John of Syracuse

ON ST. JOHN OF SYRACUSE, CONFESSOR AND BISHOP,

About the year 609.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

John, bishop and confessor at Syracuse. (S.)

BY J. V. H.

§ Sole. The cult certain: the monastic profession uncertain: the chronology of his life.

Of St. John, bishop of Syracuse, we must make a preface in very few words: for what we know of his deeds The cult of St. John is certain: is taken from the letters of St. Gregory, by whose aid our Ottavio Gaetani in the Sicilian Hagiology composed a Life, complete in all its parts, which we shall publish below and illustrate with Annotations according to custom. Of our holy bishop all the Martyrologies and Menologies, as far as I know, are silent, the one exception being Ferrarius, who in the Catalogue of Saints omitted in the Roman Martyrology records him at this day, the 23rd of October, in these words: At Syracuse in Sicily, of St. John, bishop, ordained by St. Gregory Pope I. Ferrarius says that he drew his announcement from the Tables of the Church of Syracuse, over which he presided. But Ferrarius sometimes cites tables which he never saw. Yet from the silence of most Martyrologies this alone can be deduced, that the cult of St. John of Syracuse was confined within the bounds of that diocese: whence it was brought only into the calendars of Syracuse. Nor is it to be omitted that the authority of calendars is greater than that of Martyrologies, since the former testify to sacred cult paid every year, whereas the testimonies of the Martyrologies often stick in doubt, as being sometimes composed according to the singular affection of the writer. Examples of which addition occur not rarely in the Additions of Usuard and Ado and in the Menologies. The calendar of Syracuse alone, then, is worth more for demonstrating the cult of St. John, than his name interpolated in some obscure Addition: especially since St. Gregory the Great proclaimed the fame of his sanctity in the most splendid words, as we shall show below. A similar testimony given by the same holy Pope to St. Maximian our men hold in his Acts, at the 9th of June Acta Sanctorum, volume II of June, page 241., to be the foundation of a legitimate cult. Whence we deservedly reckon St. John in the roll of saints.

[2] The monastic profession is doubtful; One thing Gaetani touches on by no word in the Life to be published below; namely whether before his episcopate he was a Benedictine monk. This indeed Rocco Pirri asserts in the Sicilia Sacra In Graevius, Antiquitates Italiae, volume X, vol. II, column 585., whom Gaetano Moroni follows in his learned work, the Ecclesiastical Lexicon, at the word Siracusa Volume LXVI, page 308.. But, as far as I know, this is affirmed by no suitable testimony. It is well enough known that the controversy about the Benedictine monkhood of St. Gregory is not wholly settled Acta Sanctorum, volume II of March, page 123., and with this tottering the Benedictine profession of St. Maximian, predecessor of our John, would totter also: and so John himself would seem to be wholly withdrawn from the Benedictines. But these things being omitted, Jean Mabillon in his Annals, book VIII, §55, by no means makes our Saint a pupil of the Benedictine institute, saying that he was a Benedictine monk, if Rocco Pirri is to be trusted on this matter, sufficiently signifying that he knew no one, before Pirri, a writer of the seventeenth century, who attributed a quality of this kind to St. John, bishop of Syracuse. Indeed from the letter XVII of book V of St. Gregory Migne, Patrologia, volume LXXVII, column 737. we have that our saint, before taking up the episcopate, was archdeacon of the Church of Catania; wherefore it is doubtful to me whether he was at the same time a monk; since the same St. Gregory had taken precautions that monks should not so accede to the clerical state that an occasion of wandering outside the cloisters should arise from it: If any, he says in letter XLII of book I Ibid., column 496., should happen to come from the clerical state to monastic conversion, let it not be lawful for them to return again of their own will to the same or another Church, of which they had formerly been soldiers, unless a monk of such a life, that the bishop under whom he had previously served should foresee that he is worthy of the priesthood, so that he should be chosen by him, and ordained in the place that he judges. Frequently in St. Gregory the word sacerdos and sacerdotium designates the pontifical rank; whence it follows, if the interpretation is true, that a monk cannot be assigned to offices below the episcopate in a secular church; on the other hand the same St. Gregory wishes, in letter XLI of book II Ibid., column 580., that monks should always remain in the power of their abbots. All these things are hard indeed to reconcile with the archdeaconate of Catania. From this, however, I should wish no one to deduce that sacred ministry was forbidden to monks; but only that St. Gregory wished that monks promoted to sacred orders, placed under their own superiors, should not seize the occasion of a freer and looser life Examen historicum et canonicum libri Mar. Verhoeven, page 402..

