Sounds Of Singing

Letter 2,45 - to Bacauda and Angellus, bishops, with regard to the Jews. September 591 - August 592

"But because it had come to our attention that the place [the synagogue of the Jews] itself there was so close to the church, that even the sounds of those singing psalms reached it, we have written to our brother and fellow bishop, Peter, that if it were so, or a voice from the same place were audible in the entrance to the church, the place should be freed from the Jews' celebrations.
And for that reason let your Fraternity, together with the above-mentioned Peter, our brother and fellow-bishop, inspect the place itself diligently, and if it is so, or you should think that something is detrimental to the church, provide another place within the castle area itself, where the aforesaid Jews can meet together and are able to celebrate their own ceremonies without impediment.
Your Fraternity should provide such a place, if they are later deprived of this one, that no complaint arises from it in future.
However we forbid the above-mentioned Jews from being oppressed or persecuted contrary to the dictates of reason."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 226.