Gregory to Candidus the priest, going to the patrimony of Gaul. Proceeding, with the help of our Lord God Jesus Christ, to govern the patrimony which is in Gaul, we desire that your Beloved, from the solidi which you shall receive, purchase clothing for the poor, or English boys of seventeen or eighteen years, that, given to God, they may profit in monasteries; so that the solidi of Gaul, which cannot be spent in our land, may be usefully spent in their proper place. But if you are able to receive anything of the monies of the revenues which are said to have been taken away, we wish that from these also you purchase clothing for the poor, or, as we said before, boys who may profit in the service of the Almighty.
398:2
Sedquiapaganisuntquiillicinveniripossunt, voloutcumcispresbytertransmittatur, nequidægritudiniscontingatinvia, utquosmoriturisconspexeritdebeatbaptizare. Itaigiturtnadilectiofaciat, uthaecdiligenterimplerefestinet. (Cf. Joan. Diac. I. II, n. 6.)
But since those who can be found there are pagans, I wish that a priest be sent with them, lest any sickness befall on the way, so that he may baptize those whom he shall have seen to be dying. Let your Beloved, therefore, so act, that he hasten diligently to fulfil these things. (Cf. John the Deacon, book II, no. 6.)