ST. GREGORY, from his illustrious actions and extraordinary virtues,
surnamed the Great, was born at Rome, about the year 540. Gordlanus, his
{569} father, enjoyed the dignity of a senator, and was very wealthy;
but after the birth of our saint, renounced the world, and died
Regionarius, that is, one of the seven cardinal deacons who took care of
the ecclesiastical districts of Rome. His mother, Sylvia, consecrated
herself to God in a little oratory near St. Paul's. Our saint was called
Gregory, which in Greek implies a watchman, as Vigilius and Vigilantius
in Latin. In his youth he applied himself, with unabated diligence, to
the studies of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy; and after these first
accomplishments, to the civil law and the canons of the church, in which
he was perfectly skilled. He was only thirty-four years old when, in
574, he was made, by the emperor Justin the Younger, pretor, or governor
and chief magistrate of Rome. By this dignity he was the chief judge of
the city; his pomp and state differed little from that of a consul, and
he was obliged to wear the Trabea, which was a rich robe of silk,
magnificently embroidered, and sparkling with precious stones: a garment
only allowed to the consuls and pretor. But he could say, with Esther,
that his heart always detested the pride of the world. From his infancy
he loved and esteemed only heavenly things, and it was his chief delight
to converse with holy monks, or to be retired in his closet, or in the
church at his devotions. After the death of his father, he built and
endowed six monasteries in Sicily out of the estates which he had in
that island, and founded a seventh in his own house in Rome, which was
the famous monastery of St. Andrew, on the hill Scaurus,[1] now
possessed by the Order of Camaldoli. The first abbot of this house was
Hilarion, the second Valentinus, under whom St. Gregory himself took the
monastic habit, in 575, he being thirty-five years old. In this
retirement, Gregory applied himself with that vigor to fasting and the
study of the sacred writings, that he thereby contracted a great
weakness in his stomach, and used to fall into fits of swooning if he
did not frequently eat. What gave him the greatest affliction was his
not being able to fast on an Easter-Eve, a day on which, says John the
deacon, every one, not even excepting little children, are used to fast.
His great desire of conforming to the universal practice on that day
occasioned his applying to a monk of eminent sanctity, named
Eleutherius, with whom having prayed, and besought God to enable him to
fast at least on that sacred day, he found himself on a sudden so well
restored, that he not only fasted that day, but quite forgot his
illness, as he himself relates.[2]
It was before his advancement to the see of Rome, or even to the
government of his monastery, that he first, as Paul the deacon
testifies, projected the conversion of the English nation. This great
blessing took its rise from the following occasion.[3] Gregory happened
one day to walk through the market, and here taking notice that certain
youths of fine features and complexion were exposed to sale, he inquired
what countrymen they were, and was answered, that they came from
Britain. He asked if the people of that country were Christians or
heathens, and was told they were still heathens. Then Gregory, fetching
a deep sigh, said: "It was a lamentable consideration that the prince of
darkness should be master of so much beauty, and have so comely persons
in his possession: and that so fine an outside should have nothing of
God's grace to furnish it within."[4] This incident {570} made so great
an impression upon him, that he applied himself soon after to pope
Benedict I., and earnestly requested that some persons might be sent to
preach Christianity in Britain. And not finding any one disposed to
undertake that mission, he made an offer of himself for the service,
with the pope's consent and approbation. Having obtained leave, he
privately set forward on his journey, in company with several monks of
his own monastery. But when his departure was known, the whole city was
in an uproar, and the people ran in a body to the pope, whom they met
going to St. Peter's church. They cried out to him in the utmost
consternation: "Apostolical father, what have you done? In suffering
Gregory to go away, you have destroyed Rome: you have undone us, and
offended St. Peter." At these pressing instances the pope dispatched
messengers to recall him and the saint being overtaken by them on the
third day, was obliged, though with great reluctance, to return to Rome.
Not long after, the same pope, according to John the deacon, and the
Benedictins, or, as Paul the deacon and Baronius say, his successor
Pelagius II., made him one of the seven deacons of the church at Rome,
who assisted the pope. Pelagius II. sent him to Constantinople in
quality of Apocrisiarius, or Nuncio of the holy see, to the religious
emperor Tiberius, by whom the saint was received and treated with the
highest distinction. This public employment did not make him lay aside
the practices of a monastic life, in order to which he had taken with
him certain monks of his house, with whom he might the better continue
them, and by their example excite himself to recollection and prayer. At
the request of St. Leander, bishop of Seville, whom he saw at
Constantinople, he wrote in that city his thirty-five books of Morals
upon Job, giving chiefly the moral and allegorical interpretations of
that sacred book, in such a manner as to reduce into one body the most
excellent principles of morality, and also of an interior life, of both
which this admirable work hath been ever since regarded as the great
storehouse and armory. Out of it St. Isidore, St. Thomas, and other
masters of those holy sciences have chiefly drawn their sublime maxims.
