Through my most beloved sons, Laurence the priests and Peter the monk, I received the letter of your Fraternity, in which you took care to ask me about many topics. But my aforesaid sons found me afflicted by the pains of gout, and when they urged me to send them back quickly, I let them go. And so, they left me still suffering the same painful affliction. For that reason, I have not been able to reply more full, as I ought, under every single heading.
Second Question
Although there is one faith, are there different customs in the churches, and is there one form of Mass in the holy Roman Church and another in the churches of Gaul?
Answer
Your Fraternity knows the customs of the Roman Church, in which you remember you were brought up. This custom should make you greatly loved. But if you have discovered something either in the Roman Church or in the Gallic one or in any church at all, that might be more pleasing to almighty God, I would like you to select it with care, and with special instruction, pour what you have been able to collect from many churches into the Church of the English, as it is still new in the faith. For things should not be loved because of places, but places should be loved because of good things. And so, select from each individual church whatever is pious and religious and righteous, and when you have collected them as it were in a small pot, serve them on the table for the English to get used to them.
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II, 532
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