Letter 3*

 

To Bishops Justus and Probus.

The harm done to religion is proven, if things that are regarded as being against the regulations and ancient ordinances are regarded as being permitted. Indeed Mark, the presbyter of the monastery which is known to be established in the Lucian estate, has lamented to us in a petitory claim that the presbyters Romulus and Ticianus committed a serious assault on him and on the church. He maintains that, after he had summoned Moderatus, the lessee of the royal house, he was thrown out of the church on the most holy day of Easter when he had come for the liturgy. When they had broken into the sacristy of the oratory, they permitted the ministries to be served instead by the aforementioned lessee, a layman, while the presbyters pillaged his monastery. And so let the uncertain case that arose between the presbyters mentioned above to be determined by your judgement, so that, by preserving the rules and allowing no presumption against the church’s rules, nothing is left to mere opinion. But searching through everything that has been intimidated in the petitory claim, you should decide on what befits religion and justisce. And let our brother and fellow-bishop, the priest of Lucera,  [or: Lucerinus] know that either he should go to the monastery according to custom so that the clerics in the same places should be unable to contrive any harm, or he should know to stay away from a meeting in that place.

 

(trans. Neill – Allen 2014: 174-175, slightly altered)