Gregory to Theodore the counsellor. It is fitting that those who toil for ecclesiastical interests should rejoice in a worthy ecclesiastical recompense, so that those who of their own accord subject themselves to the voluntary necessities of service may be worthily comforted by our provisions. Since therefore we have learned that you, Theodore, our most eloquent counsellor, are destitute of the service of slaves, we therefore command that a boy by the name of Acosimus, a Sicilian by nation, be given and delivered to your right and dominion. And since, having been delivered by our will, you now possess him, it was necessary that you be supported, as a testimony and safeguard for future time, by the authority of this document of gift, so that, the Lord protecting, you may always securely possess him, and without suspicion of any re-
—claim's suspicion, indeed as a master. For we do not believe that there will be anyone who would desire so small a bounty, granted to you for your devotion, or would attempt in any way to revoke it; since it is at one and the same time both shameful to undo the good deeds of one's predecessors, and shameful to teach others one day to pronounce a revoking sentence upon one's own bounty.