Letter 25: Simplicius writes to the Bishop of Ravenna on a matter of ecclesiastical discipline or administration.

Bishop Simplicius to Bishop John of Ravenna. 1. If anyone had regard for ecclesiastical discipline, or if any priestly modesty were maintained in you, transgressions deserving of punishment would never be committed. From these, if you could not restrain yourself by any precept of the rules of the fathers, you ought at least to have been called back by the example of your predecessor of holy memory, who, although he had offended less in making a presbyter unwilling, nevertheless felt a judgment worthy of such a usurpation. Where did you learn these things which you have perpetrated against our brother and fellow bishop Gregory, not by election but out of envy, whom you allowed to be dragged to you and harassed with inexcusable violence, so that you imposed upon him so great an honor not through tranquility of mind but, as it must be said, through madness? For such things could not have been done with soundness of counsel. We do not wish to magnify what has been done, lest we be compelled to judge what is fitting. For he deserves to lose his privilege who abuses the power permitted to him. 2. But one consideration makes us be of a milder sentence: that we preferred you to learn of it through the report of our brother and fellow bishop Projectus, rather than to publish it by our own letters on account of the disgrace. For the scandal, of which you are known to be the author, our moderation has so restrained that our brother and fellow bishop Gregory, who is established to have been not promoted but driven out, having no case to be tried with you, as he himself requested, should govern the church of Modena, and should not refuse to embrace the spiritual fellowship which it was not right to dissolve unwillingly. And if any matter should perhaps arise for him, let our examination be sought by him or against him. 3. As for the necessities also which he is compelled to endure by your doing, we provide by this determination, that the payment, which he records was given to him a year ago, having been refunded and returned to the church of Ravenna [...]. 4. But if our constitutions are not complied with, what remains for the contumacious one after his transgression, you yourself weigh. We declare, moreover, that if hereafter you presume anything of such a kind, and perhaps believe you may make some bishop or presbyter or deacon unwilling, you shall know that the ordinations of the church of Ravenna or of Aemilia are to be taken away from you. Given on the fourth day before the Kalends of June [May 29], in the consulship of Severinus, most distinguished man.

Slmplicii papae ad Johannem Ravennatem episcopnm. 2/Maf .8. Johannem argmt SimplicUnty quod Gregorium invitum episcopum ordinarit (/i.l), Gregorio Mutinensetn ecclesiam administrandam tradit, et causamm ejus cogni- tionem sibi reservat (n. 2). Simul pensionem eidem ad vitam adsignans (n, 3), Johanni, si in posterum similt quid tentarit, ordinatiouum Jus auferejidum indicit. -Simplicius episcopus Johanni episcopo Raven- uati. 1 . Si ^) quis esset intuitus ecclesiasticae disciplinae, vel si quid apud te sacerdotalis modestiae teneretur, nunquam plectibiles perpetra- rentur excessus. A quibus si nullo te paternarum regulanmi poteras eontinere praecepto, saltem sanctae memoriae praedecessoris tui fueras revocandus exemplo, qui'^) quum minus deliquisset faciendo presbyterum invitum, senserat tamen diguum pro tali usurpatione jndicium. Ubi ista didicisti, quae in fratrem et coepiscoj^um '*) no- strum Gregorium non electione sed invidia j)erpetrasti, quem inex- cusabili violentia pertrahi ad te passus es atque vexari, ut ei ho- norem tantum non per animi tranquillitatem sed per amentiam, sicut dicendum est, irrogaresV Neque enim talia potuissent fieri sanitate consilii. Nolumus exaggerare quod ge.stum^) est, ne coga- mur judicare quod dignum. Nam privilegium meretur'') amittere, qui permissa sibi abutitur potestate. ') Ivo V, 140 Si guid esset intuitus ad normam ecclesiasticae etc. Bia indigebat, respondit fragm. 10 : invitos (presbyt^^ros) fieri ecclesiaslica modera- tio graviiasque non patitur; quia, inquit Gregorius epist. I, 19, justum esf, ut nemo rrescere campellatur invitus, •) Non igitur ideo culpatus Johannes, ut interpretatur Baronius, quod ad saceTdotiom Gregorium invitum promovorit, sed quod oum non minus rebictan- tem creaverit episcopiun. Quum itaque ille et decossor ejus j>ariter in co pec- caesent, quod uterque invitum creasset, mox tamen lovior dicebatur docessoris colpa, qui solius presbyterii, non episcoj^atus gradum contulisset. Suspicatur praeterea Simplicius invidiae crimen in Johanno, qui hac arte Grogorium a clero 5U0 removit, quem forte eximiis dotibus conspicuum et suis obstruentem luminibus iniquo animo ferebat. ^02 S. SIMPLUUI PAPAE a. 482. 2. Sed uiia iios ratio facit esse seiiteiitiae mollioris ®) ; quam maluimus te IVatre et coepiseopo iiostro Projeeto referente cogiio- seere, iioii iiostris litteris propter opprobrium publicare. Nam scan- (lalum, cujus auctor cogiiosceris, ita motleratio uostra compescuit, ut frater et coepiscopas meus") Gregorius, quem non provectimi con- stat csse sed j^ulsum"^), nullam causam, sicut petiit, tecimi habituruSy' Mutinensem gubcrnet ecclesiam, et contubernium spiritale, quod soiiiri non oportebat invitum, noii recuset amplecti. Cui si quid negotii forsan emerserit, nostrum ab-*) eo vel contra eum petatur exainen. 3. Necessitati])us etiam, quas faciente te compellitur sustinerey hac (leiinitione consulenuis ^^), ut rcfuso praeiHo, quo<l ante annum si))i datum esse commemorat, atque ad ecdesiam RavennatemTeverso^ 4. Quod si iion fuerit nostris paritum constitutis, quid post traiisgressionem maneat contumacem, ipse perpendis, Denuutiamus autem, quod si postliac quidquain tale praesimipseris, et aliquem seu episco2)um seu j)resbytcrum seu diaconum invitum facere forte credideris, ordinationcs tibi Ravennatis ecclesiae vel Aemilieusis no- veris auferendas. Data IV '^) Calendas Jimii Severino viro clarissimo consule.