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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

SAINT GREGORY
THE GREAT

STATUE OF POPE GREGORY, BEGUN BY MICHAEL ANGELO, AND COM
PLETED BY NICHOLAS CORDIER, NOW IN THE CHAPEL OF
STA. BARBARA AT ST. GREGORIO.

SAINT GREGORY
THE GREAT

by Sir HENRY H. H.O WORTH
K.C.I.E., Hon. D.C.L. (Durham), F.R.S., F.S.A., Etc. Etc.
PRESIDENT OF THE ROY. ARCH. INST. AND THE ROY. NUMISMATIC SOCIETY
AUTHOR OF
"THE HISTORY OF THE MONGOLS" "CHINGHIZ KHAN AND HIS ANCESTORS"
"THE MAMMOTH AND THE FLOOD" " ICE OR WATER11 ETC. ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, MAP, AND TABLES

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
191 2

TO
The Rev. F. HOMES DUDDEN, B.D.
WHO HAS COMBINED IN HIS GREAT LIFE OF
ST. GREGORY THE THOROUGHNESS AND RESEARCH
OF GERMANY WITH THE PICTURESQUE AND LUCID
DICTION OF AN ACCOMPLISHED ENGLISH SCHOLAR

PREFACE
Those who practise the craft of the historian have
continually been exercised as to its proper function.
With some it is an art, a sister art to that of the
painter, and its proper sphere is that of describing
the panorama of human life as it has passed across
the great stage of Time. Largely oblivious of
moral tendencies or of the purpose of the whole
show, its aim, they urge, ought to be to gratify the
craving of us all for the picturesque, the strange,
and the dramatic. Like those who paint history
instead of writing it, they are again divided into
two schools. One of them pursues minute
detail, spends much time and labour in verify
ing facts, and claims that truth and not moral
profit being its chief goal, all things are worth
recording that add anything to the picture.
They are the Pre-Raphaelites of our profession.
An opposite school protests continually that this
pursuit of detail is largely pernicious, that it
entirely disturbs the balance and perspective of
the story, that we cannot in consequence see the
great woods and forests we have to traverse,
because our eyes are engrossed by the individual
trees, and we thus lose ourselves in a pathless

viii PREFACE
waste. They hold that it is the broader and larger
effects we ought to cherish, rather than the minute
and meticulous pursuit of little details. These are
the historical Impressionists, with whom the mirage
often and avowedly takes the place of the actual
landscape and castles in the sky, and in the fire
grate take the place of those made of stone or
brick. There is another school of historians with whom
the panoramic type of the work is not the ideal ;
who do not deem all history equally important and
equally deserving of minute record. They are ever
in search not so much of the picturesque and the
romantic, as of causes and tendencies, of changes
and movements. They want to know why all this
procession of human life is moving thus, what its
plan and purpose are, whence it came, whither it
is bound, what or who causes its steps to lag betimes
,and betimes to speed on, and they further try
and look forward by tracing the road that has
been hitherto traversed with a special eye to its
tendencies. It would be foolish and inconsequent to say
that any one of these methods and aims is useless
or mistaken. They all have their purpose, just as
the various schools of painting in colours have.
As we are thankful in passing through a picture
gallery to explore the lessons furnished by each,
the Pre-Raphaelite as well as the Impressionist,
so we feel thankful as we traverse the shelves in
our library, that the teller of stories as well as the

PREFACE ix
philosopher, that Herodotus as well as Thucydides,
and Livy as well as Tacitus are there.
There is yet another type of historian, who,
instead of dealing with a long or sustained story,
selects a short and definite period marked either
by the career of some potent maker of history
or by one of those convulsions which occasionally
diversify the general uniformity and the process
of slow change which mark the general plan.
By such a choice it is possible to combine a good
deal of the detail which is necessary, if we are to
realise faithfully the conditions and the limitations
under which the great change has taken place, with
an attempt to analyse the direction and effect of
the forces which are shaping our ends, while they
are temporarily working at fever heat and at
railway speed.
Such a period is that marked by the career of
Pope Gregory the First, which I have chosen for
this volume. He was one of the few really remark
able men the world has seen, if distinction means
stamping one's foot on the fragile sands where
our lot is cast in such an impressive way that the
footprints shall last for many centuries. He stood
with one foot amidst the ruins of the old worn-out
world and the other in the chaotic anarchy which
was presently to give birth to a new world, and we
may consider the year 600, which marks the middle
of his most active career, as the real frontier between
the old world and the new.
The man himself was a very remarkable one.

x PREFACE
A Roman noble, he was one of the few whose
families had remained in Old Rome when so
many others had migrated to the New Rome —
Constantinople, where the Court and all its attrac
tions for the ambitious man or the sybarite were
to be found. Possessing great wealth and social
position and great natural gifts (especially the
Divine gift of indomitable energy), he was ap
pointed, when quite young, to the most dignified
civil position still remaining in the City, namely,
the office of Praefect, and thus acquired a very
considerable prestige. When carried away by the
tide of religious enthusiasm which was then at its
flow, and which led the gilded youth of Italy in so
many cases to abandon their wealth and to adopt
an ascetic life, he was not permitted to bury
himself in seclusion, but was selected by the
Pope for the greatest diplomatic post he had
in his gift, which was generally reserved for men
of high family, namely, that of Nuncio at Con
stantinople. There he lived for some years in
a position of equality with the great nobles, and
was on very friendly and familiar terms with the
Imperial family. There he also associated with
such learned men as still remained in the Christian
world. While there he applied his leisure and his very
vigorous intellect to recasting the theological and
ethical standards of his Church. A faithful pupil
of the greatest theologian among the Latin Fathers,
St. Augustine, he made plain and clear a great

PREFACE xi
deal in his teaching which was too technical and
abstract for most men. During a very few years
in a life overloaded with cares and sickness he
produced several works, written in very nervous
and attractive if somewhat rustic Latin, dealing with
the intricacies of Christian dogma and the duties
of Christian teachers and their flocks. These were
suffused in a highly ideal atmosphere. No preacher
ever raised aloft the standard of true righteousness
more effectively. These works remained for many
centuries the most potent and most read of all
manuals. They formed the inspiration of the
Mediaeval Church, and be it said also the basis
of what is called Scholasticism, namely, the ap
plication of logic and reasoning to the establish
ment and support of dogma. The latter process
was afterwards denounced as perilous and unfruitful
by another great Church doctor, our English
philosopher Occam.
Returning to Rome, he no doubt took back with
him many thoughts and ideas which had arisen
among the quick-witted Greeks, whose whole
thought had latterly been directed to theology
and its dependent studies. These bore fruit in
certain changes (we know not how many) in the
ritual, in the Church music, in the Calendar, etc.
etc., which were now imported into Italy for the
first time.
It was not long before the Pope, his master, died,
a victim of the terrible plague which devastated
Europe at this time and lasted for so many years,

xii PREFACE
. and which no doubt had great social and economic
results which have not been sufficiently appreciated.
In their desolation and misery the Roman crowd
elected Gregory, the former praefect, the experienced
diplomat, and the educated Roman gentleman, to the
vacant seat of Pelagius the Second. No other man
then living was so fitted to cope with the woeful
condition of things, and it must be said that the
fates made it possible for him to act a great part. It
was the fact that the Emperor's residence and Court
were both far away, and that the administration
of the Empire was controlled from Constantinople,
that left him great initiative. This was supple
mented by another fact, namely, that the Emperor's
hands were full with wars against the Avars and
the Slavs in the north and the Persians in the
east, which left him no time to think of Italy,
and he was only too pleased if some efficient man
would undertake to do at Rome what his repre
sentative at Ravenna had neither the means nor
the will to do. There was another very helpful
support to the Pope, namely, the enormous wealth
of the Holy See, which had recently been re
cruited by great legacies of land and other riches,
i and which made his income almost rival that of
i the Emperor. It was these facts, besides his great
prestige, that enabled him to initiate that large
control of the civil administration of Rome which
bore much fruit in later times. Once seated on the
throne of St. Peter he devoted his businesslike
capacity to revising the administration of the vast

PREFACE xiii
papal patrimony, in which work, while in the main
preserving its old Roman features, he largely re
formed its machinery. He also entirely revised the
methods of eleemosynary help to the Roman poor,
who for centuries had largely lived on doles, and
whose patrons, the old families, had gone elsewhere.
He also gave a great impetus to the spread of
monacbism, and exalted the monk's life as the
ideal of all lives, devoting most of his private
fortune to its propaganda. In the world of politics
he was no less busy. By his efforts the Lombards
were converted from Arianism to orthodoxy, while
by his tact and diplomacy he preserved Rome, which
was bleeding from its many wounds, from being
overwhelmed by them.
One notable chapter in Gregory's ever-busy
life has not found a place in this volume, namely,
the missionary enterprise by which he was the first
to convert a portion of the English race to the
Christian faith. The book has, in fact, grown in
the writing — perhaps necessarily grown if the subject
was to be adequately treated — and the subject of
Gregory's mission to England will be told in a
second volume to appear shortly.
Returning to the Pope and summing up his
work, it may be very truly Said that few men in
so short a time with such a fragile life ever
did so much that proved to be lasting. That
all he did was equally useful to the world is
another matter. In some things his vast reputa
tion gave an impetus to certain sides of his teaching

xiv PREFACE
which put back the clock of progress very materi
ally. He denounced the study of the ancient writers,
and led men's minds away from the illuminating
thoughts which the best minds of Greece and Rome
had produced to the narrow and largely fruit
less fields of dogmatic theology and the study of
the lives of those he deemed saintly men. He
despised Art and the Humanities as inconsistent
with his ascetic standards. He limited useful
knowledge to the narrow and largely fruitless
fields of dogmatic theology and the lives of saints.
The crude miracles with which they were filled and
the different forms of magic they illustrated, were
his delight, and he accepted the theory that what
a good man had said should be accepted, however
otherwise incredible. He it was who filled the
Dark Ages with the grim imagery that occupied
so much of its thought, in which fantastic visions
of devils and angels, of heaven, hell, and purgatory
are so much in evidence. On the other hand,
his theories of orthodoxy and his methods of
dealing with what he deemed the greatest of all
sins, namely, heresy and schism, formed the vade
wiecum of many inquisitors and the justification of
many autos-da-fe.
This is all true. It was very largely due to the
atmosphere in which he was born that it was so.
Such thoughts permeated the whole Christian world,
which at the time was overshadowed by a vivid
expectation of the approaching end of all things.
Nevertheless, his great prestige as the Senior Doctor

PREFACE xv
of the Church gave them the potency they acquired.
They formed, however, only a secondary feature in
the life and career of the great man he was — the
greatest man of his time, who stood high above his
contemporaries whether as a politician, an adminis
trator, or as a preacher and example of high and
noble standards in the field of morals. There was
nothing mean or sordid about him. When need
arose he showed exemplary courage, and the follow
ing pages will show in how many ways he excelled.
His letters, of which hundreds remain, are full of
kindly thought for everybody save heretics, and
teem with humour and vivacity, and are the best
proofs of his ubiquitous vigilance.
In the Introduction which follows, I have
analysed the authorities which I have used for
his life. I hope I have not failed to acknow
ledge amply my obligations to those from whose
learning I have profited, and that the references
at the bottom of my pages will bear witness to
my solicitude in this behalf. I have in some
instances departed from the views of my pre
decessors, but have never ceased to be grateful
for their inspiration, even where I have failed to
follow their reasoning. Let me close with the
words of a delightful library companion of mine
who wrote the first history of the English Church,
Bede. In concluding his preface to that work, he says,
and I echo his words : —
Omnes, ad quos haec eadevi historia pervenire

xvi PREFACE
potuerit nostrae nationis, legentes sive audientes,
suppliciter precor, ut pro meis infirmitatibus et
mentis et corporis apud supernam clementiam saepius
intervenire meminerint.
HENRY H. HOWORTH.
30 COLLINGHAM PLACE, S.W.,
1st March 191 2.

INTRODUCTION
It is a prime factor in modern methods of historical
research that before we sit down to write we should
sift and analyse our authorities, and not merely
separate the spurious from the true but give to
each one its due weight, and discard all secondary
sources and compilations in favour of the original
and contemporary witnesses wherever these latter
exist. To pile up masses of authorities in notes
when many or most of them are really echoes
or copies of the one original witness, is mere
pedantry and not science. Its only tendency is
to lessen instead of increasing the weight of the
testimony. In the case of Pope Gregory the Great, the
most important of all the witnesses is himself, for
he was a most voluminous and reliable writer, and
has left us a great mass of largely unimpeachable
materials for illustrating his own life and the sur
roundings in which he lived.
Among these materials the most unique and
valuable is the immense collection of the Pope's
letters (dealing with almost every detail of papal
administration, and written to all parts of the
Christian world), of which a large proportion are
b

xviii INTRODUCTION
preserved. The Pope's correspondence was
methodically copied out in an official register by
duly appointed officials. This register is continu
ally quoted in Gregory's letters ; thus in one place
he speaks of " scrinium nostrum" in another he
says " ab scrinio sanctae ecclesiae cui Deo auctore
praesumus,"1 and in another he quotes "ex codicibus
et ex antiquis polypticis sanctae sedis apostolicae
selecta."2 The particular method of entering these official
copies of his own letters adopted by Gregory
was, like many other things, introduced by the
businesslike Pope, doubtless of his own devising.
It is explained by John the Deacon, one of his
biographers who had used his register diligently
and knew it well. He says the register, which was
written on papyrus, consisted of as many volumes
as there were years in the Pope's reign (tot chartisios
libros epistolarum ejusdem patris [i.e. of Gregory]
quot annos probatur vixisse revolvat).3 There were,
in fact, thirteen full volumes and an imperfect one,
comprising the transcripts of the last year which
were not complete (quartum decimum epistolarum
librum septima indictionis imperfectum reliquit)}
The letters were dated by indictions. Gregory
was apparently the first Pope who so reckoned,
and he adopted the oldest scheme, called the Con-
stantinopolitan, which took the ist of September
for its starting-point in each year. The years
1 Ewald and Hartmann, vol. ii. p. 355. 2 lb. ii. 446.
3 Preface to the Vita, * Vit. iv. 71.

INTRODUCTION xix
were divided into cycles of fifteen. Gregory's
first year formed the ninth of an indiction, and his
eighth the first of another indiction, of which the
last book formed the seventh year.1 The original
register as well as a copy of it which once existed
were both long ago destroyed, and unfortunately
the extracts from them which remain are extracts
only, and a large number of the letters in the
original register are lost. The Pope himself refers
to seventy-seven of them in his works which are
no longer extant.2
Fortunately before this disaster happened they
had been in part excerpted by several writers. The
first to do so, as far as we know, was Nothelm,
a learned priest of the diocese of London, who
became Archbishop of Canterbury in 735. Having
visited Rome, he was permitted by the then Pope to
examine and copy from the register of the Roman
Church {ab S. Ecclesiae Romanae scrinio) some
of the letters of Pope Gregory, together with those of
other Popes, which he brought back with him to be
used in Bede's great work which was then in progress
(nobis nostrae historiae inserendas . . . adhibit)?
The letters sent to Bede were apparently limited
to those written by Gregory about St. Augustine's
mission, and those sent to the members of the
mission or to the English rulers. It has not been
remarked that the originals of these letters should
1 See Ewald and Hartmann, Gr. I. Pap. Registrum Epistolare,
passim ; and Bright, Early English Church History, p. 48, note 5.
2 Pitra de Epp. R. P. p. 52 ; Mann's Hist, of the Popes, i. 246.
3 See Bede, i. 6.

xx INTRODUCTION
at this time have been preserved at Canterbury,
nor has it been explained how it came about that
there was any necessity for Nothelm to make
copies of other copies of them then at Rome.
In the year following Bede's death, namely, in
735, St. Boniface wrote to Nothelm asking him to
send him a copy of a certain epistle (namely, that
containing Augustine's questions with the Pope's
Responsions) which he had doubtless read in Bede's
work, since he says the registrars declared that it
could not be found in the register containing the
other letters (quia in Scrinio Romanae ecclesiae,
ut adjirmant scrinarii, cum ceteris exemplaribus
inf radicti pontificis quaesita non inveniabatur}
This extract from Boniface is interesting, since
it shows that at this time either the Pope's registers
had been tampered with and some of them removed,
or else that the particular document had never been
entered in the register at all. As we shall see, it
had to be prepared rapidly and sent off in a hurry,
and it may be there was no time to copy it, but its
character makes it quite possible that it may have
been found convenient to make away with it. This
is not the only letter relating to the English
mission which occurs in Bede but is not given in
any of the excerpts from Gregory's registers
which are extant.2 Another purports to be ad
dressed to Mellitus, who was with the members of
the second mission sent from Rome, and was also
1 Bon. Ep. M. G. 284.
2 See E. and H. vol. i. 425, note.

INTRODUCTION xxi
written in a hurry and dispatched after they had
left the City. This may be the reason for its not
occurring in the registers, or it may be because it
contains some instructions about preserving instead
of destroying the heathen temples and converting
them to Christian uses, which may not have been
acceptable to the later authorities at Rome.
In a subsequent letter of St. Boniface to
Ecgbert, Archbishop of Canterbury,1 he tells him
he had sent two agents to Rome to consult the
papal registers, and that he was sending him a
selection of such of St. Gregory's letters as had not
yet reached England (quae non rebar ad Britanniam
venisse), and that he would send him more if he
needed them, for he had had many excerpted.
Let us now turn to the extant collections of the
letters. These occur in three sets of MSS., each
containing a special series. One of them is labelled
C by Ewald. It contains two hundred letters and
occurs in several MSS., one dating as far back as
the eighth century. It is anonymous and contains
no hint as to its origin, but it is possible that it
represents the abstracts made by Boniface as above
mentioned. This is supported by the fact that
three of its oldest MSS., including the oldest one of
the eighth century, are in German collections ; only
two occurring elsewhere. It is further supported
by the fact that this collection never occurs alone,
but in conjunction with a second one, which can
also be traced to a German source, and which is
1 Bon. Ep. M. G. iii. 347-

xxii INTRODUCTION
labelled P by Ewald. The two collections are
separately grouped, however, Ewald says they
were originally separate and had different origins.
It is also well to remember that collection C is
notable for the number of letters concerning the
Lombards which it contains.
Ewald named the second collection, which con
tains fifty-three or fifty-four letters, P, because the
oldest MS. of it extant1 is preserved at St. Peters
burg. It is preceded by a letter written by a
certain Paul to Adalhard, Abbot of Corbey, in which
he expressed his regret at not having been able
to go and see him the previous year. As we
know that Paul Warnefrid, the biographer of Pope
Gregory, was on the Moselle on ioth January prob
ably in 783, 2 it makes it very probable that it was
in fact this Lombard writer who wrote the letter to
Adalhard signed Paul. Ewald's doubts on the
subject3 seem to be answered by Hartmann.4
Two of the MSS. of this class date from the
eighth century. So far as I know, no suspicion
attaches to either of these collections, except in one
case to be presently mentioned, of a letter in P.
They seem to be bona fide and accurate transcripts
1 This MS. was once at St. Germain des Pres, No. 858. It is
now at St. Petersburg and is numbered F. I. 7. See Ewald and
Hartmann, Register, vol. ii. xvi, and following.
2 Diet, of ' Chris tia?i Biography, iv. 275.
3 Epist. Greg. II. xvi.
4 lb. 26. In the Gesch. der Lat. Lit. des Mitt., by Max Manitius,
published in 191 1 in J. Muller's great Handbuch, p. 106, this opinion
is upheld. Of the Paul in the MS. it is there said: " Zweifellos
identisch mil Paulus Diaconus."

INTRODUCTION xxiii
from the registers of a selection from Gregory's
letters. Let us now turn to a much larger collection.
John the Deacon tells us in his biography of
Gregory that in the time of Pope Hadrian certain
decretal epistles were excerpted under several
indictions and were duly arranged in two volumes
(ex quarum multitudine primi Hadriani papae tem-
poribus, quaedam epistulae decretales per singulas
indictwnes excerptae sunt et in duobus voluminibus
sicutmodo cernitur congregatae)} This greatexcerpt,
as Ewald says, was doubtless made for the Emperor
Charlemagne at the instance of Pope Hadrian him
self, as appears from a sentence in a letter of the
Pope's to the Emperor written in 794,2 reading
thus: " Meminit enim vestra praerectissima regalis
praecelsa scientia qualiter in ipsa S. Gregorii papae
epistola Sereno episcopo Massiliensi directa 3 fertus
infra cetera contineri ubi eundem episcopum incre-
pans inquit : Aliud enim est picturam adorare." Of
this excerpt several MSS. are extant, some of
which date from the tenth century and three from
the ninth, two of the latter being fragments (the
archetype sent to Charlemagne is no longer extant).
This collection was labelled R by Ewald. It contains
686 letters. The fact that it is only in Class R
that the letter of Serenus just named occurs, shows
that it really represents Hadrian's collection.
In the twelfth century a more general collection
1 Vit. Greg. iv. 71. 2 Epist. v. 55.
3 Gregory's Register, ix. 208.

xxiv INTRODUCTION
of Gregory's letters was compiled by combining
the other three just named. In it the letters
were arranged very arbitrarily. As we have seen,
we have no MS. of Hadrian's collection dating from
the time of the first compilation of R, nor probably
from any date very near that time, and unfortun
ately the beginning of the ninth century was a time
when sophistications and forgeries were common,
and it would seem very probable that the various
MSS. of R which have reached us were more or
less interpolated.
In the first place, they contain a number of
documents which are not letters of the Pope, and
which, although probably genuine, cannot well have
come from the papal registers, and which in the
Benedictine edition are put in appendices to the
several books. Several of these have been in
serted by Ewald and Hartmann in the text of
their edition. These last ''nclude lib. ii., numbers
i and 2, the former of which is an abstract from
a document dating from after the Pope's death, and
referring back to his reign, for it begins " Temporibus
papae Gregorii." The second is a kind of instruc
tion in regard to a litany to be sung in procession
when going from the church of St. Laurence in
Lucino to the Vatican, and which was apparently
based on one used at the Church of St. Maria
Maggiore. The next is in E. and H. iii. 66, and is not
a letter of the Pope, but an answer to such a letter
written by John, Bishop of Ravenna.

