Delegated Authority

Letter 2,5 - to Maximian, bishop of Syracuse. October 591.

"And so we decree that you, Maximian, a most reverend man, my brother and fellow-bishop, should be in charge of all the
churches in Sicily, representing the apostolic see, so that anyone there rated as clergy should be subject to your Fraternity, on our authority.
Afterwards it would thus not be necessary for them to come to us for trivial reasons, by sailing over such great expanses of sea.
But if perchance difficulties are arising anywhere, which can in no way be settled by a judgment of your Fraternity, let these and these alone demand our judgment, so that when we are freed from minor cases, we can occupy ourselves more effectively in solving major ones."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 196.