Letter 9054: Gregory to Januarius, bishop of Cagliari.

To Januarius, Bishop of Cagliari. [Editorial summary: Although the abbess did not put on the monastic habit, her will is nevertheless void under imperial law; therefore what Sirica unlawfully bestowed on others is to be restored to the monastery.] Gregory to Januarius, Bishop of Cagliari. Since for those who enter a monastery for the sake of conversion there is thenceforth no license to make a will, but their property [passes] to the jurisdiction of that same monastery [...editorial citation: Gratian 19, q. 5, c. 7...] [Editorial note: The Lombard law later confirmed this as sanctioned, from epistles 42 and 45 of this book. Letter VIII, 2: There was never any power of making a will over a monastic life, as Saint Gregory here most rightly teaches, if account be taken of divine law and the sacred canons. For one is permitted to make a will only concerning one's own goods; but monks have nothing of their own, as is proved from all the monastic rules, namely those of Pachomius, Basil, Augustine, Benedict, and the rest. Consult the Concordance of the Rules, at chapter 42; the Rule of Saint Benedict, page 612 and following, and the observations of our own Hugh Menard. But under human laws monks were sometimes able to make a will; and if they died intestate, they had as their heirs their free children, or parents, or kinsmen; and if these were lacking, the goods of those persons were acquired by the monastery, by the single law of the Theodosian Code on the wills of clerics and monks. Augustine, epistle 259: To such a degree, moreover, is the property in question subject to the same right of the priest Honoratus, that not only when he was ordained, but even while he was still established in the monastery of Thagaste, if he had died with the matter not surrendered, nor transferred to anyone by a manifest donation, none but his heirs would succeed to it, just as brother Aemilianus succeeded brother Privatus in those thirty solidi. Afterward the faculty of making a will was taken away from monks, so that on entry into a monastery their goods are acquired by the monastery, Novel of Justinian V, Novel 125, chapter 8; Gregory, epistle formerly 22, indiction 4, now in the appendix, grants to the abbot Probus license to make a will. Likewise to the monk Adeodatus, book XII, epistle 5. By pontifical law monks can make a will by dispensation of the Supreme Pontiff, chapter "Cum ad Monasterium," on the status of monks. See Mabillon on the documents of abbots, book 1 of On Diplomatic Matters, chapter 2, number 10.] Since it is known to almost everyone, the report of Gavinia, abbess of the monastery of the holy [martyrs] Gavinus and Luxorius, has moved us to great astonishment, in that she asserted that Sirica, abbess of her monastery, after she had taken up the office of governing, left certain legacies to certain persons in a will she had drawn up. And when we inquired of your Holiness's solicitude why she had allowed property belonging to the monastery to be detained by others, your archpriest Epiphanius, our common son, being present, replied that the aforesaid abbess down to the day of her death had refused to be clothed in the monastic habit, but had remained in the garments which they use as a presbytera [an elder/widow set apart, by the custom of that place]. To this the aforesaid Gavinia replied that this had been permitted almost by custom, so far that she alleged that the abbess who had preceded the above-mentioned Sirica had also worn such garments. Since therefore we ourselves had begun to be in no small doubt about the character of the garments, it seemed necessary to deliberate concerning what ought to be done under the law, both with our counselors and with other learned men of this city. These, deliberating, replied that, after the abbess had been ordained by the bishop according to solemn custom, and had remained for very many years in the governance of the monastery down to the passing of her life, the character of the garments might perhaps pertain to the fault of the bishop, who had permitted her to remain thus, yet that it could not bring prejudice upon the monastery, but that her property by manifest right belongs to that same place into which she entered and was established as abbess. And therefore, since she asserts that the hospice [xenodochium] is unduly detaining possession from the property unlawfully relinquished, we exhort you by these words, that, since you have charge both of the monastery and of the hospice [...] situated in your city, you ought to provide with all care and zeal that, if that possession descends from no prior contract, but from the aforesaid legacy of Sirica, it be restored to the aforesaid monastery, all clamor or excuse being set aside. But if perhaps it is said to have come from some other contract, either let your Fraternity, the truth being ascertained between the parties, determine what the legal order shall advise, or let them by mutual agreement choose arbiters who are able to distinguish their pleadings. And whatever shall be decided by these, let it be so observed by your provision that no quarrel may remain between venerable places, which ought greatly to be fostered by the mutual concord of peace. All the other things, therefore, which are detained under the will of the aforenamed Sirica, since indeed it is permitted by legal sanction to be of no force, must necessarily be restored to the jurisdiction of the monastery through the priestly solicitude and zeal of your Fraternity in all respects, because by imperial constitution it is openly sanctioned that those things which are done contrary to the laws are to be held not only useless, but even as if they had never been done [...editorial citation: Gratian 25, q. 2, c. 15...]. [Editorial notes: We read that Saint Gavinus suffered martyrdom at Torres in Sardinia on the third day before the Kalends of June. Saint Luxorius likewise suffered in Sardinia on the twelfth day before the Kalends of September. We believe this Sardinian monastery to have been dedicated to the memory of both martyrs. Converted wives are spoken of in the third Council of Arles, canon 5. See Baronius, at the year 405, number 60; Fourth Council of Orange, canon 17; Second Council of Tours, canon 20; Council of Auxerre, canon 21. Sometimes also among ecclesiastical writers the name presbytera is found for elderly widows, in Greek presbytides, as in the Council of Laodicea, last canon, and in Athanasius, To the Virgins. And perhaps it is of these that Saint Gregory speaks, inasmuch as they were distinguished by a certain peculiar habit. Further, just as the wives of priests were called presbyterae, so too the wives of bishops were called episcopae, in the First Council of Tours, canon 15. See also canon 19 of the same council; Auxerre, canons 21 and 22, etc. Gussanvillaeus. Mabillon notes, On Diplomatic Matters, chapter 2, number 10, that in an old parchment containing a fragment of this epistle, which Antoine Vion d'Herouval communicated to him, there is found, in place of "presbytera," the word "plebeia." He judges this reading is to be preferred, so that the sense should be that Sirica was clothed in plebeian garb, of the sort the laywomen of that place used. In no manuscript codex have I met with a place where "presbytera" was not read. And indeed plebeian women's clothing was less befitting to this abbess than that of a presbytera.]

AD JANUARIUM CARALITANUM EPISCOPUM. | Etsi monachicam vestem non induerit abba'issa, irri- tum lamen ex imp. lege illins testa'ientum; reddenda proinde monasterto quay. aliis illicite donarit Stirica. Deo $ibi irato Gregorius Januario episcopo Caralitano. Quia ingredieatibus monasteri:m (Grat. 19, q. 5, c. 7). converiendi gratia * ulterius nulla $it tesL-ndi licentia, sed res eorum ejusdemn monaslerii juris Lang»b. lirmins postea Saucitam 1:4uet ex episl. 42 et 45 hujus libri. | Eet>T, VIE. — 2 Vitam monasticam prone nulla unquam Ltestandi potrstas fuir, ul opltime. doe hic Sanctus Gregorius, $i divini juris $Mcrarum: wm legiy habeaiur ratio, Quippe non n $1 de bonis pro- priis teslart licet, At-monachi nihil habent proprii, ut ex omnibus regulis monasticis probatur, sC'licel Pacho« ii, Basiliti, Auguslini, Benedicti, etc. Con-ule - Concordiam regularum, ad cap, 42; Reg. Sancti Be- nediclti, pag. 612 et $e4., et observationes nosIri Hu- gouis Menardi. Verum juxta leges humanas aliquando monachi L-slari potyuerunt ; et si inteslali decederent, S$u0s habebant her-des liberos, vel parentes, vel agnatos ; his vero delicicnubus, acquirebantur mo- nasterio jlNorum buna, leg. unic. Cod. Theoics. de hn, cleric. et monach. Augustinus, epist. 259 : Usque adeo autem eodem jure presbyteri Honorati est ind unde agitur, ut non $olum a' bi ordinatus , $ed ad.inc in Thagaztensi monas.erio con>litntus, $1 re $a non rendita, nec per maniſestam donnttonem in quem- pum translata moreretur, nonnis! hiredes ejus in eam Succelerent, Sicul fra er AE milianus in illos iriginta 80lt- dos fratri Privato 8: ccessit. Pustea monachis adempla leStandi ſacullas, it ut ingresSuU monaSterii Corum bona ac qQUirantur mal iSfe rio, Novel. Justiniani V, 1t10- vel. 125, cap. 08; Gregorias, epi-t, olim 22, in- dict. 4, nuvc in apperiice, Probo abbatl te>tandi lieentiam concedit. ite Adeodato monacho, hb. xn, epist. 