Mauritius having married the daughter of Tiberius, in 582, who had the
empire for her dowry, St. Gregory was pitched upon to stand godfather to
his eldest son. Eutychius was at that time patriarch of
Constantinople.[5] This prelate, having suffered for the faith under
Justinian, fell at length into an error, importing, that after the
general resurrection the glorified bodies of the elect will be no longer
palpable, but of a more subtile texture than air. This error he couched
in a certain book which he wrote. St. Gregory was alarmed, and held
several conferences with the patriarch upon that subject, both in
private and before the emperor, and clearly demonstrated from the
scriptures, that the glorified bodies of the saints will be the same
which they had on earth, only delivered from the appendices of
mortality; and that they will be palpable as {571} that of Christ was
after his resurrection.[6] The good bishop being docile and humble,
retracted his mistake and shortly after falling sick, in presence of the
emperor, who had honored him with a visit, taking hold of his skin with
his hand, said: "I profess the belief that we shall all rise in this
very flesh."[7]
Pope Pelagius recalled St. Gregory in 584. He brought with him to Rome
an arm of St. Andrew, and the head of St. Luke, which the emperor had
given him. He placed both these relics in his monastery of St. Andrew,
where the former remains to this day; but the latter has been removed
thence to St. Peter's, where it still continues. The saint with joy saw
himself restored to the tranquillity of his cell, where he eagerly
desired to bury himself with regard to the world, from which he had fled
naked into this secure harbor; because, as he signified to St. Leander,
he saw how difficult a thing it is to converse with the world without
contracting inordinate attachments.[8] Pope Pelagius also made him his
secretary. He still continued to govern his monastery, in which he
showed a remarkable instance of severity. Justus, one of his monks, had
acquired and kept privately three pieces of gold, which he confessed on
his death-bed. St. Gregory forbade the community to attend and pray by
his bedside, according to custom; but could not refuse him the
assistance of a priest, which the council of Nice ordained that no one
should be deprived of at the hour of death. Justus died in great
sentiments of compunction; yet, in compliance with what the monastic
discipline enjoins in such cases, in imitation of what St. Macarius had
prescribed on the like occasion, he ordered his corpse to be buried
under the dunghill, and the three pieces of money to be thrown into the
grave with it. Nevertheless, as he died penitent, he ordered mass to be
daily offered up for him during thirty days.[9] St. Gregory says,[10]
that after the mass of the thirtieth day, Justus, appearing to his
brother Copiosus, assured him that he had been in torments, but was then
released. Pope Pelagius II. dying in the beginning of the great
pestilence, in January, 590, the clergy, senate, and Roman people
unanimously agreed to choose St. Gregory for their bishop, although he
opposed his election with all his power. It was then the custom at the
election of a pope to consult the emperor as the head of the senate and
people. Our saint, trusting to his friendship with Mauritius, to whose
son he stood godfather, wrote to him privately to conjure him not to
approve of this choice. He wrote also with great earnestness to John,
patriarch of Constantinople, and to other powerful friends in that city,
begging them to employ their interest with the emperor for that purpose:
but complains in several letters afterwards that they had all refused to
serve him. The governor of Rome intercepted his letters to the emperor,
and sent others to him, in the name of the senate and people, to the
contrary effect. In the mean time, the plague continued to rage at Rome
with great violence; and, while the people waited for the emperor's
answer, St. Gregory took occasion from their calamities to exhort them
to repentance. Having made them a pathetic sermon on that subject,[11]
he appointed a solemn litany, or procession, in seven companies, with a
{572} priest at the head of each, who were to march from different
churches, and all to meet in that of St. Mary Major; singing Kyrie
Eleison as they went along the streets. During this procession there
died in one hour's time fourscore of those who assisted at it. But St.
Gregory did not forbear to exhort the people, and to pray till such time
as the distemper ceased.[12] During the public calamity, St. Gregory
seemed to have forgot the danger he was in of being exalted to the
pontifical throne; for he feared as much to lose the security of his
poverty as the most avaricious can do to lose their treasures. He had
been informed that his letters to Constantinople had been intercepted;
wherefore, not being able to go out of the gates of Rome, where guards
were placed, he prevailed with certain merchants to carry him off
disguised, and shut up in a wicker basket. Three days he lay concealed
in the woods and caverns, during which time the people of Rome observed
fasts and prayers. Being miraculously discovered,[13] and no longer
able, as he says himself,[14] to resist, after the manifestations of the
divine will, he was taken, brought back to Rome with great acclamations,
and consecrated on the 3d of September, in 590. In this ceremony he was
conducted, according to custom, to the Confession of St. Peter, as his
tomb is called; where he made a profession of his faith, which is still
extant in his works. He sent also to the other patriarchs a synodal
epistle, in which was contained the profession of his faith.[15] In it
he declares, that he received the four general councils as the four
gospels. He received congratulatory letters upon his exaltation; to all
which he returned for answer rather tears than words, in the most
feeling sentiments of profound humility. To Theoctista, the emperor's
sister, he wrote thus:[16] "I have lost the comfort of my calm, and,
appearing to be outwardly exalted, I am inwardly and really fallen.--My
endeavors were to banish corporeal objects from my mind, that I might
spiritually behold heavenly joys. Neither desiring not fearing any thing
in the world, I seemed raised above the earth, but the storm had cast me
on a sudden into alarms and fears: I am come into the depth of the sea,
and the tempest hath drowned me." He adds: "The emperor hath made an ape
to be called a lion; but cannot make him become one." In his letter to
Narses, the patrician, he says:[17] "I am so overcome with grief, that I
am scarce able to speak. My mind is encompassed with darkness. All that
the world thinks agreeable, brings to me trouble and affliction." To St.
Leander he writes: "I remember with tears that I have lost the calm
harbor of my repose, and with many a sigh I look upon the firm land
which I cannot reach. If you love me, assist me with your prayers." He
often invites others to weep with him, and conjures them to pray for
him. John, archbishop of Ravenna, modestly reprehended his cowardice in
endeavoring, by flight, to decline the burden of the pastoral charge. In
answer to his censure, and to instruct all pastors, soon after his
exaltation, he wrote his incomparable book, On the Pastoral Care,
setting forth the dangers, duties, and obligations of that charge, which
he calls, from St. Gregory Nazianzen, the art of arts, and science of
sciences. So great was the reputation of this performance, as soon as it
appeared, that the emperor Mauritius sent to Rome for a copy; and
Anastasius, the holy patriarch of Antioch, translated it into Greek.
