A letter from Gregory I, pope (595, June 1)

Translated letter:

Since I know that our most serene lady ponders the celestial homeland and the salvation of her soul, I think that I would commit a sin most grievously if I were silent about those things that for fear of the almighty Lord must be mentioned.

Since I knew that there were many pagans (gentiles) on the island of Sardinia and that in the custom of depraved paganism they were devoted to sacrifices of idols and that the priests of the same island were sluggish in preaching about our redeemer, I sent there from the bishops of Italy one who, with the Lord assisting, led many pagans to the faith. But he has reported to me a sacrilegious practice: that those among them who sacrifice to idols pay a fee to a judge so that he will let them do this. While some of these were baptized and have now stopped sacrificing to idols, the fee that they were accustomed to pay before for the sacrifice to idols is still charged even after baptism by the same judge of the island. When the aforesaid bishop rebuked him, he responded that he had promised such high payment for honors that it could not be fulfilled except by such methods. But the island of Corsica is overwhelmed by such a great number of those making demands and such trouble of requisitions that those in that place are barely able to pay what is demanded by selling their own children. And so it happens that having abandoned the religious community, the residents of the same island are forced to flee to the most heinous people of the Langobards. What more grievous, what crueler thing can they endure from barbarians than, compelled and constrained, to be forced to sell their own children? Further, on the island of Sicily a certain Stephen, registrar of maritime zones, is said to carry out such terrible prejudices and injustices by seizing the places of individuals and without due process imposing titles on houses and properties that if I wanted to describe each of his acts that have been reported to me, I could not achieve this with a large volume.

Our most serene lady should survey all of this wisely and check the complaints of the oppressed. For I suspect that these matters have not reached your most devoted ears. For if they could have reached (your ears), they would not have remained there until now. You must mention these things to your most pious lord at an appropriate time so that a great weight of sin such as this may be lifted from his soul, from the empire and from his children. I know he will say that whatever is collected from the said islands is sent to us as payments for Italy. But I suggest that even if fewer payments are bestowed upon Italy, nonetheless he should eliminate the tears of those oppressed by his empire. For that reason perhaps so many payments on this earth achieve less benefit because they are collected with some mingling of sin. Accordingly the most serene lords should command that nothing be collected with sin. And I know that even if little is granted for the state’s uses, by this very thing the state will be greatly assisted. Even if by chance it happens that the state is supported less by smaller payments, it is better that we not live for a short time than for you to discover some impediment to eternal life. Consider what sort of minds, what the inner thoughts of parents can be when they part from their own children to prevent their being tortured. And those who have their own children know very well how we should pity the children of others. And so let it be enough that I have relayed these matters briefly, so that if your piety were unaware of what was being done in these regions, the sin of my silence would not punish me before a harsh judge.

Dated on the first day of the kalends of June, thirteenth indiction.1

Original letter:

Cum serenissimam dominam sciam de caelesti patria atque animae suae vita cogitare, culpam me committere vehementer existimo, si ea, quae pro timore omnipotentis Domini sunt suggerenda, siluero.

Dum in Sardinia insula multos esse gentiles cognovissem eosque adhuc pravae gentilitatis more idolorum sacrificiis deservire et eiusdem insulae sacerdotes ad praedicandum redemptorem nostrum torpentes existere, unum illic ex Italiae episcopis misi, qui multos gentilium ad fidem Domino cooperante perduxit. Sed rem mihi sacrilegam nuntiavit: quia hi qui in ea idolis immolant iudici praemium persolvunt, ut hoc eis facere liceat. Quorum dum quidam baptizati essent et iam immolare idolis deseruissent, adhuc ab eodem insulae iudice etiam post baptismum illud praemium exigitur, quod dare prius pro idolorum immolatione consueverant. Quem cum praedictus episcopus increparet, tantum se suffragium promisisse respondit, ut nisi de causis etiam talibus impleri non possit. Corsica vero insula tanta nimietate exigentium et gravamine premitur exactionum, ut ipsi qui in illa sunt eadem quae exiguntur complere vix filios suos vendendo sufficiant. Unde fit, ut derelicta pia republica possessores eiusdem insulae ad nefandissimam Langobardorum gentem cogantur effugere. Quid enim gravius, quid crudelius a barbaris pati possunt, quam ut constricti atque compressi suos yendere filios compellantur? In Sicilia autem insula Stephanus quidam marinarum cartularius tanta praeiudicia tantasque oppressiones operari dicitur invadendo loca singulorum atque sine dictione causarum per possessiones ac domos titulos ponendo, ut, si velim acta eius singula, quae ad me pervenerunt, dicere, magnok volumine haec explere non possim.

Quae omnia serenissima domina sollerter aspiciat et oppressorum gemitus compescat. Haec enim ego ad piissimas aures vestras pervenisse non suspicor. Nam si pervenire potuissent, nuncusque minime permansissent. Quae piissimo domino apto sunt tempore suggerenda, ut ab anima, ab imperio atque a filiis suis tale hoc tantumque peccati pondus amoveat. Qui scio, quoniam dicturus est, quia nobis in Italiae expensis transmittitur, quicquid de praedictis insulis adgregatur. Sed ego suggero, ut, etsi minus expensae in Italia tribuantur, a suo tamen imperio oppressorum lacrimas compescat. Nam et idcirco fortasse tantae expensae in hac terra minus ad utilitatem proficiunt, quia cum peccati aliqua admixtione colliguntur. Praecipiant ergo serenissimi domni nihil cum peccato colligi. Et scio, quia, etsi parum reipublicae utilitatibus tribuitur, ex eo ipso respublica multum adiuvatur. Quam etsi fortasse contingat expensis minoribus minus adiuvari, melius est temporaliter nos non vivere, quam vos ad aeternam vitam obstaculum aliquod invenire. Quae enim mentes, qualia viscera parentum esse possunt, perpendite, quando filios suos distrahunt, ne torqueantur. Qualiter autem miserendum sit filiis aliorum, hoc bene sciunt qui habent proprios. Unde mihi haec breviter suggessisse sufficiat, ne si ea quae in his partibus aguntur pietas vestra non cognosceret, me apud districtun iudicem silentii mei culpa multaret.

Data die kalendarum Iuniarum indictione XIII.

Historical context:

The pope asks the empress to take action against the judges of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily over their terrible practices of extorting money from their citizens.

Scholarly notes:

1 Asleigh Imus provided this translation.

Printed source:

Gregorii Papae Registrum Epistolarum, ed. P. Ewald and L. M. Hartman, MGH, (Berlin: Weidmann 1887-91, repr. Munich, 1978), ep.5.38.

Date:

595, June 1