INTRODUCTION xxv
The next document of a similar class is that
numbered v. 57a by Ewald and Hartmann, and
which contains the Acts of the Synod held by
Pope Gregory on 5th July 595.
The next is numbered by the same authors
as viii. 36. Of it Hartmann says in a note : " in
registro non fuisse crediderim." It is apparently
an extract from some chronicle or other writing,
and in it the Pope is referred to in the third
person. The next is numbered xi. 15. This document
is a suspicious one. Maurice became Emperor in
August 582, and it is dated in the nineteenth year
of Maurice, i.e. 601 A.D., which is equated with
his seventeenth consulship. This is equated again
with the third of the Nones of October in the
fourth indiction, that is, 5th October 600, which is
the date accepted by Ewald and Hartmann, so
that the two dates are inconsistent. In it a certain
Probus is made abbot of two monasteries, namely,
those of St. Andrew and St. Lucian, which was
quite irregular unless this was a double dedication,
nor is there a place for him among the abbots of
St. Andrew's on the Caelian at this time. The
terms and purpose of the document also seem
very doubtful.
The next is numbered xii. 7, and has nothing
to do apparently with Gregory, but is merely an
abjuration of heresy by some bishop whose name is
not given.
The next is E. and H. xiii. 1, and refers back,

xxvi INTRODUCTION
temporibus domini et beatissimi papae Gregorii, i.e.
it was written after his death. It refers to the
coronation of the Emperor Phocas and the events
which followed it, and, like ii. i, was probably
derived from some historical or annalistic work.
In addition to these documents, which have the
appearance of being genuine but do not directly
refer to Pope Gregory, and were perhaps inter
polated in the collection made at the instance of
Pope Hadrian, there are a number of others which
seem to be fabrications and to have been inter
polated in later copies of that collection. Thus in
E. andH. ix. 227a is a letter purporting to have been
addressed in 599 by Reccared, King of the Visigoths,
to Gregory, in which he gives him very belated in
formation about his own conversion. Gams * and
Mommsen both reject this letter, largely on the
ground of the rusticity of its Latin, etc. It will
be remembered that Reccared had some excellent
scholars at his Court. Its contents seem to entirely
justify the two critics. In it the King is made to
address the Pope as the Holy Lord and most
blessed Pope Gregory the Bishop (Domino Sancto
ac Beatissimo Papae Gregorio Episcopo), and speaks
of him as superior to all other bishops (qui prae
ceteros polles antestites), a very suspicious phrase.
In this letter the King professes to send the Pope
a gold-bejewelled cup.2 It has been argued by
Mommsen that the letter was concocted from
1 Kirchen Geschichte v. Spanien, 11. ii. p. 47, note.
2 See E. and H. ix. 227 *.

INTRODUCTION xxvii
the one next mentioned, and numbered 228 by
Ewald and Hartmann, which professes to be an
answer to a letter from Reccared. The annals of
monasticism are pervaded from early times with
a continual tendency to sophisticate and forge
documents, and thus to secure exemptions and
privileges, etc. etc. A notable case is associated
with the name of Gregory. The MS. was dis
covered by Baronius in the Vatican, and purports
to be an edict or constitution issued by a synod
of Gregory's bishops in 601, and confers virtually
complete independence of episcopal control on
certain monasteries, and the bishops are made in
it to divest themselves of their powers in the
most cheerful way. The document has taken in
a great many people, and notably Dr. Barmby.
It is published in Appendix vii. to Migne's edition
of the letters. It was largely concocted from
another grant of privileges made by Gregory to the
Monastery of St. John and St. Stephen, at Classis.1
In a note to this last-quoted letter we read in Ewald
and Hartmann, "Ex hoc epistula magna pars falsi
privilegii, I.E. 1366 (998), confecta est."2
A number of letters of a suspicious character
occur in the thirteenth book of Gregory's corre
spondence as published by Ewald and Hartmann,
and are numbered by these authors 7, 9, 11,
12, and 13. They form a group all relating to
privileges of a very extravagant kind, professedly
1 See E. and H. viii. 17.
2 Cf. Wisbaum, loc. cit. p. 375 ; see also Dudden, ii. 186, note.

xxviii INTRODUCTION
conferred on certain foundations at Autun by the
Pope, at the instance of the founders of the in
stitutions, namely, Brunichildis, her grandson Theo
doric, and Bishop Syagrius. All five documents
are professedly dated on the same day, namely,
2nd November 602.
It arouses suspicion that although this is the
case they do not occur in a continuous series, but
they are separated by two other letters dealing
with entirely different matters, respectively
numbered 8 and 10.
They are all contained in the collection labelled
R by Ewald, in which they occur, as they do in
Ewald and Hartmann's transcripts, with a broken
continuity. Either the transcript of the letters in the
collection R did not follow the index of the original
Lateran register, or else we should have the odd
fact that a group of letters written on one day and
dealing with one subject should be separated by
interpolated letters or other matters, which seems
very improbable.
Several of these letters have been rejected as
forgeries, or as containing interpolations by some ex
cellent authorities.1 Their arguments seem to me
conclusive, and I prefer to abide by their results.
The documents seem to me in their whole tenor and
extravagance to point to the ninth or tenth century
rather than the beginning of the seventh, for the
period of their compilation, and in this I cannot
1 Inter alios, Lannoy, Opp. v. 2, p. 445 ; Sickel, in Actis Acad.
Vind. vol. 47, p. 566 ; and Loening, Gesch. d. Deutsch Kirchen-
rechtes, ii. p. 392, note 2.

INTRODUCTION xxix
follow the very special pleading of Mr. Dudden,
who on most matters relating to Gregory I am
prepared to dutifully follow.
In the Benedictine edition of the papal letters
are two which do not occur in Ewald and Hart-
mann's work, nor are they referred to in it. In
the former edition they are numbered book xiv. 16
and 1 7. The first one is addressed by Felix, Bishop
of Messina, to the Pope, but the date makes the
document impossible, for Felix had been succeeded
by Donus as Bishop of Messina in the fourteenth
indiction.1 At that date Gregory's reply to
Augustine's interrogatories, which is the main
subject of the letter, had not been sent, nor did
Augustine arrive in Britain till 597. Donus is last
mentioned in the sixteenth indiction in Ep. 18 of
book xiii.,2 and the letter can only be supported
by the quite arbitrary suggestion made by Dr.
Barmby, that a second Felix succeeded Donus, of
whom we otherwise know nothing, nor do we in
fact know when Donus died.
A very notable case of spurious interpolations
is afforded by another letter,3 which contains in
some copies a long passage printed by Hartmann
in small type. The interpolation does not occur
in collections C and R but only in P, and there
according to the same writer "postea adnexa esse
videtur." It occurs in some of the collections of
canons, and notably in the pseudo-Isidorian de-
1 i.e. A.D. 595 and 596 ; E. and H. vi. 8, 9.
2 i.e. in 602 and 603. 3 E. and H. ix. 147.

xxx INTRODUCTION
cretals. The first mention of it occurs in Hadrian's
epistle to Charlemagne in 794, but Hartmann
argues that the interpolation had already taken
place in the year 769. x It is also quoted by
Rabanus Maurus.2 The passage in question makes
it appear that Gregory was in favour of granting
restitution to lapsed priests who had committed
grievous faults, a view entirely contrary to his
real sentiments, and which could only have been
composed when discipline had become very lax.
Thus in the fourth book, letter 26, Gregory re
bukes Bishop Januarius for having recalled lapsed
priests who had either done penance or harm before,
to the ministry, "which is a thing," he says,
"we have altogether forbidden, and which is
also against the sacred canons," and he insists
that such lapsed priests should never again ap
proach the altar.3
In this letter Felix is made to say that news
had been brought by some persons coming from
Rome "that you had written to our comrade
Augustine (afterwards ordained Bishop for the
nation of the Angli, and sent thither by Your
Holiness) and to the Angli, that persons related in
the fourth degree of descent, if married, should not
be separated." He goes on to say that "such was
not the custom when I was taught and brought up
with you in infancy," nor, he adds, had he heard of
it from his predecessors, or in the institutes of the
1 See the discussion of the matter in the notes to the epistle in
E. and H.
2 Lib.paen. ch. 1. s See also v. 18, and vii. 39, etc.

INTRODUCTION xxxi
wise, nor had it been anywhere permitted, but
on the contrary it was clear that the prohibition
should extend to the seventh degree. He asks,
therefore, whether what he had written to Augustine
and the nation of the Angli was written specially to
them, or generally to all, and wishes to be fully in
formed on the whole matter. This letter seems
to me to stand or fall with the next one1 which
professes to be the answer of the Pope, of which
Barmby says : " The genuineness of this epistle is,
to say the least, open to grave suspicion." Jaffi£2
rejects it as spurious. While its style in places
resembles Gregory's, its prolixity, bad composition,
and repetitions are unworthy of his pen. Its origin
may be explained by the desire of the authorities to
vindicate the teaching of the Roman Church on the
subject of marriages of consanguinity, which seemed
to be compromised by Gregory's answer to Augustine
on that subject. The excuse made in this letter is
that the reply of Gregory was only meant as a
temporary concession.3
Lastly, there is a document dated 28th
December 587, published as Appendix i. in
Ewald and Hartmann's great collection, which
seems to me to present some serious difficulties.
This again is not contained in any of the great
excerpts of letters from Gregory above described,
and was first published by Mitarelli in the
Annales Camaldolenses, iv. c. 600 (App.). Ewald
1 i.e. xiv. 17. 2 Regesta Pont. Lit. Spur.
3 See Barmby, Epistles of Gregory, 353, note.

xxxii INTRODUCTION
and Hartmann give it from a Vatican MS. 5617
of the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and Hart
mann compares it to another which he styles false,
also published by Mitarelli. It professes to have
been addressed by Gregory while still a deacon to
Maximianus, who is styled in it " Abbot of the
Monastery of St. Andrew the Apostle, situated on
our property called Clivus Cauri" (sic). In it,
although only a deacon, Gregory styles himself
servus servorum Dei, which seems incredible.
Although professing to be a conveyance, and
attested as such, it is written in the form of a letter,
while its phrases are those used, according to
H artmann, in later centuries. 1 1 professes to convey
a very large property, which is described in detail
with its appurtenances, which, if Gregory was then a
monk, as is usually argued, he could not, according
to his own very strict theories on the subject, have
possessed at all, while, still more curiously, he retains
the usufruct for himself. This is not all. There is
a second letter, marked i. 14^ by Ewald and dated
at the close of 590, which is also absent from the
various excerpts of the Gregorian register, and is
printed from the register of the fourteenth year of
Pope Gregory the Ninth,1 and which Ewald claims
that he has purged a multis priorum editionum mendis.
This stands or falls with the last-cited document.
In it he addresses the Abbot of St. Andrew, however,
not as Maximianus, as he elsewhere occurs, but as
Maximus, and says that he, Gregory, owed a debt to

INTRODUCTION xxxiii
the community, since in it he adopted the monk's
habit, etc. (quod in eo monachicum habitum et con-
versandi sumpsi dierno). The history of this docu
ment is most dubious. It refers to the property
conveyed in the former document dated three years
earlier (loca vel praedia que ante has tres annos in
suprascripto monasterio meo condonare visus sum),
which he professes to confirm as bishop. It does not
occur separately, but as embodied in a professed
confirmation by Gregory the Ninth, who in the
initiatory clause speaks of it in the following very
suspicious terms : " Nuper in nostra presentia
privilegium, a beatissimo Gregorio papa vestro
concessum monasterio exhibentes nobis humiliter
supplicastis, ut cum illud, quod est in papyro con-
scriptum, esset jam per nimia vetustate pene de-
letum, ipsum sub fodla nostra apostolicis annotari
litteris, manderemus. Nos igitur . . . tenorem
prefati privilegii presentibus fecimus de verbo ad
verbum Uteris exarari" etc. It seems to me quite
plain, for the reasons above given, that these two
documents are spurious. The fact is of some
importance, since it is upon one of the clauses
of the last-cited letter that it has been argued in
the face of many probabilities that Gregory was
technically a monk.
The old and famous Benedictine edition of
Gregory's works, to which several generations of
scholars were indebted, has been superseded in so
far as the correspondence of the Pope is concerned
by that of Ewald and Hartmann, published in

xxxiv INTRODUCTION
the quarto section of the Monumenta Germaniae
Historica in 1891 and 1893. Ewald discovered
a key by which he was able to arrange the
letters in approximately their original order, and
with his colleague produced an admirable edition
of them in which the text was properly collated
with the MSS., and which contains a large number
of illustrative notes, admirable indices, and a very
useful table. In it the numbers of the letters in
the Benedictine are put in juxtaposition with those
in the later edition. I have continuously used
and sometimes differed from the conclusions of the
two editors, and have quoted their work as E. and
H., with the year of the indiction and then the
number of the letter. I have in many cases
supplemented this work by references to the very
scholarly edition and notes of Dr. Barmby in his
translation of most of the important letters in the
Library of Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers ; but
those who wish to really know the Pope must con
sult him in his inimitable epistolary Latin, which in
its way is almost as attractive as Cicero's more
finished and academic style. It often sparkles
with vivacity, and shows a wonderful facility in
dealing with a very idiomatic tongue.
We will now turn to Gregory's other works.
The most important of these, so far as the
biography of the Pope is concerned, is his work
on the lives of the Italian saints in four parts,
known as his Dialogues. This work is referred
to in a letter dated July 593, and written to Bishop

INTRODUCTION xxxv
Maximianus of Syracuse.1 In it he says : " Fratres
mihi qui mecum familiariter vivunt, omni modo me
compellunt, aliqua de miracula patrum quae in
Italia facta audivimus, sub brevitate scribere ad-
quam sum . . . indigeo et quaeqtte vobis in memoriam
redeunt, quaeque cognovisse vos contigit, 7nihi breviter
indicatis . . . Et hoc ergo et si qua sunt alia tuis
peto epistolis imprimis et mihi sub celeritate trans
mit tis."
The work is styled Dialogues by the Pope,
because it is couched in the form of a dialogue
between himself and the Deacon Peter, who is
made to ask a great many questions which are
answered by the Pope with the easy patronage
Dr. Johnson extended to Boswell. One book of
these dialogues is devoted to St. Benedict and
his Rule, and the others to a large number of
Italian saints' lives, many of them filled with
fantastic details, miracles, and wonders, and inter
mingled with the Pope's views on theological
matters, and often with a picturesque surrounding
which gives us many peeps at the condition of the
people and the times and the then condition of
Italy. The Pope apparently implicitly believes in
the various legends he tells, and in the encounters
with angels and devils and the panoramic outlook
into hell and heaven which the stories present. He
apparently knew many of those on whose testimony
the tales were reported. The Benedictine edition
of St. Gregory's works or the same work reprinted
1 E. and H. i. 206.

xxxvi INTRODUCTION
in the more handy edition of Migne are the
most useful sources for the Dialogues, which also
occur in a seventeenth-century translation into
quaint and delightful English made by a certain
P. W., not otherwise known. I have sometimes
borrowed from this racy translation, of which a
new edition has been recently brought out by Mr.
Edmund G. Gardner, annotated by my friend
Mr. J. F. Hill.
From certain passages in the Dialogues1 it
would appear that the book was written in 593
or 594. Other reasons for this view are given in
the work by Max Manitius above cited.2 The book
became exceedingly famous in the Middle Ages,
and hardly any considerable library was without
it, and, inter alios, the Pope presented a copy of it
to his friend the Lombard Queen, Theodelinda.
Pope Zacharias in the eighth century translated it
into Greek, which was again translated into Arabic,
the language, be it noted, of the Arabian Nights,
and King Alfred had it translated by Werefrith,
Bishop of Worcester.3 It had a great influence on
the Romantic literature of France, Italy, and
Arabia, while it formed a fertile repertory whence
the mediaeval preachers drew illustrations for
their sermons and the scholastic writers for their
theological dialectics. It is full of naive and
childish tales, many of them grotesque and some
of them touching and beautiful, but they hardly
1 iv. 26, iv. 36, and iii. 19. 2 P. 103.
5 Asser, ad. an. 884.

INTRODUCTION xxxvii
reconcile the reader to the thought that their
author was a Doctor of the Church and an in
fallible Pope, yet he published these fairy tales
(which were believed by himself and taught to
others) as if they were true, and thus steeped the
theology of the succeeding centuries with a great
mass of crude materialism and paganism.1
Next to the Dialogues the most famous of
Gregory's works was his great Commentary on Job
known as the Magna Moralia, in which the vast
Biblical memory of Gregory and his incorrigible
habit of refining and allegorising and mystical
interpretation are displayed at great length, and
are intermixed with continuous outbursts of vivid
moralising and the presentation of the highest
standards of human endeavour, enforced in magni
ficent diction full of genuine piety. The book was
written at the instance of Archbishop Leander of
Seville.2 It is contained in thirty-five books and
in six codices or volumes. He sent a copy to
Leander in 595 although it was not yet finished.3
I have said more about this wonderful encyclo
paedia of moral teaching later on. Like the
Dialogues it was found in almost every library,
and was commented on and excerpted by many
1 It is not pleasant to find a learned priest, while recently discussing
these fables and trying to justify them, applying the phrase "the free
thinker Gregorovius " to a much greater scholar than himself, whose
moderation and judgment and fairness are exhibited on every page
of his monumental work, and who might have retorted with stinging
bitterness if tuquoques ever came from the grave to reprove the im
pertinence of bigotry.
3 See E. and Hi. 41 and 58. 3 Jb. v. S3-

xxxviii INTRODUCTION
mediaeval writers of eminence, notably by a con
temporary of Gregory and described as his scholar,
namely, Paterius, who wrote a Liber Testimoniarum
collected from Gregory's works,1 and it formed the
basis of a book by the Spaniard Taio, entitled Liber
Sententiarum, of which a copy existed in the Abbey
of St. Wandrille in the ninth century. An English
translation of the Moralia was published in four
volumes by Mr. Marriott in the Library of the
Fathers. Mr. Dudden has made most excellent use
of the work in his account of Gregory's theology,
which has in turn been most useful to myself.
I cannot resist here quoting the fine words with
which the great Pope closes his great work :
" Igitur quaeso ut quisquis kaec legerit apud
districtum judicem solatium mihi sitae orationis
impendebat et omne quod in me sordidum depre-
hendit fletibus diluat."
Another work of equally far-reaching influence
was Gregory's great Manual of instructions for a
bishop's office, entitled Liber regulae pastoralis.
In the first months of the Pope's career we find
him writing "feci id librum regitlae pastoralis quern
in episcopatus mei exordio scripsi del . . . transmit-
terem."2 In the year 600 we find Columhafi
writing to Gregory that he knew the book. In
602 it was translated into Greek by Anastasius
the Patriarch of Antioch.
The work existed in virtually every mediaeval
library. The most famous version of it was that
1 See Manitius, op. cit. 98, 2 E, and H. v. 53,

/ /

INTRODUCTION xxxix
made by our own King Alfred or under his im
mediate patronage, and of which he sent a copy to
every cathedral in England.1
In addition to these works, Gregory also wrote
homilies and commentaries on various Biblical
books, of which the most famous were those on
Ezekiel, upon which he was engaged, as we shall
see, during the attack of the Lombard Agilulf on
Rome. The work was, however, not definitely
published till eight years later, when it appeared in
two volumes, the first one dedicated to Marinian,
Bishop of Ravenna, and the second to his friends
the monks of St. Andrew's. The homilies are not
so much exegetical as moral addresses.
Earlier than these homilies on Ezekiel, namely,
in 590-91, Gregory had delivered forty other
addresses on the. Gospels, also divided into two
volumes, of which he published more than one
edition. Like his other works, these homilies
were very widely read. They exist in many copies,
and were much comrnented upon and translated
or glossed in Old French, High German, etc. In
one of his epistles Gglumban asks Gregory to
send him the second part of these homilies.2
Mr. Mann says that many of the lectios or
lessons in the Roman Breviary by all priests of
the Latin rite are taken from St. Gregory's
homilies.3
1 See Sweet's edition, Early English Text Society, 1871. Arch
bishop Hincurar tells us that a copy of it was given to every bishop
on his consecration with a book of Canons.
2 See Manitius, 101, note. 3 Hist, of the Popes, i. 238, note,

xl INTRODUCTION
In addition to these works, some others, either
not now existing or attributed to him by mistake,
occur in lists, among them being commentaries on
the Song of Solomon, the Books of Kings, and the
Penitential Psalms. Manitius thinks the statement
about one of the latter was based on a misunder
standing of an ambiguous sentence of Columban's
in one of his letters, in which he writes : " transmitte
et Cantica Canticorum ab illo, loco . . . aut aliorum
aut litis brevibus, deposco tracta sententiis."
The amount of mental activity displayed in
Gregory's works here referred to (which it must be
remembered was compressed into little more than
fourteen years) would be astounding in anybody, but
when we consider that it was all done virtually in
the leisure of a most strenuous life, when he carried
on his shoulders the whole administration and
diplomacy of the Papal See in most critical times,
it really becomes phenomenal.
Let us now turn to other materials for the life
of Gregory and the history of his times outside his
own works.
The first of these to be noted is the so-called
Liber Pontificalis, or register of the acts and doings
of the Popes, containing for the most part mere
lists of the churches and other monuments erected
by each Pope, and the artistic works presented by
them to various churches (these were doubtless
copies from official registers), a statement as to
each Pope's paternity and birthplace, with the
dates of the birth and death of each, and copies of

INTRODUCTION xli
their epitaphs. In the case of certain Popes there
are in addition statements about particular acts of
a striking kind performed by the particular Pope
or affecting the Church ; generally told in a very
dry and otiose way.
Of this work two admirable editions have
appeared in recent years by two very competent
editors, Duchesne and Mommsen, the former of
which is illuminated by a large number of notes, and
is the one I have followed. The book was until
recently treated as the handiwork of Anastasius, the
Librarian of the Vatican, who lived in the ninth
century, and it was universally quoted by his name.
It is now agreed that he had probably to do only
with the life of Pope Nicholas the First. As it
stands, it has been shown to be a re-edited text con
taining additions and interpolations. The original
nucleus of the work or first edition is no longer
extant intact, and there is a difference of opinion
between the two learned editors above named as
to when it was first compiled. Duchesne dates it
about the reign of Boniface the Second, who died in
532, while he assigns the second edition to Pope
Vigilius, who died in 555. Mommsen dates the first
edition after the reign of St. Gregory, and the second
some time before the accession of Sergius the First,
687-701. Both hold that the short lives of the
seventh-century Popes were written by contemporary
writers, and this applies to that of St. Gregory.
It is interesting to remember that the work occurs
among the sources of Bede, who cites it as Gesta

xlii INTRODUCTION
Pontificalis} He probably derived his knowledge
of its statements from a transcript of certain parts
of it by his friend Nothelm.
The first outside these authorities to write a
notice of Gregory (unfortunately a very short one)
was Gregory of Tours, 573-94, a contemporary of
his great namesake, who, however, died before the
Pope. His deacon was at Rome, as we shall see,
when the great pestilence raged there which killed
Pope Gregory's predecessor, and he reported what
he had seen and heard to his master, by whom the
information was incorporated in his famous book
on the history of the Franks, which has been by
my side continually.
Two other very nearly contemporary authors
were the Spaniards Isidore, Archbishop of Seville,
who died in 636, and Ildefonsus, Archbishop of
Toledo, who died in 667, each of whom wrote a
book of lives of illustrious men. Both include a
short notice of Gregory which is largely a panegyric.
The most accessible collection of these works is
to be found in Migne's Patrologia.
We must now turn to an English work which
had been long lost and was discovered in the library
of the Monastery of St. Gallen by Dr. Paul Ewald,
the joint editor of the great collection of St. Gregory's
letters already described. The MS. was in the
St. Gallen library as early as the first years of the
ninth century, for it occurs in the famous catalogue
of books preserved there of that date. It is doubt-
1 Vide Op. iv. 105, and x. 251.