Many popes and councils have exhorted and commanded pastors of souls
frequently to read it, and {573} in it, as in a looking glass, to behold
themselves.[18] Our English saints made it always their rule, and king
Alfred translated it into the Saxon tongue. In this book we read a
transcript of the sentiments and conduct of our excellent pastor. His
zeal for the glory of God, and the angelic function of paying him the
constant tribute of praise in the church, moved him, in the beginning of
his pontificate, to reform the church music.[19] Preaching he regarded
as the principal and most indispensable function of every pastor of
souls, as it is called by St. Thomas, and was most solicitous to feed
his flock with the word of God. His forty homilies on the gospels, which
are extant, show that he spoke in a plain and familiar style, and
without any pomp of words, but with a surprising eloquence of the heart.
The same may be said of his twenty-two homilies on Ezekiel, which he
preached while Rome was besieged by the Lombards, in 592. In the
nineteenth he, in profound humility, applies to himself, with tears,
whatever the prophet spoke against slothful mercenary pastors. Paul the
deacon relates, that after the saint's death, Peter the deacon, his most
intimate friend, testified that he had seen in a vision, as an emblem of
the Holy Ghost, a dove appear on his head, applying his bill to his ear
while he was writing on the latter part of Ezekiel.
This great pope always remembered, that, by his station, he was the
common father of the poor. He relieved their necessities with so much
sweetness and affability, as to spare them the confusion of receiving
the alms; and the old men among them he, out of deference, called his
fathers. He often entertained several of them at his own table. He kept
by him an exact catalogue of the poor, called by the ancients matriculae;
and he liberally provided for the necessities of each. In the beginning
of every month he {574} distributed to all the poor, corn, wine, pulse,
cheese, fish, flesh, and oil: he appointed officers for every street to
send every day necessaries to all the needy sick; before he ate he
always sent off meats from his own table to some poor persons. One day a
beggar being found dead in a corner of a by-street, he is said to have
abstained some days from the celebration of the divine mysteries,
condemning himself of a neglect in seeking the poor with sufficient
care. He entertained great numbers of strangers both at Rome and in
other countries, and had every day twelve at his own table whom his
sacristan invited. He was most liberal in redeeming captives taken by
the Lombards, for which he permitted the bishop of Fano to break and
sell the sacred vessels,[20] and ordered the bishop of Messana to do the
same.[21] He extended his charity to the heretics, whom he sought to
gain by mildness. He wrote to the bishop of Naples to receive and
reconcile readily those who desired it, taking upon his own soul the
danger,[22] lest he should be charged with their perdition if they
should perish by too great severity. Yet he was careful not to give them
an occasion of triumphing by any unreasonable condescension; and much
more not to relax the severity of the law of God in the least
tittle.[23] He showed great moderation to the schismatics of Istria, and
to the very Jews. When Peter, bishop of Terracina, had taken from the
latter their synagogue, St. Gregory ordered it to be restored to them,
saying, they are not to be compelled, but converted by meekness and
charity.[24] He repeated the same orders for the Jews of Sardinia, and
for those of Sicily.[25] In his letters to his vicar in Sicily, and to
the stewards of the patrimony of the Roman church in Africa, Italy, and
other places, he recommends mildness and liberality towards his vassals
and farmers; orders money to be advanced to those that were in distress,
which they might repay by little and little, and most rigorously forbids
any to be oppressed. He carefully computed and piously distributed the
income of his revenues at four terms in the year. In his epistles, we
find him continually providing for the necessities of all churches,
especially of those in Italy, which the wars of the Lombards and other
calamities had made desolate. Notwithstanding his meekness and
condescension, his courage was undaunted, and his confidence in the
divine assistance unshaken amidst the greatest difficulties. "You know
me," says he,[26] "and that I tolerate a long while; but when I have once
determined to bear no longer, I go with joy against all dangers." Out of
sincere humility he styled himself "the basest of men, devoured by sloth
and laziness."[27] Writing to St. Leander, he says,[28] he always
desired to be the contempt of men and the outcast of the people. He
declares,[29] "I am ready to be corrected by all persons, and him only
do I look upon as my friend by whose tongue I learn to wash away the
stains of my mind." He subscribed himself in all his letters, Servant of
the servants of God, which custom has been retained by his successors.
Indeed, what is a pastor or superior but the servant of those for whom
he is to give a rigorous account to God? The works of St. Gregory were
everywhere received with the greatest applause. Marinianus, archbishop
of Ravenna, read his comments on Job to the people in the church. The
saint was afflicted and confounded that his writings should be thought
to deserve a place among the approved works of the fathers; and wrote to
that prelate that his book was not proper for the church, admonishing
him rather to read St. Austin on the psalms.[30] He was no less dead to
himself in his great actions, {575} and all other things. He saw nothing
in himself but imperfections; and subjects of confusion and humiliation.
ST. JOHN CALYBITE, RECLUSE.
