BR 1705 .F4 G72 1879 
 Barmby, J. 1822-1897 
 Gregory the Great 
 
GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
Cfte jTatftfrsi for (gnglfel) aataliers;. 
 
 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. J/BARMBY, B.D. 
 
 VICAR OF PITTINGTON ; 
 
 LATE PRINCIPAL OF BISHOP HATFIELD's HALL, DURHAM ; 
 
 AND FORMERLY FELLOW OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT 
 COMMITTEE. 
 
 LONDON. 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS; 
 
 4, ROYAL exchange; AND 48, PICCADILLY. 
 
 NEW YORK : POTT, YOUNG, & CO. 
 1879. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 wyman and sons, printers, great queen street, 
 lincoln's-inn fields, W.C. 
 
Vthsologic&l 
 contents. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Gregory and his Age — Ascendency of the Church — 
 Results of Controversies — Imperial Domination — The 
 Roman See — Effects of Barbarian Invasions — Justinian 
 — Pope Vigilius "■ — The Three Cljapters — Spread of 
 Christianity- ^Tunsdic Jagn ofjhe_Popesrr^Monasticism — 
 Benedict of Nursia — State of Morals and Religion />ao-e 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Gregory's Parentage, Education, Early Life — He becomes 
 a Monk — Ordination and Residence at Constantinople 
 — Return to Monastic Life — Asceticism — Distressed 
 state of Italy — Election to the Popedom — Reluctance ■"> 
 to accept-i^Gregoi-y as Pope — Habits of Life— Istrian 
 Bishops — Deference to the Emperor — African Donatists 
 — Sanction of Persecution — Tolerance towards Jews 
 (540-591) />a^e 29 
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 Correction of Monastic Abuses — Separation of Monks and 
 
 Cler gy^^ Exempt ion of Monasteries from EpTscopaT' 
 
 Control — Case of Venantius — Nunneries — Sanctity of 
 Marriage — Endowments — Election of Bishops— :Con- 
 
GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 firmation — Use of the Pall — Respect for Episcopal 
 Rights — Januarius of Cagliari — Natalis of Salona — 
 Correction of Clerks — Sanctuary — Privileges of Clergy 
 — Celibacy — Administration^ of the Patiimony — 
 Charities . ^" ' page 52 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Church in Spain — Letters to Leander and Reccared 
 — Appeal of two Spanish Bishops to Rome — Corre- 
 spondence with Irish Bishops — St. Columban's Letters 
 — Eastern lUyricum — Iladrianns — Natalis — Maximus — 
 Remonstrance with the Emperor — Letter to the Empress 
 — Final settlement — Claim to authority over the Eastern 
 Church — Letter to John the Faster— Lombard Invasion 
 — Gregory's Sermons — Patriotic activity — Thwarted by 
 the Exarch — Letters to the Emperor and Empress — 
 Truce with the Lombards — John the Faster calls him- 
 self Universal Bishop - Gregory's view of the question 
 — His remonstrances— His sarcastic vein— He addresses 
 the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria — Cyriacus 
 succeeds John the Faster — Gregory's renewed remon- 
 strance — Correspondence with the Patriarchs — His view 
 of St. P'^ter's Primacy being shared by Antioch and 
 Alexandria — Renewed Lombard invasions — Gregory's 
 activity — Results of his efforts {591-596) . page 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Mission to England — Story of the Slaves in the 
 Roman Forum — State of the Church in France — Corre- 
 spondence with Brunehild — Pall sent to Virgilius — 
 Reforms urged — Candidus sent — Cyriacus — A General 
 Synod desired — Failure to obtain one — Eventual results 
 — Augustine despatched to England — His success — His 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 alleged Miracles — His questions and the replies to them 
 — Scheme for the English Church — Letter to Mellitus 
 —Letters to Bertha and Ethelbert— The British Chris- 
 tians — The Lombards — Theodelinda — Conversion of 
 Agilulph (596-601) page 104 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 Accession of Phocas — His Character — His treatment of 
 Mauricius and the Imperial family — Gregory's letters to 
 him — To Leontia — Consideration of Gregory's conduct 
 on this occasion — Its result — Former letters in praise of 
 Mauricius — Palliations — Suffering from gout — Last 
 letter to Theodelinda — Death and burial — Conduct of 
 the mob after his death — Archdeacon Peter — Personal 
 appearance of Gregory — His costume — Ecclesiastical 
 Vestments in his day — Relics of him preserved at Rome 
 (601-606) page 130 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Gregory's v^^ritings — His letters — Extracts from them : 
 To the Subdeacon Peter — To Marinianus of Ravenna — ^r 
 
 To Dominicus of Centumcelloe — To Maximus of Salona 
 — To the ex- Prefect Libertinus — To Gregoria, a lady 
 at Court — To the Emperor's sister, Theoctista — Another 
 letter to the same lady — Liber Pastoralis Curae — Its 
 renown — Its plan — Summary of its contents — The 
 Book of Dialogues — Occasion of its composition — Its 
 contents — References to Benedict of Nursia — the fourth 
 book about the state of the soul after death — Its effects 
 on Christian thought — Commentary on Job — Milman's 
 account of it — Specimens of its style — Homilies — On 
 Ezekiel — On the Gospels — Extracts — Sacramentary, 
 Antiphonary Hymns — The Lord's Prayer in the 
 Eucharistic Office — Genuineness~and style of the Hymns 
 — Gregorian and Ambrosian music , . pctge 144 
 
GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Gregory's character — His talents— His attainments— His 
 doctrinal views — On the authority of the Church — 
 Augustinianism — Baptism — The Eucharist — Purgatory 
 — Intercessionof Saints— Relics— Pictures and Images- 
 Slavery— Authority of the Roman See — Results of his 
 policy page 191 
 
i'. u i' i cu 
 
 LOGIC... 
 
 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Gregory and his Age — Ascendency of the Church — Results of 
 Controversies — Imperial Domination — The Roman See — 
 Effects of Barbarian Invasions — Justinian — Pope Vigilius — 
 The Three Chapters — Spread of Christianity — ^Jurisdiction 
 of the Popes — Monasticism — Benedict of Nursia — State of 
 Morals and Religion. 
 
 If the title " Great," applied to an historical person- 
 age, may be rightly defined as implying the combina- 
 tion of high moral purpose with commanding ability, 
 so used as to affect extensively the history of mankind, 
 such title has not been without cause assigned to the 
 first Pope Gregory. In all cases favourable circum- 
 stances are of course required, that the result may be 
 actual, not mere potential, greatness. There must 
 be suitable environments for the development and 
 display of all high and influential life. Gregory- 
 might have lived and died with no renown beyond 
 that of ascetic saintliness, had not circumstances 
 called him when they did from his monastery to the 
 highest seat in Christendom ; and even there in a less 
 eventful age his great qualities might not have found 
 their adequate field for exercise. He stands out on 
 
lO GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 the page of history as a striking instance of a re- 
 markable man, at a remarkable time, being placed 
 by Providence in a position peculiarly suitable for 
 the exercise of his powers. The position was not of 
 his own seeking ; he shrank from it ; he would fain 
 have declined it altogether ; greatness, in the sense 
 of great estate, was "thrust upon" him; but, when it 
 came, he showed himself at once worthy of it. And 
 it is to be observed, that, though he sought it not, 
 yet in one sense he himself "achieved" it, inasmuch 
 as it was his acknowledged and peculiar fitness that 
 caused all concerned in his elevation to force its 
 acceptance upon him. 
 
 A brief preliminary sketch of the position of the 
 Church, and especially of the Roman see, in relation to 
 the world at the time of St. Gregory's accession, and of 
 the causes that had led up to the existing state of things, 
 will assist our understanding of his field of work. 
 
 At the close of the sixth century, when the first 
 Gregory became pope, Paganism had long virtually 
 disappeared from the Roman Empire ; it was no 
 longer a power to be considered, though it still 
 lingered extensively, especially in country places, in 
 spite of rei)rcssion ; Christianity was everywhere 
 maintained and dominant. The emperors too, whether 
 orthodox or heretical, had long taken a warm interest 
 in church affairs, had summoned councils, promulga- 
 ted and enforced their decrees ; and, however morally 
 corrupt society in high places might be, its atmosphere 
 had been impregnated with theology. The result 
 had been, among other things, a large advance in the 
 importance of the hierarchy, and especially of the great 
 
THE RISE OF IMPERIALISM. II 
 
 patriarchal sees ; but at the same time (in the East 
 at least) increasing subservience to the imperial 
 power, which, while treating prelates with much 
 external respect, had been in the habit of dictating 
 to them in fact, commanding their elevation or 
 deposition, and at times trenching more or less even 
 on their spiritual prerogatives by assuming to itself a 
 kind of priestly power. 
 
 The controversies that had been the peculiar 
 feature of Church history in the preceding centuries 
 had furthered these results. The need felt for centres 
 of unity and support against the aggressions of 
 heretical speculation ; the importance accruing to 
 bishops, and especially to metropolitans and patri- 
 archs, to whom in synod and general council the 
 definition of the faith had been consigned, had 
 enhanced the dignity of the episcopal order, while, 
 on the other hand, the somewhat imperious attitude 
 of the emperors in connection with such controversies 
 and councils, — the lacter being convened by their 
 sole authority, controlled by them during their 
 sittings, and dependent on them for ratification and 
 the enforcement of their decrees, — had at the same 
 time advanced imperialism. And, further, however 
 important for all future time were the dogmatic 
 decisions of that age of conflict, its immediate effects 
 were likely to be demoralizing, as they certainly were 
 replete with ill blood and discord. When the leaders 
 of the Church had so long been habitually occu- 
 pied in bitter controversy, dealing anathemas against 
 each other, deposing and being deposed, their very 
 councils often scenes of violence ; when Christian 
 
12 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 communities were divided into parties, often fighting 
 to bloodshed for rival tenets, or in support of rival 
 bishops ; when salvation had come to be regarded as 
 dependent on accurate definitions of nice points of 
 mysterious doctrine far more than on charity or holi- 
 ness of life ; — the effects were necessarily disastrous 
 to the peace and morality of the Church at large. 
 It is to be observed, however, that throughout the 
 period referred to the see of Rome had occupied a 
 peculiar position, and been much less affected either 
 by imperial domination or by doctrinal conflict than 
 the patriarchates of the East. The tendency of 
 events had been in fact to aggrandise exceptionally, 
 and give a sort of sacred lustre to, the occupants of 
 St. Peter's chair. With regard to the great contro- 
 versies that had so embittered and divided the 
 Church, the West had been comparatively free from 
 them, and the popes had taken but little part in 
 them ; but they had with one or two temporary 
 exceptions supported uniformly the cause of ortho- 
 doxy ; they had countenanced and protected orthodox 
 prelates who had fled to them under persecution; 
 they had been represented, though not present, in 
 all the general councils held in the East to define the 
 faith, and had ratified their decrees ; they had often 
 been able to defy emperors who favoured heresy with 
 a spirit and success little known in the more sub- 
 servient East, and thus advancing their claims to be, 
 as St. Peter's successors, the unfailing guardians of 
 Apostolical tradition, and assumed a headship over all 
 the Churches, which though by no means universally 
 acknowledged, had gained extensive credence. 
 
THE GROWTH OF THE PAPAL CLAIMS. 1 3 
 
 Political events had also favoured the independence 
 and influence of the Roman see. The removal of 
 the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople by 
 Constantine had, from the very commencement of the 
 State's acknowledgment of Christianity, left the bishops 
 of the old city free from the depressing domination of 
 a court from which their Eastern rivals continually 
 suffered. Freedom was further secured, during the 
 periods when there was a Western as well as an 
 Eastern emperor, by the removal of the residence of 
 the former under Honorius (a.d. 404) to Ravenna. 
 Rome itself had, indeed, long before this removal 
 ceased to be the usual residence of the emperors. 
 Since the beginning of the reign of Diocletian (277) 
 they had held their court at Milan. 
 
 In such circumstances the importance of the 
 popes had, since the time of Constantine, gone on in- 
 creasing; to their acknowledged spiritual position as 
 the occupants of the first see in Christendom, the 
 representatives of St. Peter, the sole great patriarchs 
 of the West, was added a temporal position of no 
 mean importance. As the most influential potentates 
 in the ancient imperial city, supported by the 
 spiritual allegiance of the West, they had been 
 enabled, though still subjects of the emperors, to 
 hold their own against them in ecclesiastical matters 
 with success, and were a power which had to be 
 counted on by the State. 
 
 The invasions of the Roman empire by barbarian 
 hordes, which had been the most important historical 
 event of a century or two before the time of Gregory, 
 being destined to found a new Europe on the ruins 
 of old Roman civilization, had further strengthened 
 
14 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 the Papal power, and opened the way for its develop- 
 ment The most memorable of these invasions, — 
 those which resulted in the capture of Rome itself, — 
 had been confronted by popes of singular eminence, 
 who more than any others asserted and advanced the 
 prerogatives of the Holy See. 
 
 Innocent I. was pope when (a.d. 410) Rome fell 
 into the hands of Alaric the Goth ; Leo the Great 
 when Attila the Hun (452) and Genseric the Vandal 
 (455) were the successive conquerors. Each event, 
 however notoriously disastrous, left the Church, and 
 the see of Rome, in a higher position than before. 
 The first accomplished the breaking up and dispersion 
 of the old Roman families which had been the 
 props of ancient heathenism, and the demolition of 
 the ancient temples, afterwards left in ruins or 
 converted into churches ; it was regarded as a divine 
 judgment on old heathen, rather than on Christian, 
 Rome, especially as the Gothic invaders, being 
 Christians though Arians, had singularly respected 
 places and persons of Christian sanctity: and Inno- 
 cent, who had been providentially absent (not through 
 cowardice, but on a mission of duty,) during the 
 siege and capture, when he returned to the city after 
 the departure of the invaders, found himself in a 
 position of singular eminence. He was henceforth 
 without rival the greatest man in Rome ; the head 
 and organizer of a new Christian Rome rising out of 
 the ruins of devastated heathen Rome ; both his 
 character and his conduct during the crisis, and his 
 position afterwards, enhanced his prestige and his 
 power in proportion as those of the weak emperor 
 
THE INVASION OF THE BARBARIANS. 1 5 
 
 Honorius, timidly inefficient at Ravenna, had 
 decayed. Then, when Attila with his heathen Huns 
 seemed to have Italy and Rome at his feet, it had 
 been neither emperor nor general, but Pope Leo to 
 whom the sole glory had accrued of checking him in 
 his career of conquest, and, apparently in a great 
 measure through a feeling of superstitious awe, 
 inducing him to retire. And when, soon afterwards, 
 the Arian Vandal Genseric devastated Rome, it was 
 the same great pope who alone obtained some mi- 
 tigation of the horrors of the conquest ; and when 
 that storm too had passed away, it left the Western 
 Empire wounded to the death, but the see of Rome 
 with its prestige and its lustre unimpaired. 
 
 Only fifteen years after the death of Pope Leo, the 
 Western Empire expired in Augustulus, and the Heru- 
 lian Odoacer, and after him Theodoric the Ostrogoth, 
 both Arian Christians, became rulers in the West. 
 Under such rule it might have been expected that 
 the head of Western Catholicity would suffer an 
 eclipse. But it was not so. These princes were 
 peculiarly tolerant, treated the Catholic clergy, and 
 especially the pope, with respect, and in no way 
 evinced any desire to interfere in Church affairs, 
 except, when called upon, to rectify flagrant abuses 
 attending elections to the popedom. Under this rule 
 it was that Felix II L, and his successors for more 
 than forty years, had been able to defy emperors and 
 patriarchs, in the matter of Acacius, and to renounce 
 communion with the whole Eastern Church. Under 
 the same rule Pope Hormisdas had at length dictated 
 his own terms of communion to the East, and, with 
 
1 6 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 the aid of the orthodox Emperor Justin, ended the 
 schism in a way that was, on the whole, a striking 
 triumph to the ApostoHc See. 
 
 The reconquest of Italy for Justinian by Belisarius 
 (536) had, however, brought about a change in the 
 relation of the popes to the State, and been followed, 
 in fact, by a period of unusual humiliation to the 
 papal chair. Religious zeal in high places, combined 
 with principles of oriental despotism, soon proved a 
 bad exchange for the indifference or the tolerance of 
 the Arian ruler. The Eastern emperors had long 
 been accustomed to ecclesiastical domination over 
 the patriarchs and prelates in their own domain, — 
 domination the more humiliating for the female influ- 
 ence and court intrigues that too often were elements 
 in its exercise, — and the bishops of Rome were now 
 to be in like manner treated as vassals. The story is 
 well known of the reigning pope. Silverius, after the 
 entry of Belisarius into Rome, being peremptorily 
 summoned to the bedchamber of Antonina, the wife 
 of the general, and the confidante of the Empress 
 Theodora, who, sitting on her bed with her husband 
 at her feet, ordered then and there his deposition and 
 banishment. It is well known too how, after this, 
 Vigilius was, by command of Theodora, uncanoni- 
 cally made pope by Belisarius, on the understanding 
 that, in return for his elevation and for a large bribe 
 received, he should profess the Monophysite creed, 
 which that empress favoured. In these transactions 
 Justinian himself was not personally concerned ; but 
 the very fact that they could take place without his 
 cognizance shows only the more clearly to what 
 
THE THREE CHAPTERS. 1 7 
 
 degradation the immediate supremacy of a corrupt 
 court might reduce the Church. He, however, in his 
 own orthodox way, was also arbitrary enough, and, 
 to whatever extent his legislation might benefit the 
 clergy, he had no idea of even popes resisting his 
 imperial will : especially as he himself prided himself 
 on being a theologian. Having issued in 544, on his 
 own authority, an edict condemning as heretical the 
 writings (called the Three Chapters) of three deceased 
 prelates, Theodore of Mopsuesta, Theodoret, and 
 Ibas (though the two last had been expressly acquitted 
 of heresy by the Council of Chalcedon), he peremp- 
 torily summoned to Constantinople Vigilius, who, 
 along with the bishops of the West, had refused to 
 join in the condemnation. Thrice, under pressure 
 and contumelious usage, the unhappy pope complied, 
 and thrice recanted. The fifth CEcumenical Council 
 (553) which, under the emperor's dictation, con- 
 demned the three Chapters, he not only refused to 
 attend, but also issued a defence of the writings 
 condemned ; but afterwards, in spite of his protest, 
 accepted its decrees. He cut but a sorry figure 
 throughout : his commencement was disgraceful ; he 
 wavered between independence and subservience 
 during his subsequent career. His successor Pelagius, 
 though he had previously with Vigilius defended the 
 three Chapters, also assented after his accession to 
 their condemnation ; for which assent his authority 
 was repudiated by several Western Churches. Between 
 Pelagius and Gregory came the three popes, John III., 
 Benedict I., and Pelagius II., whose reigns were 
 singularly obscure and uneventful. The blight of 
 c 
 
1 8 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 imperialism at this time dimmed the lustre of the 
 great Roman see. Events had, however, in the mean- 
 time occurred which, while they greatly increased, in 
 many respects, the difficulties of Gregory's position, 
 at any rate had again relieved his see from the pres- 
 sure of imperial despotism. The Lombards had 
 already crossed the Alps and gained possession of 
 Northern Italy : at the time of Gregory's accession 
 they threatened Rome, while the Emperor at Con- 
 stantinople was cowed and powerless. None of the 
 barbarian invaders of Italy have been painted by 
 their contemporaries in such black colours as the 
 Lombards. Their invasion was worse than that even 
 of the hideous heathen Huns ; for it was not merely 
 that of a savage army that came and departed; it 
 was the migration of a savage people, with their wives 
 and families, taking savage possession of the country. 
 Arians like the Goths, they do not appear to have 
 had their reverence for Christian sanctities. They 
 are said to have destroyed churches, violated virgins, 
 spread round them devastation and terror. There 
 may be exaggeration by the writers of the time, actu- 
 ated by fear and indignation, of the enormities of 
 their character and conduct ; but such is the picture 
 given of them. It was mainly the misery and the 
 disorganization caused by them to which we may 
 probably attribute the then prevalent belief, often 
 expressed by Gregory himself, that the end of all 
 things was approaching : it was the panic and despe- 
 ration induced by their approach that caused all 
 classes at Rome, recognizing in their need the cha- 
 racter of Gregory, to fix on him as the only man for 
 steering the bark of St. Peter through the storm. 
 
THE RISE OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS. 1 9 
 
 Such was the political state of things when St. 
 Gregory took the helm — a state of things of especial 
 importance in this respect, that now was the period 
 of transition from the old order to the new ; from 
 the Church under the wing of the old Roman Empire 
 christianized, to the Church exercising independent 
 sway from Rome over nations of new blood and new 
 institutions which were forming themselves through- 
 out Europe; from imperialism to the mediaeval papacy. 
 Gregory lived at a critical time in this eventful 
 period; a time when the Western empire had just ex- 
 pired and the Eastern was languishing ; and when 
 the new nations were notably gaining power and 
 position; and it was, humanly speaking, due especially 
 to him that the system of papal monarchy, already 
 contemplated and prepared for by an Innocent and 
 a Leo, took definite and lasting form. 
 
 At this time many of the Teutonic nations who 
 were destined to constitute Christian Europe had 
 already been more or less converted ; but all except 
 the Franks had at first or subsequently adopted 
 Arianism. This important exception was due to 
 Clovis, king of the Salian Franks, influenced by his 
 queen, Clotilda (a Catholic Burgundian princess), and 
 by a vow made at the battle of Tolbiacum (Ziilpich, 
 A.D. 496), having adopted Catholicism (being baptized 
 by St. Remigius, bishop of Rheims), and having been 
 followed by his subjects. Afterwards, owing partly to 
 the example and influence of this preponderating 
 race, others had also professed orthodoxy : the Bur- 
 gundians, under their king, Sigismund (517); the 
 Suevi, under their kings, Carrarich (550-559) and 
 c 2 
 
20 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 Theodemir (559-569); the Visigoths in Spain, under 
 their king, Reccared, at the Council of Toledo 
 (589). Since the Ostrogothic kingdom in Upper 
 Italy, and the Vandalic in Western Africa, had been 
 destroyed under Justinian, Arianism had also lost its 
 hold in these territories. But the terrible Lombards, 
 who now occupied a great part of Northern Italy and 
 threatened the South, were still Arians. Even there, 
 however, it was not long before Catholicity obtained 
 a footing, through the influence of a Catholic queen, 
 as will be seen hereafter. Orthodox churches existed 
 in Britain and Ireland, though in Britain now driven, 
 since the Saxon invasion (449), into the mountains of 
 Wales, Cornwall, and the north of the island. 
 
 With regard to the authority of the Bishop of Rome — 
 when St. Gregory took the reins — claimed or acknow- 
 ledged, over the above-mentioned and other parts of 
 the Christian world, it was of three kinds : — ist, epi- 
 scopal ; 2ndly, metropolitan ; 3rdly, patriarchal. His 
 episcopate comprised only the city of Rome ; as 
 metropolitan he had oversight of the seven suffragan, 
 afterwards called cardinal, bishops of the Roman 
 territory, those of Ostia, Portus, Silva Candida, 
 Sabina, Praeneste, Tusculum, and Albanum ; his 
 patriarchate seems to have originally extended (ac- 
 cording to Rufinus, the ecclesiastical historian, writing 
 towards the end of the fourth century) over the 
 suburban provinces which were under the civil juris- 
 diction of the vicariiis urbis^ including Upper Italy, 
 with the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. But 
 being the only patriarch in the West, he had in fact 
 claimed and exercised jurisdiction as such beyond 
 
EXTENSION OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 21 
 
 these original limits, including in this way all the four 
 vicariates into which the praefecture of Italy was 
 politically divided ; not that of Rome only, but those 
 also of Northern Italy, with its centre at Milan, Western 
 Illyricum, with its capital at Sirmium, and Western 
 Africa, with its capital at Carthage. In the last- 
 named region the popes had indeed in past times 
 (notably in the time of Cyprian) succeeded very im- 
 perfectly in their assertions of authority; but after 
 the oppressive domination of the Arian Vandals, the 
 Catholics there, delivered by Justinian's conquest, 
 A.D. 534, readily admitted the spiritual suzerainty of 
 Rome. Eastern Illyricum too, though annexed by 
 the Emperor Gratian (379), when he divided Illyria, to 
 the Eastern Empire, having during the Arian disputes 
 belonged to the Western, and having been faithful to 
 the Nicene faith, had, after the separation, turned itself 
 to Rome rather than to Constantinople ; and the popes 
 Damasus and Siricius had taken advantage of the 
 opportunity to assign to the bishops of Thessalonica 
 patriarchal jurisdiction over the new praefecture as 
 vicars of the Roman see. And this relation of East 
 Illyria to Rome had become afterwards an accom- 
 plished fact. In Gaul also, while still under imperial 
 rule, the popes had long exercised spiritual authority. 
 Disputes having arisen between the bishops of Aries 
 and Vienne, Pope Zozimus had, as early as a.d. 417, 
 assigned metropolitan rights to the former, making 
 the bishop of Aries vicar of the Apostolic See, as the 
 bishop of Thessalonica had been made in Illyria. 
 Subsequent popes had maintained this arrangement, 
 though not always without resistance on the part of 
 
2 2 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 the Gallican bishops. Further, beyond any limits 
 that can be definitely assigned, the influence of the 
 bishops of Rome extended. At whatever date their 
 claim to a sort of jurisdiction over the whole Church 
 Catholic, as successors of the Prince of the Apostles, 
 began, and however unknown such authority might 
 be in more primitive times, the claim had long been 
 made. Synodical decrees and imperial edicts had 
 been used to support such extended jurisdiction. 
 The Western council of Sardica (347) had accorded 
 to the then pope, Julius, the power of sending judges to 
 hear on the spot the appeals of condemned bishops, 
 at any rate throughout the West ; and the successors 
 of Julius had quoted the canons of this council 
 erroneously as those of Nice, and as empowering the 
 popes in perpetuity to summon cases from all parts 
 to be heard at Rome. Further, during the ecclesias- 
 tical disputes in Gaul about the jurisdiction of Aries 
 in the time of Pope Leo I., the Emperor Valentinian 
 had made a law constituting the pope supreme head 
 of the whole Western Church, with power to summon 
 bishops from all parts to abide his judgments. In 
 the East (except in the case of bishops courting the 
 support of Rome against oppression) such claims had 
 indeed been ever resisted, but even there the pre- 
 eminence, as distinct from the jurisdiction, of the 
 see of old Rome, was recognized. And elsewhere, 
 though with varying degrees of independence, the 
 barbaric conquerors of Europe naturally regarded 
 with peculiar reverence the prelate of the old Eternal 
 City, the one great Western patriarch, the representa- 
 tive (as they had been taught) of the Prince of the 
 
THE RISE OF MONASTICISM. 2$ 
 
 Apostles, to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven 
 had' been committed. With what watchfulness and 
 judgment Gregory cultivated, as he had opportunity, 
 the ground thus being prepared for the future harvest, 
 as well as reformed and consolidated the part of the 
 Church already under his fuller sway, will appear as 
 his hfe goes on. 
 
 For an understanding of the religious tone of the 
 age of Gregory, as well as that of his own character, 
 the rise and prevalence of monasticism must be taken 
 into account. The system, having been introduced 
 in the fourth century from the East, which was its 
 original home, into the West, and having been encou- 
 raged and upheld from its outset by such distinguished 
 men as St. Athanasius, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and 
 St. Augustine, soon made extraordinary progress 
 through the whole of Western Christendom, and had 
 become universally recognized as that of the highest 
 Christian Hfe. While it had doubtless afforded scope 
 for many saintly aspirations for which the turmoil 
 and vices of ordinary society were often too little 
 favourable, it had also fostered much fanaticism and 
 credulity. It had withdrawn from direct service to 
 their fellow-men hosts of devotees, who saw the only 
 sure road to heaven in seclusion, excessive fasting, 
 and self-inflicted pain, and who often proved them- 
 selves capable of wild fanatical violence; it had 
 peopled the deserts, in the imagination of men, with 
 miraculous visitations, ministering angels, and multi- 
 tudes of assaulting devils ; it had also encouraged 
 a number of roving idlers, who covered idleness and 
 sometimes sensuality with the cloak of saintliness; 
 
24 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 but, on the other hand, it had offered to many a field 
 for purity and undisturbed devotion, combined in 
 many cases with manual industry and charitable 
 deeds ; and it had impressed the corrupt society of 
 the age with the sense of there being higher aims for 
 man than eating and drinking, worldly ambition and 
 enjoyment. 
 
 A new impulse and form had now been quite 
 recently given to the system by Benedict of Nursia 
 (born 480), who, by way of reforming the abuses 
 and disorder into which it had fallen, had founded 
 the great Benedictine order, and estabHshed (a.d. 529) 
 his famous Monastery on Monte Cassino. The prin- 
 ciples of monasticism, and the influence of this great 
 reformer, had taken deep hold on the mind of 
 Gregory, affecting his whole character and modes of 
 thought. The first monk who had ascended the 
 papal chair, he remained one in heart throughout his 
 life ; while, both in his actions and his writings, he 
 did much towards advancing the system, and espe- 
 cially towards giving a fixed and permanent form to 
 the conceptions about the spiritual world — the my- 
 thology (so to speak) of mediaeval Christendom — 
 which, springing mainly from the imaginations and 
 visions of secluded enthusiasts, passed into the 
 general creed of men. 
 
 With regard to the general moral condition of 
 Christian society, it is usual, and not without 
 reason, to represent it very unfavourably. The 
 grossly corrupt civilization of the Roman empire had 
 undoubtedly been an unpropitious field for the 
 ameliorating influences of Christianity. The records 
 
GENERAL STATE OF SOCIETY. 25 
 
 of the preceding centuries of Christian imperialism 
 leave on the mind a painful impression of religion 
 taking the form of violent zeal for rival tenets rather 
 than of charity and holiness ; of vice and cruelty in 
 Christian emperors and their surroundings ; of in- 
 trigue and corruption in high places ; of ambitious 
 and violent prelates ; of bloody conflicts between 
 rival religious parties ; of general corruption and dis- 
 order. The picture is not relieved when we turn 
 to what is told us of the barbaric nations who had 
 received the Gospel. There, however, it was not to 
 be expected that its softening and sanctifying in- 
 fluences would be immediate or rapid ; and we may 
 be less surprised in reading of prevalent immorality 
 and violence. 
 
 Of the monks, too, the theory of whose vocation 
 was the attainment of a higher sanctity, and many of 
 whom had doubtless taken to seclusion as a refuge 
 from prevaihng evils, — of them, too, we hear at times 
 no flattering account from contemporary -wTiters. 
 We find evidence on the one hand of wild fanaticism, 
 on the other (in the West especially) of indolence 
 and mendicancy. The frequent decrees of synods 
 against monastic irregularities are in themselves signs 
 of a state of things that called for continual correc- 
 tion ; and it was, in fact, the disorganization of the 
 system that caused St. Benedict to attempt reform by 
 the introduction of his rule, which provided, among 
 other things, for a year's probation of novices, for 
 continuance under regular discipline of such as were 
 finally admitted, and the division of their time into 
 fixed periods for devotion, study, and labour. The 
 
26 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 tone of some monastic communities before his reform 
 may be gathered from an incident of his earUer Hfe. 
 While living as a hermit, he was invited by some 
 neighbouring monks whose abbacy was vacant to 
 accept the post. He did so after warning them that 
 he would not be able to endure their manners ; but 
 before long returned to his solitude on finding that, 
 offended by his strictness, they were attempting to 
 poison him. 
 
 Those, however, draw a hasty and erroneous con- 
 clusion who, from the generally black colours of the 
 picture presented to us by the records of the time, 
 would infer the absence of true Christian life from 
 either the cloister or society at large. Common history 
 deals with striking and prominent events, with cha- 
 racters and acts that come to the top and make a 
 noise in their day; and these, in times of conflict 
 and disorganization, are apt to be of the violent, and 
 often atrocious order. The quiet, unobtrusive vir- 
 tues, those which it is the peculiar function of the 
 Gospel to foster and to invest with dignity, may all 
 the time be flourishing beneath the unobtrusive surface, 
 and doing their silent work. History, occupied with 
 more stirring topics, may pass them by ; they lie out- 
 side the scope of satirists ; divines, " vexed with the 
 filthy conversation of the wicked," and intent on 
 reproving sin, may depreciate them in their day, or 
 leave scant notice of them in their writings; such 
 evidences of them as do remain in the contemporary 
 literature that has come down may not be perceived 
 by ordinary readers, struck more by the eventful and 
 the thrilling : but that the principles of a genuine 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE GOSPEL. 27 
 
 Christianity were by no means so rare as has been some- 
 times supposed ; that the dews of grace watered many 
 a region, fruitful of piety and active charity, protesting 
 against, rebuking, and mitigating the evils of the 
 time, may be concluded, not only from such prin- 
 ciples being openly preached and acknowledged by 
 all in theory, but also from notices that have been 
 preserved of saintly persons and saintly deeds. St. 
 Benedict was not the first monk of his age who had 
 striven after holiness ; he could not have gained the 
 influence he did, had he not represented a class of 
 devotees with aspirations corresponding to his own. 
 St. Gregory and his family, which seems to have con- 
 sisted of excellent Christians, were but specimens of 
 what probably existed more widely than has been by 
 some supposed, though he himself, through his talents 
 and opportunities, towered above his age. His corre- 
 spondence also shows that there were not a few who 
 sympathized with him in his genuine piety, and re- 
 sponded to his appeals to their charity. And, again, 
 with respect to the Christian nations of barbaric 
 origin, it may be observed that even Gibbon, little 
 inclined in general to overrate the benefits of the 
 Gospel, owns its effects for good upon them, both in 
 softening their existing barbarism, and in being preg- 
 nant with results in the future.^ 
 
 Nor can we contemplete the zealous and successful 
 work of missionaries among these nations without 
 recognizing large wells of living water in the churches 
 that sent them forth. So much it has seemed true 
 
 * Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," iv, p. 41S. 
 
28 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 and just to say with regard to the rehgion and 
 moraUty of the age preceding that of Gregory and that 
 in which he worked, which there may have been a 
 tendency in some quarters to depreciate unduly. 
 Whether or not the religion of the period wore in 
 all respects the complexion which we in our day most 
 approve — whether or not it was tinged with error, 
 credulity, and superstition — is not the question that 
 has been before us. Genuine faith and genuine 
 religion may at times assume distorted or even gro- 
 tesque forms : the things themselves retain their true 
 nature in spite of form. 
 
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 29 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Gregory's Parentage, Education, Early Life — He becomes a 
 Monk— Ordination and Residence at Constantinople — Re- 
 turn to Monastic life — Asceticism — Distressed state of Italy 
 — Election to the Popedom — Reluctance to accept — Gregory 
 as Pope — Habits of life — Istrian Bishops — Deference to the 
 Emperor — African Donatists — Sanction of persecution — 
 Tolerance towards Jews (540 — 591). 
 
 The exact date of Gregory's birth is unknown. It 
 was probably about the year 540, some ten years 
 after Benedict of Nursia had founded the Benedictine 
 order. He was well-born, and well-educated. His 
 father Gordianus was a wealthy Roman of senatorial 
 rank, descended from a pope Felix (probably Felix 
 in., who became pope a.d. 467), and described as a 
 religious man. He bore the title "Regionarius," de- 
 noting an office of dignity, the precise nature of which 
 is not clear. His mother Silvia (who, after her husband's 
 death, lived in ascetic seclusion), and two sisters of 
 Gordianus, Tarsilla and ^miliana (who lived in their 
 own house as dedicated virgins), have obtained a 
 place in the calendar of Saints.^ With such sur- 
 
 ' '■'■ Hoviilies on the Gospels:'" Horn. 38. It appears from 
 this homily that Gregory's father, Gordianus, had three sisters, 
 ^miliana, Tarsilla, and Gordiana, all of whom had been dedi- 
 cated virgins (not in a convent, but, as was customary among 
 noble ladies, in a house of their own), but the last of whom, 
 having no vocation, returned to the world. She had long been 
 a source of grave anxiety to her pious sisters ; she delighted in 
 
30 
 
 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 roundings his early training is spoken of by John the 
 Deacon, his biographer, as having been that of a saint 
 among saints, and at no time of his life do his first 
 religious impressions appear to have lost their hold 
 on him. It is interesting to be able to form an idea 
 of the outward aspect of parents under whose eye 
 and influence such men as St. Gregory have grown up. 
 We are enabled to do this in the present case through 
 a description by John the Deacon of portraits of 
 Gordianus and Silvia placed by their son, when 
 pope, in his monastery of St. Andrew. The father is 
 tall, has a long face, a grave countenance, " green " 
 eyes, a moderate beard, and thick hair. The mother's 
 face is round and fair, showing traces of great beauty 
 though ^\Tinkled with age ; her countenance is cheer- 
 ful, her eyes large and blue, and her lips comely. 
 The description gives us the idea of an interesting 
 pair, the more so from the contrast between them ; 
 and that of the mother especially of a very pleasant 
 saint. It is further interesting to learn, from the same 
 authority, that Gregory himself, who left his own por- 
 trait in the same monastery, combined the paternal 
 
 the society of worldly girls, and found the conversation of others 
 wearisome. When her sisters lectured her, she would all at 
 once assume a grave countenance, which only lasted till they 
 had done, when she would return to her usual light discourse. 
 The two saintly ones having died after having been favoured 
 with visions, a delicious fragrance having surrounded the death- 
 bed of one of them, and the knees of the other having been 
 found after death as hard as a camel's from constant kneeling in 
 prayer, — the ufiimpressible Gordiana, "forgetful of the fear of 
 God, forgetful of shame and reverence, forgetful of her conse- 
 cration," married the tenant of her lands. 
 
 y 
 
EARLY LIFE. 
 