[3] The beginning and time of the episcopate. As regards the chronology, we have little. Maximian, predecessor of St. John, died in the year 594; for his having ended his life in the month of June first became known to the Pontiff in the month of November, as he himself writes to Cyprian the deacon, letter XVII of book V Migne, Patrologia, volume LXXVII, column 737.: and in the following year 595 John could have been consecrated. For the preceding letter to Bishop Datianus was written on the 10th before the kalends of January Ibid., place cited., and thus the letter to Cyprian, later by at least some days, could scarcely have been given before the beginning of the year 595: in which indeed the question was only about

proposing John, archdeacon of Catania, unless the greatest part should elect Trajan, a presbyter of good mind and involved in no crimes: whence it is conjectured that St. John first ascended the see of Syracuse in the year 595. But as certain as the beginning of the episcopate is, so doubtful is its end, or the death of the holy bishop. Pirri in the Sicilia sacra Antiquitates Siciliae, volume X, vol. II, column 487. says that he died in the year 609 under the emperors Tiberius and Martius. There is no reason for us to oppose this chronology, yet it would have been welcome to inspect more closely the source from which Pirri derived it; we therefore assume it as likely and have placed it at the head of this little Commentary. Nevertheless we think it should be noted that no emperor Martius ever existed: and as regards Tiberius, the Second of this name, he reigned in the East from the year 578 to 582, and thus had yielded to the fates long before the pontificate of St. John of Syracuse. If indeed our holy bishop died in the year 609, it would have to be said that death came in the reign of Phocas.

THE LIFE OF ST. JOHN, BISHOP OF SYRACUSE,

By Ottavio Gaetani, S.J.

From volume I of the Lives of the Sicilian Saints.

John, bishop and confessor at Syracuse. (S.)

BY OTTAVIO GAETANI.

SOLE CHAPTER.

The election of the Saint to the Church of Syracuse; his deeds in the episcopate; the praises given him by St. Gregory the Great: his death.

Of St. John, through the action of St. Gregory, Maximian, bishop of Syracuse, being dead ^a, the efforts of the clergy and people turned to the choice of a successor; to which chiefly Gregory, the Roman Pontiff, applied his mind, who was pressed especially by solicitude for the Church then vacant. He wrote therefore to Cyprian the deacon, rector of the patrimony in Sicily, to see who should be destined as successor to the deceased Maximian. It was believed that the presbyter Trajan would be chosen by the people of Syracuse, whom fame had proclaimed a good man, but in Gregory's judgment he was unequal to so great a charge. He disclosed his mind to Cyprian; that John, archdeacon of the Church of Catania, seemed to him more worthy to succeed Maximian: he should therefore work for this, that he should be elected ^b; and should exert himself with Leo, bishop of Catania, that he might readily suffer himself to be deprived of his archdeacon, for the greater good of the Church of Christ ^c: he should bring the matter fully to completion with the highest prudence and diligence. If we recall here the illustrious testimony of Gregory concerning Maximian, that he by no means had a bishop equal to that man to set over Syracuse, we shall have said that it was the highest testimony to the virtues of John, that he was judged by Gregory the Great a worthy successor of Maximian.