It is incredible how much he wrote, and, during the thirteen years that
he governed the church, what great things he achieved for the glory of
God, the good of the church, the reformation of manners, the edification
of the faithful, the relief of the poor, the comfort of the afflicted,
the establishment of ecclesiastical discipline, and the advancement of
piety and religion. But our surprise redoubles upon us, when we remember
his continual bad state of health and frequent sicknesses, and his
assiduity in prayer and holy contemplation; though this exercise it was
that gave always wings to his soul. In his own palace he would allow of
no furniture but what was mean and simple, nor have any attendants near
his person but clergymen or monks of approved virtue, learning, and
prudence. His household was a model of Christian perfection; and by his
care, arts, sciences, and the heroic practice of piety, flourished,
especially in the city of Rome. The state of Christendom was at that
time on every side miserably distracted, and stood in need of a pastor,
whose extraordinary sanctity, abilities, and courage should render him
equal to every great enterprise. And such a one was Gregory. The eastern
churches were wretchedly divided and shattered by the Nestorians, and
the numerous spawn of the Eutychians, all which he repressed. In the
west, England was buried in idolatry, and Spain, under the Visigoths,
was overrun with the Arian heresy. These two flourishing countries owe
their conversion, in a great measure, to his zeal, especially the
former. In Africa he extirpated the Donatists, converted many
schismatics in Istria and the neighboring provinces; and reformed many
grievous abuses in Gaul, whence he banished simony, which had almost
universally infected that church. A great part of Italy was become a
prey to the Lombards,[31] who were partly Arians, partly idolaters. St.
Gregory often stopped the fury of their arms, and checked their
oppressions of the people: by his zeal he also brought over many to the
Catholic faith, and had the comfort to see Agilulph, their king,
renounce the Arian heresy to embrace it. In 592, Romanus, exarch, or
governor of Italy for the emperor, with a view to his own private
interest, perfidiously broke the solemn treaty which he had made with
the Lombards,[32] and took Perugia and several other towns. But the
barbarians, who were much the stronger, revenged this insult with great
cruelty, and besieged Rome itself. St. Gregory neglected nothing to
protect the oppressed, and raised troops for the defence of several
places. At length, by entreaties and great presents, he engaged the
Lombards to retire into their own territories. He reproved the exarch
for his breach of faith, but to no other effect than to draw upon
himself the indignation of the governor and his master. Such were the
extortions and injustices of this and other imperial officers, that the
yoke of the barbarians was lighter than the specious shadow of liberty
under the tyranny of the empire: and with such rigor were the heaviest
taxes levied, that to pay them, many poor inhabitants of Corsica were
forced to sell their own children to the barbarians. These oppressions
cried to heaven for vengeance: and St. Gregory wrote boldly to the {576}
empress Constantina,[33] entreating that the emperor, though he should
be a loser by it, would not fill his exchequer by oppressing his people,
nor suffer taxes to be levied by iniquitous methods, which would be an
impediment to his eternal salvation. He sent to this empress a brandeum,
or veil, which had touched the bodies of the apostles, and assured her
that miracles had been wrought by such relics.[34] He promised to send
her also some dust-filings of the chains of St. Paul; of which relics he
makes frequent mention in his epistles. At Cagliari, a curtain rich Jew,
having been converted to the faith, had seized the synagogue in order to
convert it into a church, and had set up in it an image of the Virgin
Mary and a cross. Upon the complaint of the other Jews, St. Gregory
ordered[35] the synagogue to be restored to them, but that the image and
cross should be first removed with due veneration and respect.[36]
Writing to Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, he mentions,[37] that he
sent her son, the young king, a little cross, in which was a particle of
the wood of the true Cross, to carry about his neck. Secundinus, a holy
hermit near Ravenna, godfather to this young king, begged of the pope
some devout pictures. St. Gregory, in his answer, says: "We have sent
you two cloths, containing the picture of God our Saviour, and of Mary
the holy Mother of God, and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and
one cross: also for a benediction, a key which hath been applied to the
most holy body of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, that you may
remain defended from the enemy."[38] But when Serenus, bishop of
Marseilles, had broken certain sacred images which some persons lately
converted from idolatry honored with their former idolatrous
superstitions, St. Gregory commended his zeal for suppressing this
abuse, but reproved him for breaking the images.[39] When the archbishop
of Ravenna used the pallium, not only at mass, but also in other
functions, St. Gregory wrote him a severe reprimand, telling him that no
ornament shines so bright on the shoulders of a bishop as
humility.[40][41] He extended his pastoral zeal and solicitude over all
churches; and he frequently takes notice that the care of the churches
of the whole world was intrusted to St. Peter, and his successors in the
see of Rome.[42] This authority he exerted in the oriental
patriarchates. A certain monk having been accused of Manicheism, and
beaten by the order of John the patriarch of Constantinople, appealed to
pope Gregory, who sharply reprimanded the patriarch, exhorting him to
eject a certain wicked young man by whom he suffered himself to be
governed, and to do penance, and telling him: "If you do not keep the
canons, I know not who you are."[43] He absolved the monk, with his
colleague, a priest, re-established them in their monastery, and sent
them back into the East, having received their profession of faith. He
also absolved John, a priest of Chalcedon, who had been unjustly
condemned by the delegates of the Matriarch. This patriarch, John,
surnamed the Faster, usurped the arrogant title of [oe]cumenical, or
universal patriarch. This epithet was only used of a general council
which represents the whole church. In this sense an {577} ecumenical
bishop should mean a bishop who represents the whole church, so that all
other bishops are only his vicars. St. Gregory took the word in that
sense: which would be blasphemy and heresy, and as such he condemned
it.[44] John indeed only meant it in a limited sense for an archbishop
over many, as we call him a general who commands many; but even so it
savored of arrogance and novelty. In opposition to this, St. Gregory
took no other titles than those of humility. Gregoria, a lady of the
bedchamber to the empress, being troubled with scruples, wrote to St.