 31 
 
 and maternal features, his face being a happy medium 
 between the length of his father's and the roundness 
 of his mother's, " Most becomingly prolonged, with 
 a certain rotundity." He had the advantage also of 
 a liberal as well as a religious education, by which he 
 profited so much that the historian Gregory of Tours, 
 his contemporary, states that in grammar, rhetoric, 
 and logic, he was considered second to none in Rome. 
 He also studied law, as befitted his rank in life ; he 
 soon distinguished himself in the Senate ; and, at an 
 unusually early age (certainly before 573, in which 
 year he would be little more than 30 years of age), 
 he was appointed by the Emperor Justin II. to the 
 dignified office of praetor of the city. While thus 
 living in the world, pursuing honourably the career 
 opened to him by his birth and talents, we find no 
 allusion to any failure in purity of life ; nor, on the 
 other hand, to any ascetic affectation. He dressed, 
 at any rate, conformably to his rank; for Gregory 
 of Tours speaks of the contrast, striking the eyes of 
 observers, between the monkish garb which he after- 
 wards assumed and the silk attire, the sparkling gems, 
 and the purple-striped trabea with which in the earlier 
 period he had paced the streets of Rome. This mode 
 of hfe, however, did not long satisfy his religious 
 aspirations. We do not read in his case of any crisis 
 of conversion, as in the case of some saints. As far 
 as we know, he was always religious, having striven, 
 while living in the world (as he says in one of his 
 letters), to live to God also, but having found it 
 difficult. Accordingly, on his father's death (the 
 date of which is not known), he kept but a small part 
 
32 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 of the large patrimony that came to him, employing 
 the rest in charitable uses, and especially in founding 
 monasteries, of which he endowed six in Sicily, and 
 one, dedicated to St. Andrew, on the site of his own 
 house near the church of St. John and St. Paul at 
 Rome, in which he himself became a monk. This 
 was the line to which strong devotion would almost 
 necessarily lead him at the age in which he lived, 
 especially with the recent example of St. Benedict 
 before him, whom he much admired, and of whom 
 he has left us many interesting records. 
 
 With what fervency, or even excess, of zeal he took 
 up the monastic life will appear presently. It was, 
 however, soon interrupted by the pope, Benedict I., 
 who required his services in the capacity of his repre- 
 sentative {apocrisiarius) at Constantinople, to qualify 
 him for which office, having summoned him from his 
 monastery, he ordained him one of the seven deacons 
 of Rome. Pelagius 11. also employed him afterwards 
 in the same capacity, requiring his services especially 
 for urging on the emperor the necessity of sending 
 aid to Rome, both in money and soldiers, against the 
 aggressions of the I^ombards, which the exarch at 
 Ravenna had declared himself powerless to oppose. 
 Gregory remained thus employed for several years at 
 Constantinople ; and the time so spent, however 
 uncongenial to him the employment might be, was 
 doubtless of great importance in preparing him for 
 the high position to which he was afterwards to be 
 called, bringing him in contact with the emperor 
 and his court, giving him acquaintance with poUtical 
 parties and influences, and opportunity for culti- 
 
RESIDENCE AT CONSTANTINOPLE. 33 
 
 vating the talent for diplomacy which he possessed 
 in an eminent degree. 
 
 Secular affairs, however, did not occupy him en- 
 tirely. We are told by his biographer, John the 
 Deacon, that he found continual refuge from them in 
 the society of many of his brother monks, who, out 
 of their love to him, had followed him from Rome, 
 and with whom he kept up his aspirations after the 
 heavenly life, " retiring to their society from the 
 constant storm of business as to a safe port, bound 
 by their example, as by an anchor-cable, to the 
 placid shore of prayer." He also found oppor- 
 tunity for the exercise of his theological acquire- 
 ments. We find him engaged in a long dispute with 
 the Constantinopolitan patriarch Eutychius, who had 
 written a treatise on the nature of the body after the 
 resurrection, maintaining that it would be of an 
 impalpable kind, subtle as air. This position Gregory 
 opposed, alleging the recorded palpability of the risen 
 body of the Saviour, the first-fruit of the resurrection, 
 which was such as could be touched and handled. 
 The emperor himself, Tiberius, is said to have termi- 
 nated the dispute in favour of Gregory ; and both the 
 disputants are affirmed to have been so fatigued by 
 their controversy that they had both to take to their 
 beds at its close. He also commenced during his stay — 
 at the instigation (it is said) of Leander, Archbishop of 
 Seville, whose intimate acquaintance he at this time 
 formed — his famous commentary on the book of Job, 
 of which further mention will be hereafter made. 
 Recalled at length to Rome, he was allowed, at his 
 own earnest request, to return to his monastery, of 
 
 D 
 
34 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 which he became the abbat on the removal of the 
 former abbat Maximianus to the see of Syracuse; 
 but was still employed by the pope as his secretary ; 
 and here he remained till, in the year 590, when he 
 was about 50 years of age, circumstances again dis- 
 turbed his peace, and forced the popedom upon him. 
 
 It has been said above that he threw himself with 
 great zeal into monastic life. It appears from many 
 passages in his writings to have been his ideal, not 
 only of saintly perfection, but also of peaceful 
 happiness. He says in his preface to his Dialogues, 
 which Avere written (he tells us) by way of solace to 
 his mind under the constant sadness arising from the 
 cares of office : " My unhappy mind remembers what 
 it was in the monastery ; how it soared above the 
 vicissitudes of fleeting things, because it thought only 
 of things celestial ; and, though retained in the body, 
 transcended through contemplation the enclosures of 
 the flesh ; while even of death, which to almost all 
 men appears a penalty, it was enamoured as being the 
 entrance into life, and the reward of its labour. But 
 now, by reason of the pastoral care, it has to bear 
 with secular business, and, after so fair a vision of 
 rest, is fouled by terrestrial dust. I ponder on what 
 I now endure ; I ponder on what I have lost. For lo ! 
 now I am shaken by the waves of a great sea, and 
 in the ship of the mind am dashed by the storms 
 of a strong tempest : and when I recall the condition 
 of my former life, I sigh as one who sees with 
 reverted eyes the shore that he has left behind." 
 His asceticism appears to have been extreme, as 
 was likely to be the case with a sincere devotee. 
 
MONASTIC LIFE. ASCETICISM. 35 
 
 The monastic theory required it of all aspirants to 
 perfection. His fasts are said to have been such as 
 to endanger his life, had he not been induced to abate 
 their rigour. He himself speaks in the Dialogues of 
 his perpetual illnesses while in his convent, due 
 probably (as might be also in part the bad health from 
 which he suffered through life) to excessive abstinence. 
 During one Holy Week it is particularly mentioned 
 by his biographer that he fainted so frequently, and 
 seemed so nearly at death's door, that he feared greatly 
 lest he should not be able to continue his fast till 
 Easter Day. But a holy monk, Eleutherius, from 
 another convent, came and prayed for him that he 
 might have strength to persevere ; whereupon all at 
 once he lost all desire for food, and even all recollec- 
 tion of his former craving, and, when Easter came, 
 could have fasted a day longer, if he had wished to 
 do so. We are told, further, that his mother Silvia, 
 who at that time lived a secluded life in the neigh- 
 bourhood, used to feed him in his monastery with 
 raw peas or beans.^ His regime as abbat may be 
 judged of from an anecdote related by himself in his 
 Dialogues," which shall be given in his own words. 
 It is introduced by him as evidence of the salutary 
 effect of eucharistic offerings for the dead, and is 
 interesting as also illustrating his tone of feeling and 
 belief "There was a certain monk called Justus, 
 skilled in medicine, who had been accustomed to 
 serve me diligently in the same monastery, and to 
 
 ' " Life by John the Deacon," B.I. ch. vii. 
 2 B. IV. ch. Iv. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 watch with me in my perpetual illnesses. He fell 
 sick, and was reduced to the last stage. His own 
 brother, Copiosus by name, who still practises medicine 
 in this city, attended him. But the aforesaid Justus, 
 when he perceived his end approaching, informed his 
 brother Copiosus that he had three pieces of gold 
 concealed. Which thing could not be hidden from the 
 brethren, who, subtly searching, and examining his 
 medicine, found the three gold pieces concealed in a 
 drug. The matter being announced to me, I could 
 not bear with equanimity so great an evil in a brother 
 who had lived with us in common : for it had always 
 been a rule of my monastery that the brethren should 
 have everything in common, and no one anything of 
 his own. Smitten then with excessive grief, I began 
 to think what I should do either for the purgation of 
 the dying man or for example to the living brethren. 
 So I called to me Pretiosus, the prior of the monastery, 
 and said : ' See that none of the brethren approach 
 him as he is dying, and that he receive no word of 
 consolation from any one's mouth ; but when at the 
 point of death he shall ask for the brethren, let his 
 brother after the flesh tell him that on account of 
 the hidden gold pieces he is abominated by them all ; 
 so that at least in death bitterness for his fault may 
 pierce his soul, and purge him from the sin that he has 
 committed. But after his death let not his body be 
 laid with those of the brethren, but make a hole in 
 any dunghill, and throw his body into it with the 
 three gold pieces, all of you exclaiming together, 
 " Thy money perish with thee " ; and so cover him 
 with earth.' All this was done, and had the effect I 
 
THE MONK JUSTUS. 37 
 
 desired. For when this same monk was at the point 
 of death, and anxiously desired to be commended to 
 the brethren, and none of them deigned to come to 
 him or speak to him, and when his brother after the 
 flesh explained to him why he was abominated by 
 them all, he groaned grievously for his sin, and in the 
 midst of his sadness departed from this body, and 
 was buried as 1 have said. But all the brethren, 
 perturbed by this sentence upon him, began to bring 
 forth even the commonest little things which they had 
 been always allowed by the rule to have, being 
 mightily afraid of keeping anything for which they 
 might be blamed. But, when thirty days had elapsed, 
 my mind began to commiserate the departed brother, 
 and, thinking with deep sorrow of his punishments, 
 to seek some way of delivering him. So I again 
 summoned Pretiosus the prior, and said to him : ' It 
 is now long that that brother who died has been 
 tormented in fire : we ought to show him some charity, 
 and further his deliverance as far as we can. Go, 
 therefore, and see that the sacrifice be offered for him 
 from this day daily for thirty days ; let no single day 
 be omitted on which the salutary host is not offered 
 for his absolution.' He departed, and obeyed. Now 
 we, being otherwise occupied, did not keep count of 
 the days as they passed by ; but on a certain night 
 this departed brother appeared in a vision to his own 
 brother Copiosus, to whose inquiry how he was he 
 replied, ' Till now I have been in evil case, but now 
 it is well with me ; for to-day I have received the 
 communion.' Copiosus having at once informed the 
 brethren in the monastery, they diligently computed 
 
8 GREGORY THE GREAT, 
 
 the days, and found that it was the day on which the 
 thirtieth oblation had been completed. And thus, as 
 Copiosus had known nothing of what the brethren 
 were doing for his brother, and as they had known 
 nothing of what he had seen, the coincidence of the 
 vision and the sacrifice proved clearly that the departed 
 brother escaped punishment through the salutary host." 
 
 In this narration some modern readers may only 
 see an unlovely union of inhumanity and supersti- 
 tion. But with regard to the charge of inhumanity 
 it is to be borne in mind that Gregory was at the 
 time in the fresh fervour of monastic enthusiasm. 
 That he was really at heart both humane and charit- 
 able his subsequent life and letters prove. If he 
 seems at first sight otherwise in this case, it was 
 because a paramount religious motive had possession 
 of him. And it is observable further, that all through 
 the proceedings he had regard to the spiritual advan- 
 tage of the offending monk quite as much as to the 
 maintenance of the monastic rule. As to the super- 
 stition or credulity involved in the latter part of the 
 story, more will be said hereafter about his mental 
 attitude in these respects. All we need say here is 
 that he held the views of his day. It is to be re- 
 membered also that he was not so absorbed in the 
 contemplative life as to be incapable of an influx of 
 missionary enthusiasm. For it was during this period 
 that, roused by the sight of the English slaves in the 
 market-place of Rome, he conceived the idea of going 
 forth to convert England, of which more will be said 
 hereafter. 
 
 Pope Pelagius died on the 8th of February, 590. 
 
GREGORY ELECTED POPE. 39 
 
 The people of Rome, as has been already intimated, 
 were at this time in the utmost straits. Italy lay 
 prostrate and miserable under the Lombard invasion ; 
 the invaders now threatened Rome itself, and its 
 inhabitants trembled j famine and pestilence within 
 the city produced a climax of distress ; an overflow 
 of the Tiber at the time aggravated the general alarm 
 and misery ; Gregory himself, in one of his letters, 
 compares Rome at this time to an old and shattered 
 ship, letting in the waves on all sides, tossed by a 
 daily storm, its planks rotten and sounding of wreck. 
 
 In this state of things all men's thoughts at once 
 turned to Gregory. The pope was at this period 
 the virtual ruler of Rome, and the greatest power 
 in Italy; and they must have Gregory as their 
 pope ; for, if any one could save them, it was he. 
 His abilities in public affairs had been proved ; all 
 Rome knew his character and attainments ; he had 
 now -the further reputation of eminent saintliness. 
 He was evidently the one man for the post ; and 
 accordingly he was unanimously elected by clerg}', 
 senate, and people. But he shrank from the prof- 
 fered dignity. There was one way by which he 
 might possibly escape it. No election of a pope 
 could at this time take effect without the emperor's 
 confirmation, and an embassy had to be sent to 
 Constantinople to obtain it. Gregory therefore sent 
 at the same time a letter to the emperor (Mauricius, 
 who had succeeded Tiberius in 582), imploring him 
 to withhold his confirmation ; but it was intercepted 
 by the prefect of the city, and another from the 
 clergy, senate, and people sent in its place, entreating 
 
40 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 approval of their choice. During the interval that 
 occurred, Gregory was active in his own way at 
 Rome. He preached to the people, calling them 
 to repentance ; he also instituted what is known as 
 the '' Septiform Litany," to be chanted in procession 
 through the streets of the city by seven companies 
 of priests, of laymen, of monks, of virgins, of 
 matrons, of widows, and of poor people and children, 
 who, starting from different churches, were to meet 
 for common supplication in the church of the Blessed 
 A^irgin. In it the words occur, peculiarly interesting 
 to us as having been afterwards sung by his emis- 
 saries Augustin and his monks, as they marched into 
 Canterbury at the commencement of their mission in 
 this country : ^" We beseech thee, O Lord, in all thy 
 mercy, that thy wrath and thine anger may be 
 removed from this city, and from thy holy house. 
 Allelujah." It was at the close of one of these pro- 
 cessions that the incident is said to have occurred 
 from which the Castle of St. Angelo has derived its 
 name ; the story being that Gregory saw on its site, 
 above the monument of Hadrian, an angel sheathing 
 his sword, as a token that the plague was stayed. 
 
 At length the imperial confirmation of his election 
 arrived. He still refused ; fled from the city in dis- 
 guise, eluding the guards set to watch the gates, and 
 hid himself in a forest cave. Pursued and discovered 
 by means, it is said, of a supernatural light, he was 
 brought back in triumph, conducted to the church of 
 St. Peter, and at once ordained on the 3rd of Sep- 
 tember, 590. Flight to avoid the proffered dignity 
 of the episcopate was not uncommon in those days, 
 
RELUCTANCE TO ACCEPT OFFICE. 4 1 
 
 and might often be mere affectation, or compliance with 
 the most approved custom. A law of the Emperor 
 Leo (469), directed against canvassing for bishoprics, 
 had even laid dov.'n as a rule, that no one ought to be or- 
 dained except greatly against his will; "he ought to be 
 sought out, to be forced, when asked he should re- 
 cede, when invited he should fly ; for no one is worthy 
 of the priesthood unless ordained against his will."i 
 But there is no reason to doubt that Gregory felt a 
 real reluctance, though he may have been partly 
 actuated by the received view of what was proper in 
 such a case, and though it may be suggested that he 
 could hardly have thought seriously that flight from 
 the city would in the end avail. Throughout his life 
 he gives us the impression of a sincere man ; he 
 often afterwards recurs with regret to the peace of 
 his convent ; and it would be very unfair to him to 
 question his sincerity, when he gives as his reason for 
 refusal the fear lest " the worldly glory which he had 
 cast away might creep on him under the colour of^ 
 ecclesiastical government." 
 
 Five letters remain, written by him soon after his 
 accession, in which he expresses his feelings on the 
 occasion. They are addressed to John, patriarch of 
 Constantinople, to Anastasius of Antioch, to Paulus 
 Scholasticus in Sicily, to his closest friend Leander 
 of Seville, and to Theoctista, the emperor's sister. "^ 
 To the last, whose acquaintance he had doubtless 
 made at Constantinople, and with whom, as being a 
 pious lady of rank, it was according to his habit to 
 
 • Lex Leonis, Cod. Justin., I. ill. 31, 
 2 B. I., Ind. ix., epp. 3, 4, 5, 7, 43. 
 
42 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 keep up correspondence, he wrote as follows : — 
 " Under the colour of the episcopate I have been 
 brought back into the world; I am enslaved to 
 greater earthly cares than I ever remember to have 
 been subjected to as a layman. For I have lost the 
 joys of my rest, and seem to have risen outwardly, 
 while inwardly I have fallen. I lament that I am 
 driven far away from my Maker's face. For I used 
 to strive to live daily outside the world, outside the 
 flesh ; to drive from the eyes of the mind all phan- 
 tasms of the body, and incorporeally to see supernal 
 
 joys Desiring nothing in this world, fearing 
 
 nothing, I seemed to be standing on an eminence 
 above the world, so that I almost thought the promise 
 fulfilled in me, ' I will cause thee to ride upon the 
 
 high places of the earth' (Is. Iviii. 14) But 
 
 suddenly driven from this eminence by the whirl- 
 wind of this temptation, I have fallen into fears and 
 tremblings, since, though I fear nothing for myself, I 
 am greatly afraid for those who have been committed 
 to me. On all sides am I tossed by the waves of 
 business, and pressed down by storms, so that I can 
 say with truth, ' I am come into deep waters, where 
 
 the floods overflow me' (Ps. Ixix. 12) I loved 
 
 the beauty of the contemplative life, as a Rachel, 
 barren, but beautiful and of clear vision, which, 
 though on account of its quietness it is less pro- 
 ductive, yet has a finer perception of the light. But, 
 by what judgment I know not, Leah has been 
 brought to me in the night, to wit the active life, 
 fertile, but 'tender-eyed'; seeing less, though bring- 
 ing forth more." .... He concludes, with a touch 
 of humour, such as often enlivens even his most 
 
GREGORY AS POPE. 43 
 
 serious letters, "Lo, my most serene lord the 
 emperor has ordered an ape to be made a lion. 
 And, indeed, in virtue of this order, a lion can the 
 ape be called, but made one he cannot be. Where- 
 fore my pious lord must needs lay the charge of all 
 my faults and shortcomings not on me, but on him- 
 self, who has committed to one so weak an office of 
 such excellence." His treatise also on "The Pas- 
 toral Care," written, as will appear in our review of 
 his writings, with the immediate object of excusing 
 his reluctance to accept the popedom, — shows evi- 
 dently how a peculiarly deep sense of the responsi- 
 bility of the episcopal office, and of risk to the souls 
 of its bearers, had actuated him in his refusal. 
 
 Having been once placed in the high position he 
 so little coveted, he rose to it at once, and fulfilled its 
 multifarious duties with remarkable zeal and ability. 
 His comprehensive policy, and his grasp of great 
 issues, are not more remarkable than the minuteness 
 of the details, in secular as well as religious matters, 
 to which he was able to give his personal care. And 
 this is the more striking in combination with the fact 
 that, as many parts of his writings show, he remained 
 all the time a monk at heart, thoroughly imbued 
 with both the ascetic principles and the narrow 
 credulity of contemporary monasticism. His private 
 life, too, was still in a measure monastic : the 
 monastic simplicity of his episcopal attire is noticed 
 by his biographer ; he lived with his clergy under strict 
 rule, and in 595 issued a synodal decree substituting 
 clergy for the boys and secular persons who had for- 
 merly waited on the pope in his chamber. 
 
44 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 After sending, as was usual, a confession of his 
 faith to the four Eastern patriarchs, — in which he de- 
 clared his reception of the four Gospels, and of the 
 four General Councils of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, 
 and Chalcedon, speaking of the latter as the square 
 stone on which the faith rests ; and also his condem- 
 nation of the " three chapters" (above alluded to) which 
 the Fifth Council called General had condemned, — 
 one of his first measures was an attempt to induce the 
 Bishops of Istria to assent to this condemnation. The 
 Bishops of Italy generally had by this time assented, as 
 the popes after Vigilius had also done : but those of 
 Istria still held out. He therefore obtained an order 
 from the emperor summoning them to Rome to 
 attend a synod to be convened for the purpose, and 
 wrote to Severus, the metropolitan of Aquileia, de- 
 siring him to attend with his suffragans. But they 
 resisted his demand, affording an early instance 
 during his reign of repudiation of papal claims. 
 Having assembled in synods of their own, they 
 petitioned the emperor to revoke his order, alleging 
 that they only held what Pope Vigilius had taught 
 them, objecting to the Bishop of Rome as their judge, 
 on the ground of his being prejudiced in the matter 
 of dispute, and undertaking to satisfy the emperor on 
 the purity of their faith as soon as the state of Italy 
 should permit their doing so. The emperor complied 
 with their request, and wrote to Gregory command- 
 ing him, in consideration of the existing confusion of 
 affairs, to give no further trouble to the Istrian 
 bishops. And Gregory at once obeyed. Notwith- 
 standing his undoubtedly high view of ^ the authority 
 
OBEDIENCE TO THE EMPEROR. 45 
 
 of St. Peter's see, he always showed singular deference 
 to the Imperial power. In his letter to Severus he 
 had expressly mentioned ''the command of the Most 
 Christian and Most Serene Emperor " as supporting 
 his summons ; and writing afterwards to the Bishop of 
 Ravenna, he says that he had refrained from further 
 proceedings in obedience to " the commands of the 
 most pious princes," adding that he would not cease to 
 " write again to his most serene lords with the utmost 
 zeal and freedom." Another instance of his attitude 
 of obedience to the civil power in a matter on which 
 he felt strongly may be mentioned here, though it 
 occurred a few years later. The same Emperor 
 Mauricius (a.d. 593) issued an edict, which he re- 
 quired the pope to publish in the West, forbidding 
 soldiers to become monks during their period of 
 service. This, though a reasonable requirement 
 from the emperor's point of view, ran directly counter 
 to the religious views of Gregory. Yet he at once 
 published the edict, contenting himself with ad- 
 dressing pathetic remonstrances to the emperor, 
 through the court physician Theodorus, in which 
 he fully acknowledged the duty of submission. In 
 his letter, which is characteristic of the writer both 
 for its respectful tone and its plain speaking, as well 
 as for its forcible language and the views maintained 
 in it, he says : " He is guilty before Almighty God, 
 who is not pure in all he does and says before our most 
 serene lords. But in what I now suggest, I speak 
 not as a bishop, nor as a public servant, but as a 
 private person, because, most serene lord, you have 
 been my lord from the time when you were not yet 
 
46 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 lord of the world Which constitution (viz. 
 
 the edict complained of) has filled me with gi-eat 
 alarm, because by it the way to heaven is closed to 
 many, and what has hitherto been lawful is made 
 unlawful. For, though there are many who can 
 combine a religious with a secular life, yet there are 
 very many who can by no means be saved before 
 God unless they leave all they have. But what am I, 
 who speak this to my lords, but dust and a worm ? 
 Nevertheless, feeling that this law is against God the 
 author of all things, I cannot be silent. For to this 
 end has power over all men been given from heaven 
 to my lords, that those who desire good things may 
 be aided, that the way to heaven may be more widely 
 opened, that the earthly may be subservient to the 
 heavenly kingdom. And lo, it is now openly pro- 
 claimed that no one who has been once enlisted as 
 an earthly soldier, unless dismissed for bodily weak- 
 ness, or after completion of his service, shall be 
 allowed to become a soldier of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. To this, by me, the last of His servants 
 and yours, will Christ reply, ' From a notary I made 
 thee a count of the body-guard ; from a count of the 
 body-guard I made thee a Caesar ; from a Caesar I 
 made thee an emperor; nay more, I have made thee 
 also a father of emperors : I have committed my 
 priests into thy hand ; and dost thou withdraw thy 
 soldiers from my service?' Answer thy servant, 
 most pious lord, I pray thee, and say how thou wilt 
 reply to thy Lord in the judgment, when He comes 
 
 and thus speaks And indeed it is a serious 
 
 consideration that at this time especially any are 
 
EDICT ABOUT SOLDIERS BECOMING MONKS. 47 
 
 forbidden to leave the world ; a time when the very- 
 end of the world is at hand. For lo ! there will 
 be no delay : the heavens on fire, the earth on fire, 
 the elements blazing, with angels and archangels, 
 thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, 
 the tremendous Judge will appear. Should He remit 
 all other sins, and allege but this single law pro- 
 mulged against Himself, what excuse will there be ? 
 Wherefore by that tremendous Judge I implore thee, 
 lest all the tears, all the prayers, all the alms of my 
 lord should, on any ground, lose their lustre before 
 the eyes of Almighty God. But let your piety, either 
 by interpretation or alteration, modify the force of 
 this law ; since the army of my lords against their 
 enemies is the more replenished when the army of 
 God is replenished for prayer." He concludes, 
 "And now, I have on both sides discharged my 
 duty. On the one I have yielded obedience to the 
 emperor; on the other I have not been silent in 
 the cause of God."^ 
 
 It is to be observed that in this remonstrance he 
 showed discrimination and willingness to concede 
 what he could. He allowed the reasonableness of 
 forbidding soldiers to take holy orders, because in 
 this case they might only be wishing to change one 
 form of worldliness for another. But he argues that 
 no such worldly motives could operate in drawing 
 them to the monastic life, and that to impede them 
 in their aspirations was to fight against God. And 
 he appeals to numbers of cases, known to himself, in 
 which soldiers who had become monks had been 
 saintly converts, and had even worked miracles. 
 ^ B, III., Ind. xi., ep. 65. 
 
48 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 It would seem, however, that further experience 
 led him to see the necessity of placing some restric- 
 tion on the liberty for which he had so earnestly 
 pleaded, for in 598 he addressed a circular to various 
 metropolitans and other bishops, accompanied by the 
 Imperial law above referred to, in which, while he 
 decidedly discountenances the hasty ordination of 
 any who had been engaged in secular offices, whether 
 civil or military, he directs that they are not even to 
 be received into monasteries till released from their 
 worldly obligations, not till after strict inquiry into 
 their lives, and a probation of three years before 
 assuming the monastic habit. He adds, " In which 
 matter, believe me, the most serene and most Chris- 
 tian emperor is entirely satisfied, and willingly allows 
 the conversion of those whom he knows not to be 
 implicated in public duties. "^ The emperor may be 
 concluded from these expressions to have yielded so 
 far to Gregory's remonstrances as to use moderation 
 in the enforcement of the law, and to have come to 
 an amicable understanding with him on this subject. 
 
 In his second year (591) his orthodox zeal was 
 directed against another form of heresy, that of the 
 Donatists in Africa. It has been said already that the 
 African Church, having been delivered through the re- 
 conquest of Africa under Justinian (533) from about a 
 century of persecution under the Arian Vandals, had 
 since that time submitted willingly to the authority of the 
 Roman see, though in an earlier age (notably under 
 St. Cyprian in the 3rd century) it had asserted consider- 
 
 ' B. VIII., Ind. i., ep. 5. 
 
THE AFRICAN DONATISTS. 49 
 
 able independence. But the old Donatist sect,i which 
 had originated there as early as 311, in spite of severe 
 measures of repression in past times, lingered there still, 
 and seems at this time not only to have been spread- 
 ing itself, but also maintaining friendly relations with 
 the orthodox, and tolerated by their bishops, some of 
 whom were accused of ordaining Donatists under the 
 influence of bribes. It was the custom in Numidia 
 for the senior bishop, whatever his see, to assume the 
 primacy, and so interfused were the two parties in 
 that province that a Donatist primate had thus come 
 to exercise jurisdiction over the Catholic bishops. 
 Such a system of comprehension, and, indeed, 
 Donatism altogether, Gregory, ever intolerant of all 
 forms of heresy or schism, set himself resolutely to 
 oppose. He kept up a correspondence, lasting through 
 several years, with the African bishops, and especially 
 with Dominions, bishop of Carthage, and Columbus 
 of Numidia, urging them to hold synods for the cor- 
 rection of such abuses and for the suppression of 
 Donatism. The latter prelate, whose devotion to the 
 ' The sect of the Donatists had originated in North Africa at 
 the beginning of the fourth century, being a secession from the 
 Church on the ground of the then Bishop of Carthage (Caecilian) 
 having been ordained by another bishop (Felix of Aptunga) who 
 was accused of being a " traditor," i.e., one who had given up 
 the Holy Scriptures of his church to the civil authorities during 
 the Diocletian persecution. This unfaithfulness was held by 
 the seceders to have incapacitated him from transmitting the 
 apostolical succession. Hence they set up a rival bishop to 
 Cpecilian ; first Majorinus, and then Donatus, surnamed "the 
 Great," who transmitted the Donatist succession. They were 
 not, strictly speaking, heretics, though schismatics, regarding 
 themselves as the only true Church. 
 £ 
 
50 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 see of Rome is praised highly by his correspondent, 
 seems to have incurred the enmity of many of his 
 colleagues on account of it : an evidence, by the 
 way, that the claims of Rome were not even yet fully 
 acknowledged in Africa. To this enmity Gregory 
 alludes in one of his letters, and encourages Columbus 
 by reminding him that the good must ever be exposed 
 to the hatred of the wicked. He had recourse also 
 to the civil arm, writing urgently, at the outset of his 
 proceedings, to Gennadius, the exarch of Africa, 
 desiring him to admonish the Catholic bishops how 
 to proceed in the matter, and exhorting him to fight 
 as valiantly against the enemies of the Church as he 
 had done against those of the State, to repress the 
 attempts of heretics, and subdue their proud necks to 
 the yoke of rectitude. He continued to write to him 
 with the same purport, and in 596 complained to the 
 Emperor himself of the Imperial laws against the 
 African Donatists not being adequately enforced.^ 
 
 His conduct in this case suggests the question how 
 far Gregory approved of persecution as a means of 
 suppressing error. When we consider how recently 
 in the history of the Church any theories of tolerance 
 have prevailed, we cannot with reason expect to find 
 him maintaining them. Accordingly he did after- 
 wards encourage the Catholic rulers of the Franks to 
 use force in their dominions ; in the papal possessions 
 in Sicily he ordered the Manicheans to be recalled to 
 the faith by vigorous persecution, and elsewhere the 
 peasants on his estates to be recovered from heathen- 
 ism, if freemen, by exactions and imprisonment, and, 
 
 > B. I., Ind. ix., ep. 61; B. IV., Ind. xii., ep. 7; B. VI., 
 Ind. xiv., ep, 63 ; B. VI., Ind. xiv., ep. 65. 
 
PERSECUTION AND TOLERATION. 
 
 51 
 
 if slaves, by "blows and torments." But, on the 
 other hand, he showed a spirit of unusual forbearance 
 towards Jews. In the same letter which orders the 
 severe persecution of Manicheans, he directs Jews 
 to be attracted to the faith, rather than compelled, by 
 the remission of one-third of the taxes due to the 
 Church in the case of such as might conform ; and 
 even for this appeal to interested motives he makes a 
 sort of apology, saying that, though the conversions 
 thus obtained might be insincere, yet the children of 
 the converts would be baptized as Christians. Further, 
 we find letters to three bishops, one of whom had 
 driven Jews from their synagogue, and the others had 
 converted many by offering them the option of 
 conformity or exile, in which letters he strongly 
 condemns such measures. " Conversions," says he, 
 " wrought by force are never sincere, and such as are 
 so converted seldom fail to return to their vomit as 
 soon as the force is removed." Again, "Those who 
 differ from the Christian religion should be gathered 
 to the unity of the faith by gentleness, kindness, 
 admonition, persuasion, lest those whom the sweet- 
 ness of preaching and the fear of future judgment 
 might have invited to believe, be repelled by threats 
 and terrors." Here we have sentiments expressed 
 which many in ages boasting of superior enlighten- 
 ment might often have studied with advantage. And 
 if his action in some cases seems to discredit these 
 professions, it is but an instance of human incon- 
 sistency. The humanity and good sense thus ex- 
 pressed is no less real, though warped sometimes by 
 the impulses of zeal in accordance with current views. 
 E 2 
 
52 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Correction of Monastic Abuses — Separation of Monks and 
 Clergy — Exemption of Monasteries from Episcopal Con- 
 trol — Case of Venantius — Nunneries — Sanctity of Marriage 
 — Endowments — Election of Bishops — Confirmation — Use- 
 of the Pall — Respect for Episcopal Rights — Januarius of 
 Cagliari — Natalis of Salona — Correction of Clerks — 
 Sanctuary — Privileges of Clergy — Celibacy — Administra- 
 tion of the Patrimony — Charities. 
 
 Before proceeding further to note in order the 
 leading events of Gregory's episcopate, let us take a 
 general view of the manner of his administration^ 
 especially with regard to discipline, selecting in illus- 
 tration a few salient instances. 
 
 He was no less diligent from the beginning of his 
 reign in correcting abuses among the orthodox monks 
 and clergy, in Italy and elsewhere, than in his 
 attempts to suppress heresy. It is to be observed 
 that at that time the distinction was marked between 
 the monastic and clerical orders. The exercise of 
 clerical functions was accounted inconsistent with 
 the seclusion of monastic life. Gregory himself had 
 indeed, though a monk, been ordained deacon by 
 Pope Benedict in order to qualify him for his mission 
 to Constantinople, and as a deacon he returned to 
 his monastery. But monks, as such, were laymen. 
 
 The whole theory of the monastic life as conceived 
 by Gregory was that those devoted to it should be 
 secluded from the world with all its affairs and temp- 
 tations, should live altogether in the spiritual sphere, 
 
SEPARATION BETWEEN MONKS AND CLERGY, 53 
 
 ■engaged in reading, prayer, and heavenly contem- 
 plation ; thus alone could the closest communication 
 with Heaven be attained, and the way of salvation 
 secured from risk ; and with such a life holy orders 
 were considered as inconsistent as purely secular 
 occupations were, for they were understood then as 
 necessarily involving pastoral responsibility, and in- 
 tercourse with the world. A priest might, indeed, 
 become a monk, as was the case with the great father 
 of monasticism in the West, St. Jerome ; but in this 
 case he must cease to officiate as a priest, even within 
 his convent, for priestly responsibility was one thing, 
 the monastic life another. Gregory showed the import- 
 ance he attached to this theory by ordering, after his ac- 
 cession, that no monk after ordination should be allowed 
 to remain in his monastery, and no priest to enter one 
 except to perform necessary priestly offices, or become a 
 monk without relinquishing clerical ministrations. He 
 also promoted the system, which proved in after-ages of 
 such practical importance, of exempting monasteries 
 from episcopal superintendence, to which they had 
 originally been always subject, and which had been 
 insisted on by a canon of the Council of Chalcedon. 
 In many cases indeed he directed bishops to correct 
 the irregularities of monks according to the old 
 system, but in others forbade them to celebrate mass 
 in person within the walls of convents, to ordain 
 their inmates without the abbat's leave, to interfere 
 with their revenues or require an account of them, 
 or to burden them by demanding entertainment. In 
 particular instances he exempted convents from all 
 episcopal interference, except for ordaining abbats 
 chosen by the monks, or commissioning priests to say 
 
54 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 mass when required. He seems to have become more 
 adverse to the old system as his experience grew; 
 for lastly, in the Lateran Council held under him, 
 A.D. 60 1, he issued a general decree to all bishops, 
 confirming the liberties of monasteries everywhere, 
 and exempting them in all respects from episcopal 
 control. He also was active in correcting the 
 prevaiUng irregularities of monks, which Benedict's 
 reform had failed to extirpate. A great number of 
 his letters, addressed to various persons in various 
 places, are on this subject. In some cases he 
 animadverts on the wandering habits of monks, or 
 their relapse to secular life, or even to the enormity 
 of marriage ; ^ in others, on the evils arising in 
 convents from the laxity or the undue severity of 
 abbats. To one abbat he writes, " As the careless 
 remissness of thy deceased predecessor saddened us, 
 so thy solicitude rejoices us. Restrain therefore those 
 who are committed to thee from gluttony, pride, 
 avarice, vain discourse, and all uncleanness. In 
 which correction know that this order is to be 
 observed, that thou love the persons but persecute 
 their vices, lest, shouldest thou act otherwise, correc- 
 tion pass into cruelty, and thou ruin those whom 
 thou desirest to amend." ^ 
 
 As an instance of laxity of discipline, a case occurs 
 where the monks were in the habit of leaving their 
 convent and wandering where they pleased whenever 
 their abbat attempted to enforce the rule.^ Of one 
 way in which severe discipline might be exercised we 
 
 ' B. I., Ind. ix., epp. 41, 42, &c. 
 
 2 B^ XL, Ind. iv., ep. 12. 
 
 3 B. VII., Ind. XV., ep. 35. 
 
MONASTIC DISCIPLINE. VENANTIUS. 55 
 
 find a curious instance in St. Gregory's Dialogues, 
 where he tells us of a saintly monk called Libertinus, 
 whom his superior in a fit of anger, not having a rod 
 at hand, beat over the head and face with a footstool 
 till he was black and blue. In this case the discipline 
 had no bad moral effect on the sufferer, but the 
 contrary ; for with exemplary patience he submitted 
 without complaint, and being afterwards asked how 
 his face had come into so sad a plight, showed his 
 regard at once to his superior and to truth by replying, 
 "Yesterday, for my sins, I came in contact with a 
 footstool, and suffered this."i 
 
 Among the letters in connection with monasticism 
 are some to Venantius, a noble Roman, who had given 
 up monastic life and married. He pleads with him 
 in most urgent strains to return, reminding him, 
 among other things, that if Ananias was struck dead 
 for abstracting money due to God, much sorer judg- 
 ment must be due to one who has abstracted himself 
 He failed, however, in his attempt to reclaim him, 
 and was unable, or unwilling, in this case to insist on 
 the rule in other cases laid down of requiring such 
 renegades to return under pain of excommunication, 
 for he afterwards carried on a friendly correspondence 
 with him, sent compliments to his daughters, and 
 sympathized with him under an attack of gout. In 
 one of his letters he refers to a serious quarrel between 
 Venantius and his bishop, in the course of which the 
 armed retainers of the former had made an attack 
 on one Episcopius, and the bishop had repelled him 
 from communion. Gregory on this occasion wrote 
 
 ' Greg. Dial., B. I., ch. 2. 
 
