Gregory to Benenatus the bishop. Both the quality of the time and the nearness of the places invites us that we should unite the churches of Cumae and Misenum, since they are separated from one another by no long stretch of journey, nor—by reason of our sins—is the multitude of the people so great that they ought to have individual priests, as once they did. Since therefore the priest of the fortress of Cumae has completed the course of this life, know that by the page of this present authority we have united both churches and committed them to you, and know that you are the proper bishop of both churches.
And whatever, concerning their patrimony, or the ordination or promotion of the clergy, according to the state of the canons, shall seem to you to be ordered and arranged, you shall, as truly the proper priest, have free license, by the consent and permission of our authority. But where you shall have perceived it to be more convenient and useful, take up your dwelling; yet so, indeed, that the other Church, from which you are at present bodily absent, you may dispose with careful and provident care, so that the divine mysteries may there be solemnly performed, with the Lord's help. Let your Fraternity therefore keep watch with the more solicitous care in exhortation and in gaining souls, the more it knows that it has undertaken the burdens of governing united churches.