, ante dicto monaste- rio tuo debeat applicari, alque illic sine diminutione Male avtem in hoc titulo ponitur redimen{o, cum doceat epistola jam fui>se redemptum, et duodecim solidis comparatum. Quanta vero cura caplvorum redemptionem Ecclesia procuraverit, docent Sancti Patres, docent canones, docent exempla. Ob id $a- cra Ecclesiz vasa, ministeria, bona szpissime distra- cla Sunt. Di-s me deliceret recensentem. Vide 12, q. 2, can, apostolicos, ex vii Synodo, c. 15, etc. In Aurel. 1, ce. 5; Matisc. 1, c. 5; Rhem., c. 22. Gelas., .epist. 10. Gussanv, Eet>r. . X VIII. — * Prius legebatur, Ecclesiam...... mag neglectam ſuisze. Sequimur Mss. Valic., orm., Corb., etc. Hujus ecclesiie Romz via Aurelia condiiorem ſuiss2 Honor ium pontificem teslatur Ana- $lasius in ejus Vila. Ihi tamen sanctus Gregorius h0- miliam habuit ad poputum, que e$t 27 in Evang. Parilm ex Gussanv. Hoc monasteriu'n sancti Pancra- tii nunce est 8eminarium Carmeiitarum discalcealo- rum. Yide Mabill. l:ineris hal. pag. 75. Symmacho, an. 499 babita,. necuon Sub ips0 Grego- r10, an. 594, aliquando unus, aliquando duo, tres, quatuorve unius ejusdemque tituli presbyteri subscri- Pii inveniuniur. Quanquam ob-ervat Pancirolus ba- Silicze sancti Pancralii non tributum ſurss: a princi- pio tituli honorem, quod extra Urbem sita esset : tituli vero non tribuerentur basilicis extramuranis (quid de hac observatione Sit $entiendum vide in przſat. ad hom. in Evang., n. 6), neque etiain $la- tiones, nisi essent ecclesiz patriarchales. Hine ſorte dic-tur, commissa presbyteris, quod cardinalein non baberet presbyterum, neque alios ascriptos $ibi et omnino addicios. Elam in basilicis que titulorum nomine insignite non erant, miss# publice nonnun- quam celebrate; ubi scilicet populi concursus ob reliquias vel cultum mariyram id exigebat. Su>pecta itaque gratis habet ista verba Gussanvillzeus, cum miliis in Codd. aut scriptis aut excusis desiderentur. Porro Gussanvillxus cum ali.s recent. Edit. legit, missarum 8olem-ia audituri; qua-i dicere, populum sacra celebrare, periculum foret. la tamen legitur prascripta Ecclesia fienda reparandaque $unt per te Sine dubio reparentur. Sed ne remolis presbyteris quibus Ecclesia ipsa ſuerat| ante commiss3, vacare 4 ministeriis videatur, jdcirco hujus tibi auctoritatis tenore preeipimus ut * peregrinum illic non desinas adhibere presbyiterum, qui Sacra missarum possit 8olemnia celebrare. Quem tamen et in monasterio tuo habitare, et inde vitze Subsidia habere necesse est. Sed et hoc pra omnibus curz tuz $it, ut ibidem ad sacratissimum corpus beati Pancratii quotidie opus * Dei procul dubio peragatlur, lHzc igitur, que tibi precepti hujus ſacienda serie deputamus, non solum te perſicere, verum etiam et ab his qui in B ofticio locoque tuo successerint sic in perpetuum ser- vari volumus et impleri, ut nullus deinceps in Supra- dicta ecclesia possit inveniri neglectus 5.