56 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 in a very courteous and conciliatory tone to his noble 
 friend, whom, from personal regard, or desire of keep- 
 ing up influence over him, or from both motives 
 combined, he seems anxious not to offend, excusing 
 the conduct of the bishop, and exhorting to recon- 
 ciliation. He also desired the bishop, in a letter 
 addressed to him, to condone the offence of Venan- 
 tius, and to allow masses to be celebrated in his house, 
 as had been done before the quarrel, and even to 
 officiate in person if desired. But, while he thus 
 bore with the noble renegade, he never gave up the 
 hope of reclaiming him at last to the fulfilment of his 
 early vows, for, on hearing of his dangerous illness in 
 the year 601, he wrote to John, bishop of Syracuse, 
 desiring him to press the subject on the dying man : — 
 " The first care which your holiness must not neglect 
 is to bid him think of his soul, exhorting him, im- 
 ploring him, putting before him the terrible judgment 
 of God, and promising him His unspeakable mercy, 
 that he may return, even at the last hour, to the 
 monastic life, lest the guilt of so great a fault stand 
 against him in the eternal judgment." In the same 
 letter, with characteristic tenderness, he shows equal 
 solicitude for the two daughters of his friend, Barbara 
 and Antonina, now about to be left orphans, whom as 
 being likely from some cause to be involved in diffi- 
 culties, the father had commended to the Pope's pro- 
 tection. To them, also, his " most sweet daughters," 
 he wrote a tender, fatherly letter, which is worth 
 quoting at length : — " Having received your letter, 
 which speaks in tears rather than in words, I am 
 affected no less than you, most beloved daughters, by 
 gi-ief for your father's illness, for we cannot regard as 
 
VENANTIUS. 57 
 
 extraneous the sadness which has been made our own 
 by the law of charity. But, since in no despair is 
 the compassion of our Redeemer to be distrusted, 
 cheer up your spirits for your father's comfort, and 
 place all your hope in the hand of Almighty God. 
 And we trust in His protection that He will guard you 
 from all adversity, and cheer your tribulation, and mer- 
 cifully grant your affairs to be arranged according to 
 your father's desires. But should he pay the debt of 
 humanity, let not any despair overwhelm you, nor the 
 words of any person terrify you, for, after God, who 
 is the governor and protector of orphans, we will be 
 so solicitous for your necessities, and, with God's help, 
 to hasten to provide as we can for your interests, that 
 no attempts of unjust men may disturb you, that we 
 may repay in all things the debt we owe to the 
 goodness of your parents. So may heavenly grace 
 nourish you with its favour, defend you by its protec- 
 tion from all evils, so that the happiness of your life 
 may be our joy."' The above account of Gregory's 
 correspondence with and about Venantius has involved 
 some digression from the subject immediately before 
 us, viz. his measures with respect to monks and 
 monasteries, but it seemed too interesting to be passed 
 by, bringing out as it does the considerateness and 
 tenderness of the man, never quenched by ascetic 
 theories. Considering his severe view of the sinful- 
 ness of the marriage of Venantius, there is something 
 peculiarly graceful in his passing allusion to their 
 deceased mother in his letter to the sorrowino^ 
 
 » B. I., Ind. ix., ep. 34 ; B. VI., Ind. xiv., cp. 43 ; B. IX. 
 Ind. ii., ep. 123 ; B. XL, Ind. iv., epp. 30, 35, 36. 
 
58 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 daughter, when he speaks of the goodness to himself 
 of both their parents. 
 
 Nunneries also, which were not always what they 
 should have been, received an equal share of his 
 attention. In some cases nuns had left their con- 
 vent, and even married : such he orders to be sent 
 back to seclusion and penance, and all who should 
 obstruct their return to be excommunicated.^ We 
 find allusions to scandals, in one instance from 
 a medical man having been allowed access to a 
 nunnery.2 Some bishops are reproved for not look- 
 ing better after the state of the female communities 
 under their jurisdiction ; ^ in other cases he protects 
 such communities from interference with their rights 
 or endowments. 
 
 There is,^ however, no sufficient reason from his 
 letters to conclude that abuses of the kind complained 
 of were the general rule in convents, though there 
 was evidently a liability to them, and they not un- 
 frequently occurred. In one of his letters he objects 
 strongly to a scheme that v/as afoot of founding a 
 monastery of men in the neighbourhood of a female 
 one, which shows his sense of the inconveniences that 
 might attend such an arrangement.^ The following 
 are among the regulations he made for the rectifying 
 of abuses, some of which show what good sense modi- 
 fied his monastic zeal. No man was to become a monk 
 under eighteen years of age ; two years of probation 
 
 ' B. IV., Ind. xii., epp. 9, 27 ; B. VIII., Ind. i., epp. 8, 9. 
 ' B. v., Ind. xiii., ep. 6. ^ g jy., Ind. xii., ep. 9. 
 
 * B. XL, Ind. iv., ep. 25. 
 
NUNNERIES : SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE. 59 
 
 were always to be required (Benedict's rule having 
 required only one year), and, in the case of soldiers, 
 three years ; no married person was to be received 
 unless both the man and wife were willing to embrace 
 the monastic life. He spoke strongly on this last point, 
 showing how clearly, notwithstanding his monastic 
 predilections, he recognised the sanctity of marriage. 
 " For," he writes on one occasion, " when two have 
 been made one flesh by the bond of marriage, it is 
 incongruous that one part should be converted, and 
 the other part remain in the world." Again, " If any 
 say that marriages ought to be dissolved for the sake 
 of religion, let them know that, though human law 
 has allowed this, yet divine law has forbidden it. 
 For the Truth Himself says, ' Those whom God hath 
 joined together, let not man put asunder.' Who 
 then may contradict this heavenly legislator? For 
 we know how it is written, ' They two shall be one 
 flesh.' " In one instance he ordered a husband who 
 had gone into a monastery without his wife's consent 
 to be immediately sent back to her, even though he 
 should have received the tonsure. ^ He further laid 
 down the rule that not even an abbat was to leave his 
 convent except on urgent occasions, and no one ever 
 alone ; that no monk or nun should retain any private 
 possession; that no young woman was to be made an 
 abbess, and none " veiled " {i.e. finally and irrevo- 
 cably consecrated by solemn ceremony to virginity) 
 under sixty years of age. Forty appears to have been 
 the previous limit of age fixed by canons of councils. ^ 
 
 1 B. VI., Ind. xiv., ep. 48; B. XL, Ind. iv., epp 45, S^- 
 
 2 See Bingham, B. VII., ch. iv. sect. 6. 
 
€o GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 Further, in order to secure to the monastic com- 
 munities the freedom from worldly cares which the 
 theory of their life required, he was careful to pro- 
 vide them with endowments, and to protect them in 
 the possession of such as had been assigned to them 
 by bequests or otherwise. He contributed largely 
 from the revenues of '• the patrimony " for this pur- 
 pose, in some cases causing monasteries to be rebuilt 
 and refounded ; and in Corsica, where before his 
 time there had been none, founding new ones. He 
 evinced his accustomed attention to details in re- 
 ference to such matters, laying down accurately the 
 amount and sources of revenue to be enjoyed by 
 various communities : assigning, for instance, to a 
 nunnery in one case, as a condition of the bishop 
 being allowed to consecrate it, a revenue of ten solidi 
 free of taxes, together with three male servants, three 
 yoke of oxen, five slaves, ten mares, ten cows, a 
 prescribed number of vines, forty sheep &c., "ac- 
 cording to custom." 
 
 The state of the clergy called for and received 
 equal attention with that of the monastic orders. In 
 the exercise of his patriarchal jurisdiction we find 
 him rebuking and sometimes deposing bishops, writing 
 them letters of direction and advice, appointing 
 commissions to inquire into charges against them, 
 and to take action during the vacancy of sees. On 
 the death of a bishop, the visitor appointed by him 
 for the purpose was to see to the canonical election 
 of a successor by clerg}^ and people, and to his fitness 
 for the office. Fitness consisted in such points as 
 » B. XL, Ind. iv., ep. 66. 
 
APPOINTMENT OF BISHOPS. 6r 
 
 these : — he must be already in Holy Orders, not 
 bound to any secular office, free from bodily defects, 
 of good life and conversation, well-versed in Holy 
 Scripture, and especially the Psalms, benevolent and 
 charitable ; not a youth, or one who had married a 
 second wife or a widow, or who had young children. 
 He was to be chosen from among the clergy of the 
 church he was to rule, if a proper candidate could be 
 found among them, but not otherwise. Above all 
 things simony in all forms was to be strictly forbidden, 
 nor were powerful persons to be allowed to influence 
 elections. The election having been made, Gregory 
 still reserved to himself the right of granting or with- 
 holding confirmation, and there were many cases in 
 which he withheld it. For example, in 591 he directs 
 Severus, whom he had appointed visitor of the Church 
 of Ariminum during a vacancy, to disallow an elec- 
 tion that had been made, without giving any definite 
 reason, and to require the inhabitants either to select 
 a more fit candidate, or to appoint the person indica- 
 ted by himself In 595, two persons having been 
 chosen for the bishopric of Naples by two parties in 
 the church there, he rejects both ; one because he 
 had a young daughter, the other because he was 
 too " simple " for the post, and because he was 
 reported to have given his money on usury. He di- 
 rects, however, the charges against the second candi- 
 date to be more fully inquired into, but requires the 
 Neapolitans to nominate a third person for consecra- 
 tion, in the event of these charges being established.^ 
 
 ' B. I., Ind. ix., ep. 57 ; B. X., Ind. iii., ep. 62; cf. B. V., 
 Ind. xiii., ep. 48 ; B. IV., Ind. xii,, ep. 20. 
 
62 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 In some cases, when the Lombard invasion had 
 caused episcopal cities to be insecure or depopu- 
 lated, he authorized the transference or amalgama- 
 tion of seesJ With one metropolitan, John of Ra- 
 venna, he had a long dispute about the use of the 
 pallium. This article of ecclesiastical costume, sent 
 by the popes to metropolitans by way of connecting 
 them and their jurisdiction with the see of Rome, 
 was worn by them ordinarily in the celebration of 
 Mass only. John wore it on other occasions, plead- 
 ing the ancient custom of the Church of Ravenna. 
 Gregory denied any authorization from Rome of this 
 custom, which he regarded as savouring of pride, 
 and forbade its continuance. John, however, though 
 writing to the pope with the utmost respect, persisted 
 till his death. His successor, Marinianus (who had 
 been a monk with Gregory at St. Andrew's in Rome) 
 continued the contest, which was at length com- 
 promised by his being allowed to wear the pallium 
 as formerly on four great festivals during the year.^ 
 In Sicily, where great laxity seems to have pre- 
 vailed, there had been no metropolitan, the bishops 
 having been directly subject to the bishop of Rome. 
 There at first a general supervision of the Church was 
 committed to the subdeacon Peter, who had been 
 sent as "ruler of the patrimony"; and afterwards 
 Maximinianus, bishop of Syracuse (Gregory's pre- 
 decessor in the abbacy of St. Andrew's), was made 
 the Pope's vicar for ecclesiastical purposes, and had 
 the pallium sent him, but on the understanding that 
 
 ' B. I., epp. 78, 80 ; B. II,, Ind. x., ep. 37. 
 
 2 B. III., Ind. xi., ep. 57; B. V., Ind. xiii., epp, 11, 15, 56. 
 
REGARD FOR EPISCOPAL RIGHTS. 63 
 
 the vicariate should not be considered as permanently 
 attached to his see. In 596 John, who succeeded 
 Maximinianus, had the same jurisdiction, with the 
 pallium, assigned to him.^ The Sicilian bishops, who 
 were nine in number, had been required by Pope Leo 
 to visit the threshold of the Apostles, each once in 
 three years. Gregory, in the interest, we may sup- 
 pose, of their dioceses, substituted five years for three. 
 But, while he thus claimed and exercised such large 
 powers of supervision and discipline over bishops and 
 metropolitans, he was careful to respect and defend 
 their traditional rights, to allow them ordinarily free 
 action when once appointed, and never unnecessarily 
 to interfere with their canonical election. Writing in 
 592 to Dominicus of Carthage, in Africa, where (as 
 has been seen) some jealousy of his interference was 
 felt, he thus expresses his principles in this regard : — 
 " But as to what your fraternity has written about 
 ecclesiastical privileges, have no doubt whatever 
 about this, that, as we defend our own rights, so we 
 preserve those of every single Church. I neither 
 grant to any one, through favour, more than he has 
 a claim to, nor, through ambition, derogate from the 
 just rights of any : but I desire to honour my brethren 
 in all respects, but that each should be so honoured 
 that his rights be not opposed to those of another."^ 
 It would be highly unjust to accuse Pope Gregory of 
 a policy of aggression in his ecclesiastical government. 
 Whether or not the large powers he claimed were in 
 
 ' B. II., Ind. X., ep. 23 ; B. VI., Ind. xiv., ep. 18. 
 2 B. II., Ind. X., ep. 47. 
 
64 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 accordance with the primitive constitution of the 
 Church is not the question before us. All we say is 
 that they were such as he sincerely believed to belong 
 to St. Peter's see, and such as popes had claimed 
 before him, though none had brought them to bear 
 with equal power and system. And it cannot be 
 doubted that he used them so as to benefit the 
 Church at large. Nor is his tone ever harsh 
 or domineering. One old bishop (Januarius of 
 Cagliari, in Sardinia) he spares on account of his grey 
 hairs, though he seems to have been a very un- 
 satisfactory character. There are many letters to him 
 or about him. He was culpably remiss in looking 
 after the female convents; he charged exorbitant 
 burial fees ; on one occasion he had on Sunday 
 before mass reaped a neighbour's crop, and after 
 officiating had returned to remove his landmark. 
 For this last offence Gregory writes to him, '' Since 
 we still spare thy grey hairs, we exhort thee, wretched 
 old man, to bethink thee in time, and restrain thyself 
 from such levity of manners and perversity of deeds. 
 Sentence might have been launched against thee ; 
 but, knowing thy simplicity together with thy age, we 
 are in the meantime silent. Those under whose 
 counsel thou hast done these things we excommuni- 
 cate for two months, but so that if they should die 
 within this time they be not refused the viaticum. 
 But guard against their counsels for the future, lest, 
 if thou be their pupil in evil whose master thou 
 oughtest to be in good, we spare henceforth neither 
 thy simplicity nor thy old age."^ 
 
 ' B. IX., Ind. ii., ep. I. 
 
NATALIS : CORRECTION OF CLERKS. 65 
 
 Another bishop (Natalis of Salona), whom he had 
 reprehended for addiction to banquets, and who had 
 defended his practice by Scripture arguments, he 
 answers in a good-humoured strain. To the bishop's 
 adducing of the example of Abraham entertaining 
 the three angels, Gregory replies, " Not even we 
 would blame your blessedness in respect of feasts if 
 we were aware that you were in the habit of entertain- 
 ing angels as guests" ; and in another part of his letter 
 says, " Your holiness rightly praises banquets in 
 common which are made with the intention of 
 charity ; but these only proceed from charity in which 
 no absent person is backbitten, no one derided, no 
 idle stories about secular affairs, but the words of 
 sacred reading are heard ; where no more is taken 
 than is necessary for refreshing the weakness of the 
 body that it may be kept in health for the practice of 
 virtue. If your banquets are of this sort, I confess 
 that you are masters of abstainers." ^ 
 
 He gave frequent and detailed directions also with 
 respect to the inferior clergy, holding that "bad 
 priests are the cause of the people's ruin," that '' what 
 is but a fault in laymen is a crime in clergymen," and 
 " that a clergy corrupt within cannot long stand in 
 relation to the world outside." We find continual 
 admonitions to legates, metropolitans, and others, that 
 they should inquire into and correct reported clerical 
 delinquencies by excommunication, degradation, im- 
 prisonment, and even in one case by stripes. He 
 forbade any to be ordained who were engaged in any 
 public office, civil or military: he recalled itinerant 
 
 » B. II., Ind. X., ep. 52. 
 F 
 
66 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 clerks to their sphere of work, and most urgently he 
 pressed upon all the paramount duty of succouring 
 the poor and oppressed. With this view he main- 
 tained the right of asylum in churches and their pre- 
 cincts, but not so as thereby to defeat the ends of 
 justice. MauriHo, for instance, an ex-prefect of Ra- 
 venna, having fled into sanctuary from the prosecu- 
 tion of the prefect Georgius, he directed the bishop 
 to protect him there, but is careful to add, " not that 
 we doubt (far from it !) the justice of the most excel- 
 lent Lord Prefect Georgius, one whose proved cha- 
 racter in the administration of his dignified office we 
 are well assured of, but that the glorious Maurilio 
 may on his side defend his cause without suspicion 
 of oppression. "1 Again, to Romanus, his defensor 
 in Sicily, he writes, " We have been informed that 
 certain men of small discretion desire to implicate us 
 in their own perils, and to be so defended by ecclesi- 
 astical persons that the latter may be themselves 
 held parties to their misdeeds. Wherefore, I hereby 
 admonish thee, and through thee our brother and 
 fellow-bishop John, and others whom it may concern, 
 so to regulate your ecclesiastical protection that no 
 one implicated in public theft may appear to be 
 unjustly defended by us, lest, by attempting indis- 
 creet defence, we transfer to ourselves the reputation 
 of evil-doers. But, as far as becomes the Church, 
 by admonitions and intercessions, succour those 
 Avhom you can, so as both to afford them help, and 
 to avoid injury to the reputation of the Church."^ AH 
 
 * B. I., Ind. ix., ep. 37. 
 2 B. IX., Ind. ii., ep. 27. 
 
SANCTUARY : PRIVILEGE OF CLERGY : CELIBACY. 67 
 
 reference to lay tribunals was forbidden to the clergy, 
 who were regarded as an order apart, and amenable 
 only to their ecclesiastical superiors. Further, their 
 claim to exemption from the civil jurisdiction, even 
 in criminal cases, and at the suit of laymen, which 
 caused such conflict between Church and State in a 
 later age, had its support in the position taken by 
 Gregory on the subject. He writes to Bonifacius, 
 his defensor in Corsica, " If any one has a cause 
 against a clerk, let him refer it to his bishop. Should 
 the bishop be suspected, let him {i.e. the bishop), or, 
 should this be objected to by the prosecutor, do you 
 yourself depute some one who shall compel the 
 parties to choose arbitrators by mutual consent ; by 
 whom whatever shall be decided, whether through 
 thy soHcitude or the bishop's, let it be carried out in 
 all respects, that there may be no case for further 
 litigation. "1 
 
 In all the clergy he required strict celibacy; 
 they were to have no women in their houses but 
 mothers, sisters, or wives married before ordination, 
 from whom they were to live separately. ^ Bishops 
 he recommends to imitate Augustine by banishing 
 from their houses even such female relatives as the 
 canons allowed.^ 
 
 But even in matters of this kind, however import- 
 ant he considered them, he could show forbearance 
 and discretion. In Sicily the rule of celibacy had, in 
 588, been extended to sub-deacons. This rule he 
 
 ' B. XI., Ind. iv., ep. 77. 
 
 ^ B. I., Ind. ix., ep. 52; B. XI., Ind. iv., ep. 69. 
 3 B. IX., Ind. ii., ep. 60; B. XIII., Ind. vi,, epp. 35, 36. 
 F 2 
 
68 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 enforced so far as to order bishops to require a vow 
 of celibacy from all future sub-deacons ; but, owning 
 the hardship of the rule on those who had made no 
 promise at their ordination, he contented himself 
 with forbidding advancement to the diaconate of 
 existing sub-deacons who had lived with wives.^ 
 Simony also, which appears to have been very 
 prevalent, he did all he could to suppress, and set the 
 example by himself refusing the annual presents which 
 the bishops of Rome had received from their suffra- 
 gans, or payment for palls sent to metropolitans. 
 Payments under the last head were forbidden in perpe- 
 tuity by a Roman synod held under him in 595. 
 
 Secular matters also in connection with the ad- 
 ministration of the papal estates received from him 
 careful and minute attention. Indeed the extent, 
 evinced by the voluminous collection of his letters, 
 to which he was able to make himself acquainted 
 with, and direct the details of, business of all kinds 
 both sacred and secular, in so many regions of the 
 world, is remarkable. The see of Rome had large 
 possessions, constituting what was called the " Patri- 
 mony of St. Peter," not only in Italy and the adjoining 
 islands, but also in remoter parts, including Illyria, 
 Gaul, Dalmatia, and even Africa and the East. 
 They were managed by officers called " Rulers of the 
 Patrimony," and " Defensores," to whom Gregory 
 continually wrote, directing them about the manage- 
 ment of the farms and the protection of the peasants. 
 He was very particular on the latter head. Their 
 
 ' B. I,, Ind. ix., ep. 44. 
 
MANAGEMENT OF THE PATRIMONY. 69 
 
 payments were fixed, and they were to be allowed to 
 make them by instalments, assisted by loans ; dues 
 payable on the marriages of serfs were lowered, and 
 legal forms of security were to be furnished to 
 peasants, so as to provide against the recurrence of 
 oppression ; the families of farmers were secured in 
 their succession to tenancy, and their rights in other 
 ways guarded. He enters into very minute particulars 
 on such matters, taking anxious care lest the claims 
 of the Church should be pressed so as to trench on 
 private rights, or cause hardship or wrong to any.^ 
 It may be here observed that the possession by the 
 Pope of this extensive patrimony, and Gregory's careful 
 supervision of it, had an important result as securing 
 the temporal independence of the Roman See. He 
 did not indeed by any means set up on the strength of 
 it a claim to independent sovereignty. He ever pro- 
 fessed himself, and acted as, a loyal subject of the 
 Emperor. But, including as it did several important 
 cities, Nepte in Tuscany, Otranto, Gallipoli, and, as 
 some assert, Naples, and as the political state of 
 affairs at the time allowed, and even necessitated, the 
 Pope's unfettered sway over it, it undoubtedly gave 
 him a sort of princely position which he could not 
 otherwise have maintained, and paved the way to the 
 independent sovereignty of a later age. 
 
 The revenues accruing from the Patrimony were 
 expended under Gregory's personal superintendence 
 according to the fourfold division customary in 
 the West — to the bishop, to the clergy, to the 
 
 * B. I., Ind. ix., ep. 42. 
 
70 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 fabrics and services of the Church, and to the poor. 
 He was unbounded in his charitable donations ; a 
 great part of the population of Rome depended on 
 them ; daily when he sat down to dinner a portion 
 was sent to the poor at his door ; he had the poor 
 and infirm searched out in every street, and kept a 
 large book for the names of the objects of his 
 bounty. 
 
 Such prodigal almsgiving might of course, for 
 aught we know, encourage and perpetuate indolence 
 and pauperism. But it would be absurd to look for 
 modern principles of political economy in St. 
 Gregory. Those saints of old time interpreted 
 literally the Gospel precepts about almsgiving, and 
 at any rate they did not evade them. And, indeed, 
 the state of Rome at that time appears to have 
 been such as left no alternatives but general 
 almsgiving or starvation. The population, long 
 accustomed, even in prosperous times, to depend 
 on the doles of the rich, was now, thinned though 
 it was by plague and famine, out of proportion 
 to the ordinary supply of food ; fields of industry 
 were cut off, the country round was devastated, and 
 never safe from the Lombards. Whether or not there 
 was truth in the cries of the populace after his death, 
 blaming his too prodigal expenditure for the famine 
 which then ensued, there was undoubtedly during his 
 reign an abnormal need of succour ; and among the 
 Christian virtues of Gregory we are justified in 
 estimating highly his personal self-denial and his un- 
 bounded charity to the poor. 
 
THE CHURCH IN SPAIN. 7 1 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Church in Spain — Letters to Leander and Reccared — 
 Appeal of two Spanish Bishops to Rome — Correspondence 
 with Irish Bishops — St. Columban's letters — Eastern Illyri- 
 cum — Hadrianus — Natalis — Maximus — Remonstrance with 
 the Emperor — Letter to the Empress — Final settlement — 
 Claim to authority over the Eastern Church — Letter to 
 John the Faster — Lombard Invasion — Gregory's Sermons — 
 Patriotic activity — Thwarted by the Exarch — Letters to 
 the Emperor and Empress — Truce with the Lombards — 
 John the Faster calls himself Universal Bishop — Gregory's 
 view of the question — His remonstrances — His sarcastic 
 vein — He addresses the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alex- 
 andria — Cyriacus succeeds John the Faster — Gregory's 
 renewed remonstrance — Con-espondence with the Patri- 
 archs — His view of St. Peter's Primacy being shared by 
 Antioch and Alexandria — Renewed Lombard invasions — 
 Gregory's activity — Results of his efforts (591-596). 
 
 Having now seen something generally of Gregory's 
 work and character during his career as pope, we 
 may resume the thread of his history, noticing in 
 order its principal events, and dwelling on those of 
 most interest and importance. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that in 589, the 
 year before his accession, Reccared, the Visigothic 
 king of Spain, had, at the Council of Toledo, re- 
 nounced Arianism for Catholicity. In this important 
 event Gregory naturally felt a warm interest. He 
 was informed of it by Leander, Archbishop of Seville, 
 
72 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 whose acquaintance he had made at Constantinople ; 
 and to him he wrote letters on the occasion glowing 
 with thankfulness, sympathy, and affection ; sending 
 him on one occasion part of his commentaiy on the 
 book of Job, which had been begun (as has been 
 seen) in concert with him at Constantinople ; on 
 another, a pall, to be worn at mass only, v/ith the 
 benediction of St. Peter. These letters to one who 
 appears to have been his dearest and most confidential 
 friend are remarkable for the deep sense expressed 
 of the misery of the burdens of office, especially in 
 the lamentable state of things then existing, and his 
 regret for past monastic peace. He speaks with 
 humility of his own character having suffered from 
 the change, and disclaims the compliments which his 
 correspondent had addressed to him. " I am not 
 now, good man," he says, " he whom you used to 
 know. I have advanced outwardly, I confess ; but 
 inwardly I have fallen. . . . Much does this burden- 
 some honour oppress me; innumerable cares din 
 through me, and, when my mind collects itself for 
 God, they cleave me as if with swords. My heart has 
 no rest : it lies prostrated in the lowest depths by the 
 weight of its own cogitation : seldom or never does 
 the wing of contemplation raise it aloft. . . . But, 
 fallen as I am into these waves of perturbation, I 
 beseech thee by Almighty God to hold me up by 
 the hand of thy prayer. I sailed as it were with a 
 favouring breeze, when I led a tranquil life in the 
 monastery ; but suddenly a stormy tempest rose and 
 carried me away, and I lost my prosperous course. 
 Now am I tost with waves, and seek the plank of thy 
 
LEITERS TO LEANDER AND RECCARED. 73 
 
 intercession, that, though not accounted worthy to 
 come rich, with my ship entire, to shore, I may at 
 any rate reach it on a plank after loss." In one of 
 his letters to Leander he gives proof of more libe- 
 rality of view with respect to forms than was often 
 displayed by popes. Three immersions in baptism 
 were the Roman usage, which he calls in his letter 
 " sacraments " of the three days of Christ's burial ; 
 or, he adds, they may be taken by some to denote 
 the three Persons of the Undivided Trinity. But, 
 inasmuch as this had been the usage of the Arians 
 in Spain, and regarded by them as expressing their 
 heretical docrine on the Trinity, he fully agrees with 
 Leander in approving single immersion in the Spanish 
 Church, notwithstanding the different use of the 
 Church of Rome. "For," says he, "when there is 
 one faith, difference of usage does no harm to the 
 Church." He wrote also to Reccared, the royal con- 
 vert, exhorting him to humility, chastity, and mercy ; 
 thanking him for presents received, and sending him 
 in return a key from the body of St. Peter, containing 
 iron from the chain that had bound him, a cross con- 
 taining a portion of the true one, and some hairs of 
 John the Baptist. Such presents were well adapted 
 for exciting the superstitious reverence of the king, 
 and there is no reason to suppose, from what we know 
 of Gregory, that he himself doubted the genuineness 
 or the efficacy of the relics. The pall sent to Leander 
 is the only known instance of this emblem of metro- 
 politan jurisdiction having been in early days received 
 from Rome by the CathoHc Church of Spain, which 
 was not for long afterwards, notwithstanding Gregory's 
 
74 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 early patronage, marked for its dependence on the 
 popes. 
 
 We find, however, Gregory after this (apparently in 
 603, towards the end of his life) taking action in the 
 case of two bishops, Januarius and Stephanus, alleged 
 to have been unjustly and uncanonically deposed in 
 Spain through the action of a powerful noble. He 
 commissioned one John, whom he sent as Defensor 
 Ecclesim into the country, to examine and adjudicate 
 on the cases, and furnished him with extracts from 
 imperial laws providing for the immunity of clergy 
 from secular judgments, and for reference of their 
 causes to metropolitans and patriarchs, or, in the 
 absence of patriarchs, finally to the Apostolic See, as 
 being "the head of all churches." John's adjudi- 
 cation on the cases is also extant, in which he decided 
 in favour of the deposed bishops. Whether or not 
 this decision, arising probably from an appeal of the 
 aggrieved prelates, was accepted and carried out by 
 the authorities in Spain, there is no evidence to show. 
 There is no reason for concluding that it was not. At 
 any rate it illustrates the Pope's own view of the 
 authority of his see. 
 
 In 592 we find him in correspondence with the 
 bishops of Ireland, who, like those of Istria, still 
 refused to join in the condemnation of the " three 
 chapters," and, like them, stood out against the Pope 
 on the subject. They had, it appears, sent him a 
 letter, no longer extant, in which they had spoken 
 of some persecution from which their church was 
 suffering, had defended their position with respect to 
 the " chapters," and attributed the Lombard invasion 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH IRISH BISHOPS. 75 
 
 to divine judgment on the Pope for his acquiescence 
 in their condemnation. He replies that they must by 
 no means glory in their persecution, or expect the 
 rewards of martyrdom, as long as they kept aloof 
 from CathoHc unity in the matter of the "three 
 chapters "; he defends submission to the fifth Council, 
 which had condemned these chapters, on the ground 
 that the condemnation did not touch the faith as 
 previously defined, but only affected three persons, 
 one of whom at least had evidently written what was 
 heretical, and was therefore " not unjustly condemned." 
 This way of putting the case seems to imply some 
 doubt in Gregory's own mind as to the whole of the 
 position which he had to defend. He seems to have 
 felt a difficulty himself as to the condemnation of the 
 two writers at least who had been acquitted of heresy 
 by the Council of Chalcedon. But he sends the 
 Irish bishops the treatise on the subject which his 
 predecessor, Pelagius, had written, which he tells 
 them must convince them, unless they were more obsti- 
 nate than reasonable. As to the Lombard invasion, 
 it is, he says, no proof of divine judgment on himself, 
 but rather of fatherly correction. The Irish were not 
 probably thus convinced, though Baronius in his 
 history takes it for granted that they were. For there 
 is a letter extant from the noted Irish Saint Columban 
 to Pope Boniface IV., written in 614, in which the 
 latter is freely blamed, in a tone of irony, for con- 
 tinuing to condemn the " three chapters." The 
 following remarkable words occur in it : " Watch, I 
 pray thee, pope, watch ; and again I say, watch. For 
 perhaps Vigilius did not watch well, whom those who 
 
76 GRRGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 throw blame on you call the author of this scandal." 
 (Here is a sly allusion to the tergiversation of Pope 
 Vigilius.) "From the time when the Son of God, in 
 those two fervent horses of the Holy Ghost, rode 
 through the sea of the nations, &c. . . . the supreme 
 charioteer of that chariot, who is Christ, came Him- 
 self even to us." He means that the Irish, having 
 received the Gospel, had at any rate Christ for their 
 founder, though they could not boast of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, like Rome. " From that time you have been 
 great and illustrious, and Rome herself has become 
 more great and distinguished than before ; and you, 
 if we may so speak, on account of the two Apostles 
 of Christ, are almost celestial, and Rome is the head 
 of all the churches of the world, saving the singular 
 prerogative of the place of the Lord's resurrection. 
 And so, as your honour is great with regard to the 
 dignity of your see, so is great care necessary lest you 
 lose your dignity on account of any perversity. . . . 
 For he is the true key-bearer of the heavens who, 
 through true knowledge, opens them to the worthy, 
 and closes them to the unworthy : otherwise he will be 
 able neither to open nor to close. . . . And since 
 these things are true and received without any contra- 
 diction by all who know the truth (although it is 
 known to all, and there is no one who does not know 
 how our Saviour gave to St. Peter the keys of the 
 kingdom of heaven, and how you — perhaps through 
 this — make for yourselves I know not what haughty 
 claim to greater authority and power in divine things 
 than others), know ye that your power will be less 
 with the Lord if ye even think this in your hearts ; 
 
LETTERS OF ST. COLUMBAN". 77 
 
 for unity of faith in the whole world has made unity 
 of power and prerogative."^ 
 
 The same saint had written in a similar strain to 
 Gregory the Great himself on another question, — that 
 of the time of keeping Easter, on which the Irish 
 Church long continued to differ from Rome and 
 from the West in general. He had said, " Perhaps 
 thou art content with the authority of thy prede- 
 cessors, and especially of Pope Leo. Trust not, I 
 pray thee, in such a question either to humility or 
 gravity, which are often deceived. For in the 
 problem before us a living dog is better than a dead 
 lion." Observe the pun on the name of Leo. St. 
 Columban's attitude on both these questions illus- 
 trates clearly how little the Celtic churches of the 
 West were accustomed or disposed at that time to 
 acknowledge papal claims. It is true that St. 
 Columban's letters do not commit the Irish episco- 
 pate, since it was not from Ireland, but from Bur- 
 gundy to Gregory, and from Lombardy to Boniface, 
 after he had left his own country for missionary work, 
 that he wrote. But the fact of Irish independence is 
 otherwise evident. The bisho_ps appear, indeed, to 
 have afterwards consulted Gregory as to whether they 
 should rebaptize reclaimed Nestorian heretics ; to 
 whom he replied, in accordance with the then and 
 since established view, that the sacrament was not to 
 be repeated, but only imposition of hands or chrism 
 administered, in the case of such as had been already 
 baptized in the name of the Trinity. He also stated 
 
 • The letter is given in Galland, Blblioth. Pair., vii. 319. 
 
78 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 at length and clearly the orthodox doctrine as against 
 Nestorianism. But as we find from his letter that 
 the emissary of the Irish had been at Jerusalem 
 before coming to Rome, their application to the Pope 
 cannot be construed as implying submission. They 
 had probably sent only to learn the practice of the 
 leading sees of Christendom; and their sending to 
 Jerusalem before Rome agrees with what Columban 
 says, in one of the letters above quoted, about the 
 former see having a peculiar prerogative of sanctity 
 even above the latter. ^ 
 
 In the same year (592) Gregory began to be occu- 
 pied with troublesome matters of discipline in East 
 Illyricum, the early subjection of which province to 
 the spiritual supremacy of Rome was mentioned in 
 our first chapter. There, therefore, he might fairly 
 expect to be obeyed ; as he was in some instances, 
 but not in all. There were three cases. First, 
 Hadrianus, bishop of Thebes, had been deposed by a 
 synod under his metropolitan of Larissa; and the 
 primate of Illyricum, John of Justiniana Prima, to 
 whom the Emperor had referred the matter, had 
 confirmed the sentence. But the deposed prelate 
 appealed to Gregory, who summarily disallowed the 
 whole proceedings as uncanonical, ordered the resto- 
 ration of the appellant, exempted him in future from the 
 jurisdiction of his metropolitan, excommunicated the 
 primate for thirty days, threatening severer measures 
 in case of disobedience to the authority of the Prince 
 of the Apostles. No resistance is on record to this 
 
 ' B. XI., Ind. iv., ep. 67. 
 
EAST ILLYRICUM. MAXIMUS OF SALONA. 79 
 
 assertion of power ; nor in the second case, in which 
 he ordered Natalis, metropolitan bishop of Salona, 
 under pain of excommunication and eventual deposi- 
 tion, to reinstate his archdeacon Honoratus, whom 
 he had deposed.^ 
 
 The third case gave him much more trouble, 
 inasmuch as the Emperor himself thought fit to inter- 
 pose. On the death of Natalis of Salona, above 
 named, Gregory recommended the aforesaid Arch- 
 deacon Honoratus for the see.^ But one Maximus, 
 alleged to be a man of scandalous life, and to have 
 obtained his election by bribery, was elected without 
 the Pope's leave or sanction. Gregory at once dis- 
 allowed the proceeding, and wrote to the clergy of 
 Salona forbidding them to choose a bishop without 
 the knowledge and consent of the Apostolic See. 
 But in the mean time the election had been confirmed 
 by the Emperor, and the man ordained ; on hearing 
 which Gregory, with his accustomed deference to the 
 imperial power, wrote a second letter, only suspend- 
 ing Maximus and his ordainers till he should be 
 assured of the alleged imperial confirmation, but 
 
 ' B. III., Ind. xi., epp. 6, 7. 
 
 2 This Natalis of Salona was the prelate to whom the letter 
 about addiction to banquets had been addressed. It may be 
 that Honoratus, his archdeacon, had fallen into his bad graces 
 for maintaining a stricter theory; possibly for telling the Pope of 
 his superior's convivial tendencies. And Gregory's anxiety to 
 promote Honoratus to the see may have been due to his desire 
 to reform the laxity prevalent at Salona. Hence, as well as from 
 his jealousy for the authority of Rome, may have arisen his 
 soreness at being thwarted by the Emperor's interference. 
 
So GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 summoning Maximus to give an account of himself 
 at Rome. The suspension and summons were alike 
 disregarded, and an order was obtained from the 
 Emperor bidding the Pope give the bishop of Salona 
 no further trouble. Gregory having in vain addressed 
 a respectful but earnest remonstrance to the Emperor, 
 saying that he would rather die than suffer any 
 diminution of the authority of St. Peter's see, was 
 obliged for the present to acquiesce. But before 
 long he again summoned Maximus to Rome, on the 
 ground of his alleged briberies, immoralities, and dis- 
 regard of his former suspension, Maximus, relying 
 on imperial support, again disregarded the summons, 
 pleaded that, if he were liable to any charges, it was 
 in his own province, not at Rome, that they ought 
 to be inquired into, and sent to Constantinople 
 counter accusations against Gregory himself On 
 this occasion the latter, as in other instances when he 
 failed to move the Emperor, tried to get Constantina, 
 the empress, on his side, pleading with her in an 
 earnest letter, which affords a characteristic specimen 
 of his style of writing to potentates. In it he says, 
 *' Obeying the commands of my lords, I allowed the 
 ordination of this Maximus, though effected in pre- 
 sumptuous disregard of me or my representatives. 
 But his other perversities — his corporal delinquencies 
 which I have got knowledge of, his expenditure of 
 church money to procure election, his continuing to 
 celebrate mass though excommunicated — I cannot 
 in conscience pass by. But my most serene lord has 
 commanded me, before cognizance taken of these 
 things, to receive him, when he comes to me, with 
 
LETTER TO CONSTANTINA. FINAL SETTLEMENT. 8 1 
 
 honour. And it is indeed a very grave matter to 
 honour a man of whom such things are alleged, 
 before they have been fully sifted. And if the causes 
 of bishops committed to my charge are taken out of 
 my hands by my most pious lords, unhappy that I 
 am, what shall I do ? But that my bishops despise 
 me, and resort against me to secular judges, thank 
 God I attribute it to my sins. But I put my trust in 
 Almighty God, that He will grant long life to my 
 most pious lords, and deal with us, under your hand, 
 not according to our sins, but according to the gifts 
 of His grace. These things therefore I suggest to my 
 most tranquil mistress, for I am not ignorant with 
 what zeal for rectitude and justice the most upright 
 conscience of your serenity is moved." ^ The case 
 was not finally settled till seven years after its com- 
 mencement. Seventeen letters remain, written by 
 Gregory during its progress. At last the Emperor 
 referred its adjudication to Maximinianus, bishop of 
 Ravenna, and the result was that Maximus, having 
 publicly begged the Pope's pardon, and having purged 
 himself of the charge of simony by an oath taken at 
 the tomb of St. Apollinaris at Ravenna, was accepted 
 by Gregory as the lawful bishop of Salona. The 
 whole case is interesting as illustrating Gregory's 
 patient pertinacity in maintaining the claims of his 
 see ; but at the same time his habitual deference 
 (under protest if necessary) to imperial authority, 
 which his policy was to win by flattery rather than 
 provoke by defiance. These characteristics are 
 
 ' B. v., Ind. xiii., ep. 21. 
 G 
 
82 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 observable throughout his career. He could, how- 
 ever, when strongly moved, speak his mind freely, 
 and sometimes in a tone of courteous irony, to the 
 Emperor himself, as instances presently to be adduced 
 will show ; and he never, even when open to the 
 charge of adulation, compromised his own position 
 in the ecclesiastical sphere. 
 
 The assertions of authority last recorded were in a 
 region which had been for long under papal jurisdic- 
 tion. In 593 a certain power of interference was 
 / claimed with the patriarch of Constantinople himself. 
 But even in this large assumption Gregory did not in 
 fact advance beyond the theory of some of his pre- 
 decessors, to whom the view of an universal supremacy 
 of St. Peter's see, with more or less distinctness, was 
 already familiar. What he did was to seize all 
 favourable opportunities of consolidating the system 
 which the theory involved, and making it a reality 
 where he could. It is, of course, to be remembered 
 that the theory was never accepted by the Eastern 
 Church. The circumstances were these : Two priests, 
 John of Chalcedon and Anastasius of Isauria, had 
 been condemned on a charge of heresy, and one of 
 them beaten with cudgels under the patriarch of 
 Constantinople, John the Faster. On hearing of 
 this, Gregory wrote twice to the patriarch, in a tone 
 of brotherly remonstrance, protesting against the 
 introduction into the Church of a new and un- 
 canonical punishment, urging that the two priests 
 should be restored or judged canonically, and expres- 
 sing his own readiness to receive them at Rome. 
 The patriarch having in reply professed ignorance of 
 
LETTER TO JOHN THE FASTER. 8^^ 
 
 the case referred to, Gregory wrote again in a tone of 
 sarcasm, not without personaHty, which his profes- 
 sions of personal regard do not tend to soften. The 
 style, it is to be remembered, was not usual with him; 
 his letters generally, in accordance with his disposi- 
 tion, were very kind and courteous, though not un- 
 frequently pervaded by delicate irony; it is his 
 correspondence with and about his rival of Constan- 
 tinople, whose ecclesiastical claims seem to have 
 been a peculiarly sore point with him, that afford the 
 most marked instance of a different tone. He wrote 
 as follows: "Though consideration of the cause 
 moves me, yet even charity now impels me to write, 
 since, having written once and again to my most holy 
 brother, I have received no reply from him. For 
 some one else, a secular person, has addressed me in 
 his name. And, indeed, if the letters received were 
 his own, I shall have been much mistaken in him ; 
 for I expected from him something very different 
 from what I have found Your holy Fra- 
 ternity has replied to me, as appears from the signa- 
 ture of the letter, that you were ignorant of what I 
 had written about. At which reply I was mightily 
 astonished, pondering with myself in silence, if what 
 you say is true, what can be worse than that such 
 things should be done against God's servants, and 
 he who is over them should be ignorant ? For what 
 can be a shepherd's excuse if the wolf devours the 
 sheep and the shepherd knows not? But, if your 
 holiness did know both what subject I wrote 
 about, and what had been done, either against John 
 the Presbyter, or against Athanasius, monk of 
 
 G 2 
 
84 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 Isauria and a presbyter, and has written to me, ' I 
 know not,' what can I reply to this, since Scripture 
 says, ' The mouth that lies slays the soul ' ? I ask, 
 most holy brother, has all that great abstinence of 
 yours come to this, that you would, by denial, con- 
 ceal from your brother what you know to have been 
 done ? Would it not have been better that flesh 
 should enter that mouth for food than that false 
 words should come out of it for deceiving your neigh- 
 bour, especially when the Truth says, ' Not that 
 which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that 
 which Cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a 
 man'"? The allusion here is, of course, to the 
 patriarch's name of " the Faster," derived from his 
 habits of abstinence. " But far be it from me to 
 believe anything of the kind of your most holy heart. 
 Those letters had your name appended to them, but 
 I do not think they were yours. I wrote to the most 
 blessed lord John, and I believe that that youngster, 
 your familiar, has replied to me ; he who has learnt 
 nothing yet of God, who knows not the bowels of 
 charity, who is accused by all of wickedness, who 
 daily plots against the deaths of various persons by 
 means of concealed wills, who neither fears God nor 
 blushes in the sight of men. Believe me, most holy 
 brother, if you have a real zeal for truth you must 
 correct him in the first place, that by the example 
 of those who are near to you those who are not 
 near may be the better amended. Your holiness 
 ought to direct him, not he influence your hoHness. 
 For I know that, if you listen to him, you will never 
 have peace with your brethren. I exceedingly desire 
 
CLAIMS OF THE SEE OF ROME. 85 
 
 to have peace with all men, and especially with you, 
 whom I greatly love, if only you are the same person 
 as I once knew. But, if you set at naught the 
 canons, I know not who you are. Yet so act, most 
 holy and beloved brother, that we may mutually 
 know each other ; lest, if the old enemy cause scandal 
 between us two, he cause the death of many by a 
 most iniquitous victory. To speak plainly, if that 
 youngster of whom I spoke had not reached at your 
 side such a summit of depravity I should not have 
 spoken about the canons, but have sent the com- 
 plainants back to you, confident that you would do 
 them justice. This is a new and unheard of way 
 of preaching that exacts faith by blows. But I need 
 not write at more length on this subject, since I am 
 sending the deacon Sabinianus to you on my behalf, 
 whom, unless you wish to be litigious with me, you 
 will find prepared for everything that is just. I 
 commend him to your Blessedness, that he at least 
 may find that lord John whom I knew in the im- 
 perial city." ^ 
 
 The two priests did resort to Rome, in defiance of 
 the patriarch, where they were absolved of heresy by 
 Gregory after examination of their cause. As to the 
 theory of his position on which he acted in this case, 
 we find him in one of his letters writing thus : " With 
 respect to the Constantinopolitan see, who doubts 
 that it is subject to the Apostolical see ? " and, " I 
 know not what bishop is not subject to it, if fault be i 
 found in him." - A much more serious and prolonged 
 
 B. IIL, Ind. xi., ep. 53. ^ B. IX., Ind. ii., epp. 12, 59. 
 
86 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 conflict with the see of Constantinople will come 
 under our notice before long. 
 
 A different field of energy occupied Gregory in 594 
 and the following year, and one in which our highest 
 admiration is due to him. He begins to stand out 
 now as the prominent political figure of the day, as 
 well as ecclesiastical. The Lombard invasion, and 
 the distress in Italy thence ensuing, have been already 
 spoken of. In the first years of his reign there had, 
 however, been a temporary calm, owing to a treaty of 
 peace that had been made between Romanus, the 
 exarch of Ravenna, who represented the imperial 
 power in Italy, and Agilulph, the Lombard king. The 
 greater part of Italy was indeed now under Lombard 
 sway. Antharis, the predecessor of Agilulph, had 
 reduced Samnium and Beneventum, with most of 
 Campania; he is said even to have advanced to 
 Rhegium at the very toe of Italy, and riding into 
 the sea, to have struck with his spear a pillar that 
 stood there, saying " Thus far shall the bounds of the 
 Lombards extend." Paul the Deacon, Gregory's 
 biographer, speaks of a pillar still standing there 
 in his day, and called "Antharis's Pillar." But the 
 exarchate of Ravenna, the duchy of Rome, Naples, 
 and some other maritime cities, were at this time 
 unmolested. In the year, however, to which we have 
 now come, Romanus, the exarch, in violation of the 
 treaty, had seized the opportunity of the absence of 
 Agilulph to invade the territory of the Lombards, 
 and carry away the spoils of their cities to Ravenna. 
 In reprisal, the king invaded the Exarchate, and re- 
 mained for several months laying waste the country, 
 
DISTRESS DURING LOMBARD INVASIONS. 87 
 
 and threatening Rome. The woful state of things at 
 this crisis is pathetically described by Gregory in his 
 letters, and also in some of the homiUes on Ezekiel, 
 which he preached during its continuance for the 
 edification of the distressed Romans. In one homily 
 he says, " What is there, I ask, in this world to take ^ 
 pleasure in ? Everywhere we see sorrows, everywhere 
 we hear groans. Cities are destroyed, castles ruined, 
 fields laid waste, the land reduced to solitude. In the 
 country is no inhabitant, scarcely any remain in the 
 cities : yet even these small remnants of the human race 
 are still daily and incessantly smitten. Some we see 
 led into captivity, others maimed, others killed. What 
 is there then to please us in this hfe, brethren ? If 
 we love such a world as this, we love not joys, but 
 wounds. Nay, even she who once seemed to be the 
 mistress of the world, Rome, vrhat is she novr ? The 
 Senate is no more, the people perishes; and even 
 among the few that remain sorrows and groans are 
 multiplied. But why say we these things of men, 
 when, in increasing ruins, we see the very buildings 
 destroyed ? And what we say of the Roman city we 
 know to be true of all the cities of the world. For some 
 places are desolated by plague, some consumed with 
 the sword, some tormented by famine, some swal- 
 lowed by earthquakes. Let us despise then, with all 
 our hearts, this well-nigh extinct present world. Let 
 us end worldly desires, at least with the end of the 
 world." In this rhetorical picture of exceptional and 
 widespread woe we perceive the prevalent belief, 
 often elsewhere expressed, that the end of all things 
 was at hand. Again, at the conclusion of his last 
 
88 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 homily, he thus speaks : " Let no man blame me if 
 henceforth I speak to you no more ; for, as you all 
 see, our tribulations have increased, we are every- 
 where surrounded by perils, everywhere is imminent 
 danger of death : some return to us with their hands 
 lopped off, others are reported to us as captured or 
 slain. Now am I forced to refrain my tongue from 
 exposition, for * my soul is weary of life.' Let no one 
 require of me now the study of sacred eloquence, for 
 ' my harp is tuned to mourning, and my organ into 
 the voice of them that weep ' ; * for the voice of my 
 groaning I forget to eat my bread.' " Such was Gre- 
 gory's tone in the pulpit at this time. But it shows 
 
 /us only one side of the man. Most men who, at 
 such a time, could thus feel and preach would have 
 given themselves up only to resignation and prayer. 
 Not so Gregory. He was constantly and efficiently 
 active all the time in mitigating, as he could, the sur- 
 rounding evils. He negotiated with the Lombard 
 king, who was at length prevailed upon to conclude 
 a special treaty of peace with himself, or a general 
 one with the exarch, should the latter be willing to 
 
 Lcome to terms. Gregory urged him to do so, but being 
 apparently interested in the continuance of the war 
 for his own ends, he refused, and informed the 
 Emperor that the Pope in his simplicity was being 
 outwitted by the Lombard. Thereupon the Emperor 
 addressed Gregory in a tone which, from the extant 
 reply of the latter, seems to have been contemptuous 
 and exasperating, "Your Piety, in its most serene 
 command," so runs the courteous but cutting reply, 
 *' desirous of refuting me on certain matters, in spar- 
 
LETTER TO THE EMPEROR. 89 
 
 ing me has not spared me at all. For in using the 
 polite word 'simplicity,' you really call me a fool. 
 Simplicity may indeed in one sense be joined with 
 prudence, according to the text, ' Be ye wise as ser- 
 pents, but simple as doves.' But as, in your most 
 serene commands, you represent me as deceived by 
 the craftiness of Arnulph, denouncing me as simple 
 without addition 6f prudence, I am undoubtedly called 
 a fool. And indeed a fool I confess I am. For had I 
 not been one, I should not have come to suffer what I 
 do in this place among the swords of the Lombards." 
 Perhaps he here alludes to the separate treaty of peace 
 which he might have made with the enemy. He had 
 been a fool, he would intimate, in expecting anything 
 from the Exarch or the Emperor. He goes on, " But 
 in that I am not believed in what I have stated 
 about the disposition of Arnulph, and that credence is 
 given to any one rather than me, I am also repre- 
 hended as having Hed. But though I am not a 
 priest" (he seems to refer here to something the 
 Emperor had said) " I know it to be a grave injury to 
 a priest to accuse him of falsehood. But indeed I 
 could have borne contempt and derision in silence, 
 but that my being accused of mendacity is the cause 
 of the daily captivity of my country under the Lom- 
 bard yoke; for, while I am in no respect believed, 
 the strength of the enemy goes on increasing." After 
 admonishing the Emperor at some length, and with 
 considerable quiet sarcasm, on the respect due even 
 from emperors to priests, in which he says even the 
 heathen may afford an example, he enumerates exist- 
 ing grievances, which were, — his being deprived of the 
 
90 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 advantage of the peace which he had himself, without 
 any detriment to the republic, made with the Lom- 
 bards j then the withdrawal of soldiers from Rome 
 so as to leave it without adequate defence ; then the 
 arrival of Agilulph at the gates, and the sight of 
 Romans led away like dogs, with ropes about their 
 necks, to be sold in France as slaves; then false charges 
 of remissness brought against those who had, under 
 great difficulties, defended the city, especially against 
 Gregorius the prefect and Castorius the commandant, 
 who, though they had neglected no duty, and had 
 endured great hardship, had, after all this, been sub- 
 jected to a commission of inquiry. He concludes 
 the letter thus : — 
 
 " But, as to your Piety bidding me fear the terrible 
 judgment of Almighty God, I beg you by the same 
 Almighty God to do this no more ; for we know not yet 
 how any of us will stand there. And Paul, the excel- 
 lent preacher, says, * Judge nothing before the time, 
 until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the 
 hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the 
 counsels of the hearts.' Yet this I briefly say, that I, 
 unworthy and a sinner, presume more on the mercy 
 of Jesus when He comes than on the justice of your 
 Piety. And there are many things with respect to 
 that judgment which men are ignorant of; for per- 
 chance what you praise He will reprehend, and what 
 you reprehend He will praise. Wherefore, all these 
 things being so uncertain, I return to tears only, 
 praying that the same Almighty God may so rule 
 our most pious master with His hand here, that in 
 that terrible judgment He may find him free from 
 
TRUCE WITH AGILULPH. 9I 
 
 all faults ; and make me so to please men, if neces 
 sary, that I offend not eternal grace."^ 
 
 Failing with the Emperor, he had recourse to the 
 Empress, as in the matter of Maximus, writing to her 
 at length, and detailing further the miserable state of 
 things. He tells her that the ravages of the Lombards 
 were not so bad as the cruelty and exactions of the 
 imperial officers, who had been sent to defend the 
 country; that the latter loaded the people with intolera- 
 ble taxes, on pretence of raising funds for the war; that 
 theCorsicans had in consequence been compelled to sell 
 their children, and had gone over in great numbers to 
 the enemy, leaving the island almost depopulated; 
 that the real cause of the opposition raised to his own 
 endeavours for peace by those who had the ear of the 
 Emperor was a fear lest, with the ending of the war, 
 the pretext for such exactions should cease. This 
 appeal also had no result. But his unwearied efforts 
 had better success with Theodelinda, the Lombard 
 queen, who was a pious Catholic Christian, and with 
 whom he kept up a correspondence, the important 
 results of which will be hereafter seen. Through her, 
 or at any rate partly through her intercession, Agilulph 
 was, in 595, induced to withdraw his troops from the 
 invaded territory. 
 
 In the same year (595) in which he thus obtained 
 a temporary respite from worldly warfare, he began a 
 memorable ecclesiastical battle, which lasted through- 
 out his life. An Eastern judgment against an 
 heretical priest had been sent to Rome, in which the 
 
 ' B. v., Ind. xiii., Ep. 40. 
 
92 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 patriarch of Constantinople was repeatedly entitled 
 I cecumenical, or universal, bishop. Now the title 
 itself was not a new one. It had long been occasion- 
 ally given to other patriarchs by flatterers ; and already, 
 before the time of Gregory, it had been especially 
 conferred by the emperors Leo and Justinian on the 
 patriarchs of Constantinople. Further, an Eastern 
 synod held at Constantinople in 588 had confirmed 
 it to the then patriarch, John the Faster, and his 
 successors. But what in some circumstances might 
 have been regarded as a mere title of honour was 
 now open to a different interpretation. Hence even 
 Pope Pelagius II. had protested against it when 
 confirmed by the Eastern synod; and now that it came 
 for the first time prominently under the notice of 
 Gregory, it called forth his utmost indignation and 
 
 r]-esistance. He took it as expressing the supremacy 
 of Constantinople rather than of Rome over the 
 Church Universal ; that of the prelate of the imperial 
 city and imperial court rather than of the successor 
 of St. Peter ; and he represented it as implying a 
 domination such as even Rome had no right to claim. 
 It would be very unfair to attribute his remarkable 
 vehemence of language and pertinacity of resistance 
 on this occasion to mere offended pride or jealousy. 
 According to his view, right or wrong, of the intended 
 meaning of the title, a great principle may be said to 
 have been at stake, — no less than that of spiritual 
 prerogative as against imperialism. Constantinople 
 had no claim to ascendency over the rest of the 
 Church except that of being the see of the imperial 
 city. On this ground, indeed, a rank of honour, 
 
TITLE OF UNIVERSAL BISHOP. 93 
 
 second only to that of Rome, had been accorded to 
 it by general councils ; but this title seemed to 
 Gregory to imply not only rank, — and that of the 
 first, not the second order, — but also spiritual 
 ascendency ; and this claim really meant imperialism. 
 He does not indeed rest his opposition on this 
 ground, dwelling rather (perhaps from motives of 
 policy) on the unlawfulness of any bishop claiming a 
 universal episcopate ; but, in estimating his conduct, 
 we should not forget that in the claim, as he under- 
 stood it, imperiaUsm was involved. And it is easy to 
 see what the practical result might have been, had a 
 universal supremacy of Constantinople ever come to 
 be generally recognized; which would have been 
 in fact the domination over the Church of the 
 corrupt imperial court itself rather than of its vassal 
 patriarchs. On the other hand, the see of Rome 
 in his eyes represented the Prince of the Apostles, 
 and through him the apostolical commission, in- 
 dependent of all earthly powers. The validity 
 of this assumption is a further question. It was 
 at any rate then the tradition of the see, and the 
 ground on which the popes went. In contending for 
 the supremacy of Rome against Constantinople, 
 Gregory might well feel himself to be contending for 
 heavenly as against earthly jurisdiction, for Christ as 
 against the world, for God as against Caesar. But 
 even for the successor of St. Peter he did not claim 
 the title which was the subject of dispute. He 
 repudiated it, by whomsoever assumed, as trenching 
 on the rights of bishops in general, to all of whom 
 the commission of Christ extended, though under the 
 
94 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 primacy of Peter. In one of his letters on the 
 subject he does not even confine to his own see the 
 representation of this primacy, allowing it to be 
 shared by Antioch and Alexandria, — the former as 
 having been St. Peter's first see before he went to 
 Rome, the latter as having been founded by his 
 disciple St. Mark. It may be difficult to reconcile 
 this view with that at other times expressed, of the 
 sole and peculiar supremacy of Rome, and he may 
 possibly have been led to take it up, as he has been 
 accused of doing, by his desire to enlist the other 
 patriarchs in a common opposition to Constantinople. 
 But entire consistency of view need not be looked 
 for in one who wrote so much ; and at any rate the 
 view illustrates what was, after all, the important 
 gist of the whole contest ; viz., the assertion of 
 the power of the keys derived from Christ, and 
 not imperial patronage, as the ground and source 
 of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. So far as his resolute 
 struggle tended at all to establish this principle, 
 and to save the Church from the possibility of 
 being cramped and deadened by imperialism, 
 he is entitled to the lasting gratitude of Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
 After receiving the document from Constantinople 
 in which the offensive title repeatedly occurred^ 
 Gregory wrote at once to Sabinianus, his apocrisiarius, 
 desiring him to protest against it, and also to the 
 Patriarch himself, to the Emperor and Empress, 
 inveighing against it in very strong language. He 
 calls the title foolish, proud, pestiferous, profane, 
 wicked, a diabolical usurpation ; the ambition of any 
 
Gregory's remonstrances. 95 
 
 that assumed it he compares to that of Lucifer ; he 
 intimates that its assumption was a sign of the coming 
 of the king of pride, that is, Antichrist. He takes it 
 to mean the subjection of all bishops to one, whereas 
 St. Paul was horror-struck at the idea of the members 
 of Christ being subordinated to any single headship 
 except His, saying, " Was Paul crucified for you ? &c." 
 Nay even Peter, to whom were given the keys of the 
 kingdom of Heaven, and to whom, as Prince of the 
 Apostles, the care of the whole Church was com- 
 mitted, is nowhere called " Universal Apostle." If 
 any could take the title, it would be St. Peter's 
 successor ; but all popes had refused it, lest, by taking 
 this singular honour to themselves, they should 
 deprive all priests of the honour due to them. It 
 had been offered to the Pope by the Council of 
 Chalcedon, but persistently declined. The only 
 foundation for this last allegation, which Gregory 
 repeatedly made, seems to be that Pope Leo's repre- 
 sentative Paschasius had at Chalcedon applied the 
 title to the Pope, and that the bishops present had 
 not objected. 
 
 If, he asks, the whole Church had in times past 
 depended on one, and that one the Patriarch, what 
 would have become of it when patriarchs had been 
 heretics, or even heresiarchs ? It may be observed, 
 that this last argument tells equally (unless we assume 
 the more recent theory of personal infallibility) against 
 the view which binds the whole Church to papal 
 teaching " ex cathedra." Indeed, Gregory's whole 
 position against the Constantinopolitan patriarch may 
 be fairly adduced (notwithstanding his undoubted 
 
96 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 maintenance of a universal primacy and authority, 
 in some sense, belonging to St. Peter's chair) as 
 against the more advanced theory of the popedom, 
 such as has in our own days been authoritatively 
 promulged. 
 
 Gregory's feeling of personal soreness against John 
 the Faster, which was observable in his former cor- 
 respondence with him, appears also on this occasion. 
 In his long letter to him, though it is tempered by 
 expressions of courtesy and affection, there is no lack 
 of strong language. But it seems that he had restrained 
 himself from saying all that was in his mind. For, 
 in writing at the same time to his apocrisiarius Sabini- 
 anus, he tells him that his letter to the Patriarch, 
 which was to be given him then, was mixed with 
 blandishments, out of consideration for the Emperor, 
 but that he intended to write him another, such as 
 " his pride would not rejoice in." And in his letter 
 to the Emperor there are again sarcastic allusions to 
 John's asceticism. Attributing the successes of the 
 enemies of the empire to the iniquities and presump- 
 tion of the clergy, he says, again alluding to the 
 Patriarch's ascetic reputation, "Our bones are attenu- 
 ated by fasts, and our hearts swell with pride : our 
 body is clothed in vile raiment, and in the elation of 
 our heart we surpass the purple : we lie in ashes, and 
 we mind high things : teachers of humility, but 
 examples of pride, we hide the teeth of wolves with a 
 sheep's face." He goes on to implore the Emperor to 
 restrain this crying evil by the chains of his august 
 authority, since "the pious laws of the empire, the 
 venerable synods, the commands of Christ Himself, 
 
CYRIACUS SUCCEEDS JOHN THE FASTER. 97 
 
 are set at naught by the invention of a proud and 
 pompous title." ^ 
 
 Neither his letters nor his withdrawal of Sabi- 
 nianus from communion with the Patriarch having 
 had any effect at Constantinople, he addressed him- 
 self to the other patriarchs, — to Eulogius of Alexan- 
 dria, and Anastasius of Antioch, with the view of 
 obtaining their concurrence in his protest ; represent- 
 ing the purpose of their brother of Constantinople as 
 being that of degrading them, and usurping to him- 
 self all ecclesiastical power. But they were not thus 
 moved to action : they seem to have treated the 
 title as one of honour only, and not of the import- 
 ance assigned to it by their correspondent. 
 
 In the year 596 John the Faster died, and was 
 succeeded by Cyriacus. Gregory renewed his pro- 
 test. He directed his apocrisiarius at Constan- 
 tinople to demand of the new patriarch, as a con- 
 dition of intercommunion, the renunciation of the 
 "proud and pestiferous title," which his predecessor 
 had impiously assumed. Cyriacus sent a nuncio to 
 Rome to try to arrange matters. But Gregory was" 
 resolute. He says, in a letter to the Patriarch on this 
 occasion: "I confidently say, that whoever calls 
 himself universal priest, or desires in his elation to 
 be called so, is the forerunner of Antichrist." He 
 also wrote again to the Emperor on the subject, and 
 to the two patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria, the 
 former of whom seems still to have disapproved of 
 his persistence on the question. For to him Gregory 
 
 ' B. v., Ind. xiii., Epp. 18, 19, 20, 21. 
 H 
 
98 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 now wrote, after acknowledging and disclaiming the 
 personal compliments with which his correspondent 
 had begun his letter : "But your Holiness, I perceive, 
 by the words of sweetness at the beginning of your 
 letter and by what follows after, has wished it to be 
 like a bee that carries both honey and a sting, satiat- 
 ting me with the honey and then piercing me with 
 the sting. I am thus led to meditate on the words 
 of Solomon, ' Better are the wounds of a friend than 
 the kisses of an enemy.' For, as to your saying that 
 I ought not to give occasion of scandal for no cause 
 at all, this is what our most pious master (for whose 
 life we ought continually to pray) has repeatedly 
 written to me ; and what he says out of power, I 
 know that you say out of love. Nor do I wonder 
 that you have inserted imperial words in your letter, 
 since between power and love there is a close rela- 
 tionship. For both command in a princely way; 
 both speak authoritatively." The delicate tone of 
 irony not seldom used by Gregory is perceptible in 
 this letter, at the conclusion of which he maintains 
 that the title on account of which he is accused of 
 disturbing the peace of the Church, is no mere idle 
 phrase, but one carrying an important meaning.^ He 
 got more sympathy from the Alexandrian patriarch, 
 Eulogius, who, though there is no evidence of his 
 having joined in the desired protest, wrote, at any 
 rate, acknowledging the pre-eminent dignity of St. 
 Peter's see. It was in reply to this letter that 
 Gregory expressed the peculiar view of the Apostle's 
 
 ' B. VII., Ind. XV., Ep. 46. 
 
THE SEE OF ST. PETER IN THREE PLACES. 99 
 
 primacy being shared by three sees, which has been 
 above alluded to. The words are too remarkable to 
 be left unquoted. " All that you have said I willingly 
 accept, because he who has spoken to me of the chair 
 of St. Peter occupies it himself. And, though special 
 honour to myself by no means delights me, yet I am 
 greatly rejoiced, inasmuch as what you, most holy 
 ones, have bestowed on me you have given to your- 
 selves. For who knows not that the holy Church 
 was made firm in the solidity of the Prince of the 
 Apostles, whose name expressed the firmness of his 
 mind ? . . . . Wherefore, though there were many 
 Apostles, yet the see of the Prince of the Apostles 
 alone has acquired a principality of authority, which 
 is the see of one only, though in three places. For 
 he himself exalted the see in which he deigned to 
 rest and to end his present Hfe. He himself adorned 
 the see to which he sent his disciple as Evangelist. 
 He himself established the see in which he sat for 
 seven years. Since, then, the see is one and of one, 
 over which by divine authority three bishops now 
 preside, whatever good I hear of you I impute to 
 myself. If you believe anything good of me, impute 
 this to your own merits ; because we are one in Him 
 who said, ' That they all may be one, as thou. Father, 
 art in Me, and I in Thee, that they all may be onej 
 in us.'"^ But when Eulogius, in return for this ex- 
 altation of his own see, afterwards addressed Gregory 
 as "Universal Pope," he strongly repudiated the 
 title, saying, " I have said that neither to me nor to 
 
 > B. VII., Ind. XV., Ep. 46. 
 H 2 
 
TOO GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 any one else ought you to write anything of the kind : 
 and lo ! in the preface of your letter you apply to 
 me, who prohibited it, the proud title of Universal 
 Pope ; which thing I beg your most sweet Holiness to 
 do no more, because what is given to others beyond 
 what reason requires is subtracted from you. I do 
 not esteem that an honour by which I know my 
 brethren lose their honour. My honour is that of 
 the Universal Church. I am then truly honoured when 
 all and each are allowed the honour that is due to 
 them. For, if your Holiness calls me Universal Pope, 
 you deny yourself to be that which you call me 
 universally. But no more of this : away with words 
 which inflate pride and wound charity!" He even 
 objects to the expression, " as thou hast commanded," 
 which had^ occurred in his correspondent's letter. 
 " Which word, commanded, I pray you let me hear 
 no more ; for I know what I am, and what you are : 
 in position you are my brethen, in manners you are 
 my fathers. I did not, therefore, command, but 
 desired only to indicate what seemed to me expe- 
 dient."^ We have here the unusual case of a pope 
 disclaiming, rather than claiming authority, refusing, 
 in fact, to accept as much as was freely offered, and 
 putting two at least of his brethren on an entire 
 equality with himself 
 
 Subsequently (a.d. 600) we find him writing to the 
 same Eulogius, with reference to some form of heresy 
 which the Alexandrian patriarch had condemned, but 
 on which he had desired his opinion, in the following 
 
 ' C. VIIT., Ind. i., Ep. 30. 
 
THE SEE OF ALEXANDRIA. 101 
 
 high-flown terms : — " In the letter of my most holy 
 brother I recognize the voice of the venerable fathers 
 whom I love so much. Wherefore praise and glory 
 in the highest be to Him by whose gift the voice of 
 Mark still cries aloud in the see of Peter, and by the 
 effusion of whose spirit, when the priest enters into 
 the investigation of mysteries, that is, into the Holy 
 of Holies, spiritual bells from the word of preaching 
 resound in holy Church as in the Tabernacle. But 
 we implore Almighty God to preserve you long in 
 this life, that from the organ of God, which you are, 
 the voice of truth may resound more widely. But for 
 me intercede, I pray you, that the way of my pilgrim- 
 age, which has grown so rough to me, may be speedily 
 ended ; so that by your merits, as I cannot by my 
 own, I may attain to the promises of our eternal 
 country, and rejoice with the citizens of heaven." ^ 
 
 A doubt may indeed well be felt whether, but for 
 his anxiety to enlist the great patriarchs against Con- 
 stantinople, he would have expressed himself as he 
 did. But such was his language on this occasion ; 
 and it remains for the consideration of modern ultra- 
 montanists. All his efforts to procure the renuncia- 
 tion of the title proving entirely without effect at Con- 
 stantinople, he was obliged to content himself with 
 protest, which, however, had its effect afterwards, 
 though he did not live to see it. It is supposed to 
 have been by way of contrast to the assumption of 
 his rival that he afterwards constantly styled himself 
 in his letters, " Servant of the servants of God," 
 
 ' B. X., Ind. iii., Ep. 35- 
 
102 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 though he had previously sometimes used the expres- 
 sion. This, as is well known, has since been the 
 formula used by the popes of themselves. 
 
 During the continuance of this ecclesiastical struggle 
 he was again involved in mundane trouble, owing 
 to the Lombard king, provoked by the Exarch's 
 continued rejection of overtures, having towards the 
 close of 596 again invaded the Exarchate, and threat- 
 ened to besiege Rome. Gregory renewed his patriotic 
 efforts, and, as before, stands out as the single cham- 
 pion, unassisted by exarch or emperor. He did 
 more than complain, remonstrate, and negociate. 
 The direction even of military operations, in a crisis 
 like this, he did not consider inconsistent with his 
 sacred office, for we find him in 599 directing 
 Januarius, bishop of Cagliari, to cause his city and 
 other places to be more strongly fortified and re- 
 plenished against a possible hostile attack; as on a 
 former occasion (when in 592 a truce with the Lom- 
 bard king was being negotiated) he had enjoined the 
 mihtary officers in command to be ready, "as became 
 brave men," to attack Agilulph in the rear, and plunder 
 his territory, should he still move towards Ravenna or 
 Rome ; and had written to the soldiera at Naples 
 bidding them yield entire obedience to the tribune 
 whom he had sent to defend their city.^ He 
 also exerted himself to raise funds, by appeals in 
 various quarters, for relief of distress and redemption 
 of captives; and he authorized bishops to sell or 
 pledge the sacred vessels of their churches for the 
 
 • B. IX., Ind. ii., Ep .7; B. II., Ind. x., Epp. 3, 29, 30, 31. 
 
RENEWED ACTIVITY AGAINST LOMBARDS. IO3 
 
 purpose. He has been accused, and not without 
 some grounds, of superstitious devotion. Here, how- 
 ever, we have evidence of his recognition of the 
 paramount claims of humanity ; of his placing 
 mercy above sacrifice. His activity in these respects, 
 with the cause for it, lasted through several years, 
 simultaneously with work of other kinds, which will 
 be noticed in due order. Suffice it to say that at 
 length, in the year 600, when he had for two years been 
 confined to his bed by illness, and again, it would seem, 
 through the influence of Queen Theodelinda, he suc- 
 ceeded in concluding a truce with the Lombards from 
 September to the April of the following year ; and to 
 add that, if his success in this protracted struggle 
 amounted after all only to occasional truces with the 
 enemy, and mitigation of distress through charity, and 
 through Christian influences brought to bear on the 
 invaders, the blame rests on the Emperor and his 
 representatives, not on him. Whatever good was 
 done was due to him, and him alone. 
 
I04 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Mission to England — Story of the Slaves in the Roman 
 P'orum — State of the Church in France — Correspondence 
 with Bninehild — Pall sent to Virgilius — Reforms urged — 
 Candidus sent — Cyriacus — A General Synod desired — 
 Failure to obtain one — Eventual results — Augustine des- 
 patched to England — His success — His alleged Miracles — 
 His questions and the replies to them — Scheme for the 
 English Church— Letter to Mellitus — Letters to Bertha 
 and Ethelbert — The British Christians — The Lombards — 
 Theodelinda — Conversion of Agilulph (596 — 601). 
 
 The year 596 is memorable as the date of the in- 
 auguration of Gregory's famous mission to England ; 
 the foundation of the Christianity of our Teutonic 
 ancestors, as distinct from the earlier conversion of 
 the Celtic inhabitants of the British islands. Before 
 his accession, during his monastic life, he had con- 
 ceived the desire of evangelizing in person the 
 heathen invaders of Britain. The story about the 
 slaves in the Roman market-place has been often 
 told. His biographer, John the Deacon, gives it thus : 
 Observing one day some boys with fair complexions, 
 comely faces, and bright flowing hair, exposed for 
 sale, he asked whence they came. Being told " from 
 Britain," he inquired whether the inhabitants of that 
 island were Christians or pagans. Learning that 
 they were pagans, he heaved long sighs, and said, 
 "Alas that men of such lucid countenance should be 
 
Gregory's design of converting the English. 105 
 
 possessed by the author of darkness, and that such 
 grace of form should hide minds void of grace 
 within !" Being told further, in answer to his in- 
 quiries, that they were called Angli, " Well so called," 
 said he, " for they have angelic faces, and should be 
 coheirs in heaven with angels. What is the name of 
 the province from which they come?" Being told 
 that it was Deira, " Right again," was his reply, 
 "From the wrath of God {de ira Dei) are they 
 rescued, and called to the mercy of Christ." Lastly, 
 on hearing that the king of that province was called 
 Aella, he exclaimed, " Alleluiah ! the praise of God 
 the Creator must be sung in those parts." 
 
