Letter 1.51 to Felix, bishop of Siponto (July 591)
Gregory to Bishop Felix of Siponto
It has come to our attention that the church of Canosa is so destitute of the office of priesthood that the dying cannot receive penitence there, nor infants baptism. Disturbed therefore by the fact that such holy and necessary things are in danger, we order your Beloved to go as visitor (uisitator) to the above-mentioned church, strengthened by the authority of this decree. And there you should ordain two parish presbyters (parroechiales presbyteri), but only those whom you have seen as worthy of such an office, through the holiness of their life and the seriousness of their morality, and those in no way prevented by the rules of canon law. Thus the holy church may be provided with the worthy safeguard.
(trans. Martyn 2004: 175, altered by J. Szafranowski)