Epistle
XXXII.
To Honoratus, Archdeacon.
Gregory to Honoratus, Archdeacon of
Salona
1487
.
The mandates of ourselves and of our predecessor
had reached thy Love not long ago, in which thou wert acquitted of the
charges calumniously brought against thee; and we ordered thee to be
reinstated without any dispute in the order of thy rank. But,
inasmuch as again after no great lapse of time, thou camest to the city
of Rome complaining of some improper proceedings among you concerning
the alienation of sacred vessels, and as, while we had persons with us
here who might have replied to thy objections, Natalis, thy bishop,
departed this life, we have judged it necessary to confirm further by
this present letter those same mandates, both our predecessor’s
and our own, which (as has been said) we sent not long ago for thy
acquittal. Wherefore, acquitting thee fully of all the charges
brought against thee, we will that thou continue without any dispute in
the rank of thy order, so that the question raised by the aforesaid man
may not on any pretext prejudice thee in the least degree.
Moreover, as to the heads of thy complaint, we have straitly charged
Antoninus, subdeacon and rector in your parts of the patrimony of holy
Church over which, by
God’s
providence,
we preside, that, if he should find ecclesiastical persons implicated
in them, he decide these cases with the utmost strictness and
authority. But, in case of the business being with such persons
as the vigour of ecclesiastical jurisdiction cannot reach, he is to
deposit the proofs under each particular head among the public acts,
and transmit them to us without any delay, that, being accurately
informed, we may know how, with the help of Christ, to dispose of the
matter.
1487
See I. 19, note
5.