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| To Anthemius, Subdeacon.
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Epistle
XLII.
To Anthemius, Subdeacon1339
| 1339 Rector patrimonii
and defensor in Campania. See above Ep. 39. | .
Gregory to Anthemius, &c.
John, our brother and fellow-bishop, in a schedule
sent to us by his cleric Justus, has among many other things intimated
to us as follows: that some monks of the diocese of
Surrentum1340
| 1340 In Compania,
hodie Sorrento. | transmigrate from
monastery to monastery as they please, and depart from the rule of
their own abbot out of desire for a worldly life; nay even (what is
known to be unlawful) that they aim severally at having property of
their own. Wherefore we command thy Experience by this present
order, that no monk be henceforth allowed to migrate from monastery to
monastery, and that thou permit not any one of them to have anything of
his own. But, if any one whatever should so presume, let him be
sent back with adequate constraint to the monastery in which he lived
at first, to be under the rule of his own abbot from which he had
escaped; lest, if we allow so great an iniquity to take its course
uncorrected, the souls of those that are lost be required from the
souls of their superiors. Further, if any of the clergy should
chance to become monks, let it not be lawful for them to return anew to
the same church in which they had formerly served, or to any other;
unless one should be a monk of such a life that the bishop under whom
he had formerly served should think him worthy of the priesthood, so
that he may be chosen by him, and by him ordained to such place as he
may think fit. And since we have learnt that some among the monks
have plunged into such great wickedness as publicly to take to
themselves wives, do thou seek them out with all vigilance, and, when
found, send them back with due constraint to the monasteries of which
they had been monks. But neglect not to deal also with the clergy
who profess monasticism, as we have said above. For so thou wilt
be pleasing in the eyes of God, and be found
partaker of a full reward.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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