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55 In his letter to Maximus (IV. 20), Gregory had only expressed a suspicion that the alleged order of the Emperor for his consecration had been fictitious. He now seems to have satisfied himself that it was so. For a review of the whole case, see III. 47, note 2.
56 Romanus Patricius was the Exarch of Italy. See I. 33; II. 46; III. 31; V. 24.
1 They had been sent by Gregory into Sardinia with the special purpose of promoting the conversion of the natives, which had been neglected by the bishops aud clergy of the island. See V. 41, and IV. 23, note 8.
2 Apparently the designation of the monastery which had been now at length founded by Theodosia in execution of her late husband's will. See above. IV. 8, 15. In IV. 15, Gregory had acceded to her desire in view of certain difficulties in carrying out her husband's intention, to found a nunnery in a house of her own at Cagliari. But it seems that a monastery of monks had in the end been founded.
4 This had been a synod held at Carthage for the suppression of the Donatists. Cf. I. 74, note 8. Gregory, while fully approving, as he shows elsewhere, of strict enforcement of the imperial laws against them, expresses fear in this epistle lest the council lately held might have gone too far, so as to endanger the unity of the African Church, in exceeding the decrees of synods that had been held elsewhere, and especially in ordering severe measures against bishops or others who might be remiss in the work of suppressing heresy.
5 Per manus quorundam debiti conductorum. If the word debiti (absent from some mss.) is read here, the meaning may be that certain persons, called debiti conductores, undertook the recovery of the arrears of the rustici, and that through them easy loans were advanced to such as were unable to pay at the proper time. Cf. I. 44, p. 89. For the ordinary meaning of conductores (without debiti), in connexion with the Church estates, see I. 44, p, 89, note 5.
6 Aut in angariis aut in rerum pretio. The word angaria is applicable to any kind of vexatious exaction, either in the way of forced labour or in other ways. "Per angarias intelliguntur vexationes et injurioe quoelibet." Du Cange. It may be used here for exorbitant interest on loans obtained from usurers. As to rerum pretio, cf. I. 44, p. 89, about burdatio, and note 2.
7 "Servis tuis turpia crimina imponis," - apparently meaning that at all hours he was accustomed to call them by opprobrious names.
8 The meaning may be, "I am thankful now that the fact of communication between Rome and Ravenna being blocked by the Lombards when the matter first reached my ears prevented my acting so peremptorily as I might then have been disposed to do."
9 The deacon Cyprian had succeeded the sub-deacon Peter as rector patrimonii in Sicily, and Gregory's general agent there, through whom he acted in ecclesiastical as well as temporal matters, at any rate now, after the death of Maximianus of Syracuse.
11 Bishop of Catana where this John was archdeacon
12 On the same occasion of this letter and subsequent correspondence on the same subject, see Prolegomena, pp. xiv., xxii.
13 As to this assertion (repeated in V. 20, 43, and in VIII. 30), Giesler says, "Gregory was mistaken in believing that at the Council of Chalcedon the name Universalis Episcopus was given to the bishop of Rome. He is styled oi0koumeniko\j a0rciepiskopoj (Mansi VI. 1006, 1012), as other patriarchs also. But in another place the title was surreptitiously introduced into the Latin acts by the Romish legates. In the sentence passed on Dioscurus, actio iii (Mansi VI. 1048), the Council say, o9 a9giw/tatoj kai\ makariw/tatoj a0rciepi/skopoj th=j mega/lhj kai\ presbute/raj 9Rw/mhj Ae/wn: on the contrary, in the Latin acts which Leo sent to the Gallic bishops (Leonis, Ep. 103, al. 82), we read; `Sanctus ac beatissimus Papa, caput universalis Ecclesioe, Leo. 0' In the older editions the beginning of Leo's Epist. 97 (ap. Quesn. 134, Baller. 165), runs thus: `Leo Romoe et universalis catholicoeque Ecclesioe Episcopus Leoni semper Augusto salutem. 0' Quesnel and the Ballerini, however, found in all the Codices only, `Leo Episcopus Leoni Augusto. 0' (Giesler's Eccl. Hist., 2nd Period, 1st Division, ch. iii. § 94, note 72).
15 Sabinianus was at this time the pope's apocrisiarius, or responsalis, at Constantinople.
16 Cum eo procedere, i.e. in effect, to communicate with him. Procedere means to approach the altar for celebration. Cf. III. 57, "ingredientibus diaconibus ut mox procedatur."
17 The ironical allusion here to John the Faster is evident.
19 The main purport of this letter to Empress is to induce her to move the Emperor to disallow the title of Universal Bishop assumed by the patriarch of Constantinople; but at the end of the letter he takes occasion to solicit her good offices also in the case of Maximus, bishop of Salona for an account of which, with references to other letters on the subject, cf. III. 47, note 2.