5. Jure pontilicio nonachi testari PoSSUnt Cx dis nSatione Summi ponlficis, cap. Cum ad Mo- BS, de statu Monach. Mabillonium videsis de l->:umentis abbatum, lib. 1 de Re viplomat. c. 2, cum pene omnibus notum sit, in magnam nos Gavi- ni abbatiss:e monas$terii Þ sanctorum G2yini atque-. Luxorii insinuatio admirationem perduxit, quod $S:- ricam monaslerii Sui abdatissam, postquam regendi SuScepit oflicium, condito- teslamento legala qui- busdain asSeruit reliquisse. Et dum de $anctitatis ve-irz $0llicitudine quzereremus cur res monasterio competenles ab aliis pertulerit detineri, commu- nis filius Epiphanjus archipresbyter vester prasens inventus respondit, memoralam abbatissam u$que ad diem obitus indui se monachici vesle nolnisse,. sed in vestibus quibus loci illius utuntur © presby- tere permansisse. Ad hc replicabat predicta Ga- vinia hoc pene ex consneludine licuis<e, adeo ut ab- R batissam que ante suprascriptam Siricam ſueral la- libus usam ſuisse veslibus all-garet. Cum ergo de qualitate veslium nec nos mediocriter c@episSemus awbigere, necesSarium visum -es!, tam cum Eonsilia- riis noSiris quam cum aliis hujus civitatis doctis vi- Tis, Gu d esset agendum d+ lege tractare. Qui tracian- tes re-ponderunt, pustquam $solemni more abbalissa ab episcopo ordingala est, et in monasterii regimine per annos plurimos usque ad vile $8uz transitum veslis qualit:-tem ad culpam 932 forte episCopi respicere, qui eam Sic esse permiserit, non | tamen putuisse monaslerio prejudicium irrogare, sed res ipsins eidem loco ex quo illuc ingressa-et abba- ltis>a conslitula est maniſesto jure competere. Et ideo quia ex dimissis illicite rebus xenodochium pos- seS<ionem asscrit indebite detinere, his vos hortamur aſſatibus, ut quia et monasterium et xenodochium prafuil, num. 10. Sen Gabinun legimus Turribus in Sardinia marty- rium p1-Sum tert'o Kal-ndas Junii. Sanctus Lnxorius etiam in Sardinia passus est drodecims» Kalendas Septembris. Utriusq ie martyris memorie dicitum credimus hoc Sardinie monasterium, Converse uxores dicuntur in concitio Arelat. n1, Can. 5. Vide Baron-u n, ad 11. 405, num. 60; Au- relian. 1v, Can. 17; Turon. 11, can. 20; Antissind., can. 21. Aliqu indo etiam apud ecclesjaslicos scripto- res reperitur nomen presbylere pro viduis senivribus, Gr.ects rpeatvrets, ut in Laodic. concil., can. vit., el apad Athanasium, ad virg-nes. Et fortasse de bis loquitur Sanctus Gregorius, utpote qua peculari quoudam habitu dignoscebantur. Pyrro ut presbyle- rorum uxores presbyterw®, ita et uxores episcoporitim vocabantur episcopie, in Turon. 1, cav. 15. Vile eltjam_ ejusdem concil. can. 19; Antissiod., can. 21 el 22, etc. GUSLANY. Monet Mabillonius, d+ Re dipl»- mat., cap. 2, num. 10, in veteri membrana hbujus epistolz ſra.mentu:;n contivente quam ps COMmUn:'- cavit Antonius Vion Herouvallius, pro presbytera, reperiri plebeie. Quam leclonem jugical preferen- dam, ut St Sensns Siricam plebeio awictu, quali uie- bautur loci iliins laice muleres, indulam fui-Se. In nullum Ms. Cudicen offend. 111$ ub! nou legeretur presbytere. Et $ane hbuic abbatisse minus convenie- þat veslis plebeiz mulieriz quam presbyter:e. SANCTI GREGORY MACNI ipsum in vestra est civitate positam, omni cura ac A Strum, utrum $ciatis an minime, ipse yobis de ven-. Studio providere debeatis, quatenus si possessi0 ipsa ex nullo precedenti contractu, 8d ex memoratr Siriees legato descendit, ante dicto monasterio , postposito strepitu vel excngsatione, reddatur. Si vero ex alio forte dicitur obvenisse coalractn, ant frater- nitas vestra, inter partes cognita veritate, quod le- galis suaserit ' ordo definiat, aut mntao $ibi con - gens arbitros eligant qui earum valeant allegationes 4distinguere. A quibus quidquid fuerit statutum, jta vestra provisione servetur, ut nallum inter venera=- bilia loca jurgium remaneat, que 1m:agnopere alterna pacis sunt ſovenda concoriia, Alia igitur omnia quz ex le<tamento pranominalze Sirice detinentur, quippe quod nullum esse legali sanctione permilti- tur, necesse est ut juri monasterii fraternitatis veslr:e 80llicitudine $acerdulali per omnia © 8ludio repa- rentur, quia imperiali constitntione aperte f sanci- tum est ut ea que contra leges fiunt, non 'solum inutilia, sed etiam pro infectis habenda sint ( Grat. 25,9.2, c, 15).