The Sardinian Church 181
Lombard incursions), to the exercise of episcopalis audientia, to economic-
administrative and fiscal matters (e.g. encouraging the exarchus to resist the
arrogant behavior of the dux Sardiniae or asking the basileus to lighten the tax
burden on Sardinian possessores).11 Communication across the Tyrrhenian Sea
seems to have still been easy, with the pope’s trusted informers, many of them
women, traveling to Rome to meet with him in person.12 Thus, it was possible
for Gregory to intervene in real time, if and when the need arose: there are at
least three times when a letter sent from the island received a response from
Rome in three to four months.13
2.1 Januarius, Archbishop of Carales 14
During the time of Gregory the Great, Januarius, the archbishop of Carales,
was completely lacking the qualities required of the office of a metropolitan.
This fact did not escape the attention of the pope, who passed up no occasion
to remind Januarius and his suffragans (the latter had to appear two times per
year before the metropolitan) of the loftiness of their position, but, at times,
the pope treated Januarius like his own suffragan to such an extent that some-
times he sent his officials to Carales to bring Januarius to Rome, in order to
interrogate and judge him for reasons that are unclear.
2.2 The Discovery of Pagans and Barbaricini
Another cause of suffering for Gregory was the fact that the bishops of Sardinia
had fallen silent regarding the presence of numerous pagans on the island,
even among the rustici and coloni who worked the church’s lands. This situ-
ation was already present during the life of Symmachus, the future pope,
who presumably arrived in Rome as a pagan. Gregory dispatched letters to
Januarius, the other bishops, and the Christian landowners of Sardinia, calling
11 Raimondo Turtas, “La situazione politica e militare in Sardegna e Corsica secondo il
Registrum epistolarum di Gregorio Magno,” in Ricci, Gregorio Magno e la Sardegna,
pp. 117–141.
12 Among the pope’s trusted “informers,” 11 of 16 were women, though only five who traveled
to Rome to meet with him in person were women. Raimondo Turtas, “La cura animarum
in Sardegna e Corsica dall’epistolario di Gregorio Magno,” in Casula et al., Per longa maris
intervalla, pp. 391–418.
13 Mauro Sanna, “L’epistolario sardo-corso di Gregorio Magno,” in Ricci, Gregorio Magno e la
Sardegna, pp. 69–116.
14 Raimondo Turtas, “Gregorio Magno e la Sardegna: gli informatori del pontefice,” in La
Sardegna paleocristiana tra Eusebio e Gregorio Magno: atti del convegno nazionale di
studio, Cagliari, 10–12 ottobre 1996, eds Attilio Mastino, Giovanna Sotgiu, and Natalino
Spaccapelo (Cagliari, 1999), pp. 497–513.