Gregory to Romanus the defensor. Fuscus, abbot of the monastery of Saints Erasmus, Maximus, and Juliana — which, as you know, was founded at Naples by Alexandra, a woman of most illustrious memory, who also appointed as her heir the estate of Papyrianum situated there in Sicily, together with the hospice of Saint Theodore — asserts that his aforesaid monastery holds this in common. But that it may not have to endure delay in dividing it with those whom it concerns, he asks that the help of your experience be present to him. Therefore by the tenor of this instruction we enjoin upon you to hasten to assist him and to aid him in all things, so that the estate itself may be divided according to the due portions without any delay.
But lest perchance it be said that possessions which are here held in common are being retained by the aforesaid monastery, there ought to be no excuse from this, since it too is prepared to divide them without difficulty. But since the legacy which is said to have been left to the aforesaid Alexandra by Pompeius — namely by that same hospice, to which she is held to have succeeded by hereditary right in eight-twelfths — the said abbot says is owed as a repayment to his monastery, let your experience take care to learn this also; and if it is so, let him be zealous to act so that what was left may by all means be paid out. So then let your solicitude show itself in this matter that, with justice supporting it, the labor which the aforesaid abbot undertook in coming to us may not prove to be in vain.