Gregory, that she should never be at ease till he should obtain of God,
by a revelation, an assurance that her sins were forgiven her. To calm
her disturbed mind, he sent her the following answer.[45] "You ask what
is both difficult and unprofitable. Difficult, because I am unworthy to
receive any revelation: unprofitable, because an absolute assurance of
your pardon does not suit your state till you can no longer weep for
your sins. You ought always to fear and tremble for them, and wash them
away by daily tears. Paul had been taken up to the third heaven, yet
trembled lest he should become a reprobate.--Security is the mother of
negligence."
The emperor forbade any to be admitted in monasteries, who, having been
in office, had not yet given up their accounts, or who were engaged in
the military service. This order he sent to each of the patriarchs, to
be by then notified to all the bishops of their respective districts.
St. Gregory, who was at that time sick, complied with the imperial
mandate, so far as to order the edict to be signified to the western
bishops,[46] as appears from a letter which he wrote to the emperor as
soon as his health was re-established. We learn from another letter,
which he wrote some years after to the bishops of the empire, that, on
this occasion, he exhorted the bishops to comply with the first part,
and as to the second, not to suffer persons engaged in the army to be
admitted among the clergy or to the monastic habit, unless their
vocation had been thoroughly tried for the space of three years, that it
might be evident they were converted from the world, and sought not to
change one kind of secular life for another. He made to Mauritius the
strongest remonstrances against this edict, saying, "It is not agreeable
to God, seeing by it the way to heaven was shut to several; for many
cannot be saved unless they forsake all things." He, therefore,
entreated the emperor to mitigate this law, approving the first article
as most just, unless the monastery made itself answerable for the debts
of such a person received in it. As to the second, he allows that the
motives and sincerity of the conversion of such soldiers are to be
narrowly examined before they ought to be admitted to the monastic
habit. Mauritius, who had before conceived certain prejudices against
St. Gregory, was offended at his remonstrances, and showed his
resentment against him for some years, but at length agreed to the
mitigations of each article proposed by St. Gregory: which the holy
pope, with great pleasure, notified by a letter addressed to the bishops
of the empire.[47]
The emperor Mauritius, having broken his league with the Avari, a
Scythian {578} nation, then settled on the banks of the Danube,[48] was
defeated, and obliged to purchase an ignominious peace. He also refused
to ransom the prisoners they had taken, though they asked at first only
a golden penny a head, and at last only a sixth part, or four farthings;
which refusal so enraged the barbarians, that they put them all to the
sword. Mauritius began then to be stung with remorse, gave large alms,
and prayed that God would rather punish him in this life than in the
next. His prayer was heard. His avarice and extortions had rendered him
odious to all his subjects; and, in 602, he ordered the army to take
winter quarters in the enemy's country, and to subsist on freebooting,
without pay. The soldiers, exasperated at this treatment, chose one
Phocas, a daring ambitious man, to be their leader, and marched to
Constantinople, where he was crowned emperor. Mauritius had made his
escape, but was taken with his family thirty miles out of the city, and
brought back. His five sons were slain before his eyes at Chalcedon: he
repeated all the while as a true penitent these words: "Thou art just, O
Lord, and thy judgments are righteous."[49] When the nurse offered her
own child instead of his youngest, he would not suffer it. Last of all
he himself was massacred, after a reign of twenty years. His empress,
Constantina, was confined with her three daughters, and murdered with
them a few months after. The tyrant was slain by Heraclius, governor of
Africa, after a tottering reign of eight years. When Phocas mounted the
throne, his images were received and set up at Rome: nor could St.
Gregory, for the sake of the public good, omit writing to him letters of
congratulation.[50] In them he makes some compliments to Phocas, which
are not so much praises as respectful exhortations to a tyrant in power,
and wishes of the public liberty, peace, and happiness.[51] The saint
nowhere approved his injustices or tyranny, though he regarded him, like
Jehu, as the instrument of God to punish other sinners. He blamed
Mauritius, but in things truly blameable; and drew from his punishment a
seasonable occasion of wholesome advice which he gave to Phocas, whom
the public safety of all Italy obliged him not to exasperate.
