Vanity of Clerics

Quote from Letter 5,1 to John, bishop of Ravenna. September 594.

It has come to my attention that, in your Fraternity's church, some places consecrated long ago for monasteries have been turned into dwelling-places for clerics, or even for members of the laity. For while those who are in the churches pretend that they are living in a religious manner, they strive to be put in charge of the monasteries, and through their way of life the monasteries are being destroyed. For nobody can both do service to ecclesiastical obedience and persist also in the monastic rule in due manner (...). And so let your Fraternity be quick to correct this habit, wherever it has occurred. For I do not put up in any way with sacred places being destroyed through the vanity of clerics.

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II: 323