Gregory to John the defender. Where the quality of faults arouses canonical strictness, we ought not to postpone the things that are to be corrected, lest by dissimulation we seem to give strength to depraved deeds, which it behooves us to cut away with the pruning-hook of discipline.
Since, therefore, it has come to us that the monks of the monastery on the island of Capraria, which is situated near the island of Majorca, act very perversely and have subjected their life to divers crimes, so that — which we say with groaning — they show themselves to serve rather the ancient enemy than Almighty God, let your experience, admonished by the present authority, go to the aforesaid monastery, and seek out by subtle inquiry the life and manners of those dwelling there; and thus, whatever it shall find worthy of the pruning-knife, as the canonical order requires, correct by fitting
discipline correct, and inform them of the things which they ought to observe, so that the measure of your amendment may both lead these men back to the way of right conversation, and may in no wise avail to accuse you as culpable before us.