 As to the period of his monastic life in which the 
 incident occurred his biographers differ. John the 
 Deacon, writing in the 9th century, places it before 
 his mission to Constantinople ; Paul the Deacon, 
 writing in the previous century, after his return. But 
 they agree as to the facts as above related, and as to 
 what immediately followed. He went at once (we are 
 told) to the Pope (Benedict according to John, 
 Pelagius according to Paul), and implored leave to 
 attempt in person the conversion of the English, 
 which was reluctantly granted He set out without 
 delay, accompanied by some of his monks, without 
 the knowledge of the Roman people. But they, 
 when his departure became known, were greatly 
 perturbed, and, dividing themselves into three com- 
 panies, assailed the Pope as he went to church, cry- 
 ing "with a terrible voice," "Ah! what hast thou 
 done ? Thou hast offended St. Peter, thou has de- 
 stroyed Rome, since thou hast sent away Gregory ! " 
 
Io6 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 Whereupon the Pope, greatly alarmed, sent with all 
 possible speed to recall him to Rome. He meanwhile 
 had already made a three days' journey, and was read- 
 ing at midday while his companions rested, when a 
 locust settled on his book. Being still, it seems, in a 
 vein for playing on words, he took this as an omen, 
 and, calling his friends, said to them, ^^ Locusta signi- 
 fies loco sta (stay where you are), and portends that we 
 are not allowed to continue our journey; but rise and 
 saddle the beasts, and let us haste on our way as far 
 as we may." As he spoke, the messengers arrived, 
 their horses foaming and tired, and took him back to 
 Rome. In the earlier part of 596, when he had been 
 for six years Pope, we find the first evidence of his 
 still having his project for the conversion of England 
 at heart. For he wrote at that time to Candidus, a 
 priest sent to superintend the papal patrimony in 
 Gaul, directing him to use part of the revenue in the 
 ■ purchase of English youths, of the age of 17 or 18 
 years, to be educated in monasteries, intending them, 
 we may suppose, as missionaries to their own country- 
 men.i The long-cherished design he at length carried 
 out in earnest, through the mission of the monk 
 Augustine later in the same year. 
 
 Before giving an account of this important mission, 
 some notice of his relations to the Church in France, 
 through which country the mission passed, and to 
 the magnates of which it was commended, may be 
 here suitably introduced. The Franks had, since 
 486, been masters of the greatest part of Gaul. The 
 
 » B. VI., Ind. xiv., Ep. 7. 
 
STATE OF THE CHURCH IN GAUL. I07 
 
 conversion of Clovis, king of the Salian Franks, to 
 Catholic Christianity, about the year 496, has been 
 alluded to in our first chapter. Subsequent conquests 
 by him and his descendants had subjected to the 
 Frank empire not only France, but the western and 
 central parts of Germany, besides Bavaria, Burgundy, 
 and perhaps Swabia. The Catholicity of the princes 
 of the house of Clovis, commonly called the Mero- 
 vingian dynasty, led them to support and patronize 
 the Church that had from early times been founded 
 in Roman Gaul, and to endow it richly, while 
 they took measures to extirpate as they could all 
 lingering heathenism. But their patronage involved 
 domination. While they valued the support and the 
 prayers of bishops and abbats, and enlarged the 
 powers of the former, they regarded them as vassals 
 with respect to their temporalities ; they allowed no 
 bishop to be elected without their own confirmation, 
 and usually made the appointments themselves, 
 often nominating laymen out of favouritism, or 
 selling the appointment to the highest bidder; no 
 synods could assemble without their leave ; and alto- 
 gether they exercised a large control, and sort of 
 feudal suzerainty, over the Church which they sup- 
 ported. The authority of the Bishop of Rome was 
 acknowledged and accepted by them, but he could 
 ordinarily exert but little direct control, and was 
 dependent for its exercise on the royal pleasure. 
 Further, the character of these princes, with regard 
 both to immorality and violent atrocities, was gene- 
 rally very bad, notwithstanding their Christianity : the 
 records of their period reveal little more than a 
 
Io8 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 succession of crimes. Such was the state of things 
 with which Gregory had to deal ; and he omitted no 
 opportunity of influence, carrying on a correspond- 
 ence with the several reigning sovereigns, and with 
 prelates in their dominions. His letters to the former 
 were conceived with characteristic prudence. To 
 have dictated, or addressed them in a tone of au- 
 thority, might have defeated his end ; he therefore 
 uses the language of courteous exhortation and of 
 compliment, recognizing their authority over their 
 subjects, ecclesiastical as well as lay, and endeavour- 
 ing to utilize the royal power for ecclesiastical pur- 
 poses. His tone in addressing one of these potentates 
 especially, Brunehild (or Brunhaut), has been charged 
 against him as an instance of culpable adulation, 
 considering the character of the person addressed. 
 She governed Austrasia, i.e. the eastern or German 
 part of the empire, during the minority of her son 
 Childebert H., and was again the virtual ruler of both 
 Austrasia and Burgundy, when on the death of 
 Childebert (596) his two sons, Dielbert and Dietrich, 
 had these kingdoms respectively assigned to them. It 
 is true that this princess has had advocates in modern 
 times, who have endeavoured to vindicate her from the 
 charge of crimes of peculiar magnitude; but the general 
 verdict of historians is against her.^ It was, indeed, 
 after Gregory's death that her profligate conduct called 
 forth the strong reproof of St. Columban, who was 
 then in Burgundy, for which he incurred her bitter 
 enmity, and was banished the kingdom after im- 
 
 ' See Ilallam's "Middle Ages," vol. i. p. 4. 
 
GREGORYS LETTERS TO BRUNEHILD. 1 09 
 
 prisonment. And it is true that Gregory of Tours 
 commends her character, as well as her abilities, in 
 the earlier years of her life. But it is conceived that 
 Gregory must in his time have known too well what 
 she was at the time when he wrote to justify 
 such addresses as, for instance, "We give thanks 
 to Almighty God, who, among the other gifts of 
 His goodness bestowed on your excellency, has so 
 filled you with love of the Christian religion that 
 whatever you know to be conducive to the propaga- 
 tion of the faith you cease not to effect with devout 
 mind and pious zeal."^ Again : "Among your other 
 excellencies this is chief, that, in the midst of the 
 waves of this world which are wont to perturb the 
 minds of rulers, you so apply your heart to the love 
 of divine worship as if no other care troubled you. 
 Hence we declare the nation of the Franks to be 
 happy beyond all other nations in being blessed with 
 a queen so endowed with all good gifts." ^ He had 
 regard, doubtless, in such praises, to her support of 
 the Church and the Catholic faith, and probably to 
 her outward acts of devotion : whatever crimes she 
 might be guilty of had either not reached his ears, or 
 were judiciously ignored by him, according to his 
 policy (which was one of his characteristics) of con- 
 ciliating the powers of the world by deference and 
 compliment, if he could so enlist them in the cause of 
 good. Another point to be noted in this regard is 
 his habit of thus gaining influence especially over 
 royal ladies, the possibilities of whose influence on 
 
 3 B. XL, Ind. iv., Ep. 62. 3 B. XIII., Ind. vi., Ep. 6. 
 
no GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 Others he was fully alive to. He knew how Clotilda 
 had been the means of converting Clovis to Catho- 
 licity ; and he felt that female influence might be in 
 other cases powerful. Nor were his anticipations 
 unfulfilled. Hence his continued and affectionate 
 correspondence with the Lombard Theodelinda, as 
 well as with the less worthy Brunehild, his letters to 
 the Empress Constantina, and afterwards, as will be 
 seen, to Bertha, queen of Kent, and Leontia, the wife 
 of the Emperor Phocas. If, in the case of Brunehild, 
 and still more in his addresses to Phocas and Leontia, 
 which will be noticed afterwards, he is liable to the 
 charge of adulating those whom he must have known 
 to be unworthy, it was, we may suppose, that in such 
 cases the wisdom of the serpent was in excess of the 
 simpUcity of the dove ; and, with regard to Brunehild, 
 it is to be remembered, that dealing with the Frank 
 potentates was a critical matter, in which adroit 
 diplomacy was required. 
 
 It was in 595, when his relations with Constanti- 
 nople and the Eastern Church were at the worst, that 
 he seized an opportunity of strengthening his connec- 
 tion with the Church in the Frank dominions, a con- 
 nection of more importance in its ultimate results 
 than any with the waning empire of the Caesars. In 
 this year King Childebert sent to request the pallium 
 for VirgiUus, bishop of Aries. This voluntary demand 
 for a renewal of the old dependence of the see of 
 Aries, and through it of the Church in Gaul, on the 
 Roman see, was most welcome to Gregory. He at 
 once complied, sending at the same time a cordial 
 letter to Childebert, constituting the bishop of Aries 
 
THE PALL SENT TO VIRGILIUS. Ill 
 
 his vicar, "according to ancient custom and the 
 desire of your excellency," and desiring the king in 
 return to support the authority of Virgilius, and "for 
 the sake of God and St. Peter," to cause the ordinances 
 of Rome to be observed throughout his kingdom, 
 " so far (he prudently adds) as they fall in with the 
 opinion of your laudable excellency." He took the 
 opportunity also of speaking strongly against the pro- 
 motion of laymen to bishoprics, and against the 
 simony, said to be prevalent in France, and implored 
 the king, as he loved his own salvation, to rectify such 
 abuses. He wrote also to Virgihus, and to all the 
 bishops of Childebert's kingdom, exhorting the latter 
 to obedience, and the former to zeal, combined with 
 humility and prudence. He is directed to assemble 
 synods of bishops as occasion might require, and to 
 refer any matter on which they could not agree to 
 Rome. Especially he is urged to use his utmost 
 endeavours to obtain from the king the utter extirpa- 
 tion of the crying evils of simony and the promotion 
 of laymen. Against the first of these abuses he is un- 
 remitting in his denunciations, comparing it to that 
 of the money-changers in the Temple : of the second 
 he uses the following illustrations : " We know that 
 newly-built walls do not receive the weight of a roof 
 till they have had time to dry, lest, if they are burdened 
 before being solidified, the whole fabric should fall to 
 the ground. And when we cut trees for a building, we 
 wait for the moisture of their viridity to be dried out, 
 lest, if the weight of the building be imposed on them 
 while yet fresh, they be bent from their very newness, 
 and break down the more speedily from being imma- 
 
112 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 turely raised on high. Why, then, is not the same 
 principle nicely observed in dealing with men, which 
 is so carefully considered in the case of wood and 
 stone ?"i In the following year (596) he sent the 
 priest Candidus (as has been already mentioned) for 
 the management of the patrimony in Gaul, with letters 
 of commendation to the royal potentates, probably 
 intending him to be (as such functionaries were else- 
 where) his general agent and informant with respect 
 to Church affairs. He continued to write urgently to 
 Brunehild and Childebert, and especially to the for- 
 mer, as well as to bishops, pressing on them the 
 reform of the still-continued abuses before complained 
 of, the correction of clerical immorality, the suppres- 
 sion of heathenism, and the convening of a general 
 synod for the purposes in view. He endeavoured to 
 move the royal potentates to action by appeals to their 
 sense of temporal and spiritual advantage, as well as 
 by flattering phrases, saying, for instance, on one occa- 
 sion to Brunehild, ''May your Excellency deign to 
 comply willingly with what we desire, that the blessed 
 Peter, the prince of apostles, to whom the power of 
 binding and loosing has been given by Christ, may 
 both grant to your Excellency to have joy in your off- 
 spring here, and to be found, after a course of many 
 years, absolved from all evils before the face of the 
 Eternal Judge." In 599 he sent Cyriacus, abbat of 
 the monastery of St. Andrew's at Rome, commissioned 
 to bring about the assembly of the long-desired synod, 
 which was to be presided over by Syagrius, bishop of 
 
 ' B. v., Ind. xiii., Epp. 53, 54, 55- 
 
RESULTS OF GREGORY'S EFFORTS. I13 
 
 Autun, to whom, at Brunehild's request, he had already 
 sent the pallium, and who was apparently selected as 
 likely to have influence with the ruling powers. He 
 renewed at the same time his urgent appeals to Brune- 
 hild and her royal grandsons, and to the bishops in 
 general.^ The synod, however, never assembled. The 
 evils to be remedied were too closely bound up with 
 worldly interests, and the Frank rulers were still too 
 independent of spiritual domination, for Gregory to 
 realize at that time the plans for organization and 
 reform which he had so much at heart. But his 
 labours were not without important fruits : they estab- 
 lished the theory of the primacy of Rome over the 
 Church of the rising Empire of the West, and paved 
 the way for the ecclesiastical independence and papal 
 supremacy of a later age. Not least important among 
 his measures towards this end — important beyond the 
 range of his foresight at the time — was the mission 
 which will come next under our review, undertaken at 
 the time with no ulterior purpose, but out of motives 
 of pure philanthropy — the mission through France to 
 England. For the closer dependence of the English 
 Church on Rome, to whom it owed its birth, could 
 not but have an influence on the churches of the 
 Continent; and especially it was the English Boniface, 
 than whom the popes had never a more devoted son, 
 who afterwards brought the remaining heathen into 
 the fold, and strengthened the Roman obedience 
 among the German races. 
 
 The establishment of the relations above detailed 
 
 ' B. IX,, Ind. ii., Epp. 105, 106, 108, 1 14 1 1 7. 
 
 I 
 
114 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 with the Church and rulers of France probably 
 suggested to Gregory, in 596, that circumstances 
 were now favourable for speeding a mission through 
 the country, so as to realize his old design of the 
 evangelization of England, especially as a daughter 
 of the Frank king Charibert had now been married 
 to King Ethelbert of Kent, and had already her 
 church and priest in his heathen kingdom, with the 
 free exercise of her own religion. From what has been 
 said above, it is evident that in this last circumstance 
 Gregory could perceive a peculiarly hopeful opening. 
 Augustine, prior of St. Andrew's monastery, of 
 which Gregory had been founder and abbat, was 
 selected as the head of the mission, being intended also 
 as bishop in case of its success. Other monks were 
 associated with him, and he was instructed to avail 
 himself also of the services of any clergy in Gaul 
 whom he might approve of, if willing to join him. 
 For the furtherance of this end, and by way of com- 
 mending the mission generally to royal favour, he 
 charged them with letters to the kings Theodoric 
 (or Thierri) and Theodebert, and to Queen Brune- 
 hild, and also to Virgilius, bishop of Aries (whom 
 he had constituted, as has been already seen, his 
 legate in Gaul), and to other bishops and influ- 
 ential persons. After temporary delay, owing to 
 Augustine having turned faint-hearted on the road, 
 and returned to Rome to beg the Pope to give up his 
 project, on which he had been sent back with letters 
 of encouragement tohis colleagues, — the missionaries 
 landed at length on the isle of Thanet, were admitted 
 into Canterbury, were favourably received by King 
 
THE MISSION OF AUGUSTINE. II5 
 
 Ethelbert, and thus commenced their labours. It 
 does not fall within the scope of this Hfe to pursue 
 the history of the mission ; but it is of importance for 
 the illustration of our hero's character, to notice par- 
 ticularly the part he took in its direction and support. 
 After the baptism of Ethelbert, the general conver- 
 sion of his subjects in Kent, who soon followed the 
 example of their king, and the consecration of Augustine 
 as bishop by the Bishop of Aries, according to Gregory's 
 original intention in the event of success, the cheer- 
 ing news was sent to Rome through Laurentius the 
 priest, and Peter the monk, who were despatched for 
 the purpose. At the same time, Gregory's directions 
 were requested on a number of questions on which 
 Augustine had doubt. This request elicited a long 
 reply, which is of peculiar interest. In the first place, 
 we find a letter of congratulation to Augustine, in 
 which, while thanks are returned to Heaven for the 
 wonderful success reported, he is warned against per- 
 sonal elation on the ground of the miracles which 
 had accompanied his preaching. He is reminded of 
 the judgment on Moses for his sin when he brought 
 water out of the rock, and of our Lord's reply to His 
 disciples when they reported that even the devils were 
 subject to them ; and fear is expressed lest he should 
 think more of his own glory than of his election and 
 of the general salvation of souls. Now the miracles 
 of Augustine are alluded to as known facts, about 
 which there was no doubt ; and the question naturally 
 arises, what view we are to take of them. St. Gre- 
 gory has been charged with superstition, with silly 
 credulity, or with a spice of knavery, for giving such 
 I 2 
 
Il6 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 ready credence, or affecting to do so, not only to the 
 reported miracles of Augustine, but also to countless 
 others, recorded especially in his Book of Dialogues. 
 The Protestant Mosheim speaks of him as combining 
 with " a sound and penetrating judgment " in some 
 cases " the most shameful and superstitious weak- 
 ness," and calls him " this good but silly pontiff." 
 Gibbon, though on the whole laudatory, describes 
 him as "a singular mixture" of "simplicity and 
 cunning," of "sense and superstition"; and in his 
 refined sneering tone remarks, " the credulity, or the 
 prudence, of Gregory was always disposed to confirm 
 the truths of religion by the evidence of ghosts, 
 miracles, and resurrections." But do not such cen- 
 sures betray a want of comprehension of him and of 
 his age ? Nothing is less philosophical than to judge 
 men of the past by the standard of ideas current in 
 one's own day. First, we may observe that to thorough 
 beHevers in the miracles of the New Testament their 
 continuance or recurrence cannot appear a priori im- 
 probable. To them it is simply a question of evidence 
 whether they did continue or not. To us the evidence 
 of their continuance appears manifestly insuflftcient ; 
 but it is not so much the lack of evidence as the 
 widespread theory of our day adverse to all miracles 
 whatever (which in so many minds is undermining 
 faith even in those of the Biblical record) that is at 
 the bottom of the utterly contemptuous rejection of 
 all later ones, which is now thought the mark of an 
 enlightened mind. In estimating, therefore, the men- 
 tal attitude of Gregory and others of his age, we must 
 dismiss from our minds modern scientific notions 
 
THE MIRACLES OF AUGUSTINE. II7 
 
 about the fixed uniformity of the laws of nature, 
 which require even Scriptural miracles to be ac- 
 counted and apologized for as something quite excep- 
 tional. In that earlier age such notions were unknown 
 to the believing Christian. The supernatual order of 
 things, testified to by evangelists and apostles, was 
 attended to him by no intellectual difficulties, and its 
 continuance seemed to him more likely than its sud- 
 den cessation. Nor was it an age of scientific sifting 
 of evidence : the proofs demanded by modern in- 
 ductive science were not demanded then ; little was 
 required to satisfy people that what was thought likely 
 to happen had actually happened. Further, the in- 
 fectious enthusiasm of the monastic movement had 
 introduced visions and marvels into the general world 
 of thought j the air was full of them, and it would be 
 thought impious to impugn the experience of those 
 who were accounted saints. The consequence was, 
 that, wherever there were saintly monks and religious 
 fervour, miraculous incidents were both looked for 
 and perceived. There may doubtless have been im- 
 posture in some cases, since where there is a general 
 demand for anything in excess of the supply, peo- 
 ple will usually be found to manufacture counter- 
 feits. But to attribute the main supply to monastic 
 knavery is to read the records of the period with a 
 very prejudiced and undiscerning eye. Most of the 
 incidents on record, supposed to be miraculous, may 
 now be accounted for by the prevalent state of feeling 
 and expectancy above described, under which a mira- 
 culous colour could be given to remarkable natural 
 events, objective reality would be assigned to mental 
 
Il8 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 impressions, and exaggeration in accordance with pre- 
 conceived ideas would rapidly affect narratives. Nor 
 ought we to leave out of our account the remarkable 
 and abnormal phenomena that are known actually to 
 occur — in the way, for instance, of recovery from 
 disease, — where there is unusually strong faith, and 
 especially where crowds are actuated by infectious 
 enthusiasm. Such, then, seems to be the most pro- 
 bable explanation of the wonders spoken of; and, if 
 so, it is evident that Gregory cannot be justly accused 
 of either silliness or insincerity in avowing his full 
 belief in their supernatural character. Being a fer- 
 vently religious man of the age he lived in, he could 
 hardly help believing. Disbelief in him would have 
 been an anachronism. And all must allow that, in 
 his letter to Augustine, he at any rate assigns to such 
 wonders their true value, and does not exaggerate 
 their importance. "Not all the elect," he writes, 
 " work miracles, and yet the names of all of them are 
 written in heaven. And the disciples of truth should 
 have joy in that good only which they have in com- 
 mon with all, and in which there will be no end of 
 their joy." Again, "Through signs the gain of souls 
 is be sought, and His glory by whose power the very 
 signs are wrought. But the Lord hath given us one 
 sign in which we may exceedingly rejoice, and recog- 
 nize the glory of election in ourselves, saying, 'In 
 this shall it be known that ye are My disciples, if ye have 
 love one to another.' Which sign the prophet required 
 when he said, ' Show me. Lord, a sign for good, that 
 they which hate me may see it and be confounded.'" 
 The questions of Augustine were eleven in number. 
 
ANSWERS TO AUGUSTINE'S QUESTIONS. II9 
 
 The chief ones follow, with summaries of the answers 
 to them : — 
 
 I. How ought bishops to live with their clergy, 
 and how ought the offerings of the faithful at the 
 altar to be distributed ? A^isiver : It is the custom 
 of the ApostoHc See to instruct all bishops to make a 
 fourfold division of the revenue accruing to them : 
 for the maintenance of their own households and of 
 hospitality ; for the clergy ; for the poor ; and for 
 repairing churches. But, since you, being a monk, 
 ought not to live apart from your clergy, you must in 
 England return to the primitive system of having all 
 things in common. 
 
 II. May clerks who cannot contain be allowed to 
 marry ; and, if they marry, ought they to return to 
 the world ? Answer : Clerks not in holy orders may 
 marry, if they have not a gift for celibacy, and receive 
 their stipends separately, continuing still under eccle- 
 siastical rule and supervision. 
 
 III. There being but one faith, what is to be done 
 with regard to the great difference of customs in 
 different churches? The churches of Gaul, for in- 
 stance, celebrate mass differently from the Roman 
 Church. Answer : You are familiar with the custom 
 of the Roman Church in which you have been nur- 
 tured ; but I desire you to select diligently whatever 
 things you find most pleasing to Almighty God, pious, 
 religious, and right in all churches, and collecting 
 them as it were into a bundle, introduce them into 
 the custom of the infant Church of England. For 
 things are not to be loved for places, but places for 
 the good things found in them. 
 
120 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 IV. How are robbers of churches to be dealt with ? 
 Answer: Differently in different cases. For some 
 steal to supply want, others though not in need. 
 Wherefore some are to be punished by fines, others 
 by stripes ; and some more severely than others. 
 But even when the treatment is somewhat severe, it 
 should be administered with charity ; in the spirit in 
 which good fathers correct their children, whom they 
 still intend to make their heirs. And in no case 
 must more than restitution of what was stolen be 
 demanded ; for God forbid that the Church should 
 make worldly profit out of her losses. 
 
 V. May two brothers marry two sisters ? Answer : 
 Yes. There is no prohibition of such marriages in 
 Scripture. 
 
 VI. Within what degree of consanguinity may 
 marriage be allowed? Answer; The Roman civil 
 law allows marriage of first cousins. But it is found 
 to have bad results with regard to offspring ; and the 
 general rule of Scripture is against it. Marriage, 
 then, within the third or fourth degree, is to be pro- 
 hibited : and it is manifestly impious for a man to 
 marry his stepmother. 
 
 VII. Should converts who have married within the 
 prohibited degrees be separated and denied com- 
 munion? Answer: Those who have so married 
 while still in heathenism are to be warned to abstain 
 from intercourse lest they incur eternal torments for 
 temporal enjoyment. But they are not on this 
 account to be debarred from communion. For the 
 Church in some cases best suppresses evils by for- 
 bearance and toleration. But, after baptism, such 
 
ANSWERS CONTINUED. 121 
 
 marriages are to be forbidden under pain of privation 
 of communion. 
 
 VIII. May a bishop ever be ordained by a single 
 bishop, when others cannot easily be got together? 
 Answer ; Being so far the only bishop in England, 
 you must of necessity ordain alone, unless bishops 
 from Gaul should ever come to you, in which case 
 they must assist. But I desire you to ordain bishops 
 in England at no great distance from each other, so 
 that in future three or four may always be assembled 
 for the ordination of others. 
 
 IX. How are we to deal with the bishops of Gaul 
 and Britain ? Answer : I give you no authority over 
 the bishops of Gaul, who have of old been subject to 
 the Metropolitan of Aries. Should you, however, be 
 in Gaul, and find the Bishop of Aries remiss in dis- 
 cipline, you may endeavour to inflame his zeal by 
 gentle persuasion and example, taking care not to 
 assume authority. Over all British bishops we give 
 you full authority. 
 
 The remaining questions refer mainly to certain 
 causes of impurity, real or supposed ; as to whether 
 people should be debarred on account of them from 
 church or communion. Gregory answers variously. 
 As to many of them he says that, being natural and 
 unavoidable, or falling under no distinct law of pro- 
 hibition, they are not to exclude from church privi- 
 leges, though persons are not blamed who on such 
 grounds, out of reverence, absent themselves. The 
 whole series of replies is a remarkable instance of 
 clearness and readiness of judgment, and also of 
 moderation and good sense. Had Augustine, in his 
 
122 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 dealings with the British bishops, taken more heed to 
 the view expressed of the variability of rites and cus- 
 toms, and acted generally more in his master's spirit 
 of accommodation and forbearance than Bede repre- 
 sents him to have done, it may be that the ancient 
 British Church might have submitted to his control, 
 and the long schism that ensued been avoided. 
 
 Gregory sent also at this time to Augustine a pall, 
 in token of metropolitan jurisdiction, together with 
 books, vestments, sacred vessels, ornaments and relics, 
 for the use of churches, and a reinforcement of mis- 
 sionaries ; among whom were Justus, Paulinus, and 
 Rufinianus. Further, he gave him a sketch of his 
 intended organization of the English Church, which 
 was eventually carried out in its main features, 
 and has continued to our own day, though Canterbury, 
 as the original seat of the mission, never came to 
 be superseded by London, as was at first intended. 
 According to this scheme, there were to be two 
 metropolitan sees, in the north and the south, at 
 London and York, each with twelve suffragans under 
 them : York was to be subject to London during 
 Augustine's life, but independent after his death, while 
 to him were to be subjected all existing British bishops. 
 This last provision failed, as is well known, through 
 the Britons refusing to admit the authoritative claims, 
 asserted apparently with injudicious imperiousness, of 
 the new emissary of Rome. Afterwards to the abbat 
 Mellitus, who had also been sent from Rome, Gregory 
 addressed a remarkable letter, singular] for its spirit 
 of prudent accommodation. MeUitus, being still 
 in France, is instructed to warn Augustine, on his 
 
LETTER TO MELLITUS. 1 23 
 
 arrival in England, not to destroy the heathen temples, 
 but to consecrate them for Christian use by holy water, 
 erection of altars, and deposition of relics ; that so 
 any unnecessary shock to the feelings of the natives 
 might be avoided, and they might be the more ready 
 to worship the true God, if they could do so in their 
 accustomed fanes. Further, their old sacrificial feasts 
 are only to be changed in character, not abolished. 
 On the days of the dedication of their temples as 
 churches, and on the festivals of the saints whose 
 relics had been placed in them, the people are to 
 erect booths of branches round the buildings, and 
 there feast on the animals they had formerly sacrificed 
 to demons, keeping solemn festival, and giving thanks 
 to the Creator. " For," the letter proceeds, "it is 
 obviously impossible to cut off everything at once 
 from hard minds ; since he who would reach the top 
 of a hill must ascend step by step, not by jumps. So 
 the Lord, when he made Himself known to the 
 Israelites in Egypt, reserved to His own worship the 
 same sacrifices as they had been used to offer to 
 devils : the same animals were retained, yet the 
 sacrifices were not the same, being thenceforth offered 
 to God." 1 
 
 The messengers, Laurentius and the monk Peter, 
 who returned from Rome with the aforesaid replies 
 to Augustine, carried also letters to Queen Bertha and 
 King Ethelbert. To this effect Gregory wrote to the 
 queen : " We have been informed what kindness and 
 charity your Glory has displayed towards our most 
 
 ' B. IX., Ind. iv., Ep. 71. 
 
124 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 reverend brother and fellow-bishop Augustine, and how 
 God has graciously granted the conversion of the 
 English nation as your reward. You have been to 
 the Enghsh what Helena, the mother of Constantine, 
 was to the Romans. But you ought already to have 
 brought your influence further to bear on our glorious 
 son your consort, so that through him the conversion 
 of the whole English nation may be brought about. 
 With your sound faith and literary accomplishments 
 you ought to find this task neither slow nor difficult. 
 Delay not then to strengthen your glorious husband's 
 love of the gospel by continual exhortation, and inflame 
 his zeal for a complete conversion of the whole 
 nation. So may the good things spoken of you be found 
 in all respects true, and increase. You are already 
 known and prayed for at Rome, nay your fame has 
 reached Constantinople and even the ears of the most 
 serene emperor : your Christianity already fills us on 
 the earth with joy : so strive that for your perfected 
 work there may be joy among the angels in heaven." 
 The following is the purport of the letter to the 
 king :— 
 
 *' For this end does the Almighty exalt good men 
 to rule over nations, that through them He may 
 bestow the gifts of His grace on their subjects. Take 
 this view of your position, my glorious son ; hasten 
 to spread the Christian faith in your dominions : put 
 down idolatry, overthrow heathen buildings; by 
 exhortations, terrors, blandishments, corrections, and 
 example, build up your people in great purity of life. 
 So may He whose kingdom you shall have extended 
 on earth reward you in heaven, and make your name 
 
LETTER TO ETHELBERT. 1 25 
 
 glorious to posterity. You have with you Augustine 
 the bishop, thoroughly instructed in monastic rule, 
 full of sacred knowledge, and abounding in good 
 works. Listen to his admonitions, remember them, 
 and act upon them. So will God the more readily 
 hear his prayers in your behalf. For how could God 
 hear him for you, should you refuse (which God forbid) 
 to hear him for God ? Throw yourself therefore into 
 the fervour of his zeal, and support him in all his 
 efforts. Further we would have your Glory know that 
 we learn from the Lord's own words in Holy Scripture 
 that the end of the present world is now at hand, and 
 the eternal reign of the saints about to begin. As the 
 day approaches, there will be extraordinary events ; — 
 changes in the air, terrors from heaven, seasons out 
 of natural order, wars, famines, pestilences, earth- 
 quakes in divers places. All will not come in our 
 day ; all will come soon. Whatever signs of this 
 kind you perceive in your land, regard them as signs 
 of the end, warning us to be solicitous for our souls, 
 and prepared for judgment. I write but shortly of 
 these things now : I will explain them more at length 
 when your nation is more extensively converted ; for 
 then I shall be more disposed to write with no reserve. 
 I send you a few small presents in token of friendship, 
 which will not be small to you, since you receive them 
 from me with the blessing of the blessed Apostle 
 Peter. Almighty God preserve and perfect His grace 
 begun in you, and after a long life here, receive 
 you in the congregation of the heavenly country ! " ^ 
 
 ^ B. IX., Ind. iv., Epp. 59, 60. 
 
126 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 These two letters are strikingly illustrative of Gregory's 
 shrewd and delicate diplomacy in addressing poten- 
 tates j appealing to motives likely to be cogent in 
 each case, and taking care to commend his exhorta- 
 tions by the introduction of gratifying compliments. 
 And indeed his whole recorded action in instituting 
 and controlling the English mission affords a good 
 example, not only of his unceasing zeal for the 
 propagation of the faith, but also of his watchful eye, 
 his mastery of details, his perception of the circum- 
 stances to be dealt with, his fine judgment and good 
 sense. The main point in which he failed of his 
 purpose, and in which he has been censured by some, 
 is his design of subjecting the ancient independent 
 British Church to the Roman see, which has been 
 often adduced as an instance of unjustifiable papal 
 aggression. But this design was in accordance with 
 the view he sincerely held of the universal supremacy 
 of St. Peter's chair; and he probably anticipated 
 no such resistance as ensued from the remote and 
 friendless Britons. Nor, considered apart from the 
 question of the legitimacy of the authoritative claim, 
 was the design in itself either unwise or hopeless. It 
 was surely a wise policy to endeavour to amalgamate 
 the old Celtic churches of these islands into the united 
 commonwealth of Western Christendom. Had they 
 remained permanently isolated, under the domination, 
 without appeal, of half-civilized kings and chieftains, 
 it is difficult to imagine for them a prosperous or 
 healthy future. And that the scheme was in itself 
 feasible is shown by the fact that it appears to have been 
 mainly Augustine's impolitic stiffness which prevented 
 
THEODELINDA AND THE LOMBARDS. I27 
 
 its immediate realization with regard to the Britons 
 in Wales, and that it was accomplished in due time, 
 though not in the days of Gregory. 
 
 After the above account of Gregory's dealings with 
 the Church among the Franks, and his missionary 
 work in Britain, we may fitly introduce his action in 
 regard to religious matters with his nearer neighbours 
 the Lombards, over whom also he gained influence 
 through correspondence with a Catholic queen. His 
 political relations to this formidable nation have al- 
 ready been noticed ; and it has appeared how, through 
 Theodelinda, the wife of King Agilulph, the latter had 
 twice been induced to withdraw for a time from the 
 Roman territory, and conclude a peace. The Lom- 
 bards, as has been said, were Arians, and spoken of 
 originally as violently prejudiced. But she was a 
 Catholic Christian, being the daughter of Garibald, 
 the Catholic king of Bavaria. It was to her that 
 King Agilulph was indebted for his crown ; for she 
 had been the widow of the former king, Antharis, who 
 had died without issue, and whose subjects had 
 decided upon accepting as king the second husband 
 whom she might choose. She selected Agilulph, 
 duke of Turin, who thus became king of the Lom- 
 bards.i Thus the circumstances of her position would 
 be likely to give her influence over her Arian hus- 
 band, while the confidence placed in her after the 
 former king's death impUes that she was one whose 
 character commanded esteem. We may be sure, from 
 what we have seen of Gregory, that he would not let 
 
 ' Paul. Diacon. 
 
128 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 slip such an opportunity of obtaining a footing for 
 the true faith ; and accordingly we find him keeping 
 up a correspondence with her in his affectionate and 
 courtly style, and urging her to influence the king. 
 In a letter, for instance, of thanks and congratulation 
 addressed to her on the conclusion of peace through 
 her influence in 599, he adds the following admoni- 
 tion : " Saluting you with paternal love, we exhort 
 you so to deal with your most excellent consort that 
 he may not reject the society of the Christian re- 
 public. For, as we believe you also know, it will 
 be in many ways useful, if he should be willing to 
 embrace its friendship. Do you, therefore, after your 
 manner, be zealous for whatever tends to the recon- 
 ciliation of parties, and, wherever there is a prospect 
 of reward, labour to commend your good works more 
 fully before the eyes of Almighty God." He wrote 
 on the same occasion to Agilulph himself, thanking 
 him for the peace concluded, and requesting him to 
 provide for its continuance ; but, with characteristic 
 tact, avoids allusion to the delicate subject touched 
 on in his communication to the queen. ^ It is about 
 this date (599) that the king's conversion to Catho- 
 licity, followed by that of a great part of his subjects, 
 is believed to have been at length effected through the 
 influence of Theodelinda, which is said to have 
 brought about a general rebuilding of churches and 
 monasteries which had been destroyed in the Lom- 
 bard ravages, and the restoration of banished Catholic 
 bishops to their sees. After this, we do not read of 
 
 » B. VII., Ind. ii., Epp. 41, 42. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF QUEENS. 1 29 
 
 any more hostile invasions during the reign of Gregory. 
 And thus we have one more instance of the wisdom of 
 his appreciation of the power of female piety or zeal, 
 and of his policy in cultivating and utilizing the in- 
 fluence of queens. Three queens, Clotilda, Bertha, 
 and Theodelinda, are especially memorable in history 
 as having been the instruments of the conversion of 
 kingdoms, the unbelieving or misbelieving husbands 
 being won by the conversation of the wives, and two 
 of them were moved and inflenced by St. Gregory. / 
 
130 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Accession of Phocas — His Character — His treatment of Mauri- 
 cius and the Imperial family — Gregory's letters to him — 
 To Leontia — Consideration of Gregory's conduct on this 
 occasion — Its result — Former letters in praise of Mauricius 
 — Palliations — Suffering from gout— Last letter to Theo- 
 delinda — Death and burial — Conduct of the mob after his 
 death — Archdeacon Peter — Personal appearance of Gre- 
 gory — His costume — Ecclesiastical vestments in his day — 
 Relics of him preserved at Rome— (601-606). 
 
 In the November of the year 601 a political change 
 took place at Constantinople, in connection with which 
 Gregory appears in a less favourable light than during 
 any other part of his career. Seditions in the army, 
 which was now an important power in the state, 
 aggravated by vacillating attempts of the Emperor 
 Mauricius to enforce discipline, led to the elevation 
 of Phocas, who was but a common centurion, but a 
 favourite with the soldiery stationed on the Danube. 
 Against this upstart the reigning emperor found no 
 sufficient support among his subjects in Constan- 
 tinople. It is a sign of the degraded state of things 
 in the imperial city, that the two influential parties 
 there, on whom the emperors depended, were those 
 into which the partisans of the games of the circus 
 were divided; designated from the colours which 
 they wore as the Blues and the Greens. Neither 
 Blues nor Greens proving an efficient support, Mau- 
 
ACCESSION AND CONDUCT OF PHOCAS. I3I 
 
 ricius had to succumb to his ignoble rival, and, 
 
 endeavouring with his wife and children to escape 
 
 to the Asiatic shore, was compelled by opposing 
 
 winds to take refuge in a church near Chalcedon. 
 
