Letter 5006: The abbot Gregory has now served a long and serious penance for the negligence that warranted it.

To Bishop Victor. [Summary:] Let him restore the abbot Gregory, who has been afflicted by a long penance on account of his negligence; let him recall the nun Martia. Let Victoria be handed over to Fantinus to be carefully examined. Let Anastasius the physician henceforth not enter the monastery of virgins. Gregory to Victor, bishop of Palermo. No reasoning at all permitted that the bearer of the present letter, Gregory, abbot and presbyter of the monastery of Saint Theodore, should after the well-nigh general ruin of his own cell continue to preside over it. For one who through his own negligence led so many disciples down to hell ought never to have been set over the rest. But because he has here among us been afflicted by a long penance, it is necessary that your Fraternity receive him into the aforesaid monastery and establish him in his place; yet in such a way that Urbicus, the provost of my monastery, ought to give one of the servants of God who is to be made provost over him, so that what [the text breaks off here]. Moreover, from the monastery of the handmaids of God which belongs to Saint Martin, I hear that the nun Martia, a holy woman, was unjustly transferred into another monastery; and that Victoria, who was following in her place, as I hear, scattered the goods of the monastery, so that she ought to attain to the office of prioress and herself, after the abbess, be found in the interim [in charge]. Let your Fraternity be zealous to correct this matter with all speed; for of whose fault it now is, if you understand it, [report it,] so that I, placed so far away, may recognize what things are being done in your city, and, occupied as I am with so many cares, may dispose what things ought to be done. We wish, therefore, that the aforesaid Martia be recalled to her own monastery and her own place; but that Victoria be handed over to Fantinus, our defensor, so that he, examining her, may find out to whom she gave anything of the monastery's goods. When she has been examined, we wish her to be assigned to another monastery, and that it be subtly reported to us through Fantinus the defensor, so that, being informed, we may with greater certainty determine what sentence ought to be passed concerning her. But I hear that many evils have occurred in the same monastery through Anastasius the physician. If at any time he shall have entered the monastery of virgins, whether that one or another, let the fault look back upon your Fraternity, which holds the flock committed to it and yet neglects to guard it.

AD VICTOREM EPISCOPUM. Gregorium abbatem longa, ob negligentiam, penitentia aſſlictum restituat, Martiam ganclimonialem revocet. radaiur Victoria Fantino diligenter examinanda. Anaslasius medicus ne in monaslerium - virginum deinceps ingrediatur. Gregorius Victori episcopo ® Panormytano. Latorem prexsentium Gregorium, abbatem atque presbyterum monasterii sancti Theodori, nulla qui- dem ratio permiltebat ut post lapsum Þ cellz ipsius pene generalem ultra ei preesse debuisset. Qui enim tot discipulos per suam negligentiam ad jnfernum duxit, reliquis unquam. pr:eponi non debuit. Sed quia longa hic est apud nos pcnitentia aſſlictus, - ſraterni- tatem tuam necesse est eum in monasterium predi- clum recipere, locoque $uo constituere, ita famen ut Urbicus monasterii mei prepositus dare 2liquem de servis Dei debeat, qui ei © prepositus fiat, ut quod 4 Urgenant dudum episcopos ad curam de hxre- ticis habendam canones Aſricani, sed levioribus pce- vis. Conc. Milevit. n, 24, 25. Kamdem charitatem habentes, unanimes, idipsum $a- pientes, nihil per conlentionem neque per inanem glo- riam, 8ed in humilitate superiores 8ibi invicem arbi- trentes. Quem textum expl.cat $10 more Sanctus Au- gustinus, lib. Lxx«mQuzst.,q. 71, quem locum lector consulat, eique adjungat alterum ejusdem Augustini locum, epist. 59, ad Paulirum, in solutione quarstio- nis 7, ubi de Thelo humili. Sanctus Gregorius idip- sum fusjus persequiur homil. 40 in Ezechiciem, post medium, necnon homil. 7 in Evang. : Superiores in- vicem in via Dei eos maxime qui robis commissi non sunt, proximos vesiros atlendile, quia et quos agere prava aliqua conspicitis, que in eis lateant bona ne- scilis, etc. GUSSANV. Eersr. VI [Al. 4]. — * Abest Panorm. a Norm. et plurimis Mss. Lyrensem et Pratell. altinet, conveniunt cum Au- doeno aliisque Norman., ubi legitur ce/{&, imo in Sex Angl. et iu plerisque habetur. Abest tamen a Valic. C Prxterea ex monasterio ancillarum Dei , quod est 4 sancti Martini, Martiam sanctimonialem femi- nam in monasterium aliud * jnjus(e audio ſuisse mi- gratam ; et Victoria, quz locum illius sequebatur, Sicut audio, res monasterii dispersit, ut ad prioratus locum pertingere et ipsa post abbatissam interim in- veniri debuisset. Quam rem fraternitas tua sub omni Studeatl celeritate corrigere; ! cujus enim jam culpe $i$ intelligis, ut ego tam longe positus que in Civi- tate tua ayuntur aghoscam, et tot curis occupatus que fieri debeant disponam. Predicitam itaque Mar- tiam in monaslerium Suum et locum $suum volumus revocari. Victoriam vero Fantino deſensori nostro tradi, quatenus ipse eam discutiens, cui quid de re- bus monasterii dedit inveniat. Quam discus-am TZZ in monasterium -aliud dari volumus. nobisque per Fantinum deſensorem s$ubtiliter renuntiari, ut sCla- wous quid de ea debeat sententia cerltiori. constilui. Multa autem mala in eodem monasterio per Anasta- Sium medicum audio contigisse. £ Qui $i quando in monasterium virginum $eu ipsum $seu aliud ſuerit in- gressus, fraternilatem tuam culpa respicial, quz gre- gem commissum lenel, et custodire dissimulat. (Cf. Joan. Diac. l. 1, n. 42.)