INTRODUCTION xliii
less a copy, since it is very corrupt and in parts un
intelligible. The author habitually speaks like an
Englishman (he in fact describes himself as of the
gens Anglorum), and speaks of the time " quo gens
Anglorum hanc ingreditur insulam." He was also
a Northumbrian, and writes in gente nostra qui dici-
tur Humbrensium, refers to King ^Edwin as " rex
noster" and speaks of the Deiri whom Gregory
is said to have seen at Rome as " de nostra
natione." He was further a monk of Whitby,
and when King ^Edwin's bones were transported
thither he says : "ad hoc nostrum secum appor-
tavit coenobium."
The earlier part of the work is devoted to an
account of St. Gregory and his miracles, and for
some of the most famous of these he is our first
authority. He calls Gregory magister noster,
doctor noster, apostolicus noster, papa noster, noster
Gregorius, and says of him : " nostrum propagavit
- conversionem fidem nostram primo re fecit."
The latter part of the tract is taken up with
certain references to events that occurred in
Northumbria. The last of these reported in this
life is the translation of St. ^Edwin's bones,
which were discovered in consequence of the
dream of a Presbyter named Trimma, as the
writer had learnt from a relative of the latter.
This translation Ewald puts between 675 and
704, so that the life was probably written at the
end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth
century. He considers that it is certainly older

xliv INTRODUCTION
than Bede, and was before Bede when he wrote his
history.1 Plummer has shown what a number of
verbal resemblances there are between the life of
Gregory in Bede and in this Anglian document.
We do not know whence he got his materials,
which, except as to the miracles, are scanty. He
may have been a monk at Canterbury before he
went to Whitby, and picked up the stories from the
tradition doubtless still surviving there. It is,
however, possible that it was some traveller from
Rome who had brought them, for he expressly says
of the famous miracle of Trajan, " quidam quoque
de nostris dicuut narratum a Romanis." The best
edition of the life is that recently edited by Abbot
Gasquet, which I have used.
We must now turn to Baeda, generally styled
Bede, our great English chronicler and ecclesiastical
historian, to whom we owe so much of the early
history of the English Church. He was born about
673 and probably died in 735. He was the first
to give anything like a connected life of Pope
Gregory, in which he also discusses his works.
This is contained in the first chapter of the second
book of his ecclesiastical history. His account of
Gregory was probably derived from the anonymous
life just named, from Gregory of Tours, and also
from Nothelm, a priest of St. Paul's, who after
wards became Archbishop of Canterbury.
Nothelm visited Rome, and there by permission
of the Pontiff Gregory (Gregorii Pontificis), who
1 Eng. Hist. Rev. iii. 295, etc. etc.

INTRODUCTION xlv
then presided over the Church (i.e. doubtless
Gregory the Second, who died in 731), examined
the register of " the holy Roman Church " and, says
Bede, conveyed the copies he made to us to
be inserted into our history, which was done by
the wish (citm consilio) of the most Reverend
Albinus, i.e. the Archbishop so called. As we
have seen, it is probable that Nothelm also
brought back with him from Rome extracts from
the Liber Pontificalis and a copy of Gregory's
epitaph. The next writer who occupied himself with the
life of St. Gregory was the Lombard historian,
Paul Warnefrid, generally known as Paul the
Deacon, who was born some time after 720 but
whose death-day is not known. In his history of
the Lombards, which ends in 744,1 apparently
unfinished, we read: " Ideo autem de Beato Gregorio
plura dicere omittimus, quia jam ante aliquod annos
ejus vitam deo auxiliante texuimus. In qua quae
dicenda fuerant, juxta tenuitates nostrae vires
universa descripsimus."
From this it seems plain that Paul the Deacon
wrote a life of St. Gregory. It has been very
widely accepted that this life is extant, and such a
life has been often printed as by him. It seems to
me that this conclusion is very doubtful. The life
that passes under his name was long ago declared
not to be his by Guisanville, the editor of the Paris
edition of St. Gregory's works, 1675. He says
1 Ch. iii. 24.

xlvi INTRODUCTION
further that all the MSS. which he had seen, as
well as those mentioned by the Bollandists and
Canisius, are anonymous. They either style
the book simply Vita Sancti Gregorii or Vita
Sancti Gregorii, auctore incerto, and none ascribe
it to Paul.1 The Bollandists also print it as
anonymous. The contents of the work seem to me to be in
consistent with its having been written by Paul
Warnefrid. It is a very poor production, and
contains hardly anything original ; not only so,
but as we have seen Paul had had a considerable
selection of the original letters of Gregory made,
not one of which is utilised in this work in any way.
On the other hand, in his work on the history of
the Lombards he inserts three of Gregory's letters
in full and part of a third.2 This shows he had
access to the register or to some extract from it,
and he would assuredly have availed himself of it
in writing the Pope's life. Other difficulties also
exist, and it has been suggested that the work as
we have it is largely interpolated. Bethmann, in
fact, showed that in one copy of it these supposed
interpolations are not present. This is MS.
Cheltenham 8462, s. x. and xi.
This copy of the work seems to represent the
first edition. It largely follows the life of the
Whitby Monk, and was mainly taken from it or
from a common source. The other copies I take
1 See Hardy's Catalogue, i. p. 203, note.
2 These are E. and H. ix. 66, 67, and 126, and v. 6.

INTRODUCTION xlvii
to represent a later edition, in which much of the
new matter has been incorporated from Bede. I
therefore am forced to conclude that the original life
of Gregory by Paul is lost, and that the life passing
under his name is probably an earlier work whose
compiler had very few materials available. I have
to confess that when writing the text of this book
I was under the impression, shared by virtually
all the modern authorities, that the life was
the genuine work of Paul. I have used it very
seldom. A century later we have a much longer and
more important, but unfortunately more uncritical,
life of Gregory, written at the instance of Pope
John the Eighth, 872-82. The author explains in
his preface that although lives of the Pope had
been written by the Angles and the Lombards,
yet none existed among the Romans themselves.
He had, in consequence, received permission to
examine the papal archives, and a large part
of his work is, as he says, drawn from the Pope's
letters and other works. He also collected many
traditions and legends not otherwise accessible,
and used his position, as was then thought right
in a Church historian, for polemical purposes.
Mr. Dudden's sound judgment sums his work up
well. He says John is an inaccurate historian,
apt to draw unwarrantable inferences, and given to
repeating unauthenticated traditions as though they
were verified history. Hence, when his testimony
conflicts with that of other authorities, it may, un-

xlviii INTRODUCTION
less strong reasons appear to the contrary, with
safety be rejected.1
Turning to the modern works on Gregory,
the Benedictine life attached to the great collec
tion of his works by the Fathers of that Order is
a careful conspectus of the facts written with great
fairness, and I have occasionally found it useful.
It is, however, now displaced by more modern lives,
the criticism in which applied to St. Gregory's
works has been utilised and incorporated in the
following pages. Another recent life of the Pope,
also written by a Roman Catholic, and showing
considerable learning and research, is marred by
its highly polemical character, its continual special
pleading and reticence in the presence of difficult
matters where the credit of the Church is involved,
and its offensive tone to other and greater scholars
who do not belong to the author's Church. It is
contained in Father Mann's History of the Popes.
A much more important work, which is a fine
monument of English scholarship and must neces
sarily remain the definite and standard life of the
great Pope, is that written by the Rev. F. H.
Dudden, occupying two lordly volumes. It has
put all other works on the subject in any language
in the shade, and is quite indispensable to the
student. I have profited greatly by it, and although
I have not been able always to agree with its
author, it has been my constant companion. I have
further been tempted in a few cases to appropriate
1 Dudden's Gregory, Preface, xilL

INTRODUCTION xlix
from it a fine piece of stately English, in which
Mr. Dudden has painted some scene in the tragedy
of history in a way that I felt could not be im
proved. Another English scholar who has done much
to throw light on the earlier centuries of Church
history is Dr. Barmby. To him we owe a short
and pregnant life of St. Gregory, but above all an
admirable translation of nearly all his more im
portant letters contained in the Library of Nicene
and Post- Nicene Fathers.1 This work is accom
panied by many learned and very illuminating
notes, and has been most useful to me.
The great work on Rome by Gregorovius (whom
Father Mann apostrophises as " the free-thinker
Gregorovius") is a monument of erudition and care
ful scholarship. I have used and quoted from the
Italian edition, which contains a considerable quantity
of new notes and some corrections, and, above all,
is resplendent with fine illustrations.
I have also had continually by me another
monument of learning and careful research, of which,
most unfortunately, only the first volume has been
published. This is the Jesuit Father Grisar's fine
monograph on Rome at the Close of the Ancient
World. This also I have quoted from the Italian
edition. In the discussion of the difficult question of the
Gregorian music, I have, by the advice of my
very competent friend Mr. Squire, followed the lead
1 New Series, vols. xii. and xiii.
d

1 INTRODUCTION
of two most excellent writers in Grove's Dictionary
of Music, namely, Mr. W. S. Rockstro and the
Rev. W. H. Frere.
In matters of ritual and Gregory's influence on
the service-books of the Church, I have relied on
Duchesne in his work on Christian Worship,
which I have quoted from the English edition.
I am also indebted for help in special matters
to two distinguished historians and friends of mine,
Dr. Hodgkin, the author of the classical work on
The Invaders of Italy, and to Professor Bury, who
has so excellently edited Gibbon and has written
a very noteworthy work on the History of the Later
Roman Empire.
Lastly, it has always been a strong support to
me when I have found myself sheltering behind
the strong good sense, moderation, and prudent
judgment of Dean Milman, in his History of Latin
Christianity, a book that is much too little read and
appreciated in our day.
A word or two now about more domestic aid.
I wish to thank my two accomplished sons, Rupert
and Humfrey, both of them with sharper eyes
than their father, for reading proofs and other
help. I must also remember some others who are
often forgotten — my old friend Mr. John Murray,
who has lent me the great help of his name as an
umbrella under which to take shelter, and has
treated me with great generosity. Another friend,
Mr. C. E. Lawrence, has also been most helpful

INTRODUCTION li
in the intricate duty of steering my book through
the breakers that attend the launch of all such
ventures. I hope they will not be ashamed of my
book, and that the sun will always shine brightly
upon them. H. H. H.

THE DESCENDANTS OF CHLOVIS, KING
OF THE FRANKS.

Chlovis,
Chlotilda.

Chlodorm i r ,
t524» King
of Orleans.
Two of his
sons were
killed by
their uncle,
Chlothaire,
and the third
was a monk
and founded
the monas
tery of St.
Cloud. C hlodomir's
realm was
divided among his
brothers.

Childebert, t5S8, King
of Paris.
He had no
children.

Theodoric, ts34» King
of Reims.

Theodebert, t548, . King
of Reims.

Theodebald, t55S» died
w i t h o u t
children.

Chlot h a i r e
i, ts6i, King
of Soissons,
eventuallyreunited the
Frank Em
pire.

Cha r i b e r t,
ts67, _ King
of Paris. On
his death his
State was
divided
among his
brothers.

Bertha, # who
m a r r i e d
Ethelberht,Ki n g of
Kent.

GONTKAN, t593>Kingof Orleans and
Burgundy.

SlGEBERT, +575, King
of Reims, m.
Brunichildis, d. of Athana-
gild, King
of the Visi
goths.

Childebert, +596, on the
death of his
uncle, Gon-
tran, added
Burgundy to
his kingdom.

Chilperic, +584, King of
Soissons, r,i.
Fredegonda.

Chlothaire 11, who re
united the
Frank Em
pire.

Theodebe r t,
t6ia.

Theodoric, t6i3

THE VISIGOTHIC KINGS OF SPAIN IN
THE TIME OF ST. GREGORY.

1
Athanagild, 558-567-

Liu 567

1
V A I,
"573-

Leov
573"

igild
•586.

Brunichildis, m a r r i e d
Sigebert, King of
Reims.

1
Galswinth a,
m a r r i ed
Chilperic, King of
Soissons, who had her
put to death.

Heemene- gild, who
m a r r 1 e d
I ngundis'
daughter of
Sigebert and
Brunichildis,
put to death
by his father.
1
Reccared,
586-601.
Liuva 11, 601-
603, killed
b y Co u n t
Witteric, an
Arian, who
succeededhim.
sa< S>os

fc;

^t- into t-^oo o\ 0 h c5 co **¦ into t^.00 A d h ci n tj-into c^.06 di 0 h cj co 4-
NtNtStslN CNCO UCOCOCOtOCOCOCOCO OtfJlOtO OtOOOOtC^OOOOO

1—1

t/nflifliniouitoiou)uii/>iototfl|flioiouiit)in tot^iotoio mto to to to to

-t^,
tt-,0
t.
M g
u O
<5 5 ~"
X
0 2 a e
oo
S « S 2
H
>> '.J W " " " "*55 " ~ - - - "
<
° S-ag <2
>- J2 s
O < <
di •£ into inoq did m « cn 4- into cnoo o\d h « co 4- into tvoo did h ci ^4
to NNNNN t-NCO 0000C0C0Q0C000tX>COO\CJiOtC> QiOtOtOtOtOtOOOOO
i/ii/]uiu)ioifliouii/)ioioioui"liOiOioioiotoio m 10 10 10 m into to to 10 to
-—- oj
X ~
¦go 0
O 0 T3
<
tH cd 0
"~ ¦£
S
°^T t;
0
"—g 0
a
<;
S.2  S 
SB •&
1-10 ,=?
HJ
<
t-y~l W
eft 4- into c^cd di 0 h ei co"5-*oto inco dt d h ci cn .J- into t*.co a-. 6 h « cn**-
to SCnNNN COO COCOCOCOOOOOCOCOOOCJtOtOtON OiOiOtCtOtotg OOOO
in uiu]ifliflioifliow)totou)iototouitnio»oiotn m io in 10 10 into to to to to
,A "O
.
3 y. :
td
.2 3 te
PL.
O g
1 s 1
O to w
.C 3 4> SJ
H
¦2 - - -f - " - 1  1 
<
toZO
u
\n ¦<*- xovd r>.co c* 6 m ei co 4 *ovd tscd do h ci tn ¦*¦?¦ iovd tsco d\ d m n co ¦«+•
VD t-s t-s Cn O. Cn, (N.OO COCOCO0000CO0OCOCOC>\ChCyiCh 0\OnC*CT»C*ONOOOOO
loioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioio 10*0*010*0 iovo vo vo vo vo
S w
a
O
<*
O . . .3  b  s . -1
o03
pq CL, O en
w
Oh O
0,
¦4- lovo inco o\ d h ci cn 4- io^5 i>.ao cV 0 m w co 4- *ovo Cnw j 0 h cj « 4-
K In. N. tsts C-sCO 0000000000COCOC0COO\CT.cyiO\ Oi Oi OM3* o\ o> 0 0 0 O Q
io 10 u> 10 IO lO^O^O lOtOlCOlOiOiOiOlOiOiOlO IO1O1O1O10 IOVO vo vo *o vo
SECULAR RULERS IN ITALY DURING
ST. GREGORY'S CAREER.

Emperors

Exarchs of

Kings of the

of Byzantium.

Ravenna.

Lombards.

565. Justin Second.

566.

567-
568.
568. Alboin.
569-
569. Longinus.
569-
570.
57o.
570.
57i-
57L
57i-
572-
572.
572. Cleophis.
573-
573-
573-
574-
574-
574. Usurpation of
the Dukes.
575-
575-
575-
576.
576.
576. „
577-
577-
577-
578. Tiberius Constantine.
578.
578.
579-
579-
579-
58o. „
580.
580.
581.
581.
58i.
582. Maurice.
582.
582.
583.
583-
583.
584-
584. Smaragdus.
584. Autharis.
585-
585-
585.
586.
586.
586.
587-
587. Romanus.
587.
588.
588.
588.
589-
589.
589.
59°-
590.
590. Agilulf.
591-
591-
591-
592-
592.
592.
593-
593-
593-
594-
594-
594-
595-
595-
595-
596-
596.
596.
597-
597-
597-
598.
598. Callinicus.
598.
599- ..
599-
599-
600. „
600. ,,
600. „
601.
601.
601. ,,
602. Phocas.
602.
602.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Statue of Pope Gregory, begun by Michael Angelo,
and completed by nicholas cordier, now in
the Chapel of Sta. Barbara at St. Gregorio
Frontispiece FACING PAGE
Monte Casino, the Cradle of the Benedictines . 64
The Column of Phocas in the Roman Forum . . 124
Portrait of St. Gregory in State Dress, from an
Ivory Diptych on a Book at Monza, presented
by him to Queen Theodelinda . . .184
St. Gregory's Table, at whiqh he used to feed
Twelve Poor Men (Weekly now), in the Chapel
of Sta. Barbara at St. Gregorio . . . 202
The Basilica of St. Sabina . . . . .242
The Castle of St. Angelo . . . . .272

MAP
Italy in the Time of St. Gregory . . .16

lvii

SAINT GREGORY THE
GREAT
CHAPTER I
Gregory the First, who was Pope from 590 to 604
a.d., is altogether perhaps the most important figure
in the long roll of Roman pontiffs. The epithet Great,
which is usually attached to his name, is a measure of
the scale by which he has been tested by history. He
had the further unusual distinction of having been
one of the four Senior Doctors of the Latin Church ;
the others being St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and
St. Jerome. He was also the first ascetic to become
Pope, which in itself marks a notable departure in the
history of Christianity. As Montalembert reminds
us, he shared with Pope Leo the First the distinction
of having been styled both Saint and Great. He
may be considered as the real founder of the Papacy,
in the sense of its being a great political factor, as well
as a religious one, in European affairs, and he looms
very big across the ages as a politician, a reformer,
a controversialist, and a practical man of business,
ubiquitous, and full of zeal and energy, and also of
good sense. Perhaps the greatest compliment one
could pay him would be to repeatsome of the sentences

2 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
in which Gibbon, who had few good words to say
of popes, and prelates, and priests, is constrained to
speak of Gregory. He sneers at his credulity, but
he highly applauds the man and the politician, and
describes his reign as one of the most edifying
periods of the history of the Church.
To us Englishmen he must always be a particu
larly interesting person. Bede says : " It becomes us
to speak at greater length about him, since he con
verted our English race from the power of Satan
to the faith of Christ . . . hence, while not an
apostle to others he is so to us, and we are the
sign of his Apostleship."1 The Council of Clovesho,
747 a.d., prescribes that the day of the Nativity of
"Our Pope and Father Gregory" should be always
duly observed.2 Aldhelm calls him "our ever-
watchful shepherd and teacher " (pervigil pastor et
paedagogus noster)? and Alcuin styles him praedi-
cator noster, " our preacher."4
Assuredly he deserves tender and continual
solicitude at the hands of English students.
In regard to another matter I cannot do better
than take a sentence from the admirable Mono
graph on St. Gregory by Mr. F. Homes Dudden,
an indispensable work from which I shall freely
quote, where he says : " In respect of the history
of the doctrine of the English Church, Gregory's
theology is of particular interest. For the system
of dogma which was introduced into our island by
1 Hist. Eccl. ii. I. 2 Haddari and Stubbs, iii. 368.
3 De laud. Virg. 55. * Mon. Ale. 367.