[2] Elected bishop of Syracuse, Meanwhile assemblies were being held at Syracuse, but discordant among themselves ^d: for by the clergy and people one Agatho, I know not who, a second, was chosen: but the nobility of Syracuse, wisely declining that burden, threw it back on the Roman Pontiff; and adding a signal elogium of Blessed Maximian, they asked of Gregory a bishop his equal. He, praising the modesty of the nobles of Syracuse, wrote that they should send to him in the city those whom clergy and people had chosen, so that he might decide in person which he should rather institute ^e. While letters were being given back and forth, Cyprian, by the dexterity in which he was strong, brought it about that, matters being composed, John, archdeacon of the Church of Catania, was chosen by the clergy and people of Syracuse, whom the most holy man Gregory had judged should be chosen. Accordingly about a year and four months after the departure of Maximian, Gregory granted the pallium to John the bishop, according to the custom of our ancestors; admonishing him that what he had received for the honour of the priestly office he should strive to adorn by his character: he would be conspicuous for both honours, if the habit of body and the virtues of soul agreed. At the same time he also confirmed the privileges of the Church of Syracuse by apostolic authority, decreeing that they should remain in force thereafter ^f.

[3] He is given the pallium, About the same time John had written to Gregory that, as he set out to the new Church and undertook the arduous burden of ruling it, the presbyter with whom he had been long * in close use in the Church of Catania was necessary to him ^g. The reason was that when he should be pressed by the straits of business and affairs, he might have a man known to him, in whose private counsel he might find rest and relief; he therefore entreated from the Pontiff a solace of his cares and aid; if his authority should intercede with Bishop Leo, he was certain in hope that the presbyter would be kindly granted to him. Gregory, moved by John's letter, wrote to Cyprian to treat with Bishop Leo, and gently to persuade him that he should be willing to give the man whom Bishop John was seeking; and that him whom he had willingly yielded to be instituted bishop he should not now suffer to be destitute of the necessary aids and solaces. At the same time he commended the modesty of Bishop John, who was still of such a mind toward Bishop Leo that he professed himself his archdeacon; nor would it come about that he would forget benefits ^h.

[4] And he acts strenuously, Indeed John, as soon as he took up the administration of the Church, contended strenuously for ecclesiastical jurisdiction against Venantius the patrician ⁱ. But he, as men impotent of mind are accustomed, just as if he had received and not done an injury, wrote letters full of complaints to Gregory. But the most holy Pontiff, having understood the matter from another quarter, rebukes Venantius by letter for having sent armed men into the bishop's house; that Bishop John had been moved to just resentment against him; and that he well knew with what gravity, mildness and holiness he was strong. Then he admonishes him to revere the priest and his parent, as befitted a son, and not to provoke his mind to anger: but laying aside the swelling of his mind, he should plead his cause with unblemished charity. In his letter Gregory exhorted Bishop John to receive Venantius into favour just like a son, and to strive to win him over by offices of benevolence: at the same time he should so protect the jurisdiction of the Church that charity should take no damage ^k.

[5] He ransoms captives; Now when Italy was being troubled by the impious arms of the Lombards, and the most kind Pontiff was signally giving his labour to the ransoming of captives, John, both emulating his zeal and pitying his lavish expenses, aided Gregory with money sent through Candidus. Who wonderfully embraced the bishop's charity, and thanked him by letter. And what seemed modest to John, measuring the matter by his own mind, Gregory on the contrary valued above measure from the bishop's means, with a magnificent elogium of his largesse, that he in whose keeping there were flocks of poor should search out so remote places to fill them with mercy. At the end of the letter Gregory admonishes John not to allow his writings to be read before outsiders at dinner or supper ^l. Which admonition turns to the praise of both: it shows not only Gregory's modesty; but also John's piety and priestly temperance in taking food, who furnished his table with sacred reading, and refreshed his soul.