This holy pope had labored many years under a great weakness of his
breast and stomach, and was afflicted with slow fevers, and frequent
fits of the gout, which once confined him to his bed two whole years. On
the 25th of January, 604, he gave to the church of St. Paul several
parcels of land to furnish it with lights: the act of donation remains
to this day engraved on a marble stone in the same church. God called
him to himself on the 12th of March, the same year, about the
sixty-fourth of his age, after he had governed the church thirteen
years, six months, and ten days. His pallium, the reliquary which he
wore about his neck, and his girdle, were preserved long after his
death, when John the deacon wrote, who describes his picture drawn from
the life, then to be seen in the monastery of St. Andrew.[52] His holy
remains rest in the Vatican church. Both the Greek and Latins honor his
name. The council of Clif, or Cloveshove, under archbishop Cuthbert, in
747, commanded his feast to be observed a holyday in all the monasteries
in England; which the council of Oxford, in 1222, {579} extended to the
whole kingdom. This law subsisted till the change of religion.[53]
* * * * *
Every superior, who is endued with the sincere spirit of humility and
charity, looks upon himself with this great hope, as the servant of all,
bound to labor and watch night and day, to bear every kind of affront,
to suffer all manner of pains, to do all in his power, to put on every
shape, and sacrifice his own ease and life to procure the spiritual
improvement of the least of those who are committed to his charge. He is
incapable of imperious haughtiness, which alienates the minds of
inferiors, and renders their obedience barely exterior and a forced
hypocrisy. His commands are tender entreaties, and if he is obliged to
extend his authority, this he does with secret repugnance, losing sight
of himself, intent only on God's honor and his neighbor's salvation,
placing himself in spirit beneath all his subjects, and all mankind, and
esteeming himself the last of all creatures. St. Paul, though vested
with the most sublime authority, makes use of terms so mild and so
powerfully ravishing, that they must melt the hardest heart. Instead of
commanding in the name of God, see how he usually expresses himself: "I
entreat you, O Timothy, by the love which you bear me. I conjure you, by
the bowels of Jesus Christ. I beseech you, by the meekness of Christ. If
you love me, do this." And see how he directs us to reprove those who
sin: "If any one should fall, do you who are spiritual remind him in
that spirit of meekness, remembering that you may also fall," and into a
more grievous crime. St. Peter, who had received the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, shed more tears of tender charity than he speaks words. What
heart can be so savage and unnatural, as to refuse to obey him who,
having authority to lay injunctions, and thunder out anathemas, weeps
instead of commanding. If SS. Peter and Paul pour out the water of tears
and mildness, St. John casts darts of fire into the hearts of those whom
he commands. "My little children," says he, "if you love Christ, do
this. I conjure you, by Christ, our good Master, love affectionately,
and this is enough. Love will teach you what to do. The unction of the
Holy Ghost will instruct you." This is the true spirit of governing; a
method sure to gain the hearts of others, and to inspire them with a
love of the precept itself and of virtue. St. Macarius of Egypt was
styled the god of the monks, so affectionately and readily was he obeyed
by them, because he never spoke a word with anger or impatience. Moses
was chosen by God to be the leader and legislator of his people, because
he was the meekest of men: and with what astonishing patience did he
bear the murmurs and rebellions of an ungrateful and stiff-necked
people! David's meekness towards Saul and others purchased him the
crown, and was one of the principal virtues by which he was rendered a
king according to God's own heart. Those who command with imperious
authority show they are puffed up with the empty wind of pride, which
makes them feel an inordinate pleasure in the exercise of power, the
seed of tyranny, and the bane of virtue in their souls. Anger and
impatience, which are more dangerous, because usually canonized under
the name of zeal, demonstrate persons to be very ill-qualified for
governing others, who are not masters of themselves or their own
passions. How few are so crucified to themselves, and so perfectly
grounded in humility, {580} patience, meekness, and charity, that power
and authority infect not their souls with the deadly poison of secret
pride, or in whom no hurry, importunity, or perverseness can extinguish
the spirit of meekness, in which, in all occurrences, they preserve the
same evenness of mind, and the same angelical sweetness of countenance.
Yet with this they are sons of thunder in resisting evil, and in
watching against all the artifices of the most subtle and flattering
passions of sinners, and are firm and inflexible in opposing every step
towards any dangerous relaxation. St. Gregory, by his whole conduct,
sets us an example of this perfect humility and meekness, which he
requires as an essential qualification in every pastor, and in all who
are placed over others.[54] He no less excelled in learning, with which,
he says, that humility must be accompanied, lest the pastor should lead
others astray. But above all other qualities for the pastoral charge, he
requires an eminent gift of prayer and contemplation. Prae caeteris
contemplatione suspensus. Pastor. Cura, part 2, c. 5.
Footnotes:
1. See Annot. at the end of his life, p. 580 {original footnote has
incorrect page reference} infra.
2. Dial. l. 3, c. 33.
3. Hist. b. 2, c. 1.
4. Bede adds, that he again asked, what was the name of that nation,
and was answered, that they were called Angli or Angles. "Right,"
said he, "for they have angelical faces, and it becomes such to be
companions with the angels in heaven. What is the name (proceeded
he) of the province from which they are brought?" It was replied,
that the natives of that were called Deiri. "Truly Deiri, because
withdrawn from wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ," said he,
alluding to the Latin, De ira Dei eruti. He asked further, "How is
the king of that province called?" They him that his name was All{}
and he making an allusion to the word, said: "Alleluiah, the praise
of God the Creator, must be sung in those parts." Some censure this
conversation of St. Gregory as a piece of low punning. But the taste
of that age must be considered. St. Austin found it necessary to
play sometimes with words to please auditors whose ears had, by
custom, caught an itch to be sometimes tickled by quibbles to their
fancy. The ingenious author of the late life of the lord chancellor
Bacon, thought custom an apology for the most vicious style of that
great man, of whom he writes: "His style has been objected to as
full of affectation, full of false eloquence. But that was the vice,
not of the man, but of the times he lived in; and particularly of a
court that delighted in the tinsel of wit and learning, in the poor
ingenuity of punning and quibbling." St. Gregory was a man of a fine
genius and of true learning: yet in familiar converse might confirm
to the taste of the age. Far from censuring his wit, or the judgment
of his historian, we ought to admire his piety, which, from every
circumstance, even from words, drew allusions to nourish devotion,
and turn the heart to God. This we observe in other saints, and if
it be a fault, we might more justly censure on this account the
elegant epistles of St. Paulinus, or Sulpitius Severus, than this
dialogue of St. Gregory.
5. Eutychius had formerly defended the Catholic faith with at zeal
against the Eutychians and the errors of the emperor Justinian, who,
though he condemned those heretics, yet adopted one part of their
blasphemies, asserting that Christ assumed a body which was by its
own nature incorruptible, not formed of the Blessed Virgin, and
subject to pain, hunger, or alteration only by a miracle. This was
called the heresy of the Incorrupticolae, of which Justinian declared
himself the abetter; and, after many great exploits to retrieve the
ancient glory of the empire, tarnished his reputation by persecuting
the Catholic Church and banishing Eutychius.
