Doing Justice

Letter 3,6 - to John, bishop op Prima Justiniana. October 592

"But as for what concerns us at present, when the decrees of your aforementioned sentence have first been made null and void, we decree by the authority of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles, that you be deprived of Holy Communion for a period of thirty days, and that you must pray to our almighty God with the greatest amount of penitence and tears for pardon for such great sinfulness.
But if we should learn that you have been too slow to carry out this sentence of ours, realize that not only the injustice of your Fraternity, but your insolence also must then be punished more severely, with the help of our Lord.
But we order that Hadrian, mentioned above, our brother and fellow-bishop, condemned through your sentence, as we have said, with no support at all from the Church canons or the laws, be restored to his proper place and rank, with Christ at his side.
Thus your Fraternity's sentence, proposed contrary to the path of justice, may not do him any harm, and the love you need to placate the indignation of our future Judge may not remain impure"

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 239.