[6] He sets out for Rome; After five years Bishop John planned a journey to the thresholds of the Apostles: but Gregory, having heard of the journey, forbade it ^m. I should believe that it was forbidden for the good of the Church of Syracuse, to which Gregory knew John to be most necessary. But he fell into sadness, because he could not satisfy his desire and piety; when Gregory understood this, since he loved the bishop and greatly desired to see him, he shook that little cloud of grief from his mind, giving permission for him to sail to Rome at an opportune time. At the beginning of spring, then, in the year 602 John set out to St. Gregory, and venerated the thresholds of the Holy Apostles. On his return from the City Gregory entrusted to him the administration of the sacred patrimony, which he managed for more than a year, until Adrian the Chartularius was sent to Sicily by Gregory to rule it ⁿ. But from the letters of Gregory, and the matters entrusted to the trust of Bishop John, you will easily learn how much Gregory relied on his integrity and virtue. For he commissioned Blessed John to hear the case of Decius, bishop of Lilybaeum ^o. Indeed when Lucillus, bishop of Malta, had been rejected before the Apostolic See, Gregory wrote to John that, taking four bishops into council, he should judge concerning his crimes; and that for the presbyters and deacons who had been sharers in the crimes, * and that he should bring it about that as much as they had provoked God to anger, so much he by severe correction should appease [p]. It was done by him as the Pontiff had commanded, and he cast Lucillus, convicted of his crimes, from his rank. In addition Gregory referred to the judgment of John the accusation of the primate of Byzacena of the province of Africa: adding this proclamation, that he was certain of his love in the cause of almighty God: that he should not hesitate to carry it out: what John should do, he should think Gregory had done [q]. Moreover he referred to the same bishop the controversy about the boundaries of fields between Caesarius, abbot of the monastery of St. Peter at Baiae, and John, abbot of St. Lucy near Syracuse [r]: and likewise prescribed that he should inquire into the deacons of the Church of Catania, who dared to go forth in sandals with compagi [s], which the Roman see had granted only to the deacons of Messina.

[7] Wonderfully praised by St. Gregory, Such was Gregory's estimation of John, such his opinion of his virtue, that he always held suspect the complaints written against him, and soon found them false. Therefore he wrote back to Felix, who had sent complaints to the Pontiff, that he could not even suspect that anything had been done unjustly by John; since neither his known character nor his acts allowed it. He sharply accused Venantius the patrician, who had complained of him, asserting that it was not unknown to him with what sanctity Bishop John was outstanding. But Gregory very often remembers him with the highest praise: he calls him a man of provident counsel; he praises his character, justice, wisdom, care for the affairs of the Church. In other places he says that he knows the discretion of his sanctity and the tranquillity implanted in him [t]; that he is certain of his sanctity and solicitude; that as often as occasion offered itself he did not cease to display his love toward Blessed Peter; and that he was certain of his love in the causes of God. These praises of Bishop John all sufficiently understand how highly they are to be esteemed, since they proceed from the most grave and upright judgment of St. Gregory.

[8] He dies holily. That Bishop John was moreover distinguished by the spirit of prophecy, the ancient writer of the history of St. Zosimus reports, who lived eight hundred years ago. For when, Blessed Faustus, abbot of the monastery of St. Lucy [v], being dead, there was a contest among the monks as to whom they should substitute in his place, and several were seeking that rule, by common counsel the matter was referred to Bishop John, a man at that time (that writer adorns him with this elogium) full of the reverence of sanctity and venerable in repute, outstanding in virtue, enriched with the grace of foreknowledge. The company of monks then went to John, leaving behind Zosimus, keeper of the tomb of St. Lucy and of her church. But he, gazing on the sacred assembly, and perceiving by the divine Spirit that Zosimus, whom they had despised, was absent, asks whether anyone had remained in the monastery? No one, they answer, venerable father. Again the bishop asks: See, he says, whether you have anyone in the monastery? They answered that there was no one else there except the doorkeeper left to guard the church. Then John ordered them to summon Zosimus promptly. When he had been brought before him he received him with the highest honour, all the others being fixed in amazement at the unusualness of the thing. But the most holy bishop, seeing, by God's revelation, the spirit of the Lord resting on Zosimus, a despised young man, turned to the monks. This man, he says, is your abbot. Soon he inaugurated him presbyter and abbot: thus the rejected stone became the head of the corner [w]. Moreover how many years Blessed John in

the episcopate lived is uncertain: I should believe that he survived St. Gregory: but that he died piously and holily is sufficiently established from the writers who flourished after him. The feast day of St. John the bishop is kept in the Church of Syracuse on the 10th before the kalends of November.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. We have this in letter LXIII of book IX, addressed to John Ibid., column 999., by which the judgment of Lucillus is delegated to John and to three or four bishops to be employed by him. Lucillus, condemned and cast from his see, is moreover ordered to restore the properties of the Church of Malta unjustly taken away, as letter I of book X to Romanus the defensor teaches us Ibid., column 1065..

