Justice Must Be

Letter 3,37 - to Libertinus, praetor of Sicily. May 593

"But he [the Jew Nasas] is said to have both purchased Christian slaves, and allotted them to his own service and advantage. While he ought therefore to have been punished most severely for such great crimes, the glorious Justin, besmeared with the balm of avarice, as we have been informed, putt off punishing this injury to God.
But let your Glory inquire into all of this with a strict examination, and if you find that there is proof of this sort of crime, you must quickly inflict on this same wicked Jew so strict a corporal punishment, that you may obtain the grace of our God for yourself in this case.
Thus, by these examples you may show yourself to be worthy of imitation by future generations, for the reward you receive. But give their freedom of any of those Christian slaves clearly bought by him, as the law requires, without any ambiguity, so that the Christian religion is not polluted (Heaven forbid!) in subjection to Jews, Therefore correct everything so very carefully and hastily that we may not only give thanks to you for this discipline, but also provide a proof of your goodness wherever it should be necessary."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 260.