THE ANCESTRY OF SAINT GREGORY 3
Augustine was the system elaborated by Augustine's
revered master."1
In his Dialogues, iv. 16, and his Homily in Ev.
38, Gregory speaks of Pope Felix as his ancestor
(atavus)} and it has been much debated as to which
Felix it was. Grisar (whom I quote in the enlarged
Italian edition) has made it very probable that it
was Pope Felix the Third. He alone among the
Popes of the name is known to have been married
and to have had a family. He was Pope from 483
to 494, and was the only Pope who was buried in the
Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls. There, as we
learn from their epitaphs, were also buried his wife
Petronia (levitae conjunx, forma pudoris), whom he
had married before taking the higher orders, his
daughter, Paula, who is styled a charming woman
(clarissima femina), and his young son, Gordian
(dulcissimus puer), i.e. "a most sweet boy." The
last two died in 484 and 485 respectively. A third
member of his family, also buried in the same Basilica,
was named Aemiliana, and is styled a holy virgin
(sacra virgo). She was consecrated to God in 489.
The recurrence of the names Gordian and Aemiliana
among the near relatives of Pope Gregory seems to
make it pretty certain that it was Felix the Third
from whom he claimed descent.3 Both Gregory's

1 Op. cit. Preface, vii.
2 The word is clearly here used in a general sense. See Smith,
Stevenson, and Plummer, Bede, ad loc.
3 See Grisar, Roma alia fine Storia Roma, etc., i. pp. 365 and 366.
This was also the view of Baronius. John the Deacon, who is given
to making mistakes, identifies Leo's ancestor with Felix the Fourth,

4 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
biographers, Paul and John, tell us he belonged to
a senatorial family. Later writers say specifically
that this family was the famous Anicia gens (which
gave at least one remarkable name to literature in
the person of Boethius, several consuls to Old Rome,
and two popes, and, perhaps, St. Benedict to the
Church) ; but this theory was probably an invention
of a later age.1 The Anglian monk's Life of Gregory
says his family was not only noble, but religious
(nobilis secundum legem, sed nobilior corde coram
Deo in religione). His father was called Gordian.
He held the important post of regionarius. Rome
was, for ecclesiastical purposes, divided at this time
into seven regions, each presided over by a deacon,
and, according to Hodgkin, each deacon had a
lay assistant called a regionarius. Gordian was
doubtless a layman. Gregory's mother was called
Silvia. From the family picture presented by Gregory
to the Monastery of St. Andrew, which was placed
in its atrium and was described by his biographer,
John the Deacon, who had seen it,2 we learn that
Gordian was tall, with a long face, green eyes ! ! !
(virides oculi) — let us hope the paint had gone
wrong — with a short beard, thick hair, and grave
countenance ; while his wife Silvia is described as of

the builder of the Church of St. Cosmas and Damian, and he is
followed by Dudden.
1 " In the notes to the Fdlire of Aengus (ed. Stokes, p. 63), there
seems an attempt to give Gregory an Irish pedigree" (Plummer,
Bede, vol. ii. p. 68).
3 Op. cit. iv. 83.

SAINT GREGORY'S AUNTS 5
full height (statura plena), with round and fair face
somewhat marked with crows' feet. She had blue
eyes, small eyebrows, comely lips, and a jovial
countenance (vultu hilari). In the picture she was
dressed in white and held a psalter in her hand from
which she was reading the 175th verse of the 119th
Psalm, while with two fingers of her right hand she
was making a cross.1 On her husband's death Silvia
retired from the world, and adopted a religious life
at Cella Nova, near the Monastery of St. Saba.2
Under the pavement of its church there are still
remains of Silvia's oratory.3 She became a saint
and was commemorated on the 3rd of November.
Gordian had three sisters, Aemiliana, Tarsilla.
and Gordiana, who dedicated themselves as virgins,
continuing, however, to live in their own house, as
was usual with noble ladies. The two former were
noted for their austere life. One of them is said to
have had callosities on her knees, and elbows like a
camel, from continual kneeling, and Gregory tells
us, that in consequence of her prayers and fastings
she had visions : among others, she saw her ancestor
Pope Felix, who invited her to go and join him in
heaven. When she presently died, she is said to
have appeared to her sister Aemiliana, and bidden
her go to her. The latter also died young, a delicious
fragrance surrounding her death-bed, and the two
were inscribed among the saints.4 The third sister,
1 These precious pictures are gone and are now replaced by the
" Martyrdom of St. Andrew," by Guido and Domenichino.
* See John the Deacon, Vit. i. 9. * Grisar, op. cit. i. 625.
* See Mart. Rom. 30th Jan. and 25th Feb.

6 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Gordiana, is described by her nephew Gregory (who
seems to have been greatly troubled and chagrined
by the fact) as a frivolous and gay young lady, with
no vocation for the life and austerities of a recluse.
She adopted a solemn visage in the presence of her
exacting sisters, but when their backs were turned
she was full of sprightliness and loved the world,
and eventually, when she was left alone, married
her steward. All this we learn from Gregory's own
writings.1 Gregory had also a maternal aunt called Pateria,2
who was married in Campania, and from one of his
letters to the Subdeacon Anthemius we learn that
he sent him orders to give her forty gold pieces for
"shoe-money" for her boys (ad calciarium puerorum)
and four hundred measures of corn for her susten
ance.3 In one of his letters he speaks of his nurse
Domna as still living. Ewald and Hartmann sug
gest that she was really called Dominica.4
We do not know the exact year of Gregory's
birth, but it has been generally supposed it was
about the year 540, some ten years after St. Bene
dict had founded his order.6 He was named Gregory
(i.e. the Watchful).6 He is called a Roman by his
biographers, but his mother was probably a Sicilian
of fortune, since Gregory inherited large estates in
the island, and a monastery he founded there is
1 Horn, in Ev. ii. 38, 15 ; Dial. iv. 16.
2 E. and H. vol. i. p. 50, note 2.
3 lb. i. 37- 4 lb. iv. 44.
6 See C. Wolfsgruber, Greg, der Grosse, i. note 3.
6 Hence Bede call him vigilantissimus juxta sua nomen.

SAINT GREGORY'S IGNORANCE OF GREEK 7
said to have been planted on his mother's property.
His letters also show how assiduous he was about
Sicilian affairs. He was, no doubt, educated as
well and completely as a young Roman nobleman
with a father both rich and serious would naturally
be ; but he tells us in his letters that he did not know
Greek, nor did he write any work in that language,
which had once formed a necessary equipment of a
Roman gentleman, but was no longer spoken at
Rome (JVos nee Graece novimus nee aliquod opus
aliquando Graece conscripsimus).1
This is especially curious, since he actually lived
six years at Constantinople, not as a private person,
but as an ambassador, or nuncio, while, on the
other hand, a great part of the theology then
current was written in Greek. "Justinian was the
last Emperor, who, either in public or private life,
used the Latin tongue. . . . Procopius, who had
travelled in Italy, knew no Latin, and in Gregory's
time, at Constantinople, Greek was the language of
the Court, of the Church, of the Law Courts, of the
Bureaux, of the Hippodrome, and the streets." 2
This makes Gregory's confession astounding. On
the other hand, the fact that he carried on such a
large and confidential correspondence with people
in high positions at Constantinople, always writing
to them in Latin, shows that, like French in Ger
many in the eighteenth century, the old speech of
Rome must have been generally familiar to the
upper classes. He complains in several of his
1 E. and H. xi. 55. 2 Dudden, op. cit. i. 153.

8 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
letters of the incapacity of the interpreters,1 and
it may be that the correspondence on each side had
to be interpreted. In a letter to Narses he bids
him give his compliments to Dominica (his nurse).
He had not answered her letter, he said, because,
although her native tongue was Latin, she had
written to him in Greek.2
Not only did Gregory not know Greek, but he
does not show any taste for the humanities and the
arts, and in his more austere later life he is found
discountenancing what he calls nugis et saecularibus
litteris.3 His was eminently a practical and busi
nesslike genius, which was developed by a lawyer's
training. Gregory of Tours, his contemporary, tells
us (perhaps hyperbolically) how, in the liberal arts
of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, he was deemed
the first in Rome.4 Paul the Deacon makes a
similar statement,5 but Gregory made no pretence
to classical finish in his Latin style : thus, in a
letter to his friend Bishop Leander, he tells him
that he took little heed of the niceties of style (situs
modosque et praepositionum casus servare contemno),
for, as he says, " I deem it an indignity to tie up the
words of the sacred oracle by the rules of Donatus." 6
As Mr. Dudden says, the Latinity of the Dialogues
and Morals, though certainly not excellent, is yet,
on the whole, respectable, and its grammatical sim
plicity contrasts favourably, not only with the bar
barism of a Gregory of Tours, but also with the
1 E. and H. i. 28, vii. 27, x. 14, 21. 2 lb. iii. 63.
8 lb. xi. 34. * Hist. Franc, x. 1.
6 Vita, ii. « E. and H. v. 53a.

SAINT GREGORY AS PREFECT OF ROME 9
pedantry and polish of a Cassiodorus or a Columban.1
Gregory's style was especially suited to letter- writing,
of which he was one of the most notable masters.
Like other high-born Romans he, no doubt, was well
instructed in Roman law, but he apparently cared little
for what we call philosophy, or for what was then
known as science, which was far removed from that
we know by the name. He does not mention astron
omy or geometry in any of his works. On the other
hand, John of Salisbury reports him as expelling the
mathematici: " Sanctus Gregorius . . . mathesinjussit
ab aula recedere." 2 By this term he no doubt means
the astrologers, whom he elsewhere denounces.3
His position, character, and knowledge of affairs
pointed Gregory out for speedy promotion, and
when still young he was nominated Urban Praetor,
or more probably Prefect, of Rome.4, by the
Emperor Justin the Second.5 As Prefect, Gregory
probably used the insignia of a. Consul, and had a
right to wear the purple-striped robe (trabea), and
to ride in a four-horse chariot, while he largely
superintended the government and administration
of the city. At this time, however, the office was
shorn of much of its old importance, and the
greater part of the officials who used to do the bid-
1 Op. cit. 73. 2 Poly erat. ii. 26 ; Gregorovius I. p. 418, note 27
3 Mor. xxxiii. 19 ; Horn, in Ev. 10, par. 5.
* John the Deacon, i. 4.
5 The only date we have referring to Gregory's holding this office
is in one of his letters (E. and H. iv. 2, and note 2), where he says
he signed the cautio given by Laurentius when he became Bishop of
Milan, 22nd January 573, and says: "Ego quoque tunc urbanam
praefecturam gerens pariter subscripsi."

io SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
ding of its holder had disappeared. As Mr. Dudden
says : " There was no longer work for curators of
baths, or theatres, or statues, when the baths were
waterless, the theatres deserted, and the statues
fallen or broken ; nor was there need of a Minister
of Public Spectacles when the only surviving
spectacles were the ceremonies of the Church. . . .
The office was still, however, of some consideration ;
within the walls of Rome the civil administration
rested in his hands, his jurisdiction over the citizens
being almost unimpaired. In financial matters
he was still the great authority. The Government
officials of whom he had the superintendence were
more in number perhaps than is usually supposed,
since at a later date such officers as a Curator of
the Aqueducts and a Palace Architect were still in
existence. " 1 Further, the Praefect acted with the Pope
in buying and distributing grain, and co-operated
with the Magister Militum in taking measures for
the defence of the City.
The position was still a very arduous as well as
dignified one, for during the previous five-and-
twenty years Rome had been successively entered
and plundered by Totila in 546, Belisarius in 547,
again by Totila in 548, by N arses in 552, and lastly,
in 568 by the Lombard Alboin, and it was, no doubt,
in a terribly ruinous and impoverished condition.
On the death of his father, the date of which is
not known, but was probably about 575 a.d., Gregory
became possessed of great wealth, including large
1 Dudden, i. 103 ; E. and H. ix. 106, and xii. 6.

SAINT GREGORY AS AN ASCETIC ii
estates in Italy and Sicily and much personal
property. Like other serious men of his time, to
whom the future of the world seemed dismal, he
had been attracted by the peaceful austerities of a
religious life, and especially by the example of St.
Benedict. Gregory devoted.. his own patrimony in
Sicily to the foundation and endowment of six mon
asteries in that island, which Hody calls " the special
asylum and paradise of the Church." These mon
asteries were all in the diocese of Palermo, and still
existed at the end of the eighth century. One of
them was built on his mother's property (in aedibus
maternis). A more interesting foundation of St. Gregory
was the Monastery of St. Andrew on the Caelian
Hill, which he endowed with his ancestral residence
and with an ample income, thus following the ex
ample of other great Roman nobles like Eucherius,
Paulinus, Cassiodorus, etc. We shall have more
to say of this monastery in a later volume. The
balance of his fortune he left to the poor.1
By most writers it has been supposed that he
became technically a monk, a view in which Mr.
Dudden concurs. This seems to be improbable, for
about this time he became one of the Seven Deacons
who presided over the eleemosynary affairs of the
Church at Rome, which office would be incompatible
with the life of a monk, and involved a " secular " and
not a " regular " vocation ; 2 but he no doubt made the
1 Greg, of Tours, op. cit. x. i.
a I can nowhere find any statement in his writings definitely saying
he had ever been a professed monk. His language only implies

12 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
monastery he had founded his most cherished home,
whither he withdrew for peace and quietude. In a
letter written to Marinianus, Bishop of Ravenna,
Gregory urges that any one who had attained any
ecclesiastical order should no longer have any
power in a monastery or any longer dwell there.1
Gregory of Tours tells us how, in the pursuit of
his duties, he who had traversed the streets in be
jewelled silken robes now did so in coarse garments,
while he dedicated himself to the service of the
altars.2 It has been supposed that his mother's ex
ample led him to take this course, and a not improb
able legend tells us that he was really persuaded to
it by Simplicius and Constantine, the one abbot and
the other a monk of Monte Cassino (who had sought
refuge at Rome after the burning of their monastery
by the Lombards), and by other monks who were his
friends. At all events, it is clear that he not only
gave up his wealth, but also his heart, to his new
ideal of life, and he never flinched in his devotion to
it. He remained an ascetic to the end of his days.
Like most people of wealth and position who
turn their backs on the world, he pushed his
asceticism to great lengths. Inter alia, he is said
to have fed on raw vegetables (crudo legumine) and
fruit supplied by his mother, who lived as a recluse
close by, and which she sent to him, we are expressly
that he lived like a monk in his own Monastery of St. Andrew when
he was at Rome. John the Deacon, not an accurate person, also uses
ambiguous language ; thus he says : " Primo sub Hilarionis, deinde
sub Maximiani, venerabilium patrum, regimine, multis sibi sociatis
fratribus, regulari tramite militavit " (op. cit. i. 6 and 7).
1 Epp. of St. Gregory, viii. 16, note. 2 Op. cit. book x. i.

SAINT GREGORY AS DEACON AND NUNCIO 13
told, on a silver dish.1 Various stories are told of
the way in which he permanently injured his health
by his privations and devotion to study. He fre
quently fainted and was racked by pain from gout,
was not able to keep the prescribed fasts, and could
barely keep that on Easter Eve, and he tells us he
would have succumbed more than once if the brethren
had not insisted on his taking proper food.
Presently (we do not know at what date) we find
Gregory appointed, by Pope Benedict the First, one
of the Seven Regionary Deacons of Rome. Baronius
suggests they were the precursors of what are now
known as Cardinal Deacons. They presided over
the administration of alms and other similar duties
in the seven ecclesiastical regions into which Rome
was divided. Gregory of Tours speaks of him as
" the seventh Levite," while Eulogius, Patriarch
of Alexandria, makes him an archdeacon, meaning
probably the head of the seven deacons, all of
which is inconsistent with his having been an actual
monk or regular. This appointment was, according
to his own confession, very much against his inclina
tion, for his heart was pining for the seclusion and
austerities of a monastery, and to get away from the
world. It was probably still more distasteful to him
when the Pope presently promoted him to a more
influential place, and made him the papal representa
tive or nuncio at the Imperial Court of Constanti
nople, which was the most dignified post in his gift.
1 John the Deacon tells us that Gregory one day, having no money
at hand, gave this dish to a beggar dressed as a shipwrecked mariner,
who afterwards turned out to have been an angel in disguise ( Vit. i. 10).

14 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
This post Bede calls that of apocrisiarius (from
airoKpKTi'i, "an answer." The word is glossed in
Latin by responsalis).
It will be well to realise the political condition
of the Mediterranean lands at this time. The
Empire of Byzantium was still by far the most
powerful state in Europe. During the reign of
Justinian, 527-565, it had largely recovered in
wealth and power after the terrible ravages of the
Barbarians in the fifth and beginning of the sixth
century. The African province had been recon
quered from the Vandals by Belisarius, and now
formed, with the valley of the Nile, a famous
granary for the Empire. Italy had been similarly
recovered from the Goths by Narses, and with
the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and the
Istrian and Illyrian regions, became in the same reign
once more part of the Roman Empire. The Tigris
had been maintained by Justinian as the eastern
limit of the Empire, as the Danube and the Alps re
mained its boundaries on its northern frontier, while
the peoples of the Caucasus on the one hand and the
Abyssinians on the other had been brought within
the influence of the Roman power for the first time.
In the far West, Justinian's general, Liberius,
reconquered a large part of the maritime district of
Spain, including the cities of Corduba, Carthagena,
Malaga, and Assidonia, with many places on the
coast, from the Visigoths. Malaga, Assidonia, and
Corduba were sixteen years later recovered from the
Romans by the great Visigothic chief, Leovigild.

THE EMPIRE AND LOMBARDS IN ITALY 15
The rest of Spain, including the Suevian kingdom
in the north, had by the year 616 definitely passed
under the rule of the Visigoths, as the greater part of
Gaul had passed under that of the Franks.
Having recovered Italy, Justinian on the 13th of
August 554 issued a decree known as the Pragmatic
Sanction, in which two clauses occur which helped
to strengthen the authority of the Church there.
In the nineteenth clause he associated the Pope with
the decayed remnant of the Senate in supervising
weights and measures and the standards of the coin
in the great city, and in the twelfth he assigned to
the bishops and chief persons of each province the
appointment of the provincial governors.
The Empire, with its frontiers thus enlarged by
Justinian, did not remain long intact. It is no part
of my purpose to describe the attacks upon it of
the Slavs and Saracens in the East, and we must
limit our short survey to Italy. It was in the year
568 that the Lombards crossed the Alps from
Pannonia under their king, Alboin, and speedily
conquered Venetia and Cisalpine Gaul which, as
Mr. Bury shrewdly says, were in ecclesiastical op
position to Justinian and the Roman See, and prob
ably in some measure favoured Alboin's conquest.
Alboin advanced as far as Tuscany and founded the
Lombard kingdom of North Italy. Two of his
nobles, named Zotto and Farwald, proceeded farther,
and founded the more or less dependent duchies of
Spoleto and Beneventum, the latter in 571. These
three states during the succeeding half-century con-

16 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
siderably enlarged their borders at the expense of
the Imperial possessions.
The peninsula was thus divided between two sets
of masters, and in each case their possessions were
again divided into three groups, each controlled by
an important city.1
1 Mr. Dudden and Dr. Bury have given a good condensed account
of the division, which I shall follow. The principal Roman posses
sions were : —
" i. In the north, Istria, Grado, the Venetian Coast, maritime
Liguria, and the towns of Padua, Mantua, Monselice, Cremona,
Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, and Modena, which belonged to the Empire
in 580. To these we must add the Exarchate of Ravenna and the
maritime Pentapolis, i.e. the cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigagha,
and Ancona, with the inland Decapolis, i.e. the cities of Jes'i, Gubbio,
Cagli, Luceoli, Fossombrone, Valvense, Urbino, Montefeltro, Umana,
and Osimo, and also the ^Emilia, comprising Ferrara, Bologna,
Cesena, Imola, etc.
"2. In the centre, the Roman possessions included the city of
Perugia and the later Ducatus Romae, a district which stretched from
Todi and Civita Vecchia on the north to Gaeta on the south, including
all the ancient province of Latium.
" 3. The southern group comprising Naples with a small surround
ing territory, including Amalfi, Sipontum, on the east coast, Paestum
and Agropoli isolated on the west coast, the two provinces of Calabria
and Bruttii, and the islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily.
" These several districts were all under the Emperor's lieutenant at
Ravenna, known as the Exarch, a title which first appears in the time
of Gregory. " The Lombard territory also consisted, as I have said, of three
states : —
" 1. In the north it was directly subject to the Lombard kings, and
included Milan and Pavia, the royal residences, and a number of small
subordinate duchies, including those of Bergamo, Brescia, Friuli,
Trient, etc., and Tuscany.
" 2. In the centre was the Great Duchy of Spoleto, which continu
ally endeavoured to extend its limits to the north at the expense of
the Pentapolis, and to the west at the expense of Rome. It tended to
join Tuscany and to include the isthmus of land which lay along the
Flaminian road between Rome and the Adriatic, of which the key
was Perugia.
"3. The Duchy of Beneventum including almost all the territory
east of Naples and north of Consentia " (Dudden, i. 1 67 and 168 ; Bury,
Later Rom. Empire, ii. 146, note 14, 148 and 149),

ITALY
IN 600 A.D.

ITALY IN THE TIME OF ST. GREGORY.

To/acep. 16.

THE LOMBARDS IN ITALY 17
Gregory's language about the Lombards seems to
me somewhat extravagant and exaggerated. I n their
wars with the Empire they acted, no doubt, like other
rough soldiers, and were ruthless, destroying property
and holding their captives to ransom or selling them
as slaves. The country people naturally suffered as
they do in all wars, but it does not appear that they
were the mere cruel despots he makes them out to
be. Their Arianism was doubtless their gravest
fault in his eyes, but since they were Arians they
must have been also Christians, although not accept
ing the shibboleths of Athanasius. I was very glad
to find Mr. Dudden taking this view, which I had come
to independently, and thus confirming mine by his
powerful authority. I will quote his words. He says:
" We must beware lest we depict the miseries of the
conquered in too lurid colours. As a matter of fact,
the Lombards, at any rate after the establishment of
the monarchy, appear to have treated the population
with no extraordinary harshness. . . . Gregory's own
letters furnish us with proof that the Lombard rule
was less oppressive than he would fain make out.
Thus we hear of Roman towns entering into negotia
tions with Lombard dukes with a view to becoming
their subjects,1 and again of frequent desertions to
the enemy of Roman freemen, soldiers, and ecclesi
astics.2 In another letter the Pope complains that
the landowners in Corsica were compelled to take
refuge with the Lombards in order to escape the
intolerable burden of Imperial taxation.3 . . .
1 E. and H. ii. 33. 2 lb. x. 5. " lb. v. 38.
SS

1 8 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Doubtless in the long-run it made little difference
to the miserable provincial whether he was at the
mercy of a Lombard chieftain or of the fiscal vam
pires of the Roman Empire." l
The great features which distinguished the Lom
bards in addition to their race, language, customs, and
arts were, first, the fact that while the Romans were
orthodox the Lombards were Arians ; and secondly,
as Dr. Bury says, "inasmuch as the Lombards were a
race of warriors who despised agriculture, they at first
left the old landowners on the ground, merely exact
ing a third of the produce as tribute, and where they
took the land cultivated it by slaves, thus causing
only a moderate change in the population."
The invasion and conquest of a large part of Italy
by the Lombards took place in the reign of Justin the
Second, the nephew and successor of Justinian.
Justin and Pope Benedict the First both died in the
same year, i.e. 578 a.d. The former was succeeded
by Tiberius the Second, surnamed Constantine, a
Thracian by origin, who had been Captain of the
Guards, and the latter by Pelagius the Second, who
appointed Gregory as Papal Nuncio at Constanti
nople. Gregory's chief political function at this time
was no doubt to continually remind the Imperial
authorities of the evils brought upon Italy by the
rapacity and cruelty of the Lombards, with which
the hapless and inefficient Exarch at Ravenna failed
adequately to cope. The fact was that his master
the Emperor could not spare him either the men
1 Dudden, op. cit. i. 174.