q. What crime Crementius, primate of Byzacena in Africa, had has not become known. This is certain, that he shrank from the judgment of the apostolic see, hindered by the authority of the secular magistrate. Martin the scholasticus had treated with our John, so that the dissension might be composed: wherefore St. Gregory writes to him in letter LVIII of book IX Ibid., column 995.: After you have seen our brother and fellow bishop John, we believe that in him you have seen us too. And therefore, because he too has been zealous to write to us on the same causes, we have written back to him what seemed good to us. And since he is a priest of mature and provident counsel, if you wish to treat with him the causes for which you have been sent, we are certain that you will find in him both what is useful and what has reason. And in fact in the following letter, LIX Ibid., place cited., Gregory commits the whole business to John: What you do, he says, you will not doubt that we have done.

r. St. Gregory in letter XXXIX of book VII Ibid., column 897. wishes the contention about the boundaries of fields between the two abbots to be settled by the definition of a land-surveyor. He wishes therefore that John should go to the places in controversy, and, with both parties set face to face, should cause the places in dispute to be bounded by his presence, a prescription of forty years, however, being preserved to both parties.

s. The campagus was a kind of footwear, granted to pontiffs alone; afterward it was permitted to certain others, as letter XXVII of book VIII teaches us Ibid., column 918., for instance to the Deacons of the Church of Messina. The deacons of Catania had presumed this adornment for themselves; and so Gregory enjoins that the origin of the privilege be inquired into; and if it has been badly usurped, that it be voided.

t. The elogia of St. John here reported are taken from various letters of St. Gregory: namely from letter XLIII of book VI Ibid., column 831., XLIV of book IX Ibid., column 976. and LVIII of the same book Ibid., column 995..

v. Of St. Faustus, abbot of Syracuse, our men have treated under the 6th of September Acta Sanctorum, volume II of September, page 686..

w. Of St. Zosimus, abbot and afterward bishop of Syracuse, treatment was also given under the 30th of March Ibid., volume III of March, page 837..

* diu

* supply poenas irrogaret

Notes

a. Of St. Maximian our predecessors have treated at the 9th of June [Acta Sanctorum, volume II of June, page 241.].

b. The biographer has copied these things nearly to the letter from letter XVII of book V [Migne, Patrologia, volume LXXVII, column 737.].

c. Clerics were so attached to their own Church that without the licence of the diocesan bishop they could not be assumed even to the episcopal dignity. Which is still in force for Regulars, who, called to the episcopate, must accept it with the consent of their prelate: wherefore their election should rather be called a postulation, as those skilled in canon law teach. But in our case he says that if John, archdeacon of Catania, is elected bishop of Syracuse, Leo, bishop of Catania, will have to make a cession, so that John may be found free to be ordained. The same discipline was in force also in the ninth century: for when Hincmar, archbishop of Reims, was examining Willebert, bishop-elect of Châlons, among other things, as the ancient Formulas of episcopal promotions have it in Sirmond [Concilia Galliae, volume II, page 653.], they learned that Willebert was of another province (namely that of Tours). Therefore the lord archbishop Hincmar, humbly, together with his fellow bishops and the clergy, order and people of Châlons, requested him from Herard (archbishop of Tours) and obtained him, and canonically committed him to him.

d. For the election of a bishop, in the time of St. Gregory the Great, the clergy and people of the widowed Church concurred: whence assemblies were held, in which the future election was discussed: wherefore among the letters of the holy Pontiff several are read directed to clergy and people; so in letter XXXIX of book II to the clergy, order and people of Crotone (Cotrone, today also an episcopal city under the metropolis of Reggio in Calabria) he commends that a priest be sought out in the ecclesiastical office who differs in no respect from the venerable canons [Migne, Patrologia, volume LXXVII, column 577.]. The word Ordo in St. Gregory often designates the nobility, sometimes it is distinguished from it, in which case it indicates the civil magistracy, for instance letter VI of book II he writes to the clergy, nobles, order and people residing at Naples [Ibid., column 542.].

