rongly pursued in those
who dread not to sin wittingly.

Asked by Bishop St. Augustine: If a great distance of journey lies
between, so that bishops may not easily come, whether may a bishop be
hallowed without the presence of other bishops.

Answered by Gregory: In the English Church, indeed, in which thou alone
as yet art found a bishop, thou canst not hallow a bishop otherwise than
without other bishops; but bishops must come to thee out of the kingdom
of Gaul, that they may stand as witness at the bishop's hallowing, for
the hallowing of bishops must not be otherwise than in the assembling
and witnessing of three or four bishops, that they may send [up] and
pour [forth] their petitions and prayers to the Almighty God for his
favor.

Asked by Augustine: How must we do with the bishops of Gaul and Britain?

Answered by Pope Gregory: Over the bishops of Gaul we give thee no
authority, because from the earlier times of my predecessors the bishop
of the city Arles received the pallium, whom we ought not to degrade nor
to deprive of the received authority. But, if thou happen to go into the
province of Gaul, have thou a conference and consultation with the said
bishop what is to be done, or, if any vices are found in bishops, how
they shall be corrected and reformed; and if there be a supposition that
he is too lukewarm in the vigor of his discipline and chastisement, then
is he to be inflamed and abetted by thy brotherliness's love,[45] that
he may ward off those things which are contrary to the behest and
commands of our Maker, from the manners of the bishops. Thou mayest not
judge the bishops of Gaul without their own authority; but thou shalt
mildly admonish them, and show them the imitation of thy good works. All
the bishops of Britain we commend to thy brotherliness, in order that
the unlearned may be taught, the weak strengthened by thy exhortation,
and the perverse corrected by thy authority.[46]

Augustine likewise bade [his messengers] acquaint him that a great
harvest was here present and few workmen. And he then sent with the
aforesaid messengers more help to him for divine learning, among whom
the first and greatest were Mellitus and Justus and Paulinus and
Rufinianus, and by them generally all those things which were needful
for the worship and service of the Church--communion vessels,
altar-cloth, and church ornaments, and bishops' robes, and deacons'
robes, as also reliques of the apostles and holy ma