 Phocas entered Constantinople, was accepted as 
 
 emperor, and anointed, with his wife Leontia, by 
 
 Cyriacus, the patriarch. He is represented by all the 
 
 historians of the period in very black colours; as 
 
 illiterate, sensual, passionate, and cruel. His very 
 
 personal appearance — his diminutive and deformed 
 
 stature, his close shaggy eyebrows, his red hair, his 
 
 beardless chin, his cheek disfigured by a scar, which 
 
 grew black when he was in a rage — is spoken of as 
 
 a fit emblem of his low and savage character. His 
 
 acts after his accession were in accordance with the^ 
 
 picture : five sons of the deposed emperor (the \ 
 
 eldest, Theodosius, had been sent to soHcit aid from 
 
 Persia) were murdered in succession before their 
 
 father's eyes, and then the Emperor himself; their 
 
 bodies were thrown into the sea, their heads exposed 
 
 at Constantinople till putrefaction began, and then 
 
 buried. On witnessing the death of each of his sons, 
 
 the old father, who was not devoid of piety, is said to 
 
 have exclaimed, "Thou art just, O Lord, and Thy 
 
 judgments are right," and to have prevented the 
 
 pious fraud of a nurse who would have substituted 
 
 her own infant for one of his. Afterwards the eldest 
 
 son, Theodosius (who had been associated with his 
 
 father in the empire when only four years old) was 
 
 intercepted in his flight to Persia, and beheaded at 
 
 Nice. The Empress Constantina and her three 
 
 daughters, who had taken refuge in the church 
 
 K 2 
 
132 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 of St. Sophia at Constantinople, where the Patri 
 arch had pledged his oath for their safety, were 
 dragged from sanctuary, on the discovery of a con- 
 spiracy in their favour, and beheaded, the Empress 
 having been previously tortured. A host of meaner 
 victims are recorded to have been executed with 
 savage cruelty ; scourged to death, their eyes pierced, 
 their hands and feet amputated, their tongues torn 
 out. Leontia, the tyrant's wife, is described as a 
 worthy match for such a husband.^ 
 
 Now it does not follow that Gregory was cognizant 
 of all the atrocities above described, or of the cha- 
 racter of the usurper and his wife, when he hailed 
 their elevation in the terms to be now alluded to. 
 But, being usually so well informed of what was going 
 on in various parts of the world, he must, we con- 
 ceive, have known something of what Phocas was, 
 and at any rate of his treatment of the old emperor 
 and his sons ; and, in any case, his exultation on the 
 death of Mauricius, whose fate called for so much 
 sympathy, and the Avay in which he vilifies him whom 
 he had so lately honoured, cannot but leave on our 
 minds a painful impression of unseemliness. 
 
 The new emperor sent, according to custom, images 
 of himself and of his consort to Rome, which, together 
 with the news of his accession, were received by the 
 populace with acclamations of joy. Mauricius had 
 become unpopular there, owing, it may be supposed, 
 to his provoking conduct, and the exactions of his 
 officers, in connection with the Lombard invasions. 
 
 ' See Cedrenus, in Ann. iv. Phoc. 
 
LETTER TO PHOCAS. I33 
 
 Gregory wrote thus to Phocas : "Glory to God in 
 the highest, who, according as it is written, changes 
 times and transfers kingdoms. In the incompre- 
 hensible dispensation of Almighty God there are 
 vicissitudes in human life ; and sometimes, when the 
 sins of many are to be visited, one is raised up 
 through whose hardness the necks of his subjects 
 may be depressed under the yoke of tribulation ; as 
 we have experienced in our prolonged affliction. But 
 sometimes, when the merciful God is pleased to 
 refresh the hearts of many mourners. He advances 
 one to supreme power, through the bowels of whose 
 compassion He pours the grace of His exultation into 
 the minds of all ; in which abundance of exultation 
 we believe that we shall be speedily confirmed, while 
 we rejoice that the Benignity of your Piety has been 
 raised to the imperial throne. Let the heavens re- 
 joice, and the earth be glad ! and may the people 
 of the whole republic, grievously afflicted hitherto, 
 grow cheerful on account of your benignant acts." 
 After this exaggerated preface, Phocas is exhorted to 
 fulfil such glowing hopes by the justice and mode- 
 ration of his rule ; and among other excellent maxims 
 he is reminded of one, which, however good in 
 theory, was not always, it is to be feared, consistent 
 with fact ; — that " there is this difference between the 
 kings of the nations and the emperors of the republic, 
 that the former are lords of slaves, but the latter 
 lords of free men." 
 
 Again, the new emperor having complained that 
 there was no representative of the Pope at his 
 court according to ancient custom, Gregory wrote 
 
134 GREGORY THE GREA.T. 
 
 saying, "We are pleased to think, with joy and 
 great thanksgiving, what praises we owe to Almighty 
 God, that, the yoke of sadness removed, we have 
 arrived at times of liberty under the imperial piety 
 of your Benignity. For, as to your Serenity not 
 finding a deacon of the Apostolic See according to 
 ancient custom at your court, this is due, not to our 
 negligence, but the most grave necessity. For during 
 the late hard times all the ministers of this our 
 church were afraid to reside in the imperial palace, 
 and we could not impose on any of them the perilous 
 office. But since they have learnt how, through the 
 grace of God, your Clemency has ascended the throne, 
 they, who feared before, are in haste to approach you 
 under the persuasion of joy." The letter concludes, — 
 " How, for the length of thirty years, we have been 
 oppressed by invasions of the Lombards, and perils 
 daily around us, no words can express. But we trust 
 in Almighty God, who will perfect the consolation 
 which He has begun; and, having raised up pious 
 lords over the republic, will also extinguish our cruel 
 enemies. Therefore may the Holy Trinity preserve 
 your life through many years, that we may long enjoy 
 the blessings of your piety which we have tardily 
 received." He wrote also to the Empress Leontia. 
 From what we have seen of Gregory, we might have 
 been sure beforehand that he would not neglect to 
 do this. It is illustrative also of his diplomatic tact, 
 that to her, and not to the Emperor, he broaches the 
 subject which was doubtless prominent in his mind 
 while he thus hailed and adulated the rising suns, 
 — viz., the claims of St. Peter's see; with especial 
 
LETTER TO LEONTIA. 1 35 
 
 reference, we may suppose, to his long struggle under 
 Mauricius against the counter-claims of Constanti- 
 nople. And, in the hope of securing her interest, he 
 bids her, in a tone he had not ventured on with the 
 Emperor, regard the good of her own soul, appealing 
 to the religious motives which, in this as in other 
 cases, he counted on especially in the female mind. 
 He addresses her thus: — "What tongue can speak,' 
 what mind can conceive, the thanks we owe to Al- 
 mighty God for the serenity of your empire, in that, 
 the hard burden so long borne having been removed 
 from our necks, the light yoke has ensued which 
 subjects delight to bear? Glory, therefore, be given 
 to the Creator of all by the hymning choirs of heaven, 
 thanks be rendered by men upon earth ; since the 
 whole republic, which has endured many wounds of_J 
 woe, has found the balm of your consolation ! " After 
 praying that the new rulers may combine justice and 
 gentleness with zeal for the Catholic faith, and that 
 she especially may imitate the Empress Pulcheria, 
 who had been called a second Helena, he proceeds : 
 " Perhaps I ought to have especially commended to 
 your Tranquillity the Church of the blessed Apostle 
 Peter, which has up to this time suffered from 
 grievous hostile schemes; but because I know you 
 love God, I ought not to ask for what of your own 
 accord, and out of the benignity of your piety, you 
 are ready to accomplish. For by how much the 
 more you love the Creator by so much will you the 
 more love the Church of him to whom it was said, 
 * Thou art Peter ; and upon this rock will I build My 
 church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
 
136 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 it ' ; and again : ' To thee will I give the keys of the 
 kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind 
 on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever 
 thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' 
 Whence we doubt not with what strong love you 
 bind yourself to Him through whom you desire to be 
 loosed from the bonds of all your sins. May He, 
 then, be the guardian of your empire, your protector 
 on earth, your intercessor in heaven." ^ 
 
 These addresses to Phocas and Leontia leave, as 
 has been said, a painful impression. They constitute 
 the main blot on the character of Gregory. Their 
 fulsomeness may, indeed, be in some degree excused 
 by the exaggerated style in which it was the custom 
 to address imperial personages ; and perhaps by a 
 view, entertained on principle, of the deference due 
 to the powers ordained of God, whom it was always 
 the habit of Gregory to treat with great respect. 
 And, as has been also intimated, he may not have 
 been aware at the time how utterly unworthy of such 
 praises these new rulers were. Further, the excessive 
 flattery may be accounted for, though not on this 
 plea excused, by his earnest desire to gain their sup- 
 port in his pending dispute with the Patriarch, which 
 he regarded on principle as being of such great 
 importance. This motive plainly appears in his letter 
 to Leontia. And if this was his main object, the 
 event proved, at any rate, his sagacity. The state- 
 ment indeed made by Baronius, and since con- 
 tinually repeated, that Phocas formally conferred on 
 
 » B. IX., Ind. vi., Epp. 32, 45, 46. 
 
PHOCAS AND BONIFACE III. I37 
 
 Pope Boniface III. the title of " Universal Bishop," 
 which had been claimed by the Patriarch, is open to 
 dispute. The old authorities do not say as much as 
 this ; and it seems most unlikely that a pope would 
 accept a title which his great predecessor had only a 
 few years before so strongly repudiated for himself. 
 But it is undoubted that the new Emperor took the 
 Pope's part against the Patriarch Cyriacus, the latter 
 having offended him by his protection of Constantina 
 and her daughter, as the former had conciliated him 
 by his flattering support ; and that Boniface, who had 
 been Gregory's representative {apocrisiarius) at the 
 Constantinopolitan court, having become pope, an 
 imperial decree was issued in favour of the claims of 
 Rome. The words of Anastasius, the biographer of 
 the popes, with reference to this decree, are, *' He 
 (/. e. Boniface) obtained from the Emperor Phocas 
 that the Apostolic See of St. Peter, that is, the Roman 
 Church, should be the head of all churches, because 
 the Church of Constantinople wrote itself the first of 
 all churches." Whatever might be the effect of this 
 decree (the importance of which has probably been 
 overrated), it was at any rate originally due to Gregory's 
 attitude towards Phocas at the time of his accession. 
 As to his vilification of the deceased Mauricius in 
 the letters above quoted, we may suppose it also 
 mainly due to Gregory's deeply felt grievance with 
 respect to the disputed title, though it is to be remem- 
 bered that, in connection also with the Lombard 
 invasions, he had long had just cause of great com- 
 plaint. Still, under the affecting circumstances, the 
 language used was unseemly, especially as Mauricius 
 
I.-^S GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 appears to have been on the whole a fairly good 
 emperor, not without his virtues, and as Gregory 
 had once been accustomed to address him in lan- 
 guage such as this : — " Since a sincere rectitude of 
 faith shines in you, most Christian of princes, like a 
 light sent from heaven, and since it is known to all 
 that your Serenity embraces with all your heart the 
 pure profession which wins the favour of God, &c."i 
 Again, in acknowledgment of money sent by the 
 Emperor for the relief of distress at Rome : — ''The 
 accustom.ed piety of my lord has so shone forth in 
 this kind relief, that the want of all the distressed has 
 been succoured by the consolation of its liberality. 
 Wherefore we all address our tearful prayers to the 
 Almighty, who has thus moved the heart of your 
 Clemency, that He would preserve the empire of our 
 lords by the constancy of His love. All alike pray 
 with one accord that God may grant you a long and 
 quiet reign, and that your most happy issue may long 
 flourish in the Roman republic." ^ This last commu- 
 nication is assigned, in the Benedictine arrangement 
 of St. Gregory's epistles, to the year 600 ; and, if this 
 late date be right, the contrast between its tone and 
 that of the letters to Phocas is the more glaring. In 
 any case it is evident that the growing dissatisfaction 
 with the conduct of the Emperor, — apparent already, 
 however veiled by courteous deference, in the letters 
 about the Lombard troubles and the disputed title, — 
 found a sudden vent, in language strangely incon- 
 sistent with some previous professions, at the very 
 
 ' B. VIIT., Ind. iii., Ep. 2. 
 
Gregory's suffering from gout. 139 
 
 time when it was expedient to court the usurping 
 rival, and when generosity, or even decency, might 
 have suggested silence. 
 
 Gregory's language on this occasion has been dwelt 
 on at some length, as being the one great charge 
 brought against his moral rectitude, which admirers 
 of the splendour of his general character cannot but 
 be anxious to palliate. After all palliations, it remains 
 against him ; but the very fact that there is only one 
 such charge of importance is a telling one in favour 
 of any human being ; and, after all, it is not perhaps 
 so serious a charge as has been often represented, 
 when we remember that excessive adulation was then 
 the conventional style of addressing emperors and 
 empresses, without which it might be difficult to get 
 their ear at all ; — that Gregory's aims throughout were 
 not selfish or wordly, but the advancement of what 
 he sincerely believed to be the cause of God ; and 
 (we may add as to his reflections on Mauricius and 
 his exultation at his overthrow) that not only had he 
 been much provoked, but also that he had long been 
 a martyr to gout when he wrote, a circumstance that 
 may excuse much soreness and irritability. 
 
 It may be here remarked, with reference I0 his 
 frequent and prolonged suffering from this disease, 
 that it enhances our admiration of his unwearied 
 activity. He wrote in the year 600 to Eulogius of 
 Alexandria : — *' In the last year I received your letter, 
 but have been unable to answer it till now, owing to 
 the excess of my illness. For nearly two years I have 
 been confined to my bed, and afflicted with such 
 pains from gout that I have hardly been able to rise 
 
I40 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 for three hours' space on festivals to celebrate mass. 
 I am soon compelled by excess of pain to lie down 
 again, and seek relief by groaning. My pain is some- 
 times alleviated, and sometimes intense ; but never so 
 alleviated as to leave me, nor ever to intense as to 
 kill me. Hence I am daily dying, but never die."^ 
 
 We find him again suffering from the same chronic 
 malady when, in 604, shortly before his death, he 
 addressed his last letter to Theodelinda, the Lombard 
 queen. She had sent to request him to answer a 
 book that had been written by an abbat Secundinus 
 against the condemnation of the three chapters. 
 She had also informed him of the birth of her son 
 Adaloaldus, and his baptism into the Catholic Church. 
 On the latter event he, of course, congratulates her in 
 his usual complimentary style, with prayers for the 
 prosperity and growth in grace of the infant prince ; 
 but he regrets that he cannot write an immediate 
 answer to the book because of a severe attack of 
 gout : — " Not only," he says, " are we unable to 
 dictate, we cannot even rise to speak ; as your mes- 
 sengers know, who found us weak when they came, 
 and have left us in the utmost danger." He promises, 
 however, a full answer should he recover, and in the 
 mean time sends her the decrees of the fifth council, 
 held under Justinian, in which the three chapters had 
 been condemned, and strongly disclaims the impu- 
 tation, that the acceptance of these decrees by the 
 popes was open to any suspicion of heresy. Further, 
 he sends for the infant a cross containing wood of the 
 
 ' B. VIT., Ind. iii., Ep. 35. 
 
GREGORYS DEATH. 141 
 
 true one, and a passage of the Gospels in a Persian 
 case, to be worn as phylacteries ; and for his sister 
 three rings, two with hyacinths, and one with a white 
 stone ; and, lastly, he sends greetings to the king, 
 with thanks to him for the peace that had been 
 concluded, and entreats the queen to use her accus- 
 tomed endeavours to keep him in the same mind. 
 With this characteristic letter, which shows no failure 
 in the writer's mental activity, we may close our ac- 
 count of the career of Gregory ; adding only that in 
 this last year of his life his letters on matters of 
 business, discipline, charity, and other subjects, were 
 as frequent and as forcible as in any previous period. 
 He did not recover from his illness, but died on the 
 12th of March in the same year (a.d. 604), and was 
 buried in St. Peter's Church, in which his tomb is 
 now to be seen under the altar of St. Andrew, to 
 whom his monastery at Rome was dedicated. 
 
 What occurred in Rome immediately after his 
 death is an example of the fickleness of crowds. 
 The distress that had so long prevailed, and which 
 Gregory had taken such pains to alleviate, had now 
 reached its height, and a general famine had ensued. 
 Thereupon he, the deceased pope, who had been at 
 first hailed by all classes as their only hope, who had 
 been throughout his reign in so many ways the 
 guardian and benefactor of the city, who had col- 
 lected and expended so much in charity while he had 
 spent so little on himself, — was accused by the popu- 
 lace of having caused the famine by his lavish expen- 
 diture. They are said to have been on the point of 
 avenging themselves by destroying his library, had 
 
L 
 
 142 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 not the Archdeacon Peter stayed their fury by assert- 
 ing that he had seen the Holy Ghost in the form of 
 a dove hovering above his head as he wrote his 
 books. Peter died suddenly in the pulpit as he was 
 about to confirm this statement with an oath ; and 
 this was curiously enough taken as a confirmation of 
 its truth; and so the library was spared.^ Hence it 
 is that St. Gregory is represented in art with a dove 
 above his head. 
 
 We all feel a natural desire to form an idea of the 
 personal appearance of distinguished men who have 
 long passed away from earth. We are enabled to do 
 this in the case of Gregory, as far as words can 
 present a picture, from the description by John the 
 Deacon, his biographer, of a portrait of the saint in 
 his monastery of St. Andrew, supposed to have been 
 placed there by himself, and extant in the writer's 
 time, which was the 9th century. John concludes 
 that Gregory himself had it painted during life, from 
 an inscription appended to it, which implies this, and 
 from the head being surmounted, not by a " corona," 
 but by a " tablet " {tabula)^ which is said to denote a 
 person still alive. The portraits of his father and 
 mother placed by Gregory in the same monastery 
 have been described above, and it has been men- 
 tioned how his own features combined the cha- 
 racteristics of both. His figure is further described 
 as of ordinary height, and well-made ; the beard 
 as somewhat tawny and of moderate length ; round 
 his large and round bald crown he has dark 
 
 * Life by John the Deacon, iv. 69. 
 
Gregory's personal APPEARA^'CE. 143 
 
 hair, decently curled and hanging under the ears ; 
 on his high forehead are two neat little curls 
 twisting towards the right ; the eyebrows are long, 
 slender, and elevated; the pupils not large, but 
 open, and of a yellow tinge, and the lower eyeUds 
 full ; the nose is thin as it descends from the eye- 
 brows, broader about the middle, slightly aquiline, 
 and expanded at the nostrils ; the cheeks are regular ; 
 the lips ruddy, thick, and subdivided; the chin 
 rather prominent from the confines of the jaws ; the 
 expression of countenance is mild. There is a little 
 uncertainty as to the meaning of the words used in 
 describing the complexion. They probably mean 
 that it was swarthy and fresh, free from the unhealthy 
 hue which it acquired before the end of life. It is 
 added that his hands are well-formed, the fingers 
 taper, and well adapted for writing. His dress is a 
 chestnut-coloured " planeta " over a " dalmatic." 
 Now, though these articles of dress have long been 
 confined to the officiating clergy, the former being, 
 in fact, the eucharistic -'chasuble," yet it is un- 
 doubted that, like other ecclesiastical vestments, they 
 were originally parts of ordinary costume, worn by 
 the laity as well as the clergy. The dalmatic was a 
 long tunic with sleeves, the planeta an upper garment, 
 in the form, it is said, of a circle, with a hole in the 
 middle through which the head was passed. And it 
 is confirmatory of the view that they had no sacred 
 significance in the time of Gregory, that his father is 
 described as wearing in his portrait precisely the 
 same dress, and of the same chestnut colour. It 
 does not, however, follow that they wore at that 
 
144 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 time the costume of every-day life, since the dalmatic, 
 at least, seems to have been retained as a tunic of 
 ceremony for state officials, as well as for ecclesias- 
 tics, after it had passed out of ordinary use. It is 
 still part of the coronation robes of kings both in 
 England and elsewhere ; and Gordianus may have 
 worn both it and the planeta in his capacity of 
 ''Regionarius."^ But the Pope himself is distin- 
 guished from his father by wearing also a " pal- 
 lium " or " pall," marking his ecclesiastical position. 
 When he sent this ensign of jurisdiction to metro- 
 politans, we find him usually directing that they 
 were to wear it only during the celebration of 
 mass. We may conclude, perhaps, from such 
 directions, and from his being painted with it 
 on, that his own supreme jurisdiction was marked 
 by his wearing it ordinarily, or, at any rate, when 
 he pleased. This, however, does not necessarily 
 follow, since the portrait represents him as having 
 a book of the Gospels in one hand, and making 
 the sign of the cross with the other, which attitude 
 may be meant to signify his being engaged in some 
 sacred function, and giving a benediction. If so, it 
 would appear that, but for the pallium, he officiated in a 
 dress that was also worn by laymen. The form of the 
 pallium, and the mode of wearing it at that time, is 
 further denoted by the description of the portrait, 
 and by another, given also by John the Deacon, of 
 one of Gregory's own palls, which had been pre- 
 served to the writer's day. It seems to have been 
 
 1 i^i'^ Wharton Marriot's " Vestiarium Christianumy 
 
RELICS OF GREGORY. 1 45 
 
 simply a long narrow strip of white linen, unem- 
 broidered, worn with its middle part hanging loose 
 over the breast, passing over the left shoulder and 
 behind the neck ; crossed over the right, and with its 
 two ends hanging down, at the back and at the side. 
 The biogTapher speaks also of other relics of the 
 saint still preserved, and venerated on his anni- 
 versary ; viz., his " phylactery " (or case for relics or 
 amulets) of thin silver, with a bit of common cloth 
 for hanging it round the neck ; and his belt, only a 
 thumb's breadth in width. He speaks of all these 
 as denoting the monastic simplicity of Gregory's 
 habits. He mentions elsewhere, as preserved in the 
 song-school at Rome, which Gregory had built, his 
 original Antiphonary (or book of Antiphons), the 
 couch on which he used to recline, and the whip 
 with which he menaced the boys when he taught 
 them singing. Here we have, by the way, a further 
 evidence of his personal superintendence of every- 
 thing. He seems to have done nothing by deputy 
 that he could do himself. And the mention of the 
 couch is interesting as implying how he persevered 
 even in this humble duty when he was too ill to 
 sit up. 
 
146 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Gregory's writings — His letters — Extracts from them — To the 
 Subdeacon Peter — To Marinianus of Ravenna — To Domi- 
 nicus of Centumcellse — To Maximus of Salona — To the 
 Ex-prefect Libertinus — To Gregoria, a lady at court — To 
 the Emperor's sister, Theoctista — Another letter to the 
 same lady — Liber Pastoralis Curse — Its renown — Its plan — 
 Summary of its contents — The Book of Dialogues — Occa- 
 sion of its composition — Its contents — References to Bene- 
 dict of Nursia — The fourth book about the state of the soul 
 after death — Its effects on Christian thought — Commentar)' 
 on Job — Milman'b account of it — Specimens of its style — 
 Homilies — On Ezekiel — On the Gospels — Extracts — Sacra- 
 mentary, Antiphonary, Hymns — The Lord's Prayer in the 
 Eucharistic Office — Genuineness and style of the Hymns — 
 Gregorian and Ambrosian music. 
 
 By his writings, as well by his administration, Gregory 
 left a mark upon his age, and has largely influenced 
 succeeding ones. Some account of his extant works, 
 with a few illustrative extracts, will serve to show the 
 nature of his influence in this way, and to elucidate 
 his own inner mind and character. 
 Y' First, then, we have his letters, which have been 
 often referred to above, and from which many 
 extracts have been given. The number preserved 
 amounts to 838, many of them being long ones. 
 They are addressed to persons of various ranks and 
 positions in all parts of the world that he had to do 
 
Gregory's letters. 147 
 
 with ; — to emperors and empresses, kings and queens, 
 patriarchs, bishops, abbats, clergy, legates, and other 
 agents of the Apostolic See, stewards of its estates, 
 ladies, and other private persons. They treat a 
 large range of subjects; — politics, diplomacy, doc- 
 trine, ecclesiastical discipline, relations of Church 
 and State, papal claims, missionary work, monasti- 
 cism, management of property (with especial reference 
 to equitable treatment of tenants and serfs), works of 
 charity, directions to individuals on matters of duty 
 and conscience. Nothing could give us a more 
 striking impression of the writer's grasp of the multi- 
 farious duties of his position, his minute personal 
 attention to all, and the versatility of his powers ; 
 while they often reveal to us, as only letters can, his 
 character and sentiments. 
 
 The following extracts, taken here and there from 
 the collection, in addition to what we have quoted in 
 the course of his life, may help to bring the man more 
 fully before us. 
 
 Here we have a long letter to Peter, his subdeacon 
 in Sicily, acting as a general agent in ecclesiastical 
 as well as secular affairs, whom he had sent thither for 
 the purpose as early as 591. It is characteristic of the 
 writer in many ways. In it he says : " I remember 
 to have written desiring you to dispense to certain 
 monasteries, and for other purposes, certain legacies 
 that have been left to me. But for some cause to 
 me unknown you have not done this. I charge you, 
 therefore, to pay the value of these legacies out of 
 the church funds for the purposes designated, lest, 
 when you leave the country, you leave behind you 
 L 2 
 
148 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 the groans of the poor against you." Again : " I 
 hear that a certain lady left when dying, but by word 
 of mouth only, a silver shell to be sold for the benefit 
 of her freedman, and a silver shield to a monastery. 
 Both bequests, though not legally binding, must be 
 carried out in every particular, lest from the smallest 
 things we incur the greater guilt." Again : " It ap- 
 pears that there are certain things on our farms, which, 
 though you know them to belong to other persons, 
 you have not restored to their rightful owners, yield- 
 ing to pressure and to fear. But if you were truly a 
 Christian, you would fear the judgment of God more 
 than the voices of men. Attend then to my unceas- 
 ing admonitions on the subject." Further: "In the 
 case of the son of Scholasticus, you inform me that 
 he demands more than is legally just. But as we are 
 unwilling to be hard upon the poor, and as he has had 
 much trouble in the matter, we desire you to give him 
 50 solidi^ aud to charge this sum in your accounts." 
 Again : We have learnt that Sisinnius, who was a 
 judge at Samnium, is now in Sicily in great want. 
 We desire you to allow him 20 casks of wine and 4 
 solidi yearly." Then follow other directions to give 
 donations to individuals known to be in need. In 
 other parts of the same letter he treats a different 
 class of subjects, therein showing peculiar kindliness. 
 He says, for instance, "You must know that some 
 time ago I conceived a strong dislike to the servant 
 of God Pretiosus, for no great fault, and repelled 
 him from my presence sad and embittered. For this 
 I have since been very sorry. I wrote to ask the 
 lord bishop to send him to me, but he is unwilling 
 
LETTER TO PETER THE SUBDEACON. 1 49 
 
 to part with him. But I hear that Pretiosus himself 
 is in distress at not being allowed to come. Hence 
 I am in doubt what to do, since I must not and can- 
 not distress the bishop, who, occupied as he is with 
 the affairs of God, ought to be supported by comfort, 
 not saddened by bitterness. Wherefore, if your wis- 
 dom is greater than that little body which contains it, 
 manage it so that I may have my will without dis- 
 tressing the lord bishop. But if you perceive that 
 he takes the matter at all to heart, say no more about 
 it." Further on, — " I have been very sorry to hear 
 that the lord bishop has excommunicated Eusebius, 
 a man of such advanced age, and in such bad health. 
 Wherefore it is needful that you admonish the 
 bishop privately not to be precipitate in passing sen- 
 tences." Here tenderness in the exercise of discipline 
 is recommended ; in another case strictness seems to 
 be insisted on : " Presume not to say anything about 
 Gelasius, the subdeacon, since his crime is such as to 
 demand the heaviest penance to the end of his life." 
 After this sharp admonition, our Pope, who, to his 
 credit, had a sense of humour, passes at once into a 
 vein of pleasantry. Little Peter, though he seems to 
 have wanted looking after sometimes, was not so bad 
 but that the Pope could enjoy a pleasant joke against 
 him. " Besides" (the letter continues, and this *' be- 
 sides " comes close after the sharp admonition, in the 
 same breath as it were ; suggesting the idea that the 
 preceding sentence might be also a pleasantry), 
 " Besides, you have sent me one wretched horse and 
 five good asses. The horse I cannot ride, he is such 
 a bad one ; the good beasts I cannot ride, because 
 
150 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 they are asses. But if you wish to keep me your 
 friend, pray let me have something worthy of you."i 
 
 As a specimen of his kindly consideration for 
 others, and of humanity and good sense modifying 
 his ascetic strictness, may be quoted three successive 
 letters written in 601 to Marinianus, bishop of 
 Ravenna, his old friend in St. Andrew's, with whom, 
 on his first promotion, he had had a dispute (as has 
 been mentioned) about the use of the pallium. 
 They are the more significant of his kindly thought- 
 fulness from having been written while he was him- 
 self suffering from one of his agonizing attacks of 
 gout. He says, " For a long time I have been 
 unable to rise from my bed. I am tormented by 
 the pains of gout ; a kind of fire seems to pervade 
 my whole body : to live is pain ; and I look forward 
 to death as the only remedy." .... "Great has 
 been my sorrow to hear of your Fraternity suffering 
 from vomiting of blood. With regard to which affec- 
 tion I have anxiously caused the most learned medi- 
 cal men here to be separately consulted, and I send 
 to your holiness in writing what they severally think 
 and recommend. Above all things, they advise 
 quiet and silence, which I greatly doubt whether you 
 can have in your church. And therefore it seems to 
 me that, provision having been made for its episcopal 
 supervision, for the celebration of masses, for the 
 exercise of hospitality, and for the superintendence 
 of monasteries, you ought to come to me before the 
 summer season, that I may personally, as far as I 
 
 ' B. II., Ind. X., Ep. 32. 
 
LETTER TO MARINIANUS. 151 
 
 can, provide for your sickness, and guard you from 
 disturbance ; since the physicians say that the sum- 
 mer time is pecuHarly unfavourable to your complaint. 
 And I greatly fear lest, if you have any cares in 
 addition to the adverse season, you may be in danger 
 of a relapse. I myself, also, am exceedingly weak, 
 and it is altogether desirable that you should, through 
 the favour of God, return in health to your church ; 
 or certainly, if you are to be called away, that you 
 should be called in the hands of your friends. And 
 I too, who see myself to be near death, if it shall 
 please God to call me before you, would wish to 
 pass away in your hands. If, therefore, you feel 
 yourself still suffering from the same complaint, and 
 arrange to come, you need bring but few attendants 
 with you, since you will live with me, and in this 
 church you will have daily attendance. Further, I 
 neither exhort nor admonish you, but I strictly order 
 you, that you by no means presume to fast, since the 
 physicians say that abstinence is very bad for your 
 complaint. Only, if some great solemnity requires 
 it, I allow you to fast on five occasions during the 
 year. .... This I say in order that, if you should 
 feel yourself better and should delay your visit, you 
 may know what my command requires you to ob- 
 serve." 1 
 
 The following extracts may serve as specimens of 
 numerous letters providing for the protection of 
 widows or other persons liable to oppression. To 
 Dominicus, Bishop of Centumcell^ {Civita Vecchia) : 
 
 * B. XI., Ind. iv., Epp. 32, 33, 40. 
 
152 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 " It belongs to the priestly office to impart consola- 
 tion to widows ; so that, deprived in this world of 
 human protection, they may find a remedy in the 
 Church's guardianship. Since then, Luminosa, an 
 honourable lady, relict of the beloved tribune Z^mar- 
 chus, has committed herself to our protection after 
 that of God, we admonish you to give her solace in 
 all things needful, and allow no one to be in any 
 way troublesome to her. So may you have God for 
 your debtor, and so may our mind more heartily 
 thank you for the consolations you have afforded."^ 
 
 To Maximus, Bishop of Salona, who had com- 
 plained of an invasion of the Sclaves, and also of the 
 injustice of an unjust judge in his province, Gregory 
 writes a letter, in which his pious sentiments and the 
 prudence of his counsel, as well as his accustomed 
 care for the oppressed, are conspicuous : — *' Concern- 
 ing Julianus (the unjust judge), of whom you write, 
 I know not what to say ; since I see how everywhere 
 for our sins we are perturbed by enemies from with- 
 out and by unjust judges among ourselves. But be 
 not altogether cast down by such things ; for those 
 who shall come after us will see worse times still, and 
 esteem our days happy in comparison with their own. 
 You are bound, as far as you possibly can, to offer 
 yourself as a champion of the poor and oppressed. 
 If you can do but little good, the devotion of the 
 heart satisfies God who gave it. Omit nothing which 
 may ])lease Him. For human terrrors and favours 
 are like smoke which a light breeze carries away. 
 
 ' B. I., Ind. ix., Ep. 13. 
 
LETTERS TO MAXIMUS AND LIBERTINUS. 1 53 
 
 And be assured that no one can please both bad men 
 and God. Consider, then, that in proportion as you 
 have displeased bad men you have pleased God. 
 Still let your defence of the poor be moderate and 
 grave ; lest if you proceed at all too sharply, men 
 should think you actuated by youthful pride. Your 
 defence of the oppressed should be such that the 
 humble may feel protection, but the oppressors may 
 not easily find anything for their malevolence to find 
 fault with. Remember what Ezekiel says, * Son of 
 man, the unbelieving and rebellious are with thee, 
 and thou dost dwell among scorpions ' ; and the 
 blessed Job, ' I am a brother of dragons and a com- 
 panion of owls.' "^ The following letter to Libertinus, 
 an ex-prefect who had become involved in calamity, 
 is an instance both of fatherly exhortation and of 
 delicate benevolence : " From what distresses of this 
 present world you are suffering is not unknown to us. 
 But, since to those who are in the utmost tribulation 
 the only consolation is the mercy of God, rest all 
 your hope on Him, and turn to Him with all your 
 heart, who with justice allows whom He will to be 
 afflicted, and mercifully delivers those that trust in 
 Him. To Him, therefore, give thanks, and bear 
 patiently whatever may be laid upon you. For it is the 
 part of a right mind not only to bless God in pros- 
 perity, but also to praise Him in adversity. In the 
 midst, then, of your present sufferings let no murmur 
 against God creep into your heart, since the purpose 
 of our Creator is unknown to us. For perchance, my 
 
 ' B. X., Ind. iii., Ep, 36. 
 
154 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 illustrious son, you committed some offence against 
 Him when you were placed in prosperity, from which 
 He would purge you by merciful bitterness. And so 
 let neither temporal affliction break you down nor 
 the loss of wealth torment you, since if by thanks- 
 giving and patience in adversity you win God's favour, 
 then both far more than you lost is restored to you, 
 and in addition eternal joys are secured. Now I pray 
 you not to take it amiss that I have ordered twenty 
 suits of clothing to be supplied through Romanus, the 
 defensor^ for your servants. For, though it is but a 
 small offering, yet, coming from the property of St. 
 Peter, it is to be taken as representing a great blessing ; 
 since he will be able to give you much greater things, 
 even eternal benefits with Almighty God.''^ 
 
 The next letter that shall be quoted (and it is worth 
 quoting at some length) exhibits Gregory to us as the 
 spiritual adviser of a lady of rank. It is to Gregoria, 
 a lady of the bedchamber to the empress Constantina, 
 who had opened her conscience to him. " I have 
 received the welcome letter of your sweetness, in 
 which you have been careful to accuse yourself of a 
 multitude of sins. But I know that you fervently 
 love God, and I trust in His mercy, that of you, as 
 once of a certain holy woman, the sentence already 
 proceeds from the mouth of Truth, ' Her sins which 
 are many are forgiven ; for she loved much.' But 
 how they were forgiven to that holy woman is shown 
 by this ; that she afterwards sat at the Lord's feet, 
 and heard the Word from His mouth. For, taken up 
 
 ' B. X., Ind. iii., Ep. 31. 
 
LETTER TO GREGORIA. I 55 
 
 by the contemplative life, she had already transcended 
 the active life which her sister Martha still pursued. 
 She sought also the Lord when buried, and, bending 
 anxiously over the tomb, found not His body. But, 
 when the disciples had gone away, she stood weeping 
 at the entrance of the sepulchre, and Him whom she 
 sought as dead she was accounted worthy to see alive, 
 and announced to the disciples that the Lord was 
 risen. She saw Him, she approached Him, she 
 touched His feet. Bring before your eyes, I pray you, 
 what hand touched whose feet. That woman who 
 had been a sinner in the city, those hands that had 
 been polluted with iniquity, touched His feet who sits 
 at the right hand of the Father, exalted above the 
 angels. Let us conceive, if we can, the bowels of 
 supernal compassion, that a woman who had been 
 sunk in the depth of the gulf through sin was raised 
 aloft on the wing of love through grace. It is fulfilled, 
 most sweet daughter, it is fulfilled, that what at the 
 present church season is being announced to us in the 
 voice of prophecy ; ' In that day the house of David 
 shall be an open fountain for the washing away of sin 
 and of uncleanness.' . . . But, as to what your sweet- 
 ness has added in your letter, that you importunately 
 wait for my writing to you to say that it has been 
 revealed to me that your sins are forgiven ; — you 
 ask for what is both difficult and useless : diflftcult, 
 because I am unworthy of having a revelation made 
 
 ^ It will be observed that Gregory, according to the ancient 
 tradition, identifies the woman that had been a sinner, the sister 
 of Martha, and the Magdalene. 
 
156 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 to me ; useless, because you ought not to feel secure 
 about your sins till in the last hour of your life you 
 shall be unable to bewail them. St. Paul, after he 
 had ascended into the third heaven, and been led 
 into Paradise, and heard secret words such as it was 
 not lawful for man to utter, was still afraid and said, 
 * I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, 
 lest by any means, when I have preached to others, 
 I myself should be a castaway.' . . . Consider, most 
 sweet daughter, that security is wont to be the mother 
 of negligence. You ought not therefore to have in 
 this life the security that may make you negligent. 
 For it is written, ' Happy is the man that feareth 
 always ' : and again, ' Serve the Lord with fear, and 
 rejoice with trembling.' In short it is necessary that 
 in the time of this life trembling keep possession of 
 your mind, that you may exult hereafter for ever in 
 the joy of security. "^ 
 
 Another longer epistle to the Emperor's sister, 
 Theoctista, who appears to have been governess 
 to the imperial children, is further illustrative of 
 character and mode of thought, and in many 
 respects interesting. Being a religious lady, she had 
 written to him in a pious strain, sending him at the 
 same time large sums to be expended in charity. He 
 begins his reply, " That your Excellency, though placed 
 in such a tumult of affairs, is full of the fruitfulness 
 of the sacred Word, and sighs incessantly for eternal 
 joys, I give great thanks to Almighty God ; in that in 
 you I see fulfilled what was written of the elect 
 
 1 B. VII., Ind. XV., Ep. 25. 
 
LETTER TO THEOCTISTA. 1 57 
 
 fathers, * The children of Israel walked on dry land 
 through the midst of the sea.' " After more of similar 
 purport he goes on, " But in your Excellency's letter 
 I find this deficiency ; that you have been unwilling 
 to indicate to me concerning the most serene empress, 
 whether she reads diligently, and with what kind of 
 compunction she is affected when she reads. For 
 your presence ought to proiit her much; so that 
 among the waves of affairs under which she continurJly 
 suffers, and by which, whether she will or not, she is 
 dragged abroad, she may ever be recalled inwardly to 
 the love of her heavenly country : and this also you 
 ought to investigate, as often as tears are granted her 
 for the state of her soul, whether her compunction 
 still comes of fear, or now at last of love." A lengthy 
 explanation follows of the distinction between two 
 kinds of compunction, both of which may find vent 
 in tears, but one of which is due only to the fear of 
 punishment, the other, into which the first ought to 
 grow, to the love of God possessing the thirsty soul. 
 And in a very characteristic strain, he adduces the 
 story of Achsah, ^ in the book of Joshua, as typifying 
 the experience of a soul. Her sitting upon an ass 
 denotes the soul having already overcome the irrational 
 motions of the flesh, and attained to faith and good 
 works : her sighing still, and desiring from her father 
 " springs of water," not content with the dry land of 
 the South that he had given her, denotes the longing 
 
 » Joshua XV. 1 8, 19. In the Vulgate, which was the transla- 
 tion of the Bible used by St. Gregor>', for *«she lighted off her 
 ass " of our English version, the rendering is, " she sighed as she 
 sat upon an ass." 
 