e. How highly St. Gregory esteemed St. Maximian is shown by letter XXII of book V [Ibid., column 751.], addressed to the nobles of Syracuse, who had left the election of the bishop to the Pontiff's judgment: Let your greatness know, he says, that we have no one to give to that city like the most reverend Maximian: yet he promises that he will give such a bishop as can, with God's help, be an imitator of the deceased bishop.

f. Letter XVIII of book VI [Ibid., column 810.]: Moved, he says, by the benevolence of the Apostolic see and the order of ancient custom, we have seen fit to grant to your fraternity, who are known to have taken up the office of government in the Church of Syracuse, the use of the pallium, namely in those times and in that order in which you do not doubt that your predecessor also used it. As regards the times of which St. Gregory speaks, it is well enough known that the use of the pallium, even today, is granted only on fixed days. In that age the pallium was not an emblem of metropolitan jurisdiction, but rather, as St. Gregory says in the cited letter, an honour of the priestly office, giving the bishop no power outside his own Church. And in fact I read that the Church of Syracuse was first made metropolitan in the present time, namely in the year 1844 by Pope Gregory XVI. Nevertheless this same biographer of ours, Ottavio Gaetani, in the Isagoge to Sicilian history [In Graevius, Antiquitates Siciliae, volume X, vol. II, column 82.], founds the metropolitan right of the Church of Syracuse chiefly on two things, first, that Syracuse was established by St. Peter before all the other Churches of Sicily; next, that it was the civil metropolis, which the ecclesiastical is accustomed to follow. Alberto Piccolo, although extolling the Church of Syracuse with the highest praises in Dissertation II on the Ancient right of the Sicilian Church, chapter 9 [Ibid., column 80.], yet shows that it lacked the honour of metropolis. To this view Domenico Giorgi too has gone over in the treatise on the Ancient metropolises of Italy [Page 110.]. Nor has the controversy been settled up to now: for as our Alessio Narbone teaches us in his most learned work on the Literary History of Sicily, even in these last years the question has been debated on both sides. He himself further judges that in the eighth century the metropolitan right was added to the see of Syracuse, but abolished by the destruction of the city about the year of Christ 880 [Storia letteraria della Sicilia, volume V, page 27, volume VII, page 229.]. Nor is this view harmed by the fact that St. Gregory established Maximian, predecessor of our John, as his vicar through Sicily, as is shown by letter VI of book II [Migne, Patrologia, volume LXXVII, column 543.], for he says expressly: Which vicarial functions we assign not to the place but to the person, because from the life you have passed we have learned what we may also presume of your subsequent conduct. Indeed that this primacy, such as it was, stood on the judgment of the Roman pontiff alone, is shown by the fact that our St. John is nowhere found as vicar of the Apostolic See in Sicily, and next that before Maximian the same office was performed by Peter, subdeacon of the apostolic see, to whom the patrimony of the Roman Church in Sicily had been committed, as letter I of book I teaches us [Ibid., column 442.].

g. In that presbyter, whom St. John desires to have as helper of his government, we have an image of a vicar general, who at the bishop's nod, besides the ordinary ministers of the Church, helps the bishop in spiritual affairs. But what it means that in letter XX of book VI to Cyprian the deacon [Ibid., column 811.] Gregory says that John the archdeacon had a presbyter of his own, who however was said to have been ordained by Leo in the Church of Catania, I do not sufficiently understand: whether he was his own for this reason, because by birth he belonged to Syracuse? or whether he was John the archdeacon's own, because he ministered in a church subject to the archdeacon? I cannot guess.

h. Nearly all these things are taken from letter XX cited above.

