Letter 6020: The bishop Leo of Catania and the bishop John of Syracuse need to cooperate more effectively than they have been doing.

To Cyprian the Deacon. That he should persuade Leo, bishop of Catania, to cede a certain presbyter to John, bishop of Syracuse. Gregory to Cyprian the deacon. Just as your Charity [Cyprian] labored zealously on behalf of our brother and fellow bishop John, so that he might rightly, with God as his author, be ordained in the Church of Syracuse, so now it is necessary that, through the efforts of your Charity, the supports of governance also be supplied to him. For he reports that he had a certain presbyter of his own, who nevertheless is said to have been ordained by our brother and fellow bishop Leo in the Church of Catania. And because he is going into a new Church, and it is necessary that he have his own men there, so that, when he is pressed by the tumults of legal cases, he may find in his private retreat a place where he may rest, you ought gently and sweetly to persuade our aforesaid brother and fellow bishop Leo that he ought to cede the aforementioned presbyter to him, lest he seem perhaps to deprive of his standing one who has been ordained—a man whom he so kindly released for ordination. But just as that same brother and [fellow bishop ... has learned] from a wise mind, [the man] does not forget that he is his [Leo's] archdeacon, nor [does he forget him] on account of the episcopate he has undertaken, so our oft-mentioned brother and fellow bishop Leo ought to regard him as his own, and ought to supply his aid to him not only in the matter of the single person of the presbyter, but in whatever matter he may have need of his support. In the month of November, in the 14th indiction. (Cf. John the Deacon, book III, chapter 20.)

AD CYPRIANUM DIACONUM. Persuadeat Leoni Catanensiepiscopo ut Joanni episcopo Syracusano quemdam presbyterum cedat. Gregorius Cypriano diacono. Sicut dilectio tua studiose laboravit pro persona ſratris et coepiscopi nostri Joannis, ut jy Syracusana Keclesia, auctore Deo, debuisset. ordinari, ita nunc necesse est ut per dilectionis tuz studia ei quoque regiminis solatia ministrentur. * Quemdam enim presbyterum proprium habuisse se perhibet, qui ta- men a ſfraire et coepiscopo nostro Leone in Catanensi Ecclesiadicitur ordinatus. Et quia in novam Ecelesiam vadit, et $uos illic proprios homines habere necesse est, ut cum causarum tumultibus premitur, in secreto 8u0 inveniat ubi requiescat, predicto fratri et coepi- $cop0 nostro Leoni blande et dulciter persuadere debes ut ei preſatum presbyterum ceiere debeat, ne quem tam benignus ad ordinandum cessit, ordinatum destituere ſortasse videatur. Sed sicut idem ſrater et « Gemet. ac nonnulli, perducamus. ErisT. XX. * Epist. 49, lib. iv, nunc lib. v, epist. 47, de cessione Joannis a Leone oblinenda monuerat Sanctus Gregorius ; post cessionem Joannes ordina- tus Suum presbyterum in Catanensi Ecclesia ordi- D natum Tepelil, quod Sanctus Gregorius blaude ac le- niter Leoni persuaderi precipit. Vides' praxim istius szculi de propriis clericis. GUssSAxv. Eeisr, XXI. — * Hydruntum $eu Hydrus, vulgo Otranto, urbs Calabrorum olim episcopalis, uunc ar- chiepiscopalis in regao Neapol. Gussaxv. Regno Neap. Calabrorum quondam primaria fuit; nunc est in provincia Hydruntina, in ora maris Adria- lici contra Tarentum- GUsSANY. | © Luppizz Ptolomzo, Antonino Lipia; Mela vocat L npias, aitque oppidum esse Calabriz haud procul a mente didici, ejus $e esse archidiaconum nec ob episcopatum $usceptum obliviscitur, ila eum $2pe fatus ſrater et. coepiscopus noster Leo 8uam pro- prium debet attendere, et non solum de unius persona presbyteri, sed in quacunque re ejus $0latio indiguerit, $ua ei ministrare auxilia. Þ Mense Novembri, indictione 14. (Cf. Joan. Diac. l. m, n. 20.) |