158 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 of the soul for the grace of tears. But this grace, 
 the grace of compunction, is of two kinds ; that of 
 the " nether springs," and that of the "upper springs." 
 The " nether springs " denote compunction arising 
 from the fear of punishment ; the " upper springs " 
 denote compunction arising from a love of the 
 heavenly kingdom. It is added that, though the 
 compunction of love comes in fact after the com- 
 punction of fear, yet the upper springs are mentioned 
 iirst in the text because they are of higher dignity 
 than the lower ones. The letter proceeds : " You 
 therefore, who through the operation of Almighty 
 God know by experience both kinds of compunction, 
 ought daily and assiduously to investigate the state of 
 mind of your most serene mistress, and as far as you 
 can by words to profit her. I beg you also to attend 
 carefully to the moral training of the little lords whom 
 you are bringing up, and to admonish the glorious 
 eunuchs who are appointed to attend on them, that 
 they say such things to them as may move them to 
 mutual love, and clemency towards their subjects, lest 
 they now conceive any ill will that may hereafter 
 break out openly. For the words of educators are 
 either milk if they are good, or poison if they are 
 bad." Reference is next made to the large sum of 
 money sent by the pious lady for charitable uses, 
 for which warm thanks are rendered. Some of it had 
 been applied to the redemption of captives taken by 
 the Lombards ; the rest to the purchase of bedclothes 
 for the nuns of Rome, who are described as suffering 
 from "grievous nudity" during the severe cold then 
 prevailing. There were as many as 3,000 of them in 
 
MIRACLE OF THE GOLDEN KEY. 1 59 
 
 the city, leading such Uves, Gregory says, and so 
 devoted to abstinence and tears, that he beUeves it 
 to be due to them that any of the inhabitants had 
 escaped the sword of the Lombards. Lastly, he tells 
 the lady that he is sending her a key from the 
 body of St. Peter, that is from his tomb or shrine, 
 which was a present often sent by him to persons 
 likely to appreciate the blessing which it was supposed 
 to convey. And he relates a story of a miracle, so 
 called, that had been wrought through this particular 
 key, which is not a bad sample of one class of 
 incidents then accounted miraculous. It was, it seems, 
 a golden one, and had been once sent to a city of the 
 Lombards, where a certain man had discovered it, 
 and, without regard to its sanctity, was about to cut 
 it with a knife for his own purposes ; but, under a 
 divine impulse, he had cut his own throat instead. 
 Antharis, the Lombard king, had been so affected by 
 the supposed miracle that he had sent the key back 
 to Rome with another like it, also of gold, as an 
 offering to the Apostle. The whole of this long letter 
 is rich in illustrations of St. Gregory's mind and 
 character ; — of his flattering courtesy to persons of 
 rank, his care for individual souls, his watch especially 
 over the minds and conscience of influential poten- 
 tates, his analysis of the inner religious life, his style 
 of allegorical exposition of Scripture, his discrimina- 
 ting benevolence, his high appreciation of monastic 
 sanctity, as well as of general female piety ; and lastly 
 his superstitious credulity, without the addition of 
 which the picture would be incomplete. 
 
 There is another lengthy epistle, written in 60 1, to 
 
l6o GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 the same lady, which is well worth study. She had 
 been accused by certain persons in Constantinople of 
 holding, with others, erroneous views, and had been 
 much distressed in consequence. Gregory exhorts 
 her at great length to disregard unfounded calumny, 
 satisfied with the testimony of her own conscience ; 
 representing to her how trials from evil men are 
 necessary for the probation of the good, and how all 
 the saints of Holy Scripture had been subject to such 
 trials. But, at the same time, he reminds her that, 
 though some sort of calumnies ought to be entirely 
 despised and unnoticed, yet that others ought to be 
 met, in the hope of removing the false impression on 
 which they rest. Of the latter kind were the calum- 
 nies against her. She ought, therefore, to summon 
 her principal accusers to a private interview, and 
 disclaim, with an oath if necessary, the views im- 
 puted to her. She must not think it unworthy of 
 her, as being of the imperial family, thus to satisfy 
 her inferiors in rank : " For we are all brethren, made 
 by the power, and redeemed by the blood, of one 
 Emperor; and so we ought in no way to look down 
 upon our brethren, however poor and abject." The 
 views which Theoctista was accused of holding were 
 these : i. That marriages might be dissolved, or 
 married persons live apart from each other, except 
 by mutual consent, under the pretext of religion : 
 2. That baptism did not convey absolution from all 
 past sins: 3. That three years passed in penitence 
 gave license to sin in future : 4. That an anathema 
 against beliefs imputed to a person vvas not binding 
 on him, if uttered under compulsion. Against all 
 
LIBER PASTORALIS CUR/E. l6l 
 
 these positions Gregory argues earnestly, and thus 
 ends his letter : " Wherefore your Excellency, living 
 as you do incessantly in reading, tears, and alms, 
 ought thus to pacify the ignorant by mild exhorta- 
 tions and replies ; so as to attain for them as well as 
 for yourself, the glory of eternal reward. My great 
 love for you has induced me thus to speak, since I 
 think that your joy is my gain, and your sadness my 
 loss. May Almighty God guard you by His heavenly 
 grace, and prolong your life for the education of our 
 young lords." ^ 
 
 The specimens of his correspondence above given, 
 together with those that have appeared in the pre- 
 ceding narrative, may serve to show how he v/rote, 
 and what manner of man he was. 
 
 Among his other writings, his " Liber Pastoralis 
 Curse," a treatise on the responsibilities and duties of 
 the episcopal office, stands pre-eminent for its wide 
 renown. Leander of Seville, to whom he sent it, cir- 
 culated it in Spain ; the emperor Mauricius had it 
 translated into Greek; Alfred the Great himself 
 translated it into Engbsh ; a succession of synods in 
 Gaul enjoined a knowledge of it on all bishops ; and 
 Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims in the ninth cen- 
 tury, says that a copy of it was delivered, together 
 with the book of Canons, to bishops at ordination, 
 with a charge to frame their lives according to 
 its precepts. It deserves its reputation, being a 
 worthy addition to the other two great works of 
 antiquity on the same subject, by S. Chrysostom 
 
 1 B. VIL, Tnd. xi., Ep. 26; B. XL, Tnd. iv., Ep. 45. 
 M 
 
^ 
 
 162 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 and S. Gregory Nazianzen, and more practical than 
 either. The book is addressed to John, Bishop of 
 Ravenna, who had blamed Gregory for his reluc- 
 tance to accept the popedom, its immediate purpose 
 being to justify such reluctance on the ground of the 
 tremendous responsibility of the pastoral office. It 
 consists of four books, the plan of which is thus 
 explained in the preface : — " The discussion in this 
 treatise is fourfold, that it may approach the mind of 
 the reader in the way of ordered steps. For, as 
 reason requires, it is first to be considered in what 
 manner a man should enter upon the office of govern- 
 ment ; when he has rightly entered, how he should 
 live ; when he lives well, how he should- teach ; when 
 he teaches aright, how he should know and consider 
 his own infirmity." On the first head, the prevalent 
 practice of hunting after preferment for the sake of 
 power and position, is severely reprobated. Persons, 
 it is said, ignorant of medicine would blush to pro- 
 fess themselves physicians ; yet it is common for those 
 who have no knowledge or experience in spiritual 
 tnings to have no scruple, for the sake of worldly 
 pre-eminence, in professing the deeper and more 
 difficult art of ministering to the diseases of souls. 
 The qualifications which may justify a man in 
 undertaking this arduous office are, [ifirst; religious 
 and theological knowledge, to be acquired by study • 
 secondly, a life conformable. He enlarges on this 
 last head. Nothing, he says, does more harm in the 
 Church than the bad example of those whose sacred 
 V office commands respect. Besides, he asks, how can 
 those intercede with God for others, who are not 
 1 themselves at peace with God? And there is, more- 
 
ENTRANCE ON THE PASTORAL OFFICE. 1 63 
 
 over, a peculiar danger to personal holiness in the 
 sacred office, since the variety of cares attending it 
 is apt to divert the pastor from watchfulness over 
 himself. Above all things pride, the besetting temp- 
 tation of prelates, is to be guarded against ; a temp- 
 tation of peculiar force in the state of things then 
 existing, in which, through God's guidance, religion 
 and its teachers were held in high honour by the 
 great ones of the earth. It is easy and common, he 
 adds, for men to deceive themselves as to their own 
 motives in seeking the pastoral office ; purposing to 
 themselves to do great good, while inwardly actuated 
 all the time by a craving for praise and honour ; and 
 so, having attained at last what their hearts were 
 really set on, they soon forget their former pious 
 thoughts and resolves. The aspirant, therefore, must 
 be careful to satisfy himself beforehand of the ab- 
 sence from his mind of all such worldly motives ; for 
 he will not easily learn humility in a high position, if 
 he has been without it in a low one, or disregard 
 praise when it flatters him, if he has longed for it 
 before it came. On the other hand, it is acknowledged 
 to be the positive duty of such as are fit for it, and do 
 not seek it from worldly motives, to accept the burden 
 of episcopacy. In this connection, one of those 
 curious applications of Scripture is brought in for\ 
 which Gregory is famous. The brother who, under 
 the law of Moses, was required to espouse the de- 
 ceased brother's wife, is made to represent pastors, 
 who are bound to marry Christ's spouse the Church, 
 so as to raise up seed to Him. And thus it may be even / 
 a sin, and not true humility, to persist in declining office;/ 
 
 M 2 / 
 
w 
 
 164 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 *' For he is not truly humble who understands it to 
 be the will of God that he should occupy a high 
 position, and yet despises it. But, yielding himself 
 to the divine guidance, and averse from the vice of 
 obstinacy, he ought in his heart to fly from it, and 
 still unwillingly to obey. Nay, there are cases in 
 which persons may laudably desire the office of 
 preaching, while others as laudably may accept it 
 only when forced on them. The prophets Isaiah 
 and Jeremiah are examples. Isaiah, when the Lord 
 asked whom He should send, offered himself of his 
 own accord, saying, ' Here am I, send me.' But 
 Jeremiah is sent, and yet humbly pleads that he 
 should not be sent, saying, ' Ah, Lord God ! behold, 
 I cannot speak, for I am a child.' Lo, from these 
 two prophets different voices proceeded outwardly, 
 but they flowed from the same fountain of love. 
 For there are two precepts of charity ; love of God, 
 and love of our neighbour. Isaiah, desiring through 
 the active life to benefit his neighbour, craves the 
 office of preaching ; Jeremiah, longing, through the 
 contemplative life, to cleave closely to the love of 
 his Maker, remonstrates against being sent to preach. 
 Wherefore what the one laudably desired, the other 
 laudably shrank from. But in both this is to be 
 closely observed, that he who refused did not persis^t 
 in his refusal, and that he who wished to be sent saw 
 himself to have been already cleansed by a coal 
 from the altar. Hence let no one who has not been 
 cleansed dare to enter upon the sacred ministry ; and 
 let no one whom supreme grace has chosen resist 
 proudly under a show of humility." 
 
 In the second part, which treats of the duties of 
 
DUTIES OF A PASTOR. 165 
 
 the pastor when he has entered on his office, it is /^, 
 first insisted that he^niust be pure in thought, andl ' ) 
 holy in life. " He who by the necessity of his posi- 
 tion is required to speak the highest things is com- 
 pelled by the same necessity t o exemplify the hi ghest. ^ 
 For that voice best penetrates the hearts of hearers 
 which the life of the speaker commends, because 
 \vhat he commands in his speech hehelps the doing 
 of by his example." Under this head the vestmenfs 
 and ornaments of the High Priest under the Law are 
 adduced with much detail, as typifying the holiness 
 of heart and life required in the Christian bishop, (^\ 
 Secondly, he must know when to be silent, and when ^ 
 to speak. " There are many who, for fear of losing 
 the favour of men, are afraid to speak freely what 
 they ought to speak. Such are hirelings, and not 
 shepherds, who, seeing the wolf coming, fly ; that is, 
 
 hide themselves under the veil of silence 
 
 Whosoever enters on the priesthood undertakes the 
 office of a herald, to proclaim with a loud voice the 
 coming of the Judge who follows terribly. JWiere- 
 fore irt he prie st knows not how to preach, what loud 
 cry shall the mufe~BeraTd give? Therefore It was 
 that^ the Holy Spirit rested on the first |xistors 
 under the appearance of tongues ; because whom- 
 soever He has filled He causes forthwith to speak. 
 Hence it was that Moses commanded the High Priest 
 to have bells upon him when he went into the sanc- 
 tuary, as it is written, ' His sound shall be heard 
 when he goeth in unto the holy place before the 
 Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not.' 
 But, on the other hand, the preacher must be careful 
 
1 66 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 not to Speak inopportunely or inordinately : he must 
 not let himself be so hurried into speech as to run 
 the risk of error, or, while perchance he desires to 
 appear wise, unwisely sever the bond of unity. Nay, 
 he ought not only to guard against saying what is 
 amiss, he ought also to avoid saying what is good 
 overmuch and inordinately, since "the incautious 
 importunity of loquacity" lessens the weight of what 
 2 -he says to the heart of the hearers. Thirdly, the 
 - good pastor must come close to every one in sym- 
 pathy, but soar above all in contemplation, "so that 
 through the bowels of compassion he may accommo- 
 date himself to the infirmity of others, but through 
 the loftiness of speculation transcend even himself in 
 his aspiration after the invisible ; lest either by seek- 
 ing high things he despise the infirmities of his neigh- 
 bours, or by suiting himself to the infirmities of his 
 neighbours, he relinquish his desire of high things." 
 .... As Jacob saw the Lord above, and. the. angels 
 ascending and descending, so good preachers look in 
 contemplation to the Lord, the Head of the Church, 
 above, but descend in sympathy to His members 
 below. Thus Moses went continually in and outof 
 the tabernacle, rapt in contemplation within, occu- 
 pied with the care of the infirm outside. Thus our 
 Lord continued in prayer on the mountain, but 
 worked miracles in the cities ; in this manner showing 
 the way to good pastors, that, while aspiring after 
 the highest, they should mingle in sympathy with the 
 necessities of the infirm ; and the more kindly charity 
 descends to the lowest, the more vigorously and 
 wonderfully it recurs to the highest. .... The 
 
DISCRIMINATION AND TENDERNESS REQUIRED. 167 
 
 rulers of the Church should be such that their sub- 
 jects may not blush to disclose their secrets to them ; 
 that the little ones, tost by the waves of temptation, 
 may have recourse to their pastor as to a mother's 
 bosom, and wash away the defilement of the sin that 
 buffets them in the solace of exhortation and the 
 tears of prayer. Fourthly, the pastor must vary 
 his demeanour towards different sorts of people : 
 to those who are living well he must be humble and 
 companionable; against delinquents he must assert 
 his position in his zeal for righteousness j.so,asjn„op 
 respect to prefer himself to the good, but fear not to 
 make the perverse feel the power of his pre-eminence. 
 Still, in the latter case, he ought not to rejoice in his 
 power over others, but in his being able to profit 
 them ; for our fathers in the faith are spoken of, not 
 as kings of men, but as shepherds of the flock. And 
 in the exercise of d.iscipline he must be tender and 
 considerate; for a fracture is made worse if bound up 
 too tightly : like the good Samaritan, he must pour 
 into the wound both wine and oil; wine to cause 
 smart, but oil for soothing ; he must be as a mother 
 in af fection, and as a father in discipline ; he must 
 be justly compassionate, and affectionately severe ; for 
 both justice and mercy fail of their purpose, when 
 one is exercised without the other. Fifthly, the 
 spiritual ruler must be careful neither so to occupy 
 hjmself with external things as to forget the inner life 
 of the soul, nor so to care for the inner life as to 
 neglect the things which are without. For there are 
 some who give themselves with all their hearts to 
 secular cares, as if they had forgotten that they are 
 
 X- 
 
 'i\'^\ 
 
II 
 
 t68 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 set over their brethren for their souls' sake : and so 
 the spiritual life of those who are under them lan- 
 guishes, since, when they desire to advance in it, they 
 find a stumbling-block in the example of their pastor ; 
 for, when the head is sick, the members cannot 
 thrive. Others, again, would devote themselves so 
 exclusively to things spiritual as to pay no attention 
 <-o external affairs, and thus fail entirely to succour 
 the bodily needs of their flock. The preaching of 
 such persons is for the most part despised. For 
 those are not willingly listened to who censure 
 the deeds of delinquents, yet supply them not with 
 the necessaries of this present life. The word of 
 doctrine fails to penetrate the mind of the needy, 
 unless commended by the hand of compassion ; but 
 the seed of the word easily germinates when the 
 loving-kindness of the preacher waters it in the 
 hearer's heart. Sixthly, the pastor must guard against 
 anxiety to please men, and caring more for^ their 
 love than for the truth. For he is an eneniy of 
 the Saviour who, through the good works which he 
 does, desires to be loved in the Church instead of 
 God ; and it is treason in a servant if, when sent by 
 the Bridegroom with gifts for the Bride, he strives to 
 ingratiate himself with her. Such self-love in the 
 pastor leads both to remissness and to roughness : to 
 remissness, when, for fear of losing the affections of his 
 flock, he "sews })illows to all arm-holes," and flatters 
 when he ought to reprove ; to roughness, when, 
 being secure of his position, he constantly inveighs 
 and domineers. It is true that good shepherds 
 should by all means strive to please men ; but so as, 
 
HOW THE PASTOR OUGHT TO TEACH. 1 69 
 
 through love and respect for themselves, to induce 
 ^hem to love the truth ; to make the love for them- 
 selves to be as a bridge by which the hearts of the 
 hearers may be led to love of the Creator. For 
 it ishard for the preacher, thougli preaching the 
 truth, to be attended to, if he is not beloved. He 
 should therefore strive to be beloved in order to be 
 heard, but not to seek love for its own sake. 
 
 In the third division of the book, which is too long 
 to allow of anything like a complete summary^ the 
 subject is, " How the ruler, who lives well, ought to 
 teach and admonish"; detailed distinctions being 
 made between different classes of persons, for whom 
 different kinds of admonition are required. For (it 
 is explained in the preface) the same exhortation 
 does not suit all, as the same herbs do not suit all 
 animals, nor the same medicines all diseases. The 
 intent minds of hearers are like the stretched strings 
 of a harp, each of which the master's hand touches 
 differently, but so as to produce one music. The 
 strings send forth harmony for the very reason that 
 they are all struck by one pledriuu, but not all with 
 one force. And so every teacher, that he may edify 
 all in the one excellent way of charity, ought to 
 touch the hearts of his hearers out of one doctrine, 
 but not with one and the same exhortation. The 
 following may serve as specimens of the pairs of con- 
 trasted characters or positions, of which thirty-six are 
 given, for each of which the fitting style of admoni- 
 tion is pointed out : — Men and women, young and old, 
 poor and rich, the cheerful and the sad, the clever 
 and the stupid, the impudent and the bashful, the 
 
 TU^ 
 
lyo GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 impatient and the patient, the healthy and the sick, 
 the silent and the loquacious, the humble and the 
 proud, the gluttonous and the abstinent, the married 
 and the single, the prosperous and the unfortunate, 
 the incontinent and the deliberately wicked, those 
 who are habitually guilty of little sins, and those who, 
 being free from little ones, occasionally fall into 
 great ones, those who do wrong things in secret, but 
 good things in public, and those who hide the good 
 they do, but allow themselves to be thought evil of 
 in their public acts. These and similar contrasted 
 cases are treated at great length, and with much wise 
 discrimination. For instance, with respect to the 
 poor and the rich, the former are to be encouraged 
 and consoled, the latter to be alarmed and warned ; 
 but yet with due regard to circumstances, since, in 
 some cases, the poor may be prouder than the rich, 
 or the rich more humble than the poor. Then, as 
 to the silent and the loquacious, the former are to 
 be cautioned lest, in their overstrained fear of im- 
 proper utterance, they be betrayed into the worse 
 snare of evil cogitations, which may be engendered 
 all the more from the expression of them being sup- 
 pressed, and from security against discovery ; while 
 the loquacious are to be warned how an unbridled 
 tongue diverts a man from self-control and thought- 
 fulness, and leads him step by step from mere idle 
 talking to slander and uncharitableness. Again, the 
 married are to be admonished not to let their 
 domestic interests interfere with their care for things 
 eternal, but still so that they forget not their duties 
 to each other. They are to be especially urged to 
 
THE PASTORS NEED OF CARE ABOUT HIMSELF. 171 
 
 mutual consideration and forbearance, the husband 
 thinking not so much of what he has to bear from 
 his wife as what the wife has to bear from him ; and 
 the wife likewise. The unmarried, on the other 
 hand, are to take care to be all the more ready for 
 the last day from being free during their probation 
 from earthly cares, and to remember always that it 
 were much better for them to marry than to sin. 
 
 Such is the nature of the admonitions under the 
 several heads of the third division of the book. 
 
 The fourth and last division, setting forth how 
 " the^ preacher, having done all things well, should 
 consider himself, lest either his life or his preaching 
 puff him up," is very short, consisting only of a single 
 chapter. In this part it is said, " But since, when 
 an abundant gift of preaching in fitting style is 
 granted, the mind of the speaker is often up- 
 lifted by a hidden joy in his own display, great care 
 is necessary, lest while he calls others to salvation he 
 be puffed up so as to neglect his own ; lest while he 
 raises others he himself should fall. For to some 
 the very greatness of their excellence has been the 
 occasion of perdition; inordinately secure in their 
 confidence of strength, through negligence they have 
 unexpectedly perished. For excellence struggles with 
 frailties ; from a certain delight in it arises flattery of 
 self ; and it comes to pass that the mind of one who 
 is doing well throws aside the check of circumspec- 
 tion, and rests secure in self-confidence ; and to it in 
 this torpid state the crafty seducer enumerates all its 
 good doings, and exalts it in swelling cogitations, as 
 though surpassing all others. Hence the memory of 
 
 \^- 
 
172 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 virtue becomes the pitfall of the soul ; since in re- 
 membering the good things done, while it raises itself 
 in its own eyes, it falls in the eyes of the Author 
 of Humility." What is said of Israel represents the 
 process : " He delivered their power into captivity, 
 and their beauty into the enemy's hand." David is 
 an example. He said at one time ; " In my pros- 
 perity I said, I shall never be moved " ; but then, 
 again ; " Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was 
 troubled." Again ; " I have sworn, and I will per- 
 form it, that I will keep Thy righteous judgments " : 
 but then, again ; " I am afflicted very much : quicken 
 me, O Lord, according to Thy word." " Hence it is 
 necessary, when the abundance of our excellences 
 flatters us, that the mind's eye should return to one's 
 infirmity, and lower itself salubriously, so as to see 
 not what has been rightly done, but what has been 
 left undone ; that so the heart, being bruised by the 
 recollection of weakness, may be made more robust 
 in excellence before the Author of Humility. And 
 indeed, for this cause God, to whatever extent He 
 perfects the minds of rulers, leaves them usually in 
 some respect imperfect, that, in the midst of the 
 brilliance of their virtues, they may pine for disgust 
 at their imperfection, and by no means exalt them- 
 selves for great things, while they are worsted in their 
 strife against the least." In the tone of humility 
 thus enjoined on others, the writer concludes his 
 treatise : " So, good man, compelled by the force of 
 my own reprehension, while I strive to show what a 
 good pastor ought to be, I am like an ill-favoured 
 painter who portrays a handsome man ; I direct 
 
THE BOOK OF DIALOGUES. 1 73 
 
 Others to the shore of perfection, while I am myself 
 still tossed among the waves of faults. But in this 
 shipwreck of life, sustain me, I pray, by the plank of 
 thy prayer, that, since my own weight sinks me, thy 
 merit may keep me afloat." 
 
 This treatise has been thus summarized at some 
 length on account of both its reputation and its 
 intrinsic value. It contains valuable matter for all 
 times, proceeding evidently from one who had made 
 a careful study of human duty, and of the human heart 
 and conscience, as well as of the art of working on 
 the latter through pastoral influences. It will be ob- 
 served what essential and prominent parts of a bishop's 
 office preaching and spiritual direction are represented 
 as being. It is these, rather than ceremonial sacer- 
 dotal functions, that are the subject of the treatise. 
 
 Another work of wide renown is "The Four Books 
 of Dialogues, concerning the Life and Miracles of 
 Italian Fathers and the Eternity of Souls." The 
 writer relates in his preface the occasion of his writing 
 it. He had retired one day to a secret place, op- 
 pressed by the cares of office, to brood upon his 
 troubles. The Archdeacon Peter, who had been his 
 close friend from early youth and his companion in 
 study, found him thus musing, and inquired the cause 
 of his deep dejection. He told him in reply how he 
 was constantly harassed by mundane business, which 
 left him no time for heavenly contemplation, how 
 his spiritual state suffered from this cause, and how 
 he continualy looked back with regret to the happy 
 peaceful days he had once spent in his monastery ; 
 adding that his sorrow was augmented by the thought 
 
174 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 of many others, happier than himself, who had 
 renounced the world and attained to great holiness. 
 On Peter replying that he was not aware of Italy 
 having produced any persons so conspicuous for their 
 virtues as to inspire the emulation of Gregory, the 
 latter assures him that if he were to tell him all he 
 knew, either from personal experience or from good 
 testimony, of perfect and approved men, a day would 
 not suffice for the narration. Peter expressing a 
 strong desire to hear what he could tell him, he 
 begins the series of marvellous stories which are the 
 subject of the book, the form of a dialogue being 
 kept up throughout. He acknowledges that he 
 knew them only by hearsay, but undertakes to give 
 his authority in each case, and defends his relating 
 as true what he had not seen himself by the example 
 of St. Mark and St. Luke, who (as, he says, is clearer 
 than the light) record in their Gospels what they had 
 only heard of from others. He premises also that, in 
 some cases, he gives the sense only of what had been 
 told him, not the exact words that had been used, so 
 as to avoid the introduction of rustic speech, unsuit- 
 able for a written book. 
 
 The stories are mostly of the marvellous order, 
 many of them childish and grotesque ; interesting for 
 the view they give us of prevalent beliefs, rather than 
 edifying to readers of the present day. Some of 
 them resolve themselves, on examination, into natural 
 events, to which superstition had given a miraculous 
 colour ; some into mental impressions taken for 
 objective realities, or into dreams and trances ; others 
 may be due to the exaggeration of vulgar tradition, or 
 
STORY ABOUT BENEDICT OF NURSIA. 1 75 
 
 to invention only. It is to be observed that Gregory 
 only tells what had been told to him, so that his 
 veracity is not at stake, only his intelligence. It has 
 indeed been often questioned whether a man of his 
 sense and culture could possibly believe such old 
 wives' tales as some of the stories appear to us to be ; 
 and his giving them to the world as true has been 
 adduced as a blot on his moral rectitude. But the 
 reader should again be reminded of what has been 
 said in a former page, of the unscientific character of 
 the age he lived in, and of the general atmosphere of 
 thought, especially in monastic circles. The stories 
 that carry with them the most interest are those told 
 of St. Benedict, to whom the second book of the Dia- 
 logues is devoted. They help us to a view of the 
 man, of his career and character. One incident told 
 respecting him, and the comment made on it, is pecu- 
 liarly pleasing. Benedict, though secluded in his- 
 monastery, kept a warm heart for his sister, who was 
 a devotee like himself, but who used to come to see 
 him once a year. One year, shortly before her death, 
 she came as usual, and spent the day with him in 
 some building not far from his monastery. As they 
 took their evening meal together, she begged him to 
 stay with her till her departure ; but he refused, on 
 the ground of the rule requiring him to spend the 
 night in his cell. Whereupon she bent her head over 
 the table in prayer, and in answer to her prayer such 
 a violent thunderstorm came on as rendered it im- 
 possible for her brother to leave her till the morning. 
 Gregory comments thus on the incident, which he 
 calls a miracle : — *' I said that there had been one 
 
176 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 thing which he wished, but could not obtain. Nor is it 
 wonderful that in this case a woman, who desired her 
 brother's presence, prevailed more than he ; for, since, 
 according to the words of John, * God is love,' it was 
 right that she who had the greater love should have 
 the greater power." Peter is made to say, on hearing 
 this : "I confess that what you say pleases me 
 much." And Gregory goes on to tell him that three 
 days after her return to her convent the sister died ; 
 that Benedict had a vision of her soul departing in 
 the form of a dove, and had her body brought to his 
 own monastery for burial ; "so that they whose souls 
 had always been one in God, even in their burial were 
 not divided." 
 
 The fourth book of the Dialogues refers especially 
 to the state of the soul after death. The belief 
 in its survival, notwithstanding its invisibility, is 
 first justified against intellectual difficulties by phi- 
 losophical arguments, which are forcible and well 
 put, and then supported by a number of stories — 
 revelations to dying persons, visions of the departed 
 to survivors, and experiences of some who had re- 
 turned to life from apparent death. The eternity of 
 future punishment is maintained, and attempts made 
 to reconcile the conception of it with the Divine attri- 
 butes. Other difficulties attending the received views 
 about the future state, such as that of a literal fire 
 tormenting disembodied spirits, are also met by argu- 
 ments. The view of a purgtaorial fire for the imper- 
 fectly good is treated as one to be accepted, but not 
 laid down positively, the Romish doctrine of pur- 
 gatory not having as yet assumed any definite 
 
STATE OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH. 177 
 
 form. But on this head, as well as with regard 
 to the unseen world in general, there is no doubt 
 that Gregory's Dialogues have gone far to give 
 shape to the mediaeval conceptions on such sub- 
 jects. It will be perceived from the above cursory 
 review, that, in this fourth book at least, the writer 
 appears as a thinker and reasoner, as well as a 
 relater of marvels ; and he shows a clear perception 
 of intellectual difficulties and considerable power of 
 argument. Lastly we may adduce, as evidence of his 
 appreciation of the religion of the heart underlying all 
 superstitious views with which he may be charged, the 
 conclusion of the whole treatise ; where, after discours- 
 ing on and illustrating the salutary effect of the Eucha- 
 ristic oblation for the dead as well as the living, he adds 
 — " But it is necessary that, when we do these things, 
 we sacrifice ourselves to God in the contrition of the 
 heart ; since we who celebrate the mysteries of the 
 Lord's passion ought to imitate what we celebrate. 
 For then will God be truly a sacrifice for us, when we 
 shall have made ourselves a sacrifice." . . 
 "Wherefore, while time is still allowed us, while the 
 judge tarries, and waits for our conversion, let us be- 
 wail Avith tears the hardness of our mind, let us form 
 in ourselves the grace of loving-kindness to our 
 neighbours. And I boldly say that we shall not need 
 this salutary host after death, if before death we have 
 been ourselves a host to God." 
 
 The longest and most ambitious literary work of 
 Gregory is his commentary on Job, in thirty-five books 
 (known as Magna Moralia)^ begun at Constantinople 
 during his intimacy with Leander of Seville, and 
 
 N 
 
178 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 finished afterwards, and dedicated to him. Few 
 readers of the present day will have patience enough 
 to wade through this elaborate dissertation, of which 
 the following good account is given by Milman, in 
 his " History of Latin Christianity" : — " The book of 
 Job, according to Gregory, comprehended in itself 
 all natural, all Christian, theology, and all morals. 
 It was at once a true and wonderful history, an alle- 
 gory containing, in its secret sense, the whole theory 
 of the Christian church and Christian sacraments, 
 and a moral philosophy applicable to all mankind. 
 As an interpreter of the history, Gregory was entirely 
 ignorant of all the Oriental languages, even of Greek. 
 He read the book partly according .to the older, 
 partly according to the later Latin version. Of 
 ancient or of Oriental manners he knew nothing. Of 
 the book of Job as a podm (the most sublime of all 
 antiquity) he had no conception ; to him it is all 
 pure, unimaginative, unembellished history. As an 
 allegory, it is surprising with what copious ingenuity 
 Gregory discovers latent adumbrations of all the 
 Christian doctrines, and still more the unrelenting 
 condemnation of heresies and of heretics. The moral 
 interpretation may be read at the present time, if 
 with no great admiration at the depth of the philo- 
 sophy, with respect for its loftiness and purity. It is 
 ascetic, but generally, except when heretics are con- 
 cerned, devout, humane, and generous." The fol- 
 lowing may serve as a specimen of the allegorical 
 interpretation. On the text, " There were born unto 
 him seven sons and three daughters. His substance 
 also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand 
 
MAGNA MORALIA. 1 79 
 
 camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hun- 
 dred she asses," he comments to this effect. The 
 seven sons mean the twelve apostles, and therefore 
 the clergy, because seven is the perfect number, and 
 multiplied within itself, four by three or three by four, 
 produces twelve. The three daughters mean the 
 faithful laity, because they are to worship the Trinity. 
 The seven thousand sheep mean the multitude of 
 Jewish converts, since they came from the pastures 
 of the law ; the three thousand camels the multitude 
 of Gentiles, the camels denoting Gentiles as carrying 
 burdens, for the Gentiles were burdened with their 
 idolatrous superstitions, but laid them down when 
 they came to Christ ; and the same thing is shown 
 by Rebecca having ridden on a camel, expressing 
 her Gentile condition, when she journeyed to meet 
 Isaac, but alighted from it when she saw him. Or 
 the camel may denote the Samaritans, inasmuch as 
 it chews the cud, but does not part the hoof; for the 
 Samaritans receive the law in part, but in part reject 
 it. The oxen and asses are explained in a similar 
 style. It may seem surprising that a man of Gre- 
 gory's mental powers and culture could interpret in 
 this fashion ; a fashion which allows anything what- 
 ever to be drawn out of the text according to the 
 mind of the interpreter. But he started with the 
 view, not confined to him, that all Scripture, being 
 directly inspired by the Holy Ghost, had a mystic 
 as well as a literal meaning ; and the occupation of 
 searching out this meaning seems to have carried 
 him away with a kind of fascination. Further, in 
 justice to him it should be noted that his giving often 
 
 N 2 
 
l8o GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 alternative interpretations implies that he did not set 
 himself up as an infallible exponent of the mystic sense. 
 Gregory considered preaching an important part of 
 the pastoral office. We find him expressing regret 
 that he had so little time for it. Two collections 
 of his sermons remain, twenty-two homilies on 
 Ezekiel, and forty on the Gospels for the day. The 
 former have been alluded to above as preached for 
 the edification of the people of Rome during the 
 great distress caused by one of the Lombard inva- 
 sions. They were revised and edited by himself, 
 as he mentions in his letter to a bishop, Marianus, 
 who had asked to see them, eight years after their 
 delivery. They abound in the allegorical interpretations 
 of the text which he was so fond of, and for which the 
 subject chosen gave peculiar scope, but are also di- 
 dactic and hortatory. The first of them is an exposi- 
 tion of the scope of prophecy generally, which he shows 
 to embrace the past, the present, and the future, rightly 
 taking the word to express a showing forth of hidden 
 things rather than prediction only ; and he concludes 
 it thus : " Saying these things, in our preface alone, 
 we here have, as it were, made trial of our ship in 
 harbour, that we may afterwards spread our sails for 
 exploring the mysteries of prophecy, as it were in the 
 immensity of the ocean. Which thing, however, we 
 presume not to do in our own strength, but in Him 
 who has made the tongues of babes eloquent, ' for the 
 spirit of the Lord filleth the world ; and that which 
 containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice.' 
 For the voice of the Almighty Father is God Al- 
 mighty. And desiring to speak of Him, in Him we 
 
HOMILIES. l8l 
 
 shall be in no wise mute. For the Almighty ^^''ord 
 will give us profitable words ; He who, for us incar- 
 nate, lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of 
 the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen." 
 The homilies on the Gospels were delivered during 
 celebration on various occasions, and afterwards col- 
 lected by himself Each of them consists of an expo- 
 sition in detail of the Gospel that had been read, 
 followed by application and exhortation, often very 
 apt and forcible. Occasionally recent incidents, some 
 of them of a supposed miraculous character, are ad- 
 duced by way of enforcing his appeal. As a specimen 
 of the hortatory style we may cite the peroration of 
 the last homily in the collection, on the parable of 
 Dives and Lazarus. After expounding it both alle- 
 gorically and literally, he relates a story (told to him 
 by one who knew) about Romula, a religious woman, 
 who, after a life of holy poverty, and after long suffer- 
 ing from paralysis, had departed among heavenly 
 signs. A few days before her death, a sudden light 
 filled her room, the sound as of a multitude pressing 
 into it had been heard, though no person had been 
 seen, and a sweet odour had been left behind. On 
 the day of her departure, voices as of alternate 
 choirs of males and females had been heard outside 
 her door, which seemed to die away in the distance 
 as her soul took its flight. Having spoken of her as 
 one of God's pearls, lifted from the dunghill of humi- 
 liation and corruptibility " to glitter among those 
 unknown stones in the eternal diadem of the heavenly 
 King," he proceeds : " O ye who are rich in this world, 
 or imagine yourselves to be so, compare, if you can. 
 