6. St. Greg. Moral. l. 14, c. 76, t. 1, p. 465.
7. He died in 582 and is ranked by the Greeks among the saints. See the
Bollandists in vita S. Eutychil ad 6 Apr.
8. Fleury thinks he was chosen abbot before his embassy to
Constantinople; but Ceillier and others prove, that this only
happened after his return.
9. It appears from the life of St. Theodosius the Cenobiarch, from St.
Ambrose's funeral oration on Valentinian, and other monuments, that
it was the custom, from the primitive ages, to keep the third,
seventh, and thirtieth, or sometimes fortieth day after the decease
of a Christian, with solemn prayers and sacrifices for the departed
soul. From this fact of St. Gregory, a trental of masses for a soul
departed are usually called the Gregorian masses, on which see
Gavant and others.
10. Dial. l. 4, c. 55, p. 465, t. 2.
11. It is inserted by St. Gregory of Tours in his history. Greg. Touron.
l. 10 c. 1.
12. Some moderns say, an angel was seen sheathing his sword on the
stately pile of Adrian's sepulchre. But no such circumstance is
mentioned by St. Gregory of Tours, Bede, Paul, or John.
13. Paul the deacon says, it was by a pillar of light appearing over the
place where he lay concealed.
14. L. 1, ep. 21, l. 7, ep. 4.
15. L. 1, ep. 25.
16. L. 1, ep. 5, p. 491.
17. L. 1, ep. 6, p. 498.
18. Conc. 3, Touron. can. 3. See Dom Bulteau's Preface to his French
translation of S. Gregory's Pastoral, printed in 1629.
19. He reformed the Sacramentary, or Missal and Ritual of the Roman
church. In the letters of SS. Innocent I., Celestine I., and St.
Leo, we find mention made of a written Roman Order of the mass: in
this the essential parts were always the same; but accidental
alterations in certain prayers have been made Pope Gelasius thus
augmented and revised the liturgy, in 490; his genuine Sacramentary
was published at Rome by Thomasi, in 1680. In it are mentioned the
public veneration of the cross on Good Friday, the solemn
benediction of the holy oils, the ceremonies of baptism, frequent
invocation of saints, veneration shown to their relics, the
benediction of holy water, votive masses for travellers, for the
sick and the dead, masses on festivals of saints, and the like. The
Sacramentary of St. Gregory, differs from that of Gelasius only in
some collects or prayers. The conformity between the present church
office and the ancient appears from this work, and the saint's
Antiphonarius and Responsorium. The like ceremonies and benedictions
are found in the apostolic constitutions, and all other ancient
liturgic writings; out of which Grabe, Hickes, Deacon, and others
have formed new liturgies very like the present Roman, and several
of them have restored the idea of a true sacrifice. Dom Menard has
enriched the Sacramentary of St. Gregory with most learned and
curious notes.
Besides his Comments or Morals on the book of Job, which he wrote at
Constantinople, about the year 582, in which we are not to look for
an exposition of the text, but an excellent compilation of the main
principles of morality, and an interior life, we have his exposition
of Ezekiel, in twenty-two homilies. These were taken in short hand
as he pronounced them, and were preached by him at Rome, in 592,
when Ag{}ulph the Lombard was laying waste the whole territory of
Rome. See l. 2, in Ezech. hom. 6, and Paul the deacon, l. 4, hist.
Longob. c. 8. The exposition of the text is allegorical, and only
intended for ushering in {} moral reflections, which are much
shorter than in the books on Job. His forty homilies on the gospels
he preached on several solemnities while he was pope. His
incomparable book, On the Pastoral Care, which is an excellent
instruction of pastors, and was drawn up by him when he saw himself
placed in the pontificate, consists of four parts. In the first he
treats of the dispositions requisite in one who is called to the
pastoral charge; in the second of duties of a pastor; in the third
on the instruction which he owes to his flock; and, in the fourth,
on his obligation of watching over his own heart, and of diligent
self-examination. In four books of dialogues, between himself and
his disciple Peter, he recounts the miracles of his own times, upon
the authority of vouchers, on whose veracity he thought he could
rely. He so closely adheres to their relations, that the style is
much lower than in his other writings. See the preface of the
Benedictin editor on this work. His letters are published in
fourteen books, and are a very interesting compilation. We have St.
Gregory's excellent exposition of the Book of Canticles, which
Ceillier proves to be genuine against Oudin, the apostate, and some
others. The six books on the first book of Kings are valuable work
but cannot be ascribed to St. Gregory the Great. The commentary on
the seven penitential psalms Ceillier thinks to be his work: but it
seems doubtful. Paterius, a notary, one of St. Gregory's auditors,
compiled, out of his writings and sermons, several comments on the
scriptures. Claudius, abbot of Classius, a disciple of our saint,
did the same. Alulphus, a monk at Tournay, in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, made the like compilations from his writings. Dom
Dionysius of St. Marthe, a Maurist Benedictin monk, favored the world
with an accurate edition of the works of St. Gregory the Great,
published at Paris in four volumes folio, in 1705. This has been
reprinted at Verona and again at Ausburg, in 1758, with the addition
of the useful anonymous book, De formula Praelatorum.
