To Antoninus, Subdeacon.

Gregory to Antoninus, Subdeacon, Rector of the patrimony in Dalmatia.

It is commonly reported in these parts that our brother and fellow-bishop, Natalis of the Church of Salona, is dead.  If this is true, let thy Experience with all speed and all care hasten to admonish the clergy and people of that city that with one consent they elect a priest for ordination; and, when the nomination of the person who may be elected has been made, thou wilt take care to transmit it to us, that he may be ordained with our consent, as has been the case from ancient times.  And this above all things thou must look to, that in this election neither any bribery in any way whatever come in, nor the patronage of any persons whatever prevail.  For if one is elected through the patronage of certain persons, he is obliged out of deference to them to comply with their wishes after his ordination, and so it comes to pass that the possessions of that church are lessened, and ecclesiastical order is not maintained.  They must, therefore, under thy superintendence, elect such a person as will not be unsuitably subservient to the will of any one, but one who in the adornment of his life and conversation may be found worthy of such a high degree.  But of the possessions or ornaments of the same church cause an inventory to be faithfully written out in thy presence.  And, lest any of the possessions themselves should be lost, admonish Respectus the deacon and Stephanus the chief notary (primicerium notariarum) to take sole charge of these possessions, warning them that they will have to make good out of their own substance any diminution of them that may have arisen from their negligence.

Moreover, strictly charge Malchus¹⁴⁸³

1483 For an account of this Malchus and his doings, see II. 20, note 5.

Let any necessary expenses be defrayed by the steward who was in office at the time of the aforesaid bishop’s death, that so he may explain his accounts to the future bishop as he knows them to be.  All the things that we have enjoined on thee to be done it is certainly necessary that thou shouldest do with the advice of our son, the magnificent and most eloquent Marcellus¹⁴⁸⁴

1484 Proconsul of Dalmatia:  see IX. 5.  For subsequent proceedings in connexion with the election of a successor to Natalis at Salona, see III. 47.  It appears that the co-operation of the proconsul Marcellus, anticipated in this Epistle, was not in fact obtained, but that he acted independently, and in opposition to Gregory.  Cf. IX. 5.

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