ST.GREGORY AS NUNCIO AT CONSTANTINOPLE 1 9
or the money, for his hands were more than full
with his struggles against the Persians and the
merciless Avars. In 585 Pope Pelagius wrote
Gregory a letter1 addressed to his dear son "the
venerable Deacon Gregory" (surely no monk), to
inform him of what was going on in Italy, which
letter he entrusted to Sebastian, Bishop of Ravenna,
who was to tell him further of what was happen
ing there. He bids him implore the Emperor to
appoint a resident and local Magister Militum or a
Dux, i.e. a commander of some weight, to protect the
city from the Lombards, for the Exarch had written
to say he could do nothing for him as he could not
protect his own border. But the Emperor had his
hands too full of his own troubles. The long-drawn-
out Persian War and the continual assault of the
Avars had to be met, and all he could do was to write
to the Frankish king, Childebert, offering him a bribe
of 50,000 gold pieces to invade Italy and punish the
Lombards. Childebert took the money, crossed the
Alps on four several occasions, and apparently did his
best to help the Emperor, but with very small suc
cess. In this letter the Pope further bids Gregory
send back to him one of the monks of his monastery,
whom he had taken with him and whom he calls a
priest, whose presence at the monastery was urgently
needed (quia et in monasterio tuo et in opus quod eum
praeposuimus necessarius esse)} This was probably
Maximianus, one of the monks of St. Andrew's. It
would seem that Hilarion, the Abbot of St. Andrew's,
1 E. and H. vol. ii. App. II. s lb. ii. App. II. p. 441.

20 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
was dead, and the Pope wished to appoint Maximi
anus as abbot.
While at Constantinople, Gregory met and
became a close friend of the Spanish bishop, Leander,1
who, like himself, was a man of high birth. He was
a contemporary of the Visigothic king, Leovigild, and
had apparently gone to Constantinople to plead the
cause of Hermenigild, the son of Leovigild, who had
abandoned Arianism and rebelled against his father.
Like Gregory's, his health had suffered greatly
from his austerities. He had become Bishop of
Seville and Metropolitan of Spain in 579. Ten
years later he presided at the famous Third Council
of Toledo, when the Spanish Arians gave in their
adhesion to the Catholic faith, having been converted
to orthodoxy by the persuasion of Leander and his
brethren. The letters which passed between the two
aristocratic and accomplished ecclesiastics, Gregory
and Leander, are delightful specimens of genuine
sympathy and affection. Besides Leander, as we
learn from his correspondence, Gregory made several
influential friends at Constantinople, with whom
he afterwards corresponded. Among others were
Constantina the Empress, Theoctista, the Emperor's
sister, who had charge of the Imperial children,
Narses, Theodorus, physician to the Emperor,
Gregoria, Lady of the Bedchamber to the Empress,
the two patrician ladies Clementina and Rusticiana,
the patrician Johannes, Philip, the commander of the
Bodyguard, and Domitian, Bishop of Melitene and
1 Vide infra.

LITERARY WORK AT CONSTANTINOPLE 21
Metropolitan of Lesser Armenia, a relative of the
Emperor — that is to say, some of the noblest and
most influential people at the Byzantine Court.
Gregory was, as we have seen, a great devotee
and champion of the austere life and of the con
templative virtues of the coenobites and monks.
He tells us that in order that he might not be
too much immersed in secular matters when at
Constantinople, he took with him some monks, no
doubt from his own Monastery of St. Andrew,
including his friend Maximianus, who afterwards
became its abbot. He hoped that their austere life
might continually remind him of better things, and
in the preface to his Moralia he speaks of the
peace he found in their company when troubled
by the turmoil of the outer world. These homely
friends of his were, however, not allowed to
stay too long, nor would it have been reasonable
that they should, since the monastery could hardly
get on without them. Gregory tells us, in his Dia
logues} how the ship in which they sailed was over
taken by a tempest in the Adriatic, during which the
sails and masts were lost, and the water in the hold
reached the deck. The sailors and passengers gave
up hope of being saved, exchanged the kiss of peace,
and received the Sacrament. The ship, neverthe
less, escaped, and after eight days' peril reached
Crotona, and then immediately sank.
Gregory's literary activity when at Constantinople
was phenomenal. Inter alia, at the instance of his
1 iii. 36 ; John the Deacon, i. 33.

22 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
friend Leander, he wrote a work on Job in thirty-
five books, with mystical interpretations. This is
the well-known Magna Moralia, with which his
name is so closely connected. In sending a copy to
Leander, to whom it was dedicated, he tells him that
the work had been delivered in a series of homilies,
and that he had afterwards put it in the form of a
treatise which was being written out by scribes.1
The miseries and misfortunes of Job were a
perpetual source of consolation and example to the
ascetics, who looked on self-inflicted suffering and
misery as the highest form of virtue. Its fine poetry
and high ideals had previously attracted others :
notably Origen, and we find Licinianus, Bishop
of Carthagena in Spain, writing to Gregory about
St. Hilary of Poictiers' translation of Origen's com
mentary on Job in six books. He remarks that he
cannot understand how a man so learned and holy
should have accepted Origen's tales about the stars.
"I, most holy father," he says, "can in nowise
be persuaded that the heavenly luminaries are
rational spirits."2
While at Constantinople, Gregory also had a
controversy with Eutychius, who was then Patriarch
there, and who on the authority of i Cor. xv. 44
claimed that Christ's risen body was a spiritual and
immaterial body only. To this Gregory replied by
quoting Luke xxix. 39, where Christ tells the
sceptical to handle him and see. A ghostly body,
he urged, has neither flesh nor bones which can be
1 E. and H. i. 41. 2 lb. i. 41a.

SAINT GREGORY'S EXPERIENCES 23
touched or seen. Eutychius claimed, on the other
hand, that such a body was cognisable by faith, and
he especially quoted 1 Cor. xv. 6, 37, and 1 Cor.
xiii. 50, which seem conclusive. The able and
rhetorical Italian turned the flank of his opponent
by the reply that what Paul meant was the substitu
tion of a mundane by a glorified and yet a real
material body. Whatever the value of the dis
cussion, the Emperor gave his decision for Gregory,
and the book which Eutychius had written was
burnt. Eutychius on his sick-bed recanted and
confessed his faith in the material resurrection of
the body. Holding one hand on the other he said
to those around him, " With this body we shall rise
again." The controversy had been so energetically
pressed that both combatants became ill and took
to their beds. Soon after, i.e. 582, Eutychius died,
and was succeeded as Patriarch of Constantinople
by John, called " the Faster," so called, according to
Theophylactus, because he had "completely acquired
a philosophic mastery over pleasure, a tyrannical
authority over the passions, and had made himself
a despot over his appetites." 1
The Emperor Tiberius died in 582, and was
succeeded by Maurice, who had married his daughter
Constantina, and who, like himself, had been Captain
of the Guards.
While Gregory lived at Constantinople he had
ample time and opportunities for studying the erratic
1 Theoph. Hist. vii. 6 ; Dudden, i. H4-

24 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
diplomacy of the Byzantine Court, and he seems to
have ingratiated himself with the Emperor, for we
are told by Gregory of Tours that he became the
godfather of one of his sons, who was named
Theodosius. In a letter written to Theoctista, the
sister of the Emperor Maurice, in 60 1, Gregory re
calls some of his troubles when at the capital. He
writes of the polemical Greeks among whom he had
lived : " There are many orthodox people who are
inflamed with misguided zeal, and fancy they are fight
ing heretics while really they are creating heresies."
Again, he tells us that when he was in residence
at the Imperial City, many used to come to him
who had been accused on certain points, and whom
he had found innocent, and had kindly received
and defended from their accusers. Among these
charges, he adds, were that under pretence of
entering into religion they were wont to dissolve
marriages ; that they held that baptism did not
entirely take away sins ; that if any one did penance
for three years for his iniquities he might afterwards
live perversely ; and that if they said under compulsion
that they anathematised anything for which they were
blamed, they were notboundbythe bond of anathema.
On these charges Gregory goes on to comment that
if there had been people holding such views they
would not have been Christians, and would them
selves have been anathematised by himself and all
Catholic bishops, and by the Universal Church.1
Gregory's residence at Constantinople was, no
1 E. and H. xi. 27 ; Barmby, Epp. of Greg xi. 45.

THE QUESTION OF « THE THREE CHAPTERS " 2 5
doubt, very tiresome to him, and it was perhaps at
his own instance that the Pope recalled him and that
he returned to Rome, where we find him again in the
year 585 or 586. Baronius, quoting a Vatican MS.,
tells us that the Emperor had given him some relics
which he took back with himfor his monastery — inter
alia, the arm of St. Andrew and the head of St. Luke.1
The former, according to Butler, still remains in its
old place, but the latter is now preserved at St.
Peter's. St. Andrew's Monastery was at this time
presided over by the Abbot Maximianus, who re
mained its head till the year 591, when he was
appointed Bishop of Syracuse.
It would seem that on his arrival at Rome
Gregory was appointed his secretary by the Pope,
for Paul the Deacon, in his History of the Lombards}
tells us that, " while he was still deacon," Gregory
wrote three notable letters addressed on behalf of
Pope Pelagius to the Bishop of I stria on the famous
schism of " The Three Chapters." These letters are
dated by Ewald and Hartmann in 585 and 586 a.d.3
The subject-matter had caused great heartburning
at the time, and was in essence perhaps the most
undisguised and Erastian interference by the lay
authorities with the ecclesiastical functions of the
clergy on record. In order to conciliate the Mono-
physites whom he wished to draw into the orthodox
fold, Justinian, at the instance of a disingenuous
ecclesiastic, Theodore Askidas, and of the Empress
1 See Baronius, ad an. 586, 24.
2 Vol. iii. 20. 3 Op. cit. ii. App. III.

26 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Theodora, had compelled the heads of the Church,
including not only his own Patriarch at Constan
tinople, but also the Pope, to pronounce as heretical
parts of the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. In
these decrees, the views of Theodore of Mopsuepsia,
Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa, which
had been challenged as tainted with Nestorianism,
but which that Council had refused to condemn,
were virtually affirmed. Justinian had his way, but
only after exercising the grossest cruelty and durance
upon the bishops and other great ecclesiastics, who
in the matter had represented the views of the greater
part of the Orthodox Church. Notwithstanding the
tremendous penalties of disobedience, a large number
of the clergy in Africa, Illyricum, and Upper Italy,
including the archbishops of Milan and Aquileia,
refused to obey or to recognise the capacity of those
who had tampered with the finding of the Council.
The Latin Church (however unwillingly) was, how
ever, compromised by the surrender of Pope Vigilius
and subsequently by that of Pelagius, his successor,
and the deletion of " The Three Chapters " was exacted
as a test of orthodoxy by Gregory, who wrote a dis
ingenuous but clever Apologia for the action taken by
his predecessors in regard to this Council. In this
Apologia Gregory, on behalf of Pope Pelagius and
following Leo the First, made a sharp distinction
between the decrees of the Council regarding
dogma and doctrine and those relating to private
and personal matters, maintaining that while the
former were decisive the latter could be revised.

THE QUESTION OF " THE THREE CHAPTERS "27
Pope Leo had urged that this was notably the case
in regard to the decision of the Council on the status
and position of the See of Constantinople, which he
rejected. Gregory for similar reasons professed to
reject the Council's decision in regard to the case of
Theodoret and Ibas. He further argued that by its
decision the Council had clearly not approved of all
the writings of the three bishops, or it would have
put itself in opposition to the Council of Ephesus ;
nor had all Theodoret's writings been otherwise
condemned, but only those deemed to be tainted
with Nestorianism.1
In regard to this famous question, the Latin
bishops for the most part supported the Holy See.
Justinian crushed the opposition in Illyricum by de
posing the Bishop of Salona, who was Metropolitan
of Dalmatia. Africa conformed in 559 a.d. and the
diocese of Milan in 571, but that of I stria remained
intractable. Its leader was then the Archbishop of
Aquileia, to whom the letters written by Gregory in
the name of Pope Pelagius, above mentioned, were
addressed. The appeal was of no effect, and the schism
really lived on till the year 700. When he became
Pope, Gregory, supported by the Emperor, ordered
the recalcitrant bishops of I stria to attend a synod
at Rome, but they resisted the demand, summoned
a synod of their own, and petitioned the Emperor to
revoke his order, as they were only teaching what
Pope Vigilius had taught them ; and objecting to be
tried by the Pope, who was a prejudiced person.
1 E. and H. ii. 49, and App. III. letters i., ii., and iii.

28 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
They promised to satisfy Maurice of the purity of
their faith. The Emperor complied, and commanded
Gregory, in consideration of the troubled state of
politics, not to molest the Istrian bishops, and the
Pope at once obeyed. It is a curious fact that
although she was so devoted to him in other matters,
Gregory was never able to secure the adherence of
his patroness and friend the Lombard queen, Theo-
delinda, to his view on the question of " The Three
Chapters." While acting as secretary to the Pope, Gregory
apparently also devoted himself to giving lectures
on various parts of the Old Testament. Thus, he
expounded the Heptateuch, the Books of Kings, the
Prophets, Proverbs, and Canticles. Notes of his
lectures were taken down by a student called
Claudius, which Gregory himself intended to correct,
but was probably not able to do so. The notes of
Claudius on Canticles are apparently extant, while
the rest are lost.1 Probably at this time Gregory
also edited and published the work he had written
on Job at Constantinople.
It is also to this period of Gregory's life, when
he was acting as papal secretary, that has generally
been assigned the doubtful story in which his name
occurs so prominently, in connection with certain
Anglian slaves from far-off Britain whom he is said
to have seen at Rome, and which it will be more
convenient to discuss later on.
1 See Dudden, i. 191 and note 4.

CHAPTER II
We have now reached the critical stage in
Gregory's life when he became Pope. According
to the report of Gregory of Tours, who learnt it
from his own envoy, a deacon then at Rome, the
Tiber, in November 589, overflowed its banks and
destroyed many ancient buildings and overwhelmed
some of the Church's granaries on the banks of the
river, causing the loss of many thousands of measures
of corn. This was one of a series of inundations
which, according to Paul the Deacon,1 were followed
by a pestilence known as the lues inguinaria, i.e. the
Oriental plague which had been desolating Eastern
Europe for fifty years. Among its victims wasjoge
„J?£lagius, who died on the 7th or 8th of February 590.2
There was only one possible successor in such a
crisis, and we are told that Gregory was elected to
the vacancy with the universal approbation of clergy,
senate (by which the magnates are meant, for the
senate was now dead), and people, but very much in-
1 Vit. x. 1.
a It has been said that there was an interval of several months
before his successor was appointed, during which the Archpresbyter,
Archdeacon, and the Primicerius Notariorum acted as vicegerents of
the see ; but Gregory of Tours distinctly says that on the death of
Pelagius, as the Church of God could not remain without a head, all
the people elected the deacon Gregory {pp. cit. x. 1).
29

30 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
deed.against his own inclination, and that he did his
utmost to escape from the position. Gibbon indulges
in some sneers at the motives of the Pope. "Nolo
episcopari" was a plea which that cynical historian
was very dubious about. On this occasion his
generally shrewd sense was affected by his prejudices.
It seems impossible for any one who reads Gregory's
correspondence with his intimate friends, and the
deprecatory rebukes with which he answers their
congratulations, to doubt his sincerity in the matter.
Be it remembered he had given up great rank and
wealth, and everything which ambitious men deem
valuable, to adopt a life where the hardest fare and
the greatest privations were his portion. He was
the strictest of the strict in the observance of the
rigid rules he had imposed on himself. On every
occasion when he was brought out of his retreat into
a position of prominence, he spoke in the same tone
to his friends as he did in the prefaces to his books.
To Theoctista, the sister of the Emperor, he wrote
how he had lost the profound joys of repose, and how
that while he had been elevated in external things he
had been sunk in spiritual ones. " I endeavoured,"
he says, " daily to withdraw from the world and from
the flesh, to see the heavenly joys in the spirit . . .
neither desiring nor having anything in this world,
I felt myself above everything. But the storm of
temptation has cast me suddenly among alarms and
terrors, for though I fear nothing for myself, I fear
much for those of whom I have the charge." x To the
1 E. and Hi. 5.

ST. GREGORY'S OBJECTIONS TO BECOME POPE 3 1
Patrician Narses he writes: " I am so overcome with
melancholy that I can scarcely speak ; the darkness of
grief assails the eyes of my soul. I see nothing that is
notsad, and everything which is supposed to please me
appears to me lamentable. For I cannot care to think
from what a height of tranquillity I have fallen, and
to what a height of embarrassment I have ascended " ;
and he speaks of having been set to plough the Lord's
fold " like a buffalo " — in agro dominico cum bubalis
arares} To a certain Andrew, styled Illustrious,
he writes : " When you hear of my promotion to the
Episcopate, weep if you love me, for there are so
many temporal occupations here that I find myself
by this dignity almost separated from the love of
God."2 To the Patrician John, who also helped in
his election, he wrote : "I complain of your love
which has drawn me from the repose which you
know I sought. God reward you with direct gifts
for your good intentions, but I pray Him deliver me
as He will please from so many perils." He says,
further, that he had been appointed Bishop, not of
the Romans, but of the Lombards.3 To his very
confidential friend, the Bishop Leander, he says : " I
weep when I recall the peaceful shore which I have
left, and sigh in perceiving afore, that which I cannot
attain."4 But it is in writing to the subdeacon,
Peter, — his pupil and companion, — whom he could
hardly hope to deceive, that he breaks out patheti
cally when he recalls his old life in the monastery,
in which he could escape from earthly cares instead
1 E. andH. i. 6. a lb. i. 29. 3 lb. i. 30. « lb. i. 41.

32 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
of being soiled with the world's dust : " I meditate
on all I have suffered and lost. When I think of my
former life, I seem to look back towards the shore."
Those who are not convinced of the sincerity of
these phrases do not understand the fervour and
zest which at this time possessed the best of men in
all stations, who despaired of the world and saw
everything being shipwrecked, to shrink away
into the cell of the anchorite and there find peace
and solace. And what temptation was there for
the most ambitious man at this time to desire to
become Bishop of Rome. vPlague and pestilence
and famine were ravaging the land, which had been
trampled over by hordes of barbarians until its
wealth was stripped from it and its population
decimated. \/The Lombards possessed its best por
tions, and were aggressive and hard. Mr. Dudden
has collected from different passages in the Dia
logues a graphic if exaggerated picture of the
unsettled condition of the country during the domi
nation of the Goths and the Lombards, who had
devastated it so ruthlessly. They roamed about the
villages in twos and threes, pillaging or murdering
all who were not strong enough to resist them. The
roads were especially unsafe, and the hauntsof robbers.
Children were kidnapped and carried off even in the
midst of towns. Sometimes towns themselves, like
Aquino and Populonia, were ravaged. Wealthy
monasteries were attacked and the monks tortured
or put to death. The Lombards on one occasion
murdered forty peasants because they refused to

ST. GREGORY'S OBJECTIONS TO BECOME POPE 3 3
eat meats sacrificed to their gods ; on another they
slew four hundred people who would not adore the
goat's head which, according to their custom, they
sacrificed to the devil (i.e. to their god), dancing
round it in circles and dedicating it with blasphem
ous songs.1 These stories point to the fact that
many of the Lombards were still unconverted pagans
and were not all Arians. On one occasion they hung
up two monks on one tree, and on another beheaded
a deacon.2 As we shall see presently, this account
of the doings of the Lombards is somewhat highly
coloured. The natural consequence of the destruc
tion of the wealthy classes, and of the stoppage of
the eleemosynary agencies they supported, was that
the peninsula, as on former occasions, was filled with
swarms of vagabonds and beggars, the counterparts
of the sturdy beggars in Elizabeth's time in England.
Among Gregory's other troubles were the heretics
who repudiated his jurisdiction in spiritual things.
The Monophysite schism, which was a special grief
to him, had still many adherents, and, as we shall
see later on, the orthodoxy of the Franks was
tempered with many drawbacks besides the rude,
illiterate barbarism of their community. Every
where were difficulties and there was none to help,
for the Emperor seemed to care little what became
of the Western lands, where his jurisdiction was no
longer obeyed, and whence he now derived scant
profit and great cares, while the race of great
Italians seemed to be extinct. No wonder the
1 Dialogues, iii. 27, 28. 2 Dudden,_i. 344.
3

34 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
recluse, theologian, and far-seeing statesman dreaded
taking the helm in such a sea, and that (to use his
phrase) he heard the bell of shipwreck ringing, and
despaired of what he called " the rotten old vessel
of which God had given him the charge." No
wonder he tried to escape from the load, and, as
his actual contemporary and namesake, Gregory of
Tours, tells us, he wrote to the Emperor to ask him
to refuse to confirm his election.1 Germanus, the
Prefect of Rome, however, intercepted the letter and
wrote on his own account to press upon Maurice the
duty of giving the Church a strong head in these
woeful times. The Emperor's confirmation having
arrived, we are told in a suspicious legend that
Gregory took to flight disguised, and wandered for
three days in the woods. He was again^ followed
and brought back, and eventually planted on the
fateful seat at St. Peter's.2
Once there, he faced the position like a man, and,
in fact, he seems to me the only man of his time
who does stand upright, and who unflinchingly did
his duty in the presence of desperate difficulties.
It has generally been argued that Gregory, previous
to being Pope, had been Abbot of St. Andrew's.
This is quite unsupported by tangible evidence.
There is no room for him among the abbots of the
1 Since the time of Justinian the emperors had claimed the right
of confirming the election to the more important sees, and notably
to that of Rome.
2 The date of Gregory's accession has been discussed recently by
Bright (page 41, note 8) and Plummer (Bede, vol. ii. 36). It seems
pretty certain that it, in fact, took place on the 3rd September 590,
which was a Sunday.