20. L. 6, Ep. 35.
21. L. 7, Ep. 26.
22. Animae nostra pericula, l. 1, Ep. 14.
23. L. 1, Ep. 35, &c.
24. L. 1, Ep. 35.
25. L. 7, Ep. 5, l. 12, Ep. 30.
26. L. 4, Ep. 47.
27. Praef. in Dial.
28. L. 9, Ep. 22.
29. L. 2, Ep. 121.
30. L. 12, Ep. 24.
31. The Lombards came originally from Scandinavia, and settled first in
Pomerania, and afterwards with the Hunns in Pannonia, who had
remained there when they returned out of Italy under Attila. Narses,
the patrician, after having governed Italy sixteen years with great
glory, was recalled by the emperor Justin the Younger. But resenting
this treatment, he invited the Lombards into that country. Those
barbarians leaving Pannonia to the Hunns, entered Italy, easily made
themselves masters of Milan, under their king Alboinus, in 568; and
extending their dominions, often threatened Rome itself. In the reign
of Charles the Fat, the Hunns were expelled Pannonia by the Hongres,
another swarm from the same northern hive, akin to the Hunns, who
gave to that kingdom the name of Hungary. That the Lombards were so
called, not from their long swords, as some have pretended, but from
their long beards, see demonstrated from the express testimony of
Paul the Deacon, himself a Lombard of Constantine Porphyrogenetta,
by Jos. Assemani. Hist. Ital. scriptor. t. 1, c. 3, p. 33.
32. Paul Diac. de Gest Longobard. l. 4, c. 8. S. Greg. l. 2, Ep. 46.
33. L. 5. Ep. 41.
34. L. 4, Ep. 30.
35. Sublata exinde, qua par est veneratione, imagine et cruce. L. 9,
Ep. 6, p. 930.
36. L. 9, Ep. 6, p. 930.
37. L. 14, Ep. 12, p. 1270.
38. These words are quoted by Paul the deacon, in the council of Rome,
Conc. t. 6, p. 1462, and pope Adrian I., in his letter to Charlemagne
in defence of holy images.
39. L. 11, Ep. 13.
40. L. 3, Ep. 56; l. 3, Ep. 53; l. 9, Ep. 59; l. 6, Ep. 66; l. 7,
Ep. 19; l. 5, Ep. 20.
41. St. Gregory was always a zealous asserter of the celibacy of the
clergy, which law he extended also to subdeacons, who had before
been ranked among the clergy of the Minor orders, (l. 1, ep. 44, l.
4, Ep. 34.) The Centuriators, Heylin, and others, mention a forged
letter, under the name of Udalrirus, said to be written to pope
Nicholas, concerning the heads of children found by St. Gregory in a
pond. But a smore ridiculous fable was never invented, as is
demonstrated from many inconsistencies of that forged letter: and
St. Gregory in his epistles everywhere mentions the law of the
celibacy of the clergy as ancient and inviolable. Nor was any pope
Nicholas contemporary with St. Udalricus. See Baronius and Dom de
{Sainte} Marthe, in his life of St. Gregory.
42. L. 3, Ep. 29; l. 5, Ep. 13.
43. L. 6, Ep. 15, 16, 17.
44. L. 11, Ep. 28; olim 58, p. 1180, &c.
45. L. 7, Ep. 25.
46. Some Protestants slander St. Gregory, as if by this publication of
the imperial edict he had concurred to what he condemned as contrary
to the divine law. Dr. Mercier, in his letter in favor of a law
commanding silence, with regard to the constitution Unigenitus in
France, in 1759, pretends that this holy pope thought obedience to
the emperor a duty even in things of a like nature. But Dr. Launay,
Reponse a la Lettre d'un Docteur de Sorbunne, partie 2, p. 51, and
Dr. N., Examen de la Lettre d'un Docteur de Sorboune sur la
necessite de garder In silence sur la Constitution Unigenitus, p.
33, t. 1, demonstrate that St. Gregory regarded the matter, as it
really is, merely as a point of discipline, and nowhere says the
edict was contrary to the divine law, but only not agreeable to God,
and tending to prejudice the interest of his greater glory. In
matters of faith or essential obligation, he calls forth the zeal
and fortitude of prelates to stand upon their guard as opposing
unjust laws, even to martyrdom, as the same authors demonstrate.
47. Ep. 55.
48. Theophanes Chronogr.
49. Ps. 118.
50. L. 13, ep. 31, 38.
51. We say the same of the compliments which he paid to the impious
French queen Brunehault, at which lord Bolingbroke takes offence;
but a respect is due to persons in power. St. Gregory nowhere
flatters their vices, but admonishes by compliments those who could
not be approached without them. Thus did St. Paul address Agrippa
and Festas, &c. In refusing the sacraments of the church to
impenitent wicked princes, and in checking their crimes by
seasonable remonstrances, St. Gregory was always ready to exert the
zeal of a Baptist: as he opposed the unjust projects of Mauritius,
so would he have done those of Phocas when in his power.
52. The antiquarian will read with pleasure the curious notes of Angelus
Rocca, and the {}enedic{ons on} the pictures of St. Gregory and his
parents, and on this holy pope's pious donations.
53. St. Gregory gave St. Austin a small library which was kept in his
monastery at Canterbury. Of it there still remain a book of the
gospels in the Bodleian library, and another in that of
Corpus-Christi in Cambridge. The other books were psalters, the
Pastorals, the Passionarium Sanctorium, and the like. See Mr.
Wauley, in his catalogue of S{} on manuscripts, at the end of Dr.
Hickes's Thesaurus, p. 172. Many rich vestments, vessels, relics,
and a pall given by St. Gregory to St. Austin, were kept in the same
monastery. Their original inventory, drawn up by Thomas of Elmham,
in the reign of Henry V., is preserved in the Harleian library, and
published by the learned lady, Mrs. E. Elstob, at the end of a Saxon
panegyric on St. Gregory.
54. Gregor. M. in l. 1. Reg. c. 16, v. 3 and 9.