Letter 3,27 - to Martinianus, abbot of Palermo, and to Benenatus, notary and administrator of the district of Palermo. April 594

"If we put off pursuing and punishing those matters about which God is bitterly offended, we certainly provoke the patience of his divinity to anger. For many evil facts about certain people living in the city of Palermo have reached our ears, and as they deserve greater chastisement, they should neither be believed rashly nor searched for idly. For which reason, we ordered Victor, out brother and fellow-bishop, that if they were true he should have pursued and punished them.
Now therefore Boniface, a most distinguished gentleman and bearer of this letter, has come to us here and complains that he has both been deprived of the sacred Mass for no reason, and has suffered other serious injustices, all due to the aforesaid bishop. Since therefore nobody should be condemned without a trail, we have written to our same brother and fellow-bishop that if a person is found who can say these same things about the same man, he ought to direct that person to our inquiry.
And so we thought that you should necessarily be exhorted by the page of this command, so that, paying attention to nobody's personality, but having the fear of God before your eyes, in all fairness you should inquire with a careful investigation whether anything was said about him in your presence, remembering the judgment to come."


Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 252.