eir mutual companionship and that of their child. But
Gregory's supervision was as far-reaching as was the power of his hand.
He writes to Cyprian, Deacon and Rector of Sicily, "to cause the
aforesaid man, and the above-named woman, to be summarily brought before
thee, and institute a most thorough investigation into the case. And, if
thou shouldest find it to be as reported to us, determine an affair
defiled by so many iniquities with the utmost severity of expurgation;
to the end that both strict retribution may overtake the man, who has
regarded neither his own nor her condition, and that, she having been
first punished and consigned to a monastery under penance, all the
property that had been taken away from the above-named place, with all
its fruits and accessions, may be restored." What the exact nature of
the penance inflicted was we do not know; but in another place, speaking
of nuns who had been detected in the same fault, the great bishop orders
that they "afford an example of the more rigorous kind of discipline,
such as may inspire fear in others." The Church had already acquired the
power to enforce its artificial morality, which power it vigorously
employed on those with whom it could afford to be at no pains to
ingratiate itself.

Rigid disciplinarian as he was, and zealous in his labors to aggrandize
the Church, Gregory was careful not to allow the privileges of
monasticism to be pushed to the endangering, as he thought, of the moral
welfare of those whom it concerned. The law was that if either a husband
or a wife decided to devote himself or herself to the monastic life, the
marriage bonds might be severed without the consent of the other
partner. But in a letter which he wrote to a notary of Panormus and sent
by the hand of a woman named Agathosa, he refers to the latter's claim
that her husband had entered a monastery without her consent. He
instructs the notary "to investigate the matter by diligent enquiry, so
as to see whether it may not be the case that the man's profession was
with her consent, or that she herself had promised to change her state.
And should it be found to be so, see to his remaining in the monastery,
and compel her to change her state, as she had promised. If, however,
neither of these things is the case, and you do not find that the
aforesaid woman has committed any crime of fornication on account of
which it is lawful for a man to leave his wife, then, lest his
profession sho