SAINT GREGORY'S ELECTION AS POPE 35
monastery. Maximianus was, in fact, abbot while
Gregory was at Constantinople, and was promoted
thence to the See of Syracuse in 591. The date of
Gregory's election to the papal chair was the 3rd of
September 590. It seems pretty certain that (as
we have seen) at the time of his elevation, Gregory
was not even a professed monk, and that he was
still a deacon. On his election he necessarily became
priest and bishop. His public profession of faith at
the tomb of St. Peter on the occasion of his becoming
Pope is interesting, if it is genuine. It is quoted by
John the Deacon, who is not always a safe guide, and
it gives the clauses Deum verum de deo vero and Filio-
que, which first occur in the West in the pronounce
ment of the Synod of Toledo in 589. I hope to dis
cuss the question in the Appendix. It runs thus : —
" I believe in one God Almighty, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, three Persons, one Sub
stance : the Father unbegotten, the Son unbegotten,
but the Holy Spirit, neither begotten nor unbe
gotten, but co-eternal with and proceeding from the
Father and the Son. I acknowledge the only
begotten Son, consubstantial with the Father, and
born of the Father without time ; Maker of all things
visible and invisible, Light from (ex) Light, True God
of True God, the Brightness of His glory, the Image
of His Substance : Who remaining the Word before
all ages, was made perfect Man at the end of the ages,
and was conceived and born from(<?#) the Holy Ghost,
and of (de) the Virgin Mary, and took upon Him our

36 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
nature without sin : and He was crucified under
Pontius Pilate and was buried, and on the third day
He rose again from the dead, and on the fortieth
day He ascended into heaven, and He sitteth at
the right hand of the Father. From thence He
shall come to judge the quick and the dead, and He
shall set before all eyes all the secrets of every
heart, and He shall give to the righteous the
eternal rewards of the heavenly kingdom, but to the
wicked the punishment of everlasting fire, and He
shall renew the world by faith at the resurrection of
the flesh. I acknowledge one Faith, one Baptism,
one Apostolic and Universal Church in which alone
sins can be forgiven in the name of the Father and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 1
Gregory's appearance is described for us in
some detail by his biographer John the Deacon,
from a portrait of him at St. Andrew's, which was
painted on a circle of stucco in an apse behind the
monks' "cellarium," and which was extant when John
wrote in the ninth century. He conjectures that
it was painted in the Saint's lifetime from the in
scription appended to it, and also from the fact
that instead of a "corona," or nimbus, it had a
tabula or square frame about the head denoting a
living person.2 His figure is described as of medium
height and well-made. Gregory speaks of himself
as mei molem corporis, suggesting that he was of full
body. His beard was tawny and sparse. About his
1 Joh. Diac. Vit. ii. 2 ; Dudden, i. 222. 2 Op. cit. iv. 84.

SAINT GREGORY'S APPEARANCE 37
large, round crown he had dark hair, curled and
hanging below the middle of the ears. On his fore
head, which was broad and high, were two little
curls turning towards the right. The pupils of the
eyes were of a yellow-brown colour and small.
The eyebrows arched, long, and thin, the lower eye
lids full. The nose aquiline, with open nostrils, the
cheeks were regular, the lips ruddy and full, the chin
prominent. The complexion was swarthy and also
highly coloured, which latter colour was enhanced
in later life. The expression was gentle. His
hands were well formed, with tapering fingers "well
adapted for handling a pen." In the picture he was
represented standing, dressed in a chestnut-coloured
planeta (an upper garment formed of a circle with
a hole in the middle, through which the head
was passed, i.e. a chasuble). This was worn over
a "dalmatic," or long tunic with sleeves. These
garments were then used by laymen as well as the
clergy, and Gregory's own father was represented
as wearing them. The dalmatic long survived as
a ceremonial garment used by state officials, and
Gordian may have worn it as a regionarius. It still
forms part of the Coronation robes in England and
elsewhere. In the picture the Pope was distin
guished from his father by wearing ^pallium, or pall,
which probably marked his ecclesiastical position as
a metropolitan. He was also represented as hold
ing a book of the Gospels in his right hand, and
making a cross with the other.
John the Deacon elsewhere describes one of

38 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Gregory's pallia which still existed in his time. It
differed from other palls in having no ornaments,
being merely a narrow strip of white linen unem-
broidered.1 We shall have more to say of palls and
their meaning presently.
John the Deacon2 also speaks of the modest
phylacta "hung from his neck by a piece of poor
cloth, and of his narrow belt, only a thumb in width."
The phylacta^ were really charms written on small
pieces of parchment, or relics, in either case enclosed
in small boxes of thin silver. In one instance Gregory
tells us he sent to Theodelinda, the Lombard queen,
a "filacta" (sic) containing a fragment of the true
cross, and a lection from the Gospel, enclosed in a
cross and wrapped in a Persian case (theca Persicd)}
Gregory's homely dress was matched by the ascetic
standards of his living, and the only indulgence we
read of in regard to his food was the Alexandrian wine
he calls cognidium, which was flavoured with resin.
Thus, in answering a letter of the Patriarch of Alex
andria, who had apparently offered to send him some
drinks called collatum and viritheum, he replied that
he did not drink these beverages with pleasure, but he
ventured to ask for some cognidium, which Eulogius
had again, after a long interval, caused to be known
1 John further describes how the pall was then worn. He says ;
"A dextro videlicit humero sub pectore super stomachum circulatim
deducto ; deinde sursum per sinistrum humerum post tergum
deposito, cujus pars altera super eundem humerum veniens propria
rectitudine, non per medium corporis, sed ex latere pendet." This
shows that the front lappet in the picture hung by the left side and
not in front, as is now usual (Vit. ch. 805 Dudden, i. 435).
2 Vit. iv. 80. 3 E. and H. xiv. 12.

ST. GREGORY'S ATTENDANTS AND FRIENDS 39
in the City ; but at Rome they got the name but not
the thing itself from the merchants.1 It is pleasant
to find the Pope with one human foible at least.
Directly he became Pope, Gregory instituted a
great change in the papal household, substituting
clerics, and principally monks, for lay attendants.
The officials who looked after " the patrimony "
were also similarly changed. In the latter case,
not so prudently, for clerics are generally poor busi
ness men, and the later history of the Papacy is
marked by the evils attending clerical control of lay
affairs. In the wide papal lands, "nothing," says
Dudden, " was left for laymen but the profession of
arms and the occupation of agriculture."
Gregory surrounded himself with what, in his
view, were the most learned men, who (with him)
meant theologians : he found most of them among
the members of his monastic family at St. Andrew's.2
Let us now try and realise the extent and kind
of authority Gregory inherited as Pope. Nominally
he was one of five patriarchs, among whom the
superintendence and government of the Christian
world was distributed, namely, the heads of the
1 E. and H. vii. 37.
2 Among his intimates were the Sub-deacon Peter, of whom we
shall hear more presently ; Aemilianus the Notary, who took shorthand
notes of his sermons ; Paterius the Notary, who edited excerpts
from his writings ; John the Defensor, afterwards sent into Spain ;
Maximianus, Abbot of St. Andrew's and afterwards Bishop of
Syracuse ; Marinianus, a monk of the same monastery, afterwards
Archbishop of Ravenna ; St. Augustine, prior of that abbey, after
wards the evangelist of Britain, and his companion Mellitus ; Probus,
who was sent to build a xenodochium, or shelter, for strangers at
Jerusalem and Claudius, afterwards Abbot of Classis, who had taken
notes of Gregory's lectures on the Old Testament (Dudden, i. 245).

40 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
ancient patriarchates of Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch,
and Alexandria, and the more modern and as yet not
rigidly recognised patriarchate of Constantinople.
While these five patriarchs all claimed co-ordinate
jurisdiction and had their own provinces, the Roman
pontiff had gradually acquired a precedence and
seniority, which was generally conceded even at
Constantinople. This was due to many causes, the
most potent being the fact that he was Bishop of the
Metropolitan See, that of the most famous city in the
Empire — Rome. This was probably enhanced by
the fact that the Courts of Ultimate Appeal, where
the most learned lawyers and jurists were to be found,
had been there. When the emperors moved their resi
dence first to Ravenna and then to Constantinople,
the Pope became the greatest and most influential
figure in Rome itself, in addition to which the great
wealth of the popes made them more potent person
ages than other patriarchs. All this was further
enhanced by the legends which had grown up about
Rome having been the see of the Senior Apostle,
St. Peter, to whom the keys were alleged to have
been specially entrusted. Gregory was hard pressed
by the claims, to which I shall revert presently, set
up by the Patriarch of Constantinople to the style
of episcopus universalis, or sole bishop, which he
adopted. While rejecting that proud style for him
self, he did not fail to claim for the See of Rome
the primacy over all churches (sede apostolica, quae
omnium ecclesiarum caput est)} while he declared in
1 E. and H. xiii. 50.

SAINT GREGORY'S AUTHORITY AS POPE 41
another letter x that he had been called to govern
"the Church" (indignus ego ad ecclesiae regimen
adductus). He quotes approvingly the action of his
predecessor, Pelagius, in annulling by a fully valid
censure certain of the proceedings of the Council of
Constantinople (Pelagius . . . omnia gesta ejusdem
Synodi praeter ilia, etc., . . . valida omnino distric-
tione cassavit)} thus claiming the power to pass over
even the finding of a Council. He further adds that
without the authority and consent of the Holy See
nothing that might be passed (at such a synod) would
be valid (sine apostolicae sedis auctoritate atque con
sensu nullas, quaeque acta fuerint, vires habeant)}
Especially did he claim to supervise and overrule
the decisions of his brother-patriarch at Constanti
nople when he deemed them uncanonical.4 Occa
sionally this last claim was set out in undisguised
terms. Thus he says in a letter to John, Bishop of
Syracuse, "As to what they affirm of the Church of
Constantinople, who can doubt that it is subject to
the Apostolic See ? " (Nam de Constantinopolitana
ecclesia quod dicunt, quis earn dubitet sedi apostolicae
esse subjectam?Y In another letter to the same
bishop6 he claims authority over all bishops when
they have committed a fault (nam quod se sedi apos
tolicae dicit subici, si qua culpa in episcopis invenitur,
nescio quis ei episcopus subjectus non sit).
On the other hand, he carefully guarded himself
against being thought to have encroached upon the
1 E. and H. v. 44. 2 lb. ix. 156. 3 lb.
* lb. iii. 52. 6 lb. ix. 26. 6 lb. ix. 27.

42 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
legitimate rights of other patriarchs. Thus in a
letter he wrote to Eulogius the Patriarch of Alex
andria, which was written in reply to one he had re
ceived from the latter, and which was addressed to
himself as Universal Pope, he styles this an arrogant
title (superba appellatio), and he begs him to do this
no more, for by giving to another what is excessive
he was subtracting from himself; ". . . for if your
Holiness calls me Universal Pope, you deny that you
are yourself what you call me, namely, Universal "
(si enim universalem me papam vestra sanctitas dicit,
negat se hoc esse, quod me fatetur universum). He
further protests against his phrase "as you have
commanded" (sicut jussistis), and says, "I know who
I am and who you are, for in position you are my
brother, in character my father."1
Again, he writes to the Bishop of Syracuse to tell
him that the Byzantine Primate (Crementius) had
been charged with some fault by his fellow-bishops,
and the Emperor wished him to be judged by
Gregory according to canonical ordinance, but the
Pope says he had been' unwilling to decide the case.
Crementius, it seems, had said that he was subject
to the Apostolic See, whereupon Gregory remarked,
"If any fault be found in bishops, I know not what
bishop is not subject to it. But when there is no fault,
all, according to the principle of humility, are equal "
(omnes secundum rationem humilitatis aequales
sunt)} The question in this particular case was not
tried out, however, and three years later, in another
1 E. and H. viii. 29. 2 lb. ix. 27 ; Barmby, ix. 59.

SAINT GREGORY'S AUTHORITY AS POPE 43
letter, Gregory, who probably felt the position was
a strained one, stated that he had not been able to
investigate it, his hands having been so full, and he
counselled the bishops of the province themselves
to investigate the charges against their Primate.1
In only one of the letters in his long-extended
correspondence do we find a phrase in which he
seems to hint at a claim, in certain cases, of a patri
arch to qualify the absolute jurisdiction of another
patriarch. It is contained in a letter to Natalis,
Bishop of Salona, in Dalmatia, who had wrongly
removed the Archdeacon Honoratus, in spite of the
protests of himself and his predecessor, adding that
if any one of the four patriarchs had committed such
great contumacy it would not have been tolerated
(Quod si quislibet ex quattuor patriarchis fecisset,
sine gravissimo scandalo tanta contumacia transire
nullo modo potuisset)}
The initial sentence of this letter is a good ex
ample of Gregory's humour. It seems that Natalis
had been rebuked by him for much feasting, and had
replied by quoting Abraham's entertainment of the
three angels as an example of such hospitality ; upon
which Gregory replied, " We will not blame your
fraternity if we come to know that you have
entertained angels."
I have enlarged somewhat on the extent of the
Pope's patriarchal jurisdiction at this time in order to
emphasise the fact that the primacy of Rome as the
1 E. and H. xii. 12 ; Barmby, xii. 32.
2 E. and H. ii. 50 ; Barmby, ii, 52.

44 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
first See of Christendom was then almost universally
acknowledged. This involved little, however, of that
centralised authority which it acquired in later cen
turies. And especially was the theory resented by
Gregory that the Pope was in any sense the universal
or sole bishop, Episcopus Unicus, as he termed it, in
whom the whole episcopate was in later times deemed
to be merged, each bishop being thus reduced in effect
to a papal vicar. Gregory, as Dr. Barmby says, seems
to have regarded the See of St. Peter as everywhere
supreme, only in the sense of its being its prerogative
to conserve inviolate the Catholic faith and observ
ance of the canons, wherever heresy or uncanonical
proceedings called for protest and correction.1
The nominal patriarchate of the Roman pontiff
was largely conterminous with the Latin-speaking
races, and included North Africa, Italy, with its
islands, I stria, Gaul, Spain, and Britain. In reality
this description must be greatly qualified. A great
part of Italy was in the hands of the Lombards, who
were Arians. The larger part of Spain, namely, that
subject to the Visigoths, had only quite recently dis
carded its Arianism ; but it would appear that this had
not been accompanied with any submission to the
Holy See. Lastly, Great Britain was largely pagan,
and where not pagan had ceased to have intercourse
with Rome.
Apart from this, even in those parts where the
orthodoxy of the Church was assured, the recognition
of the patriarchal authority of Rome was not too
1 Op. cit. Proleg. xii.

ST. GREGORY'S AUTHORITY AS PATRIARCH 45
cordial, and the question of his authority had to be
treated with considerable diplomacy by the Pope.
This was notably the case in Africa, where the tradi
tions of St. Augustine had survived. The Donatists
also still maintained themselves there, especially in
Numidia, under their own bishops. They were in
offensive and harmless in their behaviour, and were
looked upon with a friendly eye by the authorities,
and notably by the African Exarch. The Catholic
bishops were also on good terms with them. As
Mr. Dudden amusingly says : "Peace, toleration, and
a lump sum now and then appear to have been their
programme. The dangers of the Schism they en
tirely ignored."1 Gregory's rhetoric had little effect
on them. It must be remembered that the Donatists
were not heretics in doctrine. They were really Schis
matics. They had merely refused to obey Caecilian,
Bishop of Carthage, because he had been ordained
by a bishop who had lapsed "during the Diocletian
persecution and was deemed a traitor and incapable of
transmitting the succession. They therefore set up a
rival bishop to Caecilian, and started a new succes
sion of their own. Gregory insisted, however, that
no one who had been a Donatist should hold the office
of a Primate, and he appointed a vigorous Numidian
bishop named Columbus, who was devoted to himself,
as his vicar-general, and more than one local synod
was called to try and repress this as well as other
scandals. The Emperor, too, offered his help and gave
his countenance to the Pope's reform. The remedy
1 Op. cit. i. 417.

46 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
was only very partial, and things went on pretty much
as before until the Arabs half a century later swept
orthodox and schismatic away together. Meanwhile
the orthodox African bishops and clergy continued
to act very independently, and the Pope's patriarchal
jurisdiction was largely nominal. He had a good
friend, however, in the African Exarch.
This was the case also in the diocese of Milan,
the great See of St. Ambrose, whose archbishop on
the Lombard invasion had been obliged to seek
shelter at Genoa in the Ligurian district, which still
obeyed the Emperor. There were a good many ad
herents of the schism of "The Three Chapters" there,
and a good deal of difficulty in the Pope maintaining
his authority as the arbiter in disputes between rival
bishops and among an independent clergy. He did
so largely, there as elsewhere, by contenting himself
with retaining the right of approving the appoint
ment of Metropolitans, and then leaving them and
their synods (to whom the internal discipline was al
most entirely entrusted) with very little interference.
The Pope's confirmation of such an appointment was
generally marked by his presenting the Metropolitan
with a pallium, or omophorion. In the East this vest
ment was used as of right by all bishops ; in the West it
was similarly worn as of right by three only, the Bishop
of Rome, the Bishop of Ostia (as the usual consecrator
of the Pope), and probably the Bishop of Ravenna.
Others wore it by the special gift and consent of the
Pope. Gregory, we know, gave it to the bishops
of Syracuse, Messina, Palermo, Milan, Salona,

ST. GREGORY'S METROPOLITAN AUTHORITY 47
Nicopolis, Corinth, Prima Justiniana, Aries, Autun,
Seville, and Canterbury. At Aries, Canterbury, and
Syracuse it carried the jurisdiction of a papal vicar.
In other cases it was a mark of honour and dignity.
In some instances, when Gregory wished to confer
a special favour, the pallium was conferred on
bishops who were not metropolitans, as in the cases
of the bishops of Syracuse, Messina, and Palermo
(all in Sicily, where the Pope had such large posses
sions), and of Autun in Gaul. In the case of Autun,
as we shall see, the bishop's metropolitan never
secured the pallium. " The vestment seems to have
been originally an Imperial gift, and in the sixth
century the popes usually asked the Emperor's per
mission before bestowing it on bishops who were
not subjects of the Emperor. It was forbidden to
make any payment for it. As late as the seventh
century the Emperor even claimed to confer it
directly without the mediation of the Pope. It was
only conferred on a bishop on personal application,
and was worn during the first part of the Mass up
to the reading of the Gospel, except in the cases of
the bishops of Rome and Ravenna, who kept it on
during the whole service, and only laid it aside when
they returned to the sacristy after the celebration." l
In addition to being Pope and Patriarch of the
West, the Roman bishop was also a metropolitan or
archbishop. He held metropolitan authority over his
seven suffragans: the bishops of Ostia, Portus, Silva
Candida, Sabina, Praeneste, Tusculum, and Albanum.
1 Dudden, i. 436.

48 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
For a long time, as Rufinus (writing at the end of
the fourth century) says, the popes had also exer
cised a patriarchal and metropolitan jurisdiction
over the suburban provinces under the jurisdiction
of the so-called Vicarius urbis. These included the
provinces of Picenum Suburbicarium, Campania,
Tuscia, Umbria, Apulia, Calabria, Bruttii, Lucania,
Valeria, Sicily, Corsica, and the lesser islands.1 Sar
dinia, while it acknowledged the Pope's authority as
Patriarch, had a metropolitan of its own, with a
seat at Cagliari. Gregory calls him Metropolitanus.2
Beyond these limits his jurisdiction as " Metro
politan," while acknowledged, was not well defined.
The Aemilian and Flaminian districts, with Picenum
Annonicarium, obeyed the Metropolitan of Ravenna;
Liguria, the Cottian Alps, and Upper and Lower
Rhaetia, the Archbishop of Milan ; Venetia and
I stria, the Archbishop of Aquileia.3
At this time a large part of the Pope's metro
politan lands were dominated by the Lombards, who
were Arians, and they appointed their own bishops
and priests, who did not acknowledge him.
As Metropolitan, Gregory exercised a closesuper-
vision over the conduct and character of his suffragan
bishops, and was especially vigilant in regard to their
appointment. When a vacancy occurred in his metro
politan district, which was the model for others, he was
at once informed, and thereupon he sent a Visitor,
generally a neighbouring bishop, to administerthe see
until the appointment of a successor. The vacancy
a
1 Dudden, i. 357. 2 E. and H. ix. 202. 3 Dudden, ib.

ST. GREGORY'S METROPOLITAN AUTHORITY 49
was not to last more than three months. The clergy,
nobles, and people were then summoned for the
election of a new bishop. They were assisted by the
Visitor, and sometimes by the chief magistrate or mili
tary governor of the district. There was generally a
scrutiny of votes, but sometimes the election was by
acclamation and sometimes by delegates appointed
for the purpose by the electors. The election had
to be confirmed by the Metropolitan, who also had
the power of veto ; but the latter was not arbitrarily
to set aside the electors in order to thrust his own
nominee upon the see. If the electors were culpably
neglectful in their duty, or no candidates were
forthcoming, the Pope himself selected the candidate
he deemed best suited. Gregory forbade the selec
tion of strangers unless there was no eligible priest
in the diocese, nor would he allow a layman to
be elected, although monks and those in minor
orders might be so, and he insisted that a bishop
should have at least the necessary culture to know
the Psalter.1 In all such appointments in his own
province Gregory reserved the power of veto to
himself, nor did he recognise a bishop whose
appointment he had not confirmed ; and in the case
of bishops who misbehaved, he claimed the right to
have them tried at Rome and to deal with them
there, nor would he admit that they had any right
of appeal to the Emperor. On the other hand, he
carefully guarded the episcopal authority against en
croachment even from his own officials. Thus in a
1 Dudden, i. 375.

So SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
letter written to one of them named Romanus, who
held the office of defensor, or guardian, of Sicily, and
who in certain suits in which clerics were engaged
had displaced the jurisdiction of the Bishop, he says :
" If each single bishop has not his own jurisdiction
reserved to him, ecclesiastical order is confounded
through you by whom it ought to be guarded."1
A few instances of specific cases in which Gregory
gave advice to, or dealt judicially with, bishops, as
their Metropolitan, may be given with profit. In a
letter to John, Bishop of Squillacium, he bids him
never make unlawful ordinations or allow any biga
mist, or one who had taken a wife who was not a
virgin, or one ignorant of letters, or maimed in
any part of his body, or a penitent, or liable to any
condition of service, to attain to sacred orders.
Africans generally, and unknown strangers applying
for orders, he was on no account to accept, since
some Africans were Manichaeans, while others had
been rebaptized. Many strangers, again, though
being in minor orders, had pretended to a higher
dignity, and he must therefore be vigilant.2
In another letter written to John of Ravenna he
1 E. and H. xi. 24 ; Barmby, xi. 37.
2 E. and H. ii. 37 ; Barmby, ii. 37. Bishop John here named had
been driven away from the See of Lissus (? Alessio), and Gregory had
given him temporary charge of Squillacium (which was then vacant)
until he could return to his own see. In this letter he uses a
curious phrase ( v. 1 2), cardinalis sacerdos. The words cardinalis sacer-
dos and cardinalis pontif ex are also used in E. andH. i. 77, cardinalis
episcopus in ii. 12, 37, and iii. 13, while in iii. 24 we read cardinalem
et proprium sacerdotem. E. and H. quote several instances where
cardinalis is used in the sense of proprius, i.e. regular, and meaning
regularly appointed. Cardinatus is also used as a synonym for
ordinatus or institutus ; see E. and H. vol. i. p. 97, note 3.

ST. GREGORY'S METROPOLITAN AUTHORITY 5 1
entirely disapproves of reordinations : "for as one
who has been once baptized ought not to be baptized
again, so one who has been consecrated should not
be consecrated again to the same order." 1
In a letter to Bishop Columbus, Gregory de
nounces the custom which had arisen of allowing
the Donatists to have their own bishops. The Dona
tists were, he says, largely increasing, and were in the
habit of rebaptizing.2
In a letter written to John, Bishop of Prima
Justiniana, he condemns him to be deprived of the
sacred communionfor thirty days, for having, contrary
to the custom of the priesthood and communal dis
cipline, given up an alleged deposed subdeacon to
the praetor of the province, who had tormented him
with stripes to make him confess.3
While Gregory kept a vigilant eye upon the
bishops in the district over which he was Metro
politan, he left the discipline and government of the
clergy largely in their hands, interfering only in bad
cases, and he encouraged the meeting of local
synods twice a year — before Lent and in the autumn
— in each diocese to safeguard true doctrine, to make
up quarrels, etc. He himself held periodical synods
of his own bishops, who met on St. Peter's Day
every five years. Strict rules were drawn up in
regard to candidates for holy orders. " No one was
to be ordained who had been guilty of immorality,
bigamy, marriage with a widow or a divorced
1 E. and H. ii. 45 ; Barmby, ii. 46.
2 E. andH. ii. 46 ; Barmby, ii. 48.
3 E. and H. iii. 2 ; Barmby, iii. 6.

52 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
woman, who had for several years led an evil life,
or was liable to civil or military service, who had
committed self-mutilation, was ignorant of letters,
had done public penance, or taken usury, or been
guilty of attempted simony or the invocation of
secular influence," x or was the member of a curia.2
It had been deemed unlawful since the time of Pope
Siricius for bishops, priests, and deacons of the
Roman Church to marry after ordination, but married
men had not in early times been excluded from the
priesthood. The same pope had forbidden cohabita
tion in these cases. The rule was, however, very
widely evaded, except in Italy, where married
bishops, priests, and deacons mostly obeyed the in
junction. With the increasing austerity of the Church
the rule was extended so as also to include subdeacons;
and to prevent scandal, by a special order issued in
February 599, no bishop was permitted to have
women living in his house except such as were
allowed by the canons, namely, a mother, sister,
aunt, or others of whom there could be no suspicion.3
The general superintendence of the finances of each"]
diocese was the duty of the archdeacon, who was I
personally responsible for all losses to the churches' '
treasury. He was assisted by an Oe^onomus, or
church steward, who had to see to the building and
repair of churches, the cultivation of church lands, the
payment of the stipends of the clergy, the distribu
tion of alms, the conduct of lawsuits, and the care
of the revenues during a vacancy.
1 Dudden, i. 367, 375. 2 Vide infra. 3 Dudden, i. 388.

SAINT GREGORY— METROPOLITAN & BISHOP 5 3
While Gregory insisted on the canonical rule
that the revenues of the Church should be divided
into four portions, one of which was for the bishop"
and a second one for the clergy, he generally
allowed the bishops discretion as to how they
apportioned the latter. It is curious to read how in
certain cases the clergy, by a kind of Trades Union,
exercised pressure on their bishop and exacted from
him an agreement or charter of rights, afterwards
confirmed by the Pope, for securing fair treatment.
Thus in one case at Palermo the bishop engaged
to give them their full fourth and to distribute it
among them, not by favour, but according to the
merits, the official standing, or the good work of
each ; their share was not only to be a fourth of
the regular revenues of the Church, but also of the
offerings of the faithful, whether in money or in kind.
The bishop further undertook to have his accounts
published annually, to allow clerics to buy wine from
the church estate at market price, to reclaim all
possessions of the church which were wrongfully
retained by strangers, and to be slow in believing
evil of his clergy and in punishing them.1
Bishops could not alienate the revenues of their
churches without the consent of the Pope and their
own clergy, and such consent was seldom granted.
1 In a letter from Gregory to Paschasius, Bishop of Naples,
Gregory suggests what he thought an equitable division of the Church
fund among the clergy and poor there, namely, 100 solidi to the
clerics of the Church ; half a solidus each to 126 praejacentes, i.e. the
senior clergy; 50 solidi to the foreign clergy; 150 solidi to poor
men ashamed to beg ; and 30 solidi to public beggars (E. and H. xi.
22 ; xiii. 46).

54 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
In one instance Fortunatus, the Bishop of Fano,
was allowed to sell his church plate to pay a church
debt ; but the payment had to be made before the
Roman agent, John the Defensor.1 The property of
intestate bishops, or property acquired after any one
Ibecame a bishop, went to the Church. A bishop could
jonly bequeath what he acquired before he became
'bishop, or what he had inherited from relatives.
For the guidance and instruction of bishops,
Gregory drew up a famous manual, which presents
his ideal of a pastor's life, known as his " Pastoral
Care." The Emperor Maurice caused it to be trans
lated into Greek in order that it might be circulated
throughout the East. Augustine took it with him
to England. King Alfred, with the help of Arch
bishop Plegmund and some Mass priests, para
phrased it in the West Saxon dialect. In 796
Alcuin wrote to the Archbishop of York about it,
bidding him take the book with him wheresoever
he went, and to read and reread it as a mirror of
the pontifical life. In a series of councils held by
Charlemagne in 813 at Mayence, Rheims, Tours,
and Chalons-sur-Sa6ne, its study was enjoined on
the bishops, and Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims,
tells us some years later how the book, together with
the canons of the Church, were put in the hands of
all bishops at their consecration.2
The general scheme of the work is homiletic.
Mr. Dudden condenses the ideals which the Pope
set before men in his manual as the highest standards
1 E. andH. vii. 13. 2 Dudden, i. 239.

ST. GREGORY'S SYNODICAL REGULATIONS 55
of conduct. In it "he regards a bishop pre
eminently as a physician of souls. His principal
functions are preaching and the exercise of discipline.
In order to carry out his duties effectively he is
bound to study with anxious care every form of
spiritual disease ; and he must have the skill to
devise all remedies to suit all cases. He must act
towards his people as a kindly father, but, if need be,
as a severe governor. For the souls of the people
were committed to his charge ; he was their ruler ;
and for their salvation he would be held responsible.
The episcopal dignity, in short, is an office of govern
ment to be administered by one who is skilled in
the treatment of souls, for the benefit of the governed.
And the principal instrument by which the work is
carried on is that of preaching." 1
Although Gregory made so many regulations
and introduced so many reforms, he was not prodigal
in his own synodical enactments. On the 5th July
595 he summoned a synod attended by twenty-three
bishops from his metropolitan province, and thirty-
five priests of titular churches, who all signed its
acts ; the remaining priests and the deacons were
present, but took no part in it. The acts of this
synod comprise six chapters.
No. 1 forbids deacons, whose proper duty it
was to preach and minister to the poor, to act as
chanters at Mass, with the exception of chanting the
Gospel — solumque evangelicae lectionis officium inter
missarum sollemnia exsolvant ; the Psalms and other
1 Dudden, i. 238.

56 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
lections were to be chanted by subdeacons or those
in minor orders.1
No. 2. Only monks or men in orders were in
future to attend upon the Pope in his bedchamber,
and not laymen.
No. 3. The Rectors of "the Patrimony" were
1 not to make or press claims to properties without
ample proof of a good title. Nor to attach tituli
or notices of ownership to properties supposed to
belong to the Church 2 but with doubtful titles.
No. 4. Hitherto the bodies of popes when taken
to their tombs had been dressed in dalmatics (a
robe specially used at Rome, and only by special,
privileged persons). These the people had after
wards torn into shreds, keeping them as sacred relics.
Gregory deprecated the custom, affirming that such
reverence should be reserved for the coverings of
apostles and martyrs, and not be extended to those
of sinful men. He therefore ordered that in future
the bier at a pope's funeral was to have no covering
1 Duchesne says that until St. Gregory's time it had been customary
for the gradual and its additions to be sung like the Gospel by
deacons only, and he quotes several epitaphs of deacons and arch
deacons in which their fine voices were praised. Thus the posses
sion of a fine voice and a thorough knowledge of music had been
a necessary qualification for a deacon. This had interfered with their
other duties. Hence the prohibition above enacted. The gradual
was so called because it was sung at the gradus or ambo, where the
lections were also read. It was always sung by a single cantor, the
choir only taking up the final musical phrase. The gradual and
similar chants were sung between the lections in the Mass (Duchesne,
168-9). 2 These tituli, according to Ewald, were wooden or stone tablets
placed at the boundaries of properties, and contained the names of
the owners (see E. and H, vol. i. p. 54, note 2).

ST. GREGORY'S DISCIPLINARY REGULATIONS 57
(quo Romani pontificis corpus ad sepeliendum duciter,
nullo tegmine veletur).
No. 5. This decree forbade the lesser officials to
exact fees at ordinations, at the gift of the pallium,
or for preparing the necessary documents. While
such fees could not be demanded, presents if freely
offered might be accepted.1
No. 6. Slaves of the church who wished to be
come monks were to pass through a period of proba
tion, during, which they were to retain the dress of
laymen. If their conduct during such period was
approved, they were to be emancipated.2
Gregory was stringent in exacting regularity of
order and ritual, especially when any change meant
increased authority or prestige. Thus he says that
no Metropolitan had been wont to wear the pallium
except at Mass, and he rebukes John, the Bishop of
Ravenna, for using it while receiving the laity
before celebration, and in solemn processions
through the streets. He further charges the clergy
at Ravenna with having used mappulae, or white
linen covers, over the saddles of their horses when
they went in processions, which was a further
usurped dignity. Their use was strictly limited to
the clergy of Rome, where even the lesser clerks
before entering sacred Orders enjoyed the right.3
1 It may be noted that by the Imperial law a new pope might give I
the bishops and clergy a present of not more than 20 lb. of gold,
a bishop 100 solidi for the costs of enthronement, and 300 solidi to
the notaries and officers of the consecrator, while clerks might give
the bishops who consecrated them not more than a year's value
of the benefice (see Dudden, i. 263, note).
2 E. and H. v. 57a. 3 Duchesne, 396-7.

58 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
It would seem that the bishop had presumed to do
this because Ravenna was the seat of the Exarch
and was once an Imperial residence.1 In a letter
written to John, Bishop of Syracuse, he tells him
that he had heard that the deacons of the church
at Catania had usurped the special privilege pos
sessed by those of Messina alone in all Sicily, of
wearing a certain kind of slippers, called campagi,
covering only the heel and toes, which had been
otherwise reserved for the higher clergy of Rome
and Ravenna. The Pope strictly forbade this
irregularity.2 Among the subjects discussed by St. Gregory in
his letters, there is a ritual question which is of wider
interest than the immediate issue. Preliminary to
baptizing a person, the priest who performed the
ceremony anointed with simple oil the breast and
other parts of the body of the person baptized.
This was the custom both in the East and West.
After baptism it was the custom in the East for
the same priest to anoint the forehead of the baptized
person with chrism (a mixture of oil and balsam)
which had been consecrated by a bishop. In the
West this second anointing was done some time after
the baptism, and had always been the function of
1 E. and H. iii. 54 ; Barmby, 56.
2 E. and H. viii. 27. They may be seen in the mosaics of the
time, especially in those of St. Vitale, where they are worn by the
Emperor, the officers of his Court, the Bishop of Ravenna, and his
deacons. The Pope's campagi, it would seem, had something special
about them, for a scholiast of a letter of Anastasius the aprocrisiarius
says he had received, as a relic, one of the campagi of Pope Martin,
and says of it, " quod nullus alius inter homines portet nisi sanctus
Papa Romanus" (Duchesne, 395).

ST. GREGORY'S DISCIPLINARY REGULATIONS 59
a bishop if he was available, and a bishop alone
had marked the forehead with a cross, constituting
the rite of confirmation.1 Gregory, however, relaxed
the Rule when there was a lack of bishops.2
In regard to the minor officials, the churches,
says Mr. Dudden, were cared for by sacristans,
mansionarii, who kept them clean, saw to the
lamps, kept the worshippers in order, and opened
and closed the buildings at the proper time. Alms"'
were distributed in the porches, and beggars had
their stations there as in the present day. The
custom of burial in churches had begun, and bishops
had exacted money for the privilege. Gregory said
it was good for those whose sins were not great,
but perilous and presumptuous for the wicked
to have this privilege ; and he states how martyrs
had appeared and ordered such bodies to be re
moved, and foul spirits came and dragged them out
by the feet, while shrieks of agony were sometimes
heard coming from a tomb, and the corpses mysteri
ously disappeared.3
In regard to the jurisdiction of the secular courts
over the clergy, Justinian had exempted bishops from
trial by them for any cause without the Emperor's
consent ; the rest of the clergy were also exempted
except for the graver charges of murder, rebellion,
etc., and in civil causes unless both sides agreed.
Gregory provided that, except as here mentioned,
ecclesiastical offences should be tried by the episcopal
1 See Barmby, Epistles of Gregory, vol. i. p. 153, note. f
2 E. and H. iv. 9 and 26 ; Barmby, iv. 9 and 27.
3 Op. cit. i. 352, giving various references to the Pope's letters.

60 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
courts alone, and when the defendant was a bishop,
by his metropolitan or patriarch, and in default by
the Apostolic See, the head of all the Churches.
Bishops, again, had the right of intercession for those
condemned in the secular courts ; Gregory made
regulations to prevent this dangerous privilege from
being abused. Bishops, again, were empowered in
many cases to mitigate cases of wrong-doing, and
of cruelty towards, and persecution of, the poor and of
helpless people to whom the courts were not always
accessible because of their poverty. Gregory
further regulated the right of asylum so that it
should not be used to screen wrong-doers. In the
case of runaway slaves care was to be taken that
they had not behaved ill to their masters. If the
latter recovered them by a promise of better be
haviour and then broke it, they were to be excom
municated. Gregory's theory was that sanctuary
was not a protection for the guilty, but only a
guarantee of fair treatment.1
Scandalous or lapsed priests were deprived of
their orders and reduced to the status of laymen,
and in bad cases excommunicated, and were never
allowed to resume their former life. Gregory was
particularly exacting in regard to the complete and
final nature of this penalty. Lapsed priests might
be received in monasteries, and it was enjoined that
they should, in fact, be sent to them and do ample
penance. The rule was rigidly applied to all the
orders from bishops to subdeacons. Lapsed monks
1 Dudden, i. 394.

ST. GREGORY'S DISCIPLINARY REGULATIONS 61
and even abbots were treated more tenderly, and
after fitting penance were allowed to resume their
old life, the distinction being that no man ought to
perform the priestly office again, after lapsing.
In regard to church fees, Gregory adhered to the
decree of Gelasius and that of the third Council of
Braga, by which the clergy were not to charge for
baptism or confirmation, nor at the consecration of
churches ; both practices he forbids. Gregory, how
ever, maintained an arrangement of Pelagius the
Second, by which the parochial clergy contributed a
fixed sum to pay the expenses of the attendants of
the bishop when confirming. He also forbade fees
being exacted for ordinations, for marriages of
inferior clerics, or the veiling of virgins, but did not
object to spontaneous gifts being given on such
occasions to the bishops, though he discouraged the
practice and would accept none himself. He further
forbade the buying of a burial-place by any one for
a price, quoting the conduct of the men of Sichem
towards Abraham. No charge was to be made for
burial, even to a stranger. A voluntary gift of
something for lights by the relative or heirs was,
however, permissible.1
1 Dudden, i. 400 and 401.

CHAPTER III
Having thus glanced over the Pope's method of
dealing with the secular clergy over whom he
presided, let us now turn to the regulars whom he
deemed his special children.
As the great monkish order of St. Benedict had
so much to do with the evangelisation of Britain,
it is necessary that we should realise the life these
monks led and the conditions under which they did
their work.
What we know of the founder of the Benedictine
order is based almost entirely on the biography
of him by St. Gregory and incorporated in his
Dialogues. It is a typical " Saint's life," in which
the miraculous and the fantastic are so mingled with
the story that it is almost impossible to disentangle
what is true from what is fictitious. It affords an
excellent example of the extreme credulity of the
times. Gregory claims to have collected the facts
he mentions mainly from four of St. Benedict's
disciples : Constantine, who succeeded him in the
government of the Monastery of St. Cassino ; Val
entinian, who long ruled in the Benedictine monas
tery near the Lateran ; Simplicius, who was the
third abbot of Monte Cassino ; and Honoratus,
62

SAINT BENEDICT OF NURSIA 63
who governed Benedict's original foundation at
Subiaco.1 Gregory tells us Benedict was born at Nursia,
now called Norcia, a town which still survives
among the Apennines at the foot of Monte Sibillini.
The famous Roman rebel, Sertorius, was also born
there. Benedict sprang from noble parents. Later
biographers associate him, as later biographers of
Gregory associated that Pope, with the Anicia
gens, but with very slight warrant. He was sent
to Rome to be educated, but was as little at
tracted by the study of letters as he was by the
frivolous and vicious atmosphere of the capital,
and was carried along by the afflatus which at this
time urged so many noble youths to forsake the
world arid to devote themselves to the austere life
of a recluse, and became an anchorite in a secluded
cave amidst bramble-covered rocks at Subiaco, at
the source of the Anio, which is still known as the
Sacro Speco. There he adopted a monk's dress, and
there he lived for several years a life of extreme
asceticism, until, his fame having spread, disciples
came to him from all sides, chiefly those of high and
noble rank. Among them Equitius, with his boy
Maurus, who afterwards became his favourite
disciple. The French claim him as the founder of
the congregation of St. Maur. There also came
Tertullus, the senator, with his little boy Placidus,
who was but seven or eight years old, and others.
It became necessary to organise the gathering, and
1 Dial. ii. Prol.

64 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Benedict accordingly founded twelve monasteries,
each with twelve monks and an abbot, while the rest
and more devoted of his disciples remained in at
tendance on the master himself at the Sacro Speco.1
These monasteries were planted along the heights
bordering the lonely valley of the Anio.
After spending thirty years at Subiaco, Benedict
was induced by the persecutions of a neighbouring
priest and other reasons to migrate to another home,
and with a number of his most famous devotees he
moved fifty miles away and settled on a hill over
looking the meandering Lirio, known all over the
world as Monte Cassino. There he founded another
monastery, which became the mother of the great
Order he had unwittingly started on its wonderful
journey. Unwittingly I say, for it is impossible to
believe that whatever ambitions he may have had,
he could have dreamt of the vast army of monks who
presently looked upon him as their father, and who
lived in thousands of abbeys in all parts of Christen
dom. No fewer than 15,070 Benedictine houses
had been founded before the Council of Constance.
At Monte Cassino Benedict lived for fifteen years
longer and then died, "supported on his feet," we are
told, "and with his hands extended to heaven and
praying." This was probably in the year 543 or 544.
He was buried in the same grave with his sister,
Scholastica, who had also adopted the religious life in
a cell close by the monastery. He was then sixty-
three or sixty-four years old, having been born in
1 Dial. ii. 3.

MONTE CASINO, THE CRADLE OF THE BENEDICTINES.

To face p. 64.

SAINT BENEDICT'S RULE 65
480. He was Gregory's great ideal. " Long after
his death, an archbishop of Salerno, who had him
self been trained at Monte Cassino, bestowed on him
the well-deserved title — Fundator placidae quietatis."
From his heart, says Pope Urban the Second, as
from the fountainhead of Paradise, there sprang the
religion of the monastic order — Monasticae ordinis
religio.
The most important thing to remember about
Benedict is that he was not a priest. He was
simply a monk, and a monk at this time meant a
layman who had taken vows, was tonsured and de
voted to religion, and living with others in com
munity, according to a Rule. The great feature of
Benedict's polity was his Rule. It is that which
gave his Order its great influence and caused it to
supplant so many earlier Orders. It will be well to
realise what it consisted in.
The earlier monks had one dominant motive in
retiring from the world, namely, to lead a life of
secluded and ascetic contemplation. Benedict in
troduced a new notion into his Rule, namely, the
duty of work as well as contemplation. " Probably
not even the founder himself foresaw all the pro
spective advantages of his law, which was destined
not merely to make many a wilderness and solitary
plain to rejoice with fertility, but to expand further
into a noble, intellectual fruitfulness, which has been
the glory of the Benedictine Order."1 Idleness,
according to Benedict, was the great enemy of the
1 Dr. Littledale, Ency. Brit. 9th ed., article "Benedict."
5

66 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
soul, an aphorism we find it convenient to remember
in another form when we say that the devil finds
work for idle hands to do. Constant occupation,
absolute obedience, and simplicity of living were his
three cardinal principles.
Benedict's Rule consists of seventy-three clauses.
It begins with a kind of sermon and then goes on
to describe the various kinds of monks then exist
ing, such as Coenobites, Anchorites, Sarabaites
(living by twos and threes together, without any
fixed rule or lawful superior), and Gyrovagi, vagrant
tramps, who were continually bringing discredit on
the monks' profession. It was the great object of
Benedict's Rule to get rid of the two latter classes,
and he accordingly added a fourth to the three
usual monkish vows of obedience, poverty, and
humility — namely, stability. This rule bound a monk,
after a year's probation, to perpetual vows, and con
strained him to continue to reside during his life at the
monastery where he had professed, unless transferred
either temporarily or permanently by his superiors.
To the Abbot, Benedict gave absolute authority :
there was no other way of maintaining discipline in
a large community of men of different temperaments
and characters. He was to be obeyed in all things.
Obedientia sine mora was the prime rule of the
monastic life, and every monk was to sacrifice his
individual will in all things. "We foresee," says
Benedict, " that it is expedient for the preservation of
peace and charity that the entire government of
the monastery depend upon the will of the Abbot."

