Introduction
To All the Bishops of Gaul.
(Of conspiracies and other illicit pursuits, that they be not engaged in, and of the restoration of the lapsed after penitence.)
Callistus to our most dearly beloved brethren, all the bishops settled throughout Gaul.
By the report of very many, we learn that your love, by the zeal of the Holy Spirit, holds and guides the helm of the Church so firmly in the face of all assaults, that by God's will it is conscious neither of shipwreck nor of the losses of shipwreck. Rejoicing, therefore, in such testimonies, we beg you not to permit anything to be done in those parts contrary to the apostolic statutes; but, supported by our authority, do ye check what is injurious, and prohibit what is unlawful.