Letter 9026: Although the law with reason allows not things that come into possession of the Church to be alienated, yet sometimes the strictness of the rule should be moderated, where regard to mercy invites to it, especially when there is so great a quantity that the giver is not burdened, and the poverty of the receiver is considerably relieved. And so, i...
Pope Gregory the Great→Romanus, Patrician, and Exarch of Italy|c. 599 AD|gregory great
property economics
Gregory to Romanus, Defensor [church legal officer].
Although the law rightly prevents Church property from being given away, there are times when strict rules should bend where mercy calls for it -- especially when the amount is modest enough that the Church is not burdened and a person in genuine need is substantially helped.
The case: Stephania has come here with her young son Calixenus. She says Calixenus is the child of her late husband Peter, and that she is in extreme poverty. She has petitioned us, with tears, to restore to Calixenus a house in the city of Catania that his grandmother Ammonia had donated to our Church. She claims Ammonia had no right to give it away, and that it belonged to Calixenus all along.
Our beloved son Cyprian the deacon, who knows the case, disagrees -- he says her claim has no legal basis and she cannot recover the house in her son's name.
Still, I do not want to leave this woman's tears unanswered, or choose rigidity over compassion. I am ordering you to restore the house to Calixenus, along with Ammonia's original deed of gift, which should be in the records in Sicily. As I said: in doubtful cases, it is better not to enforce the letter of the law but to lean toward kindness -- especially when a small concession does not burden the Church and shows mercy to a poor orphan.
Book IX, Letter 26
To Romanus, Guardian (Defensorem).
Gregory to Romanus, etc.
Although the law with reason allows not things that come into possession of the Church to be alienated, yet sometimes the strictness of the rule should be moderated, where regard to mercy invites to it, especially when there is so great a quantity that the giver is not burdened, and the poverty of the receiver is considerably relieved. And so, inasmuch as Stephania, the bearer of these presents, having come hither with her little son Calixenus (whom she asserts that she bare to her late husband Peter, saying also that she has laboured under extreme poverty), demanded of us with supplication and tears that we should cause to be restored to the same Calixenus the possession of a house in the city of Catania, which Ammonia, her late mother-in-law, the grandmother of Calixenus, had offered by title of gift to our Church; asserting that the said Ammonia had not power to alienate it, and that it belonged altogether to the aforesaid Calixenus, her son; which assertion our most beloved son Cyprian, the deacon, who was acquainted with the case, contradicted, saying that the complaint of the aforesaid woman had not justice to go on, and that she could not reasonably claim or seek to recover that house in the name of her son; but, lest we should seem to leave the tears of the above named woman without effect, and to follow the way of rigour rather than embrace the plea of pity, we command you by this precept to restore the said house to the above-named Calixenus, together with Ammonia's deed of gift with respect to this same house, which is known to be there in Sicily — since, as we have said, it is better in doubtful cases not to execute strictness, but rather to be inclined to the side of benignity, especially when by the cession of a small matter the Church is not burdened, and succour is mercifully given to a poor orphan.
Given in the month of November, Indiction 2.
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Source. Translated by James Barmby. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 13. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1898.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/360209026.htm>.
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Gregory to Romanus, Defensor [church legal officer].
Although the law rightly prevents Church property from being given away, there are times when strict rules should bend where mercy calls for it -- especially when the amount is modest enough that the Church is not burdened and a person in genuine need is substantially helped.
The case: Stephania has come here with her young son Calixenus. She says Calixenus is the child of her late husband Peter, and that she is in extreme poverty. She has petitioned us, with tears, to restore to Calixenus a house in the city of Catania that his grandmother Ammonia had donated to our Church. She claims Ammonia had no right to give it away, and that it belonged to Calixenus all along.
Our beloved son Cyprian the deacon, who knows the case, disagrees -- he says her claim has no legal basis and she cannot recover the house in her son's name.
Still, I do not want to leave this woman's tears unanswered, or choose rigidity over compassion. I am ordering you to restore the house to Calixenus, along with Ammonia's original deed of gift, which should be in the records in Sicily. As I said: in doubtful cases, it is better not to enforce the letter of the law but to lean toward kindness -- especially when a small concession does not burden the Church and shows mercy to a poor orphan.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.