1 82 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 your false riches with the true riches of Romula. 
 You, in your way through this world, possess, but will 
 lose everything ; she sought nothing in her journey, 
 but has found everything at its close. You lead a 
 joyful life, but fear a sorrowful death ; she endured a 
 sorrowful life, but attained to a joyful death. You 
 for a time seek honour from men ; she, despised of 
 men, has found angels as her companions. Learn 
 then, brethren, to despise all temporal things. Learn 
 to contemn transitory honour, to love eternal glory. 
 Honour those whom you see poor, and such as you 
 perceive to be outwardly the despised of the world 
 regard as inwardly the friends of God. Share with 
 them what you have, that they may deign some time 
 to share what they have with you. Consider what is 
 said by the mouth of the teacher of the Gentiles, 
 * That now at this time your abundance may be a 
 supply for their want, that their abundance also may 
 be a supply for your want.' Consider what the Truth 
 itself says : ' Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of 
 the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto 
 Me.' Why then are you slow to give, when what you 
 bestow on one lying on the earth you give to one that 
 sits in heaven ? But what Almighty God through 
 me speaks in your ears, may He speak Himself in 
 your minds, who liveth and reigneth with the Father, 
 in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and 
 ever. Amen." 
 
 The liturgical works of Gregory are his Sacramen- 
 tary, his Antiphonary, and certain hymns imputed to 
 him with probability. The Roman Sacramentary 
 in use before his time was that of Pope Gelasius 
 
THE SACRAMENTARY OF GREGORY. 1 83 
 
 (492-496), founded on an earlier one compiled by 
 St. Leo (440-461). What Gregory did, according to 
 his biographer, John the Deacon, was to abbreviate 
 the Gelasian codex into the compass of one volume, 
 omitting much, changing a few things, and adding 
 others. These omissions, changes, and additions 
 seem to have been mainly in the variable parts of 
 the service for different days and seasons. In 
 the invariable part — the Ordinarium and Canon — 
 the only changes attributed to him are two in 
 the Canon, which are noticed by Bede; viz., the 
 introduction of the Lord's Prayer immediately after 
 the Consecration, and the addition to the prayer of 
 Oblation of the words, "and dispose our days in 
 Thy peace, and grant us to be rescued from eternal 
 damnation, and numbered in the flock of Thine 
 elect." His introduction of the Lord's Prayer where 
 it still occurs in the Roman " Canon " is alluded to 
 in a letter of his own to John, Bishop of Syracuse, in 
 which he defends this and other changes against 
 some who had taunted him with imitating the use of 
 Constantinople. This, he says, he had not done, 
 inasmuch as in the East the Lord's Prayer was re- 
 peated in this place by all the people, but in the 
 Roman Church by the priest alone. And he justifies 
 his introduction of it in the part of the service 
 referred to, by the remarkable assertion (his grounds 
 for which are not known) that the apostles had used 
 no other prayer than the Lord's Prayer in consecrat- 
 ing the elements. His words are, " But we say the 
 Lord's Prayer immediately after the prayer (of con- 
 secration), because it was the custom of the apostles. 
 
184 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 to consecrate the host of oblation by that prayer 
 only. And it seemed to me very unsuitable that we 
 should say over the oblation a prayer which some 
 scholastic had composed, and to omit saying that 
 prayer which our Redeemer Himself composed over 
 His Body and Blood/'^ His assertion about the 
 apostles having used the Lord's Prayer only in 
 consecrating the Eucharist has been the subject 
 of considerable discussion. The liturgist Bona 
 thinks it so unlikely to be true, that he suggests 
 that the word "only" {soliim-??wdo) has crept into 
 the text, regarding it as incredible that the apostles 
 should not at any rate have recited the words 
 of institution, Binterin suggests " solemni modo " 
 as the true reading for " solum-modo," or that 
 the word " only" refers to the occasion of using the 
 prayer, not to the prayer itself; the meaning being, 
 according to this last view, that the apostles used the 
 Lord's Prayer in the consecration of the Eucharist, 
 but not in the celebration of other sacraments. But 
 all these are only lame devices forgetting out of a sup- 
 posed difficulty. Daniel {Codex Liturgicus) sees no 
 difficulty in the assertion. He takes Gregory to be 
 referring to that part of the office only which is still 
 called " the Consecration," beginning with " Who on 
 the day before He suffered " ; and considers him to 
 mean, that in this particular part the apostles added 
 no prayer but the Lord's Prayer to the words of 
 Institution, which he never thought of denying their 
 use of The form of prayer which follows the words 
 
 ' Epp., B. VII., Ind. ii., Ep. 64. 
 
THE lord's prayer IN THE OFFICE. 1 85 
 
 of Institution in the Roman use he supposes to 
 have been subsequently composed by some one 
 known as " Scholasticus." According to this theory, 
 Gregory's words do not imply that the Apostles 
 used no prayers but the Lord's Prayer in the cele- 
 bration of the Eucharist previously or subsequently 
 to the actual consecration of the elements, only 
 that the consecration prayer of the Roman Canon, 
 and of other ancient liturgies, was not apostolic. 
 The further apparent inference from the words of 
 both Bede and Gregory himself, that the Lord's 
 Prayer did not occur at all in the Roman office 
 before his time, has also been a source of difficulty. 
 Muratori scouts the idea that the inference can be 
 a correct one. Bona acknowledges that it is the 
 natural one from the words used, and supposes that 
 though it had originally been in the Roman as in 
 other ancient offices, the custom may have crept in 
 of omitting it ; adducing in illustration a similar 
 custom in the Church of Spain about the same 
 period : '' Some priests in Spain are found who say 
 the Lord's Prayer which our Saviour taught and com- 
 manded, not daily, but on the Lord's day only."^ 
 He also suggests the view, which is now generally 
 taken, that all that Gregory did was to remove the 
 Lord's Prayer to its present place immediately after 
 consecration, from some other part of the office 
 where it had previously occurred, either before or 
 afterwards. And what Gregory says is quite com- 
 patible with this view. It is sometimes taken almost 
 
 * Concil. Toleton., iv. 9. 
 
1 86 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 for granted that it had previously occurred after the 
 fraction of the host, and before communion, as in 
 most other ancient Hturgies. But Gregory's words, 
 " over His Body and Blood," seem to preclude its 
 previous use at all between consecration and commu- 
 nion. Hence, if we suppose it to have occurred in 
 some other part of the office, either before or after- 
 wards, it would appear that the reformed Anglican 
 office agrees in this respect with the Roman use 
 before the time of Gregory. It follows also that the 
 ancient Roman liturgy differed in the same respect 
 from all ancient ones that we know of, except indeed 
 the " Clementine " (considered to be the earliest type 
 of Eucharistic service), in which the Lord's Prayer 
 does not occur at all. There seems to be no doubt 
 that the " Ordo Missae," exclusive of the parts which 
 vary with the seasons, has remained unaltered since 
 his time, though it is uncertain how much of the rest 
 is of later introduction. Similar uncertainty rests on 
 the Antiphonary, or book of Antiphons, that bears 
 his name. Among the hymns that have been attributed 
 to him, many are undoubtedly of a later date. The 
 Benedictine editors of his works have selected eight 
 as his, as they probably may be. Their versification 
 on the whole seems to be such as to suit his age, 
 being in the main classical, though not strictly so. 
 Six of them are in the metre generally used by St. 
 Ambrose, viz., strophes of four lines of Tambic di- 
 meters, corresponding to the long measure of our 
 English hymns : two are in what is called Sapphic 
 verse. Most of them are without rhyme, though in 
 some it occurs occasionally, possibly without deli- 
 
HYMNS. 187 
 
 berate intention. One only (that on the Passion, 
 beginning " Rex Christe, factor omnium") is in rhyme 
 throughout. This circumstance, joined with the fact 
 that the earliest manuscript copies of it are as late as 
 the T2th century, suggests the suspicion that it (as well 
 as the verses of the other hymns where rhymes occur) 
 may be by some later hand. But, if rhymed verses 
 were beginning to come into use in Gregory's age, it 
 is quite supposable that he might write in both styles. 
 The rhymed hymn just alluded to is interesting, as 
 being spoken of by Luther in his Table-talk as the 
 best ever written. The devotional tone of these 
 hymns is not, like that of many later ones, individu- 
 ally subjective ; being such as rather to suit a com- 
 munity of worshippers, and with references to the 
 acts of creation and redemption, and to the life of 
 Christ. We may suppose them to have been especially 
 intended for use in monasteries. They include well- 
 known favourites of our day, whether used in Latin 
 or in translations. Many will recognize them by their 
 initial lines, which are, — i. Fri?no dierum omnium; 
 2. Node surgefites vigilemus omnes ; 3. Eccejamnoctis 
 temiatur umbra ; 4. Lucis Creator optime ; 5. Clarum 
 decus jejunii; 6. Audi beate Conditor ; 7. Magno 
 salutis gaudio ; 8. Rex Christe factor omnium. 
 
 It may be added, for the sake of those who cannot 
 refer to the originals, that of these Nos. 4, 5, and 6 
 appear, translated or paraphrased, in "Hymns Ancient 
 and Modern," under the titles, " Blest Creator of the 
 light," " Good it is to keep the fast," and "O Merciful 
 Creator, hear." 
 
 He took great interest in ritual, — whence he has 
 
1 88 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 been called " Master of Ceremonies " {Magistcr 
 £(Brimonioriim), and, in connection with it, in church 
 music. He founded a song-school at Rome, which 
 had also a charitable purpose, being called "The 
 Orphanage" {Orphafwfroj^hmm), with two buildings, 
 one beneath the steps leading to St. Peter's Church, 
 the other adjoining the Lateran palace ; and there it 
 was that he personally instructed the boys in music. 
 We all know something of the "Gregorian tones," 
 so called from him, which, at any rate, represent the 
 kind of music he promoted. He is said to have 
 banished all that was light and theatrical from church 
 music, and also to have confined the singing to the 
 choir, excluding the general congregation. The 
 preference thus shown for the ancient and severe 
 style, due we may suppose to his monastic predi- 
 lections, is probably what gave the distinguishing 
 character to what used to be called " Gregorian " 
 as opposed to " Ambrosian" music. For the terms 
 '' Cantus Gregorianus " and " Cantus Ambrosianus " 
 we find used formerly as marking two distinct styles. 
 Now what we know positively of the kind of singing 
 favoured by St. Ambrose is this. He introduced in 
 his church at Milan the antiphonal chanting, which 
 had spread from Antioch through the East before it 
 found its way into the West ;i and also, it appears, 
 such a peculiarly pleasing and melodious style of 
 music that St. Augustine, when he first heard it, 
 doubted its propriety, though it charmed him. He 
 
 * Theodoret, ii. 24; Socrates, vi. 8; Nicetas, '•'' Thesaiir. 
 Orthodox. Fid.,'' v. 30 ; Augustine, *' Confess.,'" ix. 7 ; Paulinus, 
 in Vit. Ambrosii. 
 
GREGORIAN MUSIC. 1 89 
 
 says with reference to it, addressing Ambrose, " But^ 
 when I remember my tears which I shed on hearing 
 the singing in your church, in the beginning of my 
 recovered faith, and how I am now also moved by it, 
 not by the singing itself, but by that which is sung 
 with hquid voice and most suitable modulation, I 
 again acknowledge the great utility of this system. 
 And thus I fluctuate between a feeling of danger 
 from the pleasure it gives and experience of its 
 advantage ; and I am on the whole inclined (though 
 not giving a settled opinion) to approve your way of 
 singing in church, that, through the ear's delight the 
 mind may be roused to pious emotions." It would 
 seem that before St. Ambrose gave his sanction to 
 melodious and attractive music, the heretics had been 
 allowed to monopolize it. At any rate, at Alexan- 
 dria (as St. Augustine also informs us) St. Athanasius 
 had instructed the readers of the Psalms to use such 
 moderate inflections of the voice that it was more 
 like recitation than singing ; and the African Dona- 
 tists reproached the Catholics for the dulness of 
 their psalmody. It was probably an analogous case 
 to that of old-fashioned Church of England people 
 regarding at first with suspicion and dislike the 
 exciting hymnody of Methodists. Thus we have 
 good reason to suppose the style of music called 
 Ambrosian to have been, in its essence, that of 
 attractive melody, which may have developed into 
 fantastic lightness in the time of Gregory. And it is 
 probable that Gregory's reform was a return, in some 
 degree, to the more severe ancient style, and that 
 this was the real difference in principle between 
 
190 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 Ambrosian and Gregorian music. This view is con- 
 firmed by what we are told, as above stated, of 
 Gregory having banished all that was light and 
 theatrical from the music of the Church, and also by 
 the statement of an ancient writer (quoted by the 
 liturgist Martene^) that in the Benedictine monas- 
 tery of Cassino Ambrosian music was entirely for- 
 bidden to be sung. It has been commonly alleged 
 that Gregory's main work in regard to church music 
 was an extension of the modes or scales previously in 
 use; that Ambrose, having introduced the four 
 "authentic" modes called (after those in ancient 
 Greek music that corresponded with them) Dorian, 
 Phrygian, Lydian, Misco-T.ydian, Gregory added to 
 them the four "plagal" or "subsidiary" modes, 
 called Hypo-Dorian, Hypo-Phrygian, Hypo-Lydian, 
 Hypo-Misco-Lydian, thus enlarging the range of 
 allowed ecclesiastical melody. But, whatever ground 
 there may be for this statement, it evidently does not 
 account for the contrast anciently made between 
 Ambrosian and Gregorian music ; and Mr. Chappell, 
 in his recently published History of Music, maintains 
 that the ecclesiastical scales referred to " are not of 
 the early date that has been supposed." 
 
 ' Martene, '' De Antiq. Eccles. i?zV.," vol. iii. p. 8. 
 
CHARACTER OF GREGORY IQI 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 Gregory's Character — His talents — His attainments — His doc- 
 trinal views — On the authority of the Church — Augusti- 
 nianism — Baptism — The Eucharist — Purgatory — Interces- 
 sion of Saints — Relics — Pictures and Images — Slavery — 
 Authority of the Roman See — Results of his policy. 
 
 Of the character, the talents, and the attainments 
 of Pope Gregory the reader will, it is hoped, have 
 gained a pretty clear conception from the acts of 
 his life, and especially from the extracts that have 
 been given from his letters and other writings. Of 
 the loftiness of his aims, the earnestness of his pur- 
 pose, the fervour of his devotion, his unwearied 
 activity, and his personal purity, there can be no 
 doubt. These qualities are conspicuous through his 
 whole career. If his religion was of the strongly 
 ascetic type, and disfigured by superstitious credulity, 
 it bore in these respects the complexion of his age, 
 inseparable then from aspiration after the highest 
 hoHness. Nor did either superstition or asceticism 
 supersede in him the principles of a true inward reli- 
 gion, — ^justice, mercy, and truth. We find him, when 
 occasion required, exalting mercy above sacrifice ; 
 he was singularly kindly and benevolent, as well as 
 just ; and even his zeal for the full rigour of monastic 
 discipline was tempered with much gentleness and 
 allowance for infirmity. If, again, with singleness of 
 
192 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 main purpose was combined at times the astuteness 
 of the diplomatist, and a certain degree of politic 
 insincerity in addressing potentates, his aims were 
 never personal or selfish. And if he could stoop, for 
 the attainment of his ends, to the then prevalent 
 adulation of the great, he could also speak his mind 
 fearlessly to the greatest, when he felt great principles 
 to be at stake. 
 
 His talents were eminently of tlie practical order ; 
 such as enabled him at once to organize large plans, 
 and to direct the details of their execution ; to keep 
 in his own hands the reins of a multitude of affairs, 
 and make himself felt in remote regions. He had 
 the rare gift of uniting zeal with prudence ; he was 
 singularly free from stiffness and prejudice in adapting 
 his course to circumstances, though without losing 
 sight of the end in view : he could pursue a wise 
 policy of accommodation without sacrifice of prin- 
 ciple. He had eminently the gifts of government 
 and administration. He had moreover the power of 
 gaining influence over other minds, with the important 
 gift of tact in his mode of addressing various people. 
 In the higher intellectual sphere he was not much of 
 an original thinker or a philosopher ; but he could 
 see clearly and grasp firmly the tenets of orthodox 
 theology, and expound them to others, generally with 
 a practical purpose. He was altogether a practical 
 rather than a theoretical theologian. His attainments 
 also were limited. Though spoken of in his youth 
 as second to none in Rome in grammar, logic, and 
 rhetoric, which constituted then a liberal education, 
 and though he had further studied Roman law, and 
 
Gregory's learning. 193 
 
 was thoroughly familiar with Holy Scripture, yet he 
 knew no language but his own, was unacquainted with 
 classical literature, and showed himself utterly incom- 
 petent as a critical expositor of the Bible. As to 
 the classics, he avoided them on principle, as being 
 heathen. There is indeed no good ground for cre- 
 diting the story (the earliest authority for which is 
 John of Salisbury in the 12 th century) of his having 
 purposely burnt the Palatine library ; but his feelings 
 with regard to heathen literature sufficiently appear 
 from his letter of strong reproof to Desiderius, bishop 
 of Vienne, for giving lessons in grammar, on the 
 ground that the occupation involved the reading of 
 heathen poets. " For (says he) the praises of Christ 
 do not admit of being joined in the same mouth with 
 the praises of Jupiter ; and it is a serious and exe- 
 crable thing for bishops to sing what even for a reli- 
 gious layman is unbecoming." ^ Thus the fancy, the 
 grace, the thoughts, of the master minds of antiquity ; 
 ancient history and philosophy ; those things which 
 we now regard as the means of the highest intel- 
 lectual culture ; were precluded by his very principles 
 from shedding their light upon his mind : even the 
 old Christian fathers he does not seem to have studied 
 deeply, though he was familiar with St. Augustine, 
 and had imbibed his views : the very Bible he knew 
 only through Latin translations ; and though he 
 thus knew it intimately, and had it, as it were, at his 
 fingers' ends, and understood well its moral and reli- 
 gious teaching, he had little collateral knowledge or 
 
 ' Ep., B. IX., Ind. iv., Ep. 48. 
 
 o 
 
194 GREGORY THE GREAT, 
 
 enlightenment to enable him to interpret it with 
 intelligent breadth of view. He represented and 
 perpetuated the domination of received theological 
 conceptions over all fields of thought which had 
 already set in, and which continued through the 
 middle ages, till the Renaissance gave men's minds a 
 freer wing. Still, wTthin the range he took, he spoke 
 to his own and succeeding ages with great power and 
 influence ; while his genuine piety and his real grasp 
 of essential Christian principles enabled him so to 
 speak as to justify his title as a doctor of the Church. 
 A short notice of the doctrinal views prominent in 
 his works shall be given in conclusion ; being inter- 
 esting as showing both the beliefs of his day, and the 
 action of his own mind upon them. 
 ' The dogmatic decisions of the general councils 
 with respect to the Trinity and the Incarnation he 
 accepted implicitly, though the constitution and bent 
 of his mind wxre not such as to lead him to dwell 
 in his writings on the abstruse subjects involved. 
 What the Church Catholic had authoritatively ruled 
 he regarded as settled, and beyond the range of dis- 
 pute. And the Church he compares to the ark of 
 Noah, within which alone was salvation, and with 
 four sides to it, which denote the four Gospels, 
 the four oecumenical Councils, and the four Patri- 
 archates. Within these four sides, thus variously 
 understood, was both truth and salvation. On the 
 doctrines of Grace he adopted the teaching of his 
 favourite divine, St. Augustine, referring the salva- 
 tion of individuals entirely to divine election, though 
 he is careful to recognize the operation of human 
 
VIEWS ON GRACE AND FREE WILL. 1 95 
 
 freewill as the organ through which grace works. 
 "The good which we do is both God's and ours: 
 God's, through prevenient grace ; ours, through 
 freewill complying." ^ "Since, when divine grace 
 prevents us, our freewill followis, we are said to 
 make ourselves free, in consenting, to the Lord, 
 who makes us free." ^ But all is ultimately referred 
 to the eternal knowledge of God, which is regarded 
 as causal, as well as infinite. " We know that to 
 God nothing is future ; before His eyes there is no 
 past, present things pass not away, future things come 
 not : since everything which to us was and will be 
 in His sight is present ; and whatever is present He 
 may be said to know rather than foreknow. Because 
 He sees things which to us are future, but to Himself 
 are always present. He is said to be prescient ; 
 although He by no means foresees as future what 
 He sees as present ; for whatever is is not seen in 
 His eternity because it is, but is because it is seen."-' 
 Gregory was thus influential in handing on to the 
 Church the Augustinian theology : but in its milder 
 and more practical, rather than its speculative form. 
 He mainly concerned himself with that side of it 
 which he held conducive to the formation of the 
 Christian character, to humility, and dependence on 
 God. Speculative difficulties on this and other ab- 
 struse subjects he was by no means blind to ; but 
 met them by reference to the inscrutability of the 
 
 * "Commentary on Job," book xxxiii. in ch. 41. 
 ^ Ibid., book xxiv, in ch. 33. 
 ' Ibid., book xx. in ch. 30. 
 O 2 
 
196 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 divine counsels. He reproved heretics for their ten- 
 dency to investigate, instead of accepting, the secrets 
 of God, so that, '' aiming at knowledge of the divine 
 nature, they remained ignorant of themselves." In 
 this tone of feeling (as has appeared from one of his 
 quoted letters) he esteemed it neither possible, nor 
 profitable if it were so, to be assured in this life of 
 one's own election. Following the same line of 
 thought, he ends one of his sermons thus : •' Let us 
 trust in the mercy of our Creator : let us, being 
 mindful of His righteousness, lament our sins ; being 
 mindful of His grace, let us not despair. The God- 
 man gives man trust in God." Similarly the then 
 received view of unbaptized infants being rejected 
 while the baptized were saved, the difficulty of which 
 he sees, he declines to discuss, on the ground of the 
 whole subject being obscure, and beyond human 
 comprehension. 
 
 His general view of the Sacrament of Baptism is 
 set forth ^1 a letter to Theoctista, which has been 
 already referred to and quoted. He regards it as 
 entirely cleansing the recipient from the guilt of all 
 past sin, starting him on a new life of theoretic holi- 
 ness ; but by no means securing him against new 
 temptations, which may frustrate his attainment of 
 salvation. " If there are any that say that sins are only 
 superficially remitted in baptism, what can be more 
 unbelieving than such teaching, by which the very 
 sacrament of faith is nullified ? In it especially the 
 soul is bound to the mystery of celestial purity, that, 
 being entirely absolved from all sins, it may cleave to 
 Him alone, of whom the prophet says, ' It is good for 
 
BAPTISM AND THE EUCHARIST. 1 97 
 
 me to hold me fast by God.' For certainly the pas- 
 sage of the Red Sea was a figure of holy baptism, in 
 which the enemies behind died, but others in front 
 were found in the wilderness. In like manner, all 
 who are washed in holy baptism have all their past 
 sins remitted, since they die as the Egyptian did. But 
 in the wilderness we find other enemies; since, as 
 long as we live in this life, ere we attain to the country 
 of promise, many temptations assail us, and stand in 
 the way of those who are travelling to the land of the 
 living."! 
 
 He took a high and mystic view of the Eucharistic 
 sacrifice, though without any definite explanation 
 of the mode of Christ's presence. The particular 
 theory of transubstantiation had not then been 
 mooted. He writes of the Eucharist thus : " For 
 this sacrifice in a peculiar manner saves the soul from 
 eternal death, renewing to us through a mystery that 
 death of the Only-begotten, who, though being risen 
 from the dead He dieth no more, and death shall 
 have no more dominion over Him, yet, while in 
 Himself living immortally and incorruptibly, is again 
 sacrificed for us in this mystery of the sacred obla- 
 tion. For His body is there taken. His flesh is dis- 
 tributed for the salvation of the people, His blood is 
 shed, not into the hands of unbelievers, but into the 
 mouths of the faithful. Ponder we then of what sort 
 to us is this sacrifice, which for our absolution ever 
 imitates the passion of the only-begotten Son. For 
 who of the faithful can doubt that, in the very hour 
 
 1 B. XL, Ind. iv., Ep. 45. 
 
198 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 of immolation, at the priest's voice the heavens are 
 opened ; that in this mystery of Jesus Christ the 
 choirs of angels are present, the lowest is associated 
 with the highest, things on earth are joined to things 
 ^in heaven, the visible and invisible become one?"^ 
 He believed also in its efficacy, when offered with a 
 special intention, for the benefit of absent persons, 
 causing sometimes their sudden delivery from tem- 
 poral calamities, and for the absolution of departed 
 souls in pain. Several stories are told in his 
 *' Dialogues " illustrative of such results. But, on the 
 other hand, we must not forget his view, expressed 
 in a passage that has been quoted, of the sacrifice 
 not benefiting the worshippers unless they imitate 
 what they celebrate by a moral sacrifice of them- 
 selves, and of their needing no other after death, if 
 during life they have offered this. 
 
 His belief in a purgatorial fire of some kind has 
 been already referred to : which befief, though not 
 propounded in the way of positive dogma, yet, sup- 
 l)orted as it was by stories, attested by visions, of the 
 efficacy of masses for souls in pain, is believed to have 
 formed an important step towards the formation of the 
 later more definite doctrine on the subject. His 
 favourite theologian, St. Augustine, had spoken of 
 the belief of some in a cleansing fire after death, 
 which he regards as not improbable. Gregory advances 
 the theory more positively, as what " is to be believed." 
 He grounds the view mainly on the reason of the case 
 rather than on distinct revelation, arguing that, as no 
 
 » Dial. IV. 58. 
 
PURGATORY. INTERCESSION OF SAINTS, RELICS. 1 99 
 
 unclean thing can enter heaven, and as many depart 
 this life who seem neither good enough for heaven 
 nor bad enough for hell, there must surely be a pur- 
 gatory. But he also cites i Cor. iii. 12 in support of 
 his position. It is almost needless to say that the 
 Romish theory of papal indulgences, as applied to 
 souls in purgatory, was in his time unknown. 
 
 The saint-worship, and especially the Mariolatry of 
 a later age, derive no sanction from the writings of 
 Gregory, except so far as their germs may be found in 
 the long-standing belief in the value of the intercession 
 of beatified saints, to which he gives expression. He 
 speaks, especially in letters when he asserts the 
 authority of the Roman see, of the value of St. Peter's 
 mediation for obtaining remission of sin. But there 
 is a marked distinction between his utterances on the 
 subject and the subsequently developed cidtus of saints, 
 and especially of the Blessed Virgin. And in his 
 Sacramentary the prayers where the intercession of 
 saints is pleaded are addressed to God, not to the 
 saints themselves. 
 
 In the efficacy of relics he fully believed ; sent 
 presents of them to distinguished converts and other 
 devout persons ; ordered their deposition in newly- 
 founded churches ; and recognized miracles wrought 
 by their means. 
 
 His views on the subject appear strikingly in a letter 
 to the Empress Constantina, who had asked him for 
 the head of St. Paul, or something from his body, that 
 she might place it in a church which she had built in 
 honour of the Apostle. He tells her that he neither 
 could nor dared comply with her request, for that the 
 
200 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome were sur- 
 rounded by such miracles and terrors that they could 
 not be approached, even for the purpose of prayer, 
 without great fear. Pope Leo, he says, had once 
 desired to change some silver in the shrine of St. 
 Peter, at a distance of fifteen paces from the body 
 itself, but had been deterred by a terrible sign. He 
 himself had been similarly deterred from altering 
 something near the body of St. Paul, and a person 
 who had presumed to lift and remove some bones in 
 the neighbourhood, but not in the grave itself, had 
 seen awful portents, and died suddenly. Further, in 
 the time of Pope Leo, the body of St. Laurentius having, 
 in the course of some alterations, been accidentally 
 exposed, all who were present and saw it, though they 
 had not presumed to touch it, had died within ten 
 days. 
 
 He adds that it was the custom at Rome never 
 to allow relics from the bodies of saints to be carried 
 away, but only to place near them pieces of cloth en- 
 closed in a box, which, when afterwards deposited in 
 newly-dedicated churches, were found to possess the 
 same miraculous powers as the bodies themselves. 
 The genuineness of one such cloth had been ques- 
 tioned by some Greeks in the days of Leo, who had 
 thereupon cut it with a pair of scissors, and blood had 
 flowed from it. 
 
 As to the bodies of saints, it was held through- 
 out the West to be altogether intolerable and sacri- 
 legious to touch them. It was asserted, indeed, 
 that in the East it was customary to remove their 
 bones ; but this Gregory can hardly believe, and he is 
 
PICTURES AND IMAGES. 20I 
 
 confirmed in his opinion by the fact that certain 
 Greeks had recently been found digging by night near 
 St. Paul's church at Rome, and had confessed, on 
 being examined, that they were taking away fictitious 
 relics, to be passed off in the East as the real bones of 
 saints.^ 
 
 The controversy about the use and adoration of 
 pictures and images, which ere long gave rise to 
 such bitter conflict, had not yet begun. But there 
 were already signs of its approach ; and Gregory, like 
 his successors, defended their use, though he was 
 careful to repudiate any superstitious adoration of 
 them. Serenus, bishop of Marseilles, had, in his 
 zeal against incipient idolatry, destroyed the images 
 in a church. To him Gregory wrote as follows : 
 " We have been informed that, inflamed by incon- 
 siderate zeal, you have broken the images of the 
 saints, on the pretext that they ought not to be adored. 
 And indeed we altogether praise you for forbidding 
 them to be adored, but we blame you for breaking 
 them. Say, brother, what priest has ever been heard 
 to have done what you have done ? Ought not this 
 consideration to have checked you, and kept you 
 from despising your brethren, and setting yourself 
 up as the only oneQhat is holy and wise ? For 
 it is one thing to adore a picture ; another to learn 
 what it is to be adored through the history told 
 by the picture. What Scripture presents to readers, 
 a picture presents to the gaze of the unlearned : for 
 in it even the ignorant see what they ought to follow ; 
 
 * B. IV., Ind. xii., Ep. 30. 
 
202 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 in it the illiterate read." ^ In a letter also to one 
 Secundinus, who was not an illiterate person, he 
 says, 
 
 "The images which you asked for I have sent. Your 
 request for them has pleased me much, since with all 
 your heart you seek Him whose image you desire to 
 have before your eyes. We do nothing unreasonable 
 if by the visible we show forth the invisible. Thus a 
 man ardently desirous of seeing another, — say a lover 
 anxious to behold his betrothed bride, if she should 
 happen to be going to the bath or to the church,- — 
 hastens to meet her on the way, that he may return 
 gladdened by the sight of her. I know that you do 
 not desire the image of our Saviour that you may 
 worship it as God, but that you may be reminded of 
 Him, and refresh your love for Him by the sight of His 
 image. . . . Wherefore we send you images of God 
 the Saviour, of the holy Mary mother of God, and of 
 the apostles Peter and Paul." ^ 
 
 His views on slavery, though not, strictly speaking, 
 to be classed among his theological tenets, may be 
 mentioned here. Like St. Paul, he recognized the 
 institution as part of the social system of his day, and 
 respected the rights of masters. He directed slaves 
 to be employed in the service of monasteries, as well 
 as on the lands of the Patrimony, and caused them to 
 be purchased for these purposes. He forbade in 
 synod unrestricted allowance of slaves eluding their 
 
 J F,. IX., Ind. iv., Ep. 9. 
 
 2 Epp., B. VII., Ind. ii., Ep. 54. 
 
VIEWS ON SLAVERY. 203 
 
 service on the plea of entering monasteries. But he 
 encouraged their conversion to monastic life, when 
 their sincerity had been proved by probation, at the 
 same time directing, when necessary, their owners to 
 be repaid in money for their loss. He was also 
 zealous in the redemption of captives out of his own 
 means and those of others, and out of general church 
 funds. 
 
 In one case we find him freely manumitting 
 two slaves of the Roman Church, and securing to 
 them and their lawful issue in perpetuity certain 
 money that had been left them. His letter on this 
 occasion expresses well his views on slavery in the 
 abstract, and the motives that actuated him. He 
 writes, 
 
 " Since our Redeemer, the Maker of every 
 creature, was pleased mercifully to assume human 
 flesh in order to break the chain of slavery in which 
 we were held captive, and restore us to our pristine 
 liberty, it is right that men, whom nature from the 
 beginning produced free, and whom the law of nations 
 has subjected to the yoke of slavery, should be 
 restored by the benefit of manumission to the liberty 
 in which they were born. Wherefore, moved by this 
 consideration, we make you, Montana and Thomas, 
 from this day forth free and Roman citizens, and give 
 you free use of all your private property." ^ 
 
 It remains to notice once more Gregory's undoubted 
 view of the universal supremacy of the See of Rome 
 
 ' B. VI., Ind. xiv., Ep. 12. 
 
204 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 in virtue of the special commission to St. Peter (called 
 the Prince of the Apostles) by our Lord Himself. 
 But we do not find him asserting it in such a way as 
 to merge the general episcopal commission in the 
 Papacy ; to make the Pope the necessary source of 
 all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or the sole infallible 
 definer of doctrine. His protest against the title 
 assumed by the Constantinopolitan patriarchs has 
 indeed been often rightly quoted as a virtual protest 
 also against many subsequent papal claims. And his 
 remarkable view of Antioch and Alexandria being 
 co-ordinate successors of St. Peter with himself, must 
 also be borne in mind. Still less did he think of 
 asserting the theory of the subjection of the temporal 
 to the spiritual sword, carrying with it the power of 
 setting up or deposing princes, which was afterwards 
 developed, and which was so emphatically expressed 
 in the famous Bull of Boniface VHI. (a.d. 1303), 
 called " Unam Sanctam." On the contrary, he was 
 remarkable, as has been seen, for his deference to the 
 civil power, and his recognition of its supremacy in 
 its proper sphere. 
 
 Homage to himself personally as Pope he 
 earnestly repudiated. He discouraged the custom 
 of bishops resorting to Rome, in order to render 
 honour to him, on the anniversaries of his conse- 
 cration, and in a synod he forbade the dead bodies 
 of popes, when carried to burial, to be covered 
 with a dalmatic, lest the people (as they had been 
 accustomed to do) should tear off pieces of it as 
 sacred relics : for, he said, bishops of Rome are sin- 
 
PAPAL SUPREMACY. 
 
 205 
 
 ners like other men. Still, there can be no doubt that 
 it was eminently his astute and comprehensive policy 
 that brought about the system of papal monarchy 
 which, though ever repudiated in the East, was finally 
 accepted by the whole of the Western Church. With- [ 
 out inquiring here into the soundness of the theory 
 on which it was made to rest, or the evils attending 
 its later development, we may all acknowledge its 
 advantages, or even necessity, in the times for which 
 it was providentially ordained. Christendom indeed 
 owes a deep debt of gratitude to Gregory for this most 
 important issue of his reign. On this head the 
 wise remarks of Milman, in his " History of Latin 
 Christianity," may be suitably quoted in conclusion. 
 " Providence might have otherwise ordained, but it 
 is impossible for man to imagine by what other 
 organizing or consolidating force the commonwealth 
 of the Western nations could have grown up into a 
 discordant, indeed, and conflicting league, but still to 
 a league, with that unity and conformity of manners, 
 usages, laws, religion, which have made their rivalries, 
 oppugnancies, and even their long ceaseless wars, on 
 the whole to issue in the noblest, highest, most in- 
 tellectual form of civilization known to man. It is 
 inconceivable that Teutonic Europe, or Europe so 
 deeply impregnated with Teutonism, could have been 
 condensed or compelled into a vast Asiatic despotism, 
 or succession of despotisms. Immense and inter- 
 minable as have been the evils and miseries of the 
 conflict between the southern and northern, the Teu- 
 tonic and Rornan, the hierarchical and civil elements 
 
206 GREGORY THE GREAT. 
 
 of our social system ; yet out of these conflicts have 
 at length arisen the balance and harmony of the great 
 states which constitute European Christendom, and 
 are now peopling other continents with kindred and 
 derivative institutions. It is impossible to conceive 
 what had been the confusion, the lawlessness, the 
 chaotic state of the middle ages, without the medieval 
 Papacy, — and of the medieval Papacy the real father 
 is Gregory the Great." 
 
207 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL 
 EVENTS REFERRED TO. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 404. Seat of Western Empire removed to Revenna. 
 
 410. Capture of Rome by Alaric. 
 
 431. Council of Ephesus, 
 
 451. Council of Chalcedon. 
 
 452, Invasion of Italy by Attila. 
 455. Capture of Rome by Genseric. 
 461. Death of Pope Leo. 
 
 476. Odoacer becomes King of Italy. 
 
 493. Accession of Theodoric. 
 
 496. Conversion of Clovis. 
 
 529. Foundation of Monastery of Monte Cassino. 
 
 536. Reconquest of Italy by Belisarius. 
 
 540. (?) Birth of Gregory. 
 
 544. Condemnation of the Three Chapters by Justinian. 
 
 553. Fifth CEcumenical Council. 
 
 568. Conquest of Northern Italy by the Lombards. 
 
 578. Accession of Pope Pelagius. 
 
 582. Accession of the Emperor Mauricius. 
 
 589. Council of Toledo. Reccared embraces Catholicity. 
 
 590. Gregory elected Pope. 
 
 591. He summons the Istrian Bishops to Rome. 
 ,, Commences measures against the Donatists. 
 
 592. Writes to the Irish Bishops. 
 
 ,, Hadrianus of Thebes appeals to Gregory. 
 
 593. Edict of Mauricius about Soldiers becoming Monks. 
 ,, Election of Maximus to the See of Salona. 
 
 ,, Gregory remonstrates with John the Faster about the 
 two priests. 
 
 594. Agilulph invades the Exarchate. 
 
 595. Truce effected with the Lombards. 
 
 ,, Gregory protests against the the title of Universal Bishop. 
 
 ,, Childebert requests the Pall for Virgilius of Aries. 
 
 596. Agilulph again invades the Exarchate. 
 
 „ Death of John the Faster. Cyriacus succeeds him. 
 
 ,, Mission of Augustine to England. 
 
 597. Baptism of Ethelbert. 
 
 599. Conversion of Agilulph to Catholicity. 
 
 601. Accession of Phocas. 
 
 606. Death of Gregory. 
 
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