In The Light Of Day

Letter 1,46 - to Theodore, duke of Sardina. June 591.

"The justice that you bear in your mind you ought to demonstrate before people with the light of your works.
For Juliana, abbess of the convent of Saint Vitus, which Vitula, of worthy memory, once constructed, has suggested to us that the legal possession of the aforesaid convent is being held by Donatus, an official of yours. While this gentleman sees that he is surrounded by the protection of your Excellency, he does not deign to submit to being examined in court.
But now your Glory must order this same official to appear before a court of arbitration, with the aforesaid nun, so that whatever is decided by the verdict of the judges over such a dispute as theirs, may be put into effect.
In this way whatever he sees himself either losing or retaining, it must be ascribed to the justice of law and not to an act of man."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 172.