Maurus
age, and was buried in peace in the basilica of St. Apollinaris priest and martyr, in Classe. He sat __ years, __ months, __ days. CONCERNING HOLY MAURUS, 642–71 . Maurus, the thirty-fourth bishop. He was energetic; he was deacon and steward of this church and was abbot for the monasterium of St. Bartholemew, where now, as you see, I am abbot, God willing, from the bequest of deacon Sergius, my paternal cousin. This above-mentioned bishop, as I said, had many troubles with the Roman bishop, many contests, many disturbances, many altercations . He went to Constantinople on many occasions, so that he might free his church from the yoke or domination of the Romans . It was done thus, and the church of Ravenna was withdrawn , so that no future pastor of the Ravennate church need ever afterward go to Rome to the bishop of the Roman see for consecration , nor that he should have the pope’s rule over him, nor that he should at any time be under the dominion of the Roman bishop , but might consecrate his choice [for episcopal office] with three of his own bishops; and he brought back the pallium from the emperor in Constantinople.1 If we digress through many and long journeys, I could tell you in order how this was done and for what reason and by what ingenuities . If we want to do this, to digress through all these things, I will expend parchment and ink, and you will be delayed in waiting for me. . The privilege of Emperor Constans II regarding the autocephaly of the Ravennate church was given to Maurus on March , ; it is found in the Codex Estensis, fol. v, and is published in RIS ., ed. Muratori, , and ibid., .:, as well as by Holder-Egger, LPER, –, n. . Agnellus no doubt saw this document; what he says here, as well as below, refers directly to the following section: “WE ORDAIN further that [the church of Ravenna] shall remain safe and free from any superior episcopal authority and shall be vacant only by rescript of our imperial command, and shall not be subject for any reason to the ancient patriarchate of the city of Rome, but shall remain autocephalous .l.l. and consecrated by his own bishops, using fittingly the pallium .” He was deacon and steward of this church, he ruled the monasterium of the blessed apostle Bartholemew, where I am seen to be abbot. . Therefore he sent his manipularius, whom he wanted to make rector of Sicily, to his [current] rector of Sicily, a deacon by the name of Benedict, who at that time was in charge of taking care of the legal and business affairs of the church of Ravenna,2 saying in a letter, “Your service has pleased us enough. You have grown old; return to the holy mother church, where you were raised. It is time for me to see you; so confirm this man, our manipularius, as rector after you. If possible, let our admonition not be unpleasant to you; but if it is unpleasant to you, see that you send him back to us.” [Benedict] however, once he knew the will of the bishop, honored [the manipularius] with various presents and gifts: gold and silver , desirable vases and many other things. And when the two men had been brought down to the boat, they kissed one other and said farewell, and [Benedict] gave [the manipularius] three hundred gold pieces and sent him back rich to his bishop. Then the said deacon Benedict came back to Sicily, where he loaded the long ships with fifty thousand modia of wheat, not counting many other grains and vegetables, reddened hides of rams and purple robes and decorated silk episcopal vestments, wool and other garments, vases of brass and silver, and thirty-one thousand gold solidi. From these he sent fifteen thousand to the palace in Constantinople and sixteen thousand to the archive of the church.3 This payment was made every year, but the wheat always [went] to the table where the bishop ate. The manipularius, having returned, told the bishop all the things which had been done, and showed the gifts which he had given him, and thanked the absent man. . About the patrimony of the Ravennate church in Sicily, see esp. Fasoli, “Sul Patrimonio,” and Fasoli, “Il patrimonio.”This story seems to be taken from a letter that Agnellus saw in the archive; however, the biblical language used, particularly to describe...
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