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| To Boniface, Deacon. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Epistle
VIII.
To Boniface, Deacon.
Gregory to Boniface, Deacon at Constantinople236
236 See XIII. 38, note
1. | .
As often as the discord of those who ought to have been preachers of peace makes us sad, we should study with great
solicitude that cause of contention may be removed, and that those who
differ among themselves may return to concord. Now what has been
done with respect to the camp of Cassiopus, which is situate in the
island of Corcyra, and how the bishop of Euria is endeavouring to
withdraw it from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Corcyra, and
iniquitously to subject it to his own jurisdiction, it would be very
tedious to tell237 . But, that
your Love may understand all things fully, we have sent to you the
letters of our brother Alcyson, the bishop of Corcyra, and have caused
his man to go to you to inform you of everything more particularly by
word of mouth. This, however, we briefly mention, that an order
having been surreptitiously obtained from the late Emperor Mauricius,
which order, having been given in opposition to the laws and sacred
canons, had no effect, and the dispute between the parties remaining
undecided, he gave another order to our late brother Andrew, then
Metropolitan of Nicopolis, to the effect that, as both parties were
subject to his jurisdiction, he should take cognizance of the case and
terminate it canonically. The said Metropolitan, having taken
cognizance of the case and pronounced sentence, of which we send you a
copy, decided the aforesaid camp of Cassiopus to be under the power and
jurisdiction of the bishop of Corcyra, in whose diocese it always was;
and we, approving his sentence, have thought fit to confirm it by the
authority of the Apostolic See. And, lest what we decreed should
be so strict as to seem to have no admixture of benignity, we took care
so to order the matter for the time being (as the text of our sentence
which we send to thee shews) that neither should the bishop or clergy
of the city of Euria incur the necessity of residence, nor the
privileges of the Church of Corcyra be in any way disturbed. But
inasmuch as at the very beginning of proceedings an order was
surreptitiously got from the most serene lord the Emperor, and
(contrary to the judgment of the Metropolitan of Nicopolis, which
rested on ecclesiastical propriety and canonical reason) the aforesaid
camp of Cassiopus is said to have been handed over to the bishop of
Euria (a thing we cannot hear without grief or tell without groans),
with still greater wrong to the bishop of Corcyra and his clergy, in
such sort as (sad to say) to take away entirely the jurisdiction of the
Church of Corcyra, and give as it were to the bishop of Euria the whole
principal jurisdiction there; this being so, we have thought right to
deliver our sentence to no one, lest we should seem to do anything
contrary to the order of our most clement lord the Emperor, or (which
God forbid) in contempt of him. Wherefore let thy Love
diligently represent the whole
matter to his Piety, and steadily insist that the thing is altogether
unlawful, altogether bad, altogether unjust, and greatly opposed to the
sacred canons. And so may he not allow a sin of this sort to be
introduced in his times to the prejudice of the Church. But
represent to him what is contained in the judgment of the aforesaid
late metropolitan on the business, and in what manner his decision had
been confirmed by us, and endeavour so to act that our sentence, with
an order from him, may be sent to those parts, to the end that we may
be seen to have paid due deference to his Serenity, and to have
corrected reasonably what had been presumptuously done amiss. In
this affair pains must by all means be taken that, if it can be
effected, he may contribute also his own order, enjoining the
observance of what has been decided by us. For if this is done,
all place for subornation hereafter will be shut out. Make haste,
then, so to exercise thy vigilance, with the help of Almighty God, for
abating these wrongs, that neither may the will of those who attempt
perverse things obtain any advantage now against the ancient settlement
of ecclesiastical usage, nor a nefarious proceeding gain ground for
example afterwards.
Furthermore, that thou mayest know what wrongs and
what oppressions the above-written Alcyson, our brother and
fellow-bishop, asserts that he endures from the agents
(actionariis) of the Church of Thessalonica, we have forwarded
to thy Love the letter which he has sent to us. And do thou
accordingly cause the responsalis of the aforesaid Church to
come to thee, and take cognizance of the case in his presence, and
write to our brother and fellow-bishop Eusebius, on such heads as
reason may suggest to thee, that he may prohibit his men from acting
unjustly, and warn them not to oppress inferiors, but rather help them
in whatever may be just. This also we desire; that thy Love
should write to him who may have been ordained as Metropolitan in the
city of Nicopolis, to the end that he may take cognizance of the case
with regard to the injuries which our aforesaid brother Alcyson
complains of having been inflicted on his Church, and decide what is
just, seeing that the matter itself is stated not to have been decided
by his predecessors, but reserved. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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