erishable record in the fourteen books of his letters which have been
preserved to us. They are somewhat more than 850 in number. They range over
every subject, and are addressed to every sort of person. If he rebukes the
ambition of a patriarch, and complains of an emperor's unjust law, he cares
also that the tenants on the vast estates of the Church which his officers
superintend at a distance should not be in any way harshly treated. He
writes to his _defensor_ in Sicily: "I am informed that if anyone has a
charge against any clerks, you throw a slight upon the bishops by causing
these clerks to appear in your own court. If this be so, we expressly order
you to presume to do so no more, because beyond doubt it is very unseemly.
If anyone charges a clerk, let him go to his bishop, for the bishop himself
to hear the case, or depute judges. If it come to arbitration, let the
so-deputed judges cause the parties to select a judge. If a clerk or a
layman have anything against a bishop, you should act between them either
by hearing the cause yourself, or by inducing the parties to choose judges.
For if his own jurisdiction is not preserved to each bishop, what else
results but that the order of the Church is thrown into confusion by us,
the very persons who are charged with its maintenance.

"We have also been informed that certain clerks, put into penance for
faults they had committed by our most reverend brother the bishop John,
have been dismissed by your authority without his knowledge. If this is
true, know that you have committed an altogether improper act, worthy of
great censure. Restore, therefore, at once those clerks to their own
bishop, nor ever do this again, or you will incur from us severe
punishment."[198]

I have quoted already his letters on eastern affairs. They might be
enlarged upon to any extent. As to those who held the highest rank, he has
warm sympathy with a deposed patriarch of Antioch, sending him a copy of
the letter which announced his accession, as well as to the sitting
patriarchs. After twenty years' deposition Anastasius was restored. He has
also close friendship with Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria, to whom he
writes gracefully: "Besides our mutual affection, there is a peculiar bond
uniting us to the Alexandrian Church. All know that the Evangelist Mark was
sent by his master Peter; thus we are clasped together by the unity of the
master and the disciple. I seem to sit in the disciple's