i. Venantius the patrician, having shaken off the yoke of monastic profession, had married an Italian woman, or had taken back one already married, by whom he had had two daughters, Barbara and Antonia. And although Gregory exhorted him with many words to return to a better fruit, he yet remained in apostasy. Wherefore Bishop John had rejected the oblations of Venantius, as of a deserter, and had forbidden Masses to be celebrated in his house. Venantius, carried away by anger, sent his armed men into the bishop's residence, to commit various evils in hostile manner. And for these things the Pontiff rebukes Venantius, and at the same time admonishes him to return to favour with the bishop, as we read in letter XLIII of book VI [Ibid., column 830.]; but also at the same time, in letter XLIV of the same book [Ibid., column 831.], he commands the bishop to receive the oblations of Venantius in sweetness and in kindness pleasing to God, and to permit the mysteries of the Masses to be carried out in his house. But since St. Gregory continued commerce of letters with Venantius, persevering in the world, it should perhaps be said that Venantius obtained the indulgence of the apostolic see at least for a time. And this indeed St. Bernard suggests in the book On Precept and Dispensation, chapter XVII [Ibid., volume CLXXXII, column 888.].

k. In the letter of St. Gregory just cited he had admonished Bishop John that the bishop should so strive to show himself toward his subjects with discreet moderation, that he may both salutarily carry out what the quality of the business demands, and not depart from the grace of fatherly charity. St. Gregory wished the same to be done through our John, when, on hearing of the desperate illness of Venantius, he enjoined the bishop of Syracuse, in letter XXXVI of book XI [Ibid., column 1148.], that by exhorting, by asking, by setting forth the terrible judgment of God, by promising his ineffable mercy, he should compel him to return to his monastic habit at least at the end, so that the guilt of so great a fault might not stand against him in the eternal judgment. Yet the Pontiff wishes the bishop to defend the property of Venantius's daughters as his own.

l. In letter IX of book VII St. Gregory has this [Column 864.]: Moreover I hear that your fraternity has some of those things that I remember having written read at your table before outsiders: which it seems to me should not be done, because what you do out of charity some can impute, as far as I am concerned, to vain glory. Therefore before outsiders read the sayings of the ancients, by whose authority those who hear may be able to be instructed.

m. This indeed is shown by letter XXXVI of book XI [Ibid., column 1149.]: Moreover, he says, in the writings you have sent to us, we find your fraternity saddened, because we were unwilling for it to come here, as if for some ingratitude: whereas we did that for no other reason than for the sake of utility alone, knowing that on account of the persons residing there, your presence there was very necessary. But lest you should perhaps believe from this that our mind is ungrateful toward you, which be far from us, if you have the will to come, at a suitable time present yourselves at the thresholds of the Apostles. Formerly the Sicilian bishops had to come together at Rome every three years, but in letter XXII of book VII [Ibid., column 875.] Gregory, considering their labours, established that thereafter this should be done every five years. And five years had passed since St. John had been ordained, and so the precept of the Roman journey pressed, which St. Gregory wished delayed. If indeed St. John visited the thresholds of the Apostles in the year 602, it follows that he met St. Gregory seven years after entering on the episcopate.

n. It is clear from letter LXII of book IX, addressed to Romanus the defensor [Migne, Patrologia, volume LXXVII, column 999.], that the care of the patrimony of the Roman Church in Sicily, which was very large, was committed to St. John, and in letter XVIII of book XIII to certain bishops of Sicily, among whom was our John too, Adrian is said to have been established as rector of the same patrimony; wherefore he commends him to them, that in whatever need requires they should give him assistance, so that while he is supported in acting by bodily, and in the ease of fulfilling what he has begun by spiritual aids of prayers, he may be able with God also cooperating to accomplish prosperously the things enjoined on him by us. How large and opulent further the patrimonies of the Roman Church were is shown by Giovanni Antonio Zaccaria in a special disputation [Compare De rebus ad historiam ecclesiasticam pertinentibus, volume II, page 68.].

o. Gregory commits the case of Decius, bishop of Lilybaeum (today Marsala, in Sicily) to Bishop John and to Leontius, the glorious ex-consul, in letter XLIX of book X [Migne, Patrologia, volume LXXVII, column 1105.].