SAINT BENEDICT'S RULE 67
No one must therefore question his orders or appeal
from his decision. No one must go anywhere or
do anything, however trifling, or receive any letter
or present without the Abbot's knowledge and con
sent. The Abbot alone was to prescribe rewards or
punishments : all must concur in his decision. No
one should hold any intercourse with a contumacious
monk, or one under the Abbot's displeasure, or
defend or take his part.
As a restraint upon the Abbot, it was provided
that when a vacancy in the post arose, he should be
elected by the community and from its own members,
and they were to be guided by the virtue, learning,
and practical wisdom of the candidate.
Secondly, the Abbot, liketherestofthecommunity,
was bound by "the Rule," which contains many in
junctions as to his conduct and about his duty.
While strict to show continual kindness and patience
he was not to be forgetful of the individual idiosyn
crasies of the various members of his flock. The
Abbot again, in matters of difficulty, was bidden to
consult with the whole community (even the youngest
being allowed to speak), and on minor matters he
was to take counsel with the older monks.
The obedience due to the Abbot was to be ex
tended to the Prior and the deans (officers set over
ten men in the larger monasteries), who were to be
chosen from the brethren for their merits and learn
ing, were to be treated with suitable respect by the
monks, and were to be similarly obedient to the
Abbot, who could always depose them. No worldly

68 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
differences in rank or social position were tolerated
among the monks themselves, all being in that sense
equal. On the other hand, a seniority was con
ceded to the older monks and those whose lives were
especially exemplary, or had been specially selected
by the Abbot, and they were to be styled " Father "
by the juniors. The latter were to ask their bless
ing, to rise from their seats when they passed, and
never to sit in their presence without permission.
In order to encourage the habit of implicit
obedience and deference, Benedict was continually
inculcating the virtue he valued most, namely, that
of humility, which he described as forming a series
of steps on the ladder of an ideal life like those on
Jacob's ladder. The first was the fear of God ; the
second, the surrender of self-will ; the third, implicit
obedience to authority ; the fourth, patience under
difficulties and ill-treatment ; the fifth, confession to
the Abbot of all secret sins of act or thought ; the
sixth, contentment with the meanest condition ; the
seventh, not only the declaration but the inward
feeling of inferiority to others ; the eighth, obedience
to the Rule and the superiors ; the ninth, the practice
of silence ; the tenth, abstention from laughter and
buffoonery ; the eleventh, the habit of speaking
briefly, quietly, gravely, and humbly ; lastly, the
twelfth, the adoption of a humble demeanour, with
the head bent and the eyes fixed on the ground, and
this at all times, whether at work, in the oratory,
the monastery, the garden, field, or road.
Benedict probably instituted what has become a

SAINT BENEDICT'S RULE 69
golden rule of all monastic establishments, namely,
the system of the eight daily services, known as the
Canonical Hours. These were fixed at intervals of
three hours throughout the day and night, and were
named Nocturns, Matins, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None,
Vespers, and Compline. At the Hours a portion
of the Psalter was recited, and the whole Psalter was
gone through weekly, starting again every Sunday
at Matins. These Hours were sung or recited in
quire, when all but the sick or those having dispensa
tion must attend. Opportunities for private prayer
and meditation were also provided. The only read
ing permitted to the monks was from the Bible or
other religious books, and for this, two or three
hours daily were set apart on weekdays and a
longer time on Sundays.
The Abbot or his deputy was to give notice of
the different church services, and no incompetent
person was to be allowed to read or chant. Chapter
xxi. of the Rule provided for the appointments of
deans (officers set over ten monks) in the large
monasteries, to be chosen by merit and not by seni
ority. The next chapter contained directions about
the dormitory. Each monk was to have a separate
bed with a straw mattress, blanket, quilt, and pillow,
and was to sleep in his habit and girdle, so as to be
ready to rise at a moment's notice, while a light was
to be kept burning in the dormitory till the morning.
The next eight chapters dealt with offenders, for
whom a graduated scale of penalties was provided :
first, private admonition ; next, separation from the

70 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
brethren at meals, or recreation, and exclusion from
reading the lessons or intoning ; then scourging, and
finally expulsion in the case of hardened offenders.
The outcast might be received again three times on
condition of forfeiting his seniority and descending
to the lowest place. After a third expulsion, return
was debarred.
Chapter xxxi. dealt with the cellarer and his duties.
He was steward, and had charge of all the stores
and had to serve them out. Then comes a chapter
dealing with the inferior officers, who had charge of
the tools, clothes, and goods of the monastery.
Chapter xxxii. embodied the regulations about
poverty and the abnegation of private property,
which were so stringently exacted by the various later
reformers of monachism. "Especially let this sin be
cut away from the monastery by the very roots," says
Benedict, "that no one presume without leave of
the Abbot to give, receive, or hold as his own any
thing whatsoever, either book, or writing tablets, a
pen, or anything at all ; for monks are men whose
very bodies and wills are not in their own power."
The Abbot was to supply all necessaries, and any
murmuring at the manner of distribution was treated
as a very serious offence.
Chapter xxxv. provided that the brethren were
to serve in the kitchen by turns, unless excused by
reason of sickness or some other more important
occupation. They worked in relays for a week at
this duty, and those on duty on Saturday night were
to clean up and to deliver all the clothes and

SAINT BENEDICT'S RULE 71
utensils to the cellarer in good condition for their
successors. They were to begin their week's work
with prayers that they might do it well, and end it
by making amends for what they had done ill.
The sick were to be patient and not exacting. An
infirmary was to be provided for them, and a com
petent attendant was charged with their care. They
were to have baths as often as was expedient, and
allowed a flesh diet. Old men and children were
also dispensed from the rigour of the Rule, and might
have their meals before the usual hours. During
meals reading aloud was prescribed, but no con
versation, even about the subject of the reading,
was to take place between the brethren, who at
meals were only to speak by signs. The reader
was to be appointed for a week, and entered on his
duties on Sunday. He was allowed a little food
before beginning, but was to finish his meal after
wards with the kitcheners and waiters.
Chapters xxxix. and xl. prescribed the daily
rations of meat and drink. These meals consisted
of two hot dishes (pulmentaria), to permit a choice
of food to those to whom one might be distasteful ;
a third dish of fruit or young vegetables was given
occasionally. A pound of bread was served out
daily for each monk, which the Abbot could increase
in the case of the hard-worked, while children's
rations were similarly diminished. The flesh of
four-footed beasts was forbidden to all except the
sick and weakly ; the use of poultry, eggs, and fish
was optional. One pint of wine was allowed daily

72 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
to each monk ; but the monks were instructed
that voluntary abstinence in this matter was the
best, and they were not to murmur when the house
was too poor to provide it. On weekly fast days,
and from the middle of September till Easter, one
meal a day was allowed. During the rest of the
year and on Sunday there was a dinner in the
middle of the day and a supper in the evening. The
times of meals at different parts of the year were pre
scribed by Rule xii., but both meals should be taken
by daylight, without need of lamps. In the evening
the monks were to assemble together for reading,
which was to be preferably from the famousCollalions
of Abbot Cassian of Lerins, in Gaul, or the Lives
of the Fathers. Cassian's works are referred to by
Gregory as "bene viventium et obedientium mona-
chorum instrumenta virtutum." This reading was
to be after Compline, after which silence was to be
strictly maintained. Chapters xliii. to xlvi. imposed
penalties for minor offences, such as being late for
prayers or meals.
Chapter xlviii. of the Rule is one of the most
important ones. It refers to the duty of daily
manual labour and is headed with the terse aphorism,
" Idleness is an enemy of the soul " (Otiositas inimica
est animae). The kind of work each man was to
do was apportioned by the Abbot, according to the
different gifts of each. The more learned monks
taught in the schools, others worked in the fields,
the orchard, or garden, or about the repairs of the
buildings, or in different handicrafts, others waited

SAINT BENEDICT'S RULE 73
on the sick or attended on the Abbot and his guests,
others, again, looked after the external business of the
Abbey, while all were supposed to take their turn at
baking, cooking the meals, and cleaning the rooms.
The Rule provided that the monks were to
distribute the time not already taken up with
prayers, meals, and sleep, into periods of manual
labour or devout reading. From Easter to October
they were to work from Prime to the fourth hour ;
from the fourth to nearly the sixth hour they were
to read. On rising from their meals at the sixth
hour they were to rest in silence on their beds — the
familiar siesta of warm countries. Those, however,
who preferred to read might do so, provided they
did not disturb the others. Nones were to be said
about the middle of the eighth hour, i.e. 2.30 p.m.,
and then work was to be resumed till evening.
From the ist of October to the beginning of Lent
they were to read till the second hour, then to say
Tierce, after which to work till the ninth hour, when
they were to leave off, and after their meal to read
spiritual books or the Psalms. In Lent they were
to read from the morning till the third hour, then to
work till the end of the tenth hour ; and every one
was to have a book given out to him from the
library at the beginning of Lent, which he was to
read through, while two senior brethren were to
go the rounds during reading-hours to see that the
monks were actually reading, and not lounging and
gossiping. On Sundays all were to read through
out the day except those with special duties. Those

74 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
who could not or would not either read or meditate
must have some special work assigned them to
keep them from idling. Sickly and delicate brethren
were to be given light work.
Chapter xlix. suggested, without commanding,
some voluntary self-denial in Lent, to be under
taken only with the Abbot's approval, no doubt to
prevent vainglorious austerities.
The next chapter provided that brethren working
at a distance must say their " Hours " where they
happened to be. When sent on an errand from which
they were to return the same day, they were not to
take refreshments until their return, without the
Abbot's consent. This was doubtless to prevent
their making improper acquaintances in taverns, etc.
Chapter Iiii. contained rules for entertaining guests.
The most noteworthyof these was that the Abbot was
allowed to break his fast with his guests, except on
a Church fast day, so as to bear them company at
meal times, and when the guests were few he could
ask any of the brethren to eat with them. The
kitchen for the Abbot and guests was to be separate
from the general kitchen, and served by the same
two brethren for a year, so that na extra labour
should be thrown on the kitcheners. The guest
room was to be in charge of the hospitaller, and no
other monk, without permission, was to speak to or
mix with the guests.
Monks were not to receive letters, tokens, or
gifts, even from their nearest kin, without the Abbot's
consent, nor to give such things to others.

SAINT BENEDICT'S RULE 75
In regard to dress, Benedict left it open to the
Abbot, who had to provide it, to decide that best
suited to the climate and locality, merely prescribing
that in temperate places two habits and two tunics
should be provided for night and day wear. The
former were called cucullce or cowls, and doubtless
resembled the cloaks of the later Capuchins. In
one of Gregory's letters to the Presbyter Palladius
he tells him he is sending him a cuculla and a tunic.1
The duplication of these clothes was meant to pro
vide for summer and winter wear. The garments
for the latter use were to be made of thick stuff
lined with wool. Care was to be taken that the
clothes fitted. Each monk was also to be pro
vided with a scapular,2 shoes and stockings, a
girdle, a knife, and a needle, a style (graphium), a
handkerchief, and writing tablets. If a monk went
on a journey he was also given a pair of drawers
which, on his return, were to be replaced in the
common wardrobe. For those who were healthy,
and especially the young, the luxury of a bath was
seldom provided, which shows how in some ways
we have moved on since the sixth century.
Each monk was to have a change of garments
to allow of washing, and another, for a journey,
to be made of better materials and kept in the
common wardrobe when not in use. Those who
were skilled as craftsmen among the brethren could
1 E. and H. xi. I.
2 A sleeveless woollen garment passed over the head and falling
down over the breast and back (Dr. Littledale, Ency. Brit. 9th ed.
xvi. 705).

76 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
make various articles with the Abbot's permission,
and if for sale, the objects were to be sold at a fair
price rather below than above the current rate.
New members were not to be admitted too
easily. The postulant was to knock for admission
in vain for four or five days, then to be brought into
the guest-room for a few days more, and then to be
transferred to the House of Novices, where he was
to remain for two months under the charge of a
senior monk. If he still remained of the same mind,
the Rule was to be read over to him, and the option
of going or staying offered him. If he decided to
stay, he was to return to the Novice House for six
months' further probation, when the Rule was to be
again read over to him, and yet a third time after a
further term of four months. If he still remained
of the same mind, he was then to divest himself of
all his property, and either give it to the poor or to
the monastery. He then signed the Act of Pro
fession, including the Vow of Stability, which he was
to lay on the altar with his own hand.
Chapter lix. provided for the dedication of
children, noble or poor, by their parents, to be brought
up as monks. St. Benedict required a promise from
the latter never to endow the oblate with any
property, either directly or in trust, though they
might leave their property to the monastery, reserv
ing a life interest to themselves.
The next chapter regulated the lives of priests
who might wish to enter the monastery. They
were to enjoy no relaxations or priority in regard to

SAINT BENEDICTS RULE 77
their priesthood, but the Abbot might assign clerical
functions to them, and similarly to those in minor
orders. Provision was also made for the reception
of stranger monks as guests, and also for their join
ing the community if they so wished. The Abbot
was to listen to the criticisms of such strangers, and
he could, if he so pleased, give them higher standing
than that of their entrance. No such monk was,
however, to be admitted without the consent of, or
letters commendatory from, his former abbot.
The Abbot might choose a monk for ordination
as priest or deacon, but he was to have no precedence
in consequence, except when officiating, or in case
the Abbot and the brethren concurred in giving it
to him on account of superior merit. If he misbe
haved he was to be reported to the Bishop, and if he
persistently disregarded the Rule he was to be ex
pelled. The Abbot might be selected either by the
whole body or by a select electoral committee, and
the lowest in standing might be chosen if fit. If he
turned out to be unfit, the bishop of the diocese, or the
neighbouring abbots, or even the neighbouring laity
might annul the election and make a fresh choice.
If the Abbot and the Prior were often at feud,
Benedict counselled dispensing with the latter unless
the circumstances needed one. The Abbot might
nominate a brother to the post, but he was to be as
entirely subject to himself as any other monk, and
might be admonished, deposed, or expelled.
Chapter lxvi. provided for the appointment
of a porter to answer at the gate, and that every

78 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
house should have its own well, mill, garden, bakery,
and handicraftsmen, to avoid the necessity of inter
course with the outside world. No monk was to
leave the monastery without the Abbot's leave, and
on his return from any journey he was to beg the
prayers of the community for any faults committed
by him in their absence, and was forbidden to speak
of what he had seen or heard outside.
If a monk received a hard or impossible command
he was to bear it patiently and obediently, and if he
found it beyond his powers he was to mention it
quietly to his superior. If the latter was still exacting,
he must try and comply as best he could. Gregory in
his Dialogues tells a touching story of a saintly monk
named Libertinus, who was beaten over the head
and face with a footstool till he was black and blue
by a superior. He submitted with patience, and
when asked how his face came to be in such a plight
merely answered, " Yesterday, for my sins, I came
in contact with a footstool, and suffered thus."1
Monks were not to defend each other against their
superiors in the monastery, even if they happened to
be kinsmen. They were not to strike or excom
municate each other without the Abbot's consent.
Children under fifteen were to be under discipline
from all the monks; but the latter when unduly severe,
or who should chastise children over fifteen without
the Abbot's consent, were themselves to be punished.
The Rule closed with a note to the effect that it was not
offered as an ideal of perfection, or even as equal to the
1 Op. cit. i. 2 ; Barmby, Gregory the Great, 55.

DR. LITTLEDALE ON ST. BENEDICT'S RULE 79
teachings of Cassian and Basil, but for mere beginners
in the spiritual life who might thence proceed further.
When we look over these clauses of a most
remarkable monument we shall cease to wonder,
perhaps, how a Rule of Life which was afterwards to
enable large numbers of men of different conditions
and stations of life and different temperaments to
live together with little friction and eminent comfort
should have lasted so long without amendment and
alteration, and should still remain the ideal of all
Monkish Rules. What we are most struck by is
the singular moderation and good sense of the
provisions, the stand taken in them against ex
travagance, extreme rigour, and petty and burden
some regulations, especially against the exaggerated
mortifications and austerities which had converted
the lives of anchorites in the East and West into mere
shadows of those of Indian fakirs, and which were so
much imitated in later and more exacting Orders of
Reformed Benedictines, like theTrappists andothers.
The rigidity of these later Rules is in striking con
trast with the adaptability of that of St. Benedict,
in which so much is left to the personal initiative of
the Abbot. It strikes one as the very ideal of a Rule
of Life to be pursued by men living in community in
the various and varying latitudes of the world, from
the tropics to the coldest and most harsh.
" Plain and poor as the prescribed food and lodg
ing appears," says Dr. Littledale, "if tested by
modern notions, yet it is to be remembered that what
is called ' comfort ' is a wholly recent idea, and even

80 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
still scarcely familiar, it may be said, out of Great
Britain and its colonies. The scale of living ap
pointed by the Rule secures a greater abundance of
the necessaries of life, not only than was at all com
mon among the Italian poor of the sixth century,
but than is to be found amongst the humbler
peasantry of any European country at the present
day; while even the excluded superfluities entered but
little into the habits of any save the very wealthy. . . .
The most valuable feature of the Rule is the position
of dignity it gives to work. It is scarcely possible
to realise at the present day the dishonour into which
toil of all kinds had sunk in the days of Benedict.
Not only had the institution of slavery degraded
many kinds of occupation, but the gradual disappear
ance from Italy of the yeoman class, ruined and
exiled by the concentration of great estates (lati-
fundia), or slain in the ceaseless battles of competi
tors for empire, or of barbarian invaders, left few but
serfs and herdsmen to till the soil, while the military
habits of the invading tribes led them to con
temn any life except that of a warrior. It is the
special glory of Benedict that he taught the men
of his day that work, sanctified by prayer, is the
best thing that man can do, and the lesson has
never been quite lost sight of since."1
Benedict's original Monastery of Monte Cassino
was destroyed by the Lombards in 589. As we
have seen, its abbot and other monks sought shelter
at Rome and were credited with having persuaded
1 Littledale, Ency. Brit. 9th ed. vol. xvi. p. 705.

ADAPTATION OF SAINT BENEDICT'S RULE 81
Gregory to found his own monastery. The emi
grants themselves planted the first Benedictine con
vent in Rome, near the Lateran Palace, which was
named after the two St. Johns — the Evangelist and
the Baptist. Its first abbot was called Valentinian,
and during the period of one hundred and fifty
years, while the monastery at Monte Cassino was in
ruins and abandoned, its Roman daughter flourished
greatly. 1 1 then fell into decadence, but was restored
again in the eighth century by Gregory n. This
monastery disappeared in the later Middle Ages.1
It was from these emigrants from Monte Cassino
that Gregory probably imbibed the love for the mon
astic life which was his ruling passion in after life,
and which led him to devote so much of his fortune
to the foundation of monasteries.
The monasteries at this time, especially those
in the more secluded districts which had not been
ravaged by the barbarians, were the most prosper
ous institutions of the age, havens of refuge for the
destitute and oppressed. In them men and women
found that peace and rest and idyllic life which was
impossible elsewhere. Gregory describes the monks
in his Dialogues as engaged in homely country pur
suits, looking after their gardens, mowing hay in
the fields, building walls, baking bread, gathering
olives, looking after the oratory, cleaning the lamps,
etc. etc. In one case only do we find an instance
of monks engaged in copying manuscripts.2 The
monasteries benefited much from the gifts and
1 Gregorovius, op. cit. It. ed. i. 363, notes. 2 Dialogues, i. 4.
6

82 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
legacies of the rich people who at this period crowded
into them to enjoy the simple life, and they were
consequently well appointed, had their farms, their
oliveyards, and vineyards.1
There has been considerable discussion as to
the Rule adopted by Gregory in his monasteries.
Mabillon and the Benedictines have generally
argued that he adopted the Benedictine one. The
Jesuit Baronius suggests that he adopted that of
St. Equitius, of whom Gregory gives an account in
his Dialogues. Inter alia, he says of him that he
founded many monasteries in the province of Valeria
in the neighbourhood of Lake Fucini in the Abruzzi.
The notion that Gregory followed Equitius in his
Rule seems most improbable. Equitius was a person
of slight culture and much rusticity, and his Rule must
have been a crude performance.2 It is very unlikely
that Gregory should have gone to such a guide in
matters so near his own heart. He always speaks of
St. Benedict in laudatory terms, and apostrophises his
Rule for its marvellous discretion and lucidity,3 and
1 Dudden, i. 346.
2 Gregory in his Dialogues has described this precursor of the
itinerant evangelists of modern dissent : " He had such a zeal for
winning souls that he travelled up and down the country, visiting
towns, villages, churches, and private houses, and trying by all means
to stir men's hearts to the love of the heavenly country. His dress
was so coarse and shabby that many who did not know him disdained
even to reply to his salutation. He rode upon the worst beast that
could be found, with a halter for bridle and for saddle a sheep's skin ;
on right and left hung leather bags stuffed with parchments of the
Holy Scriptures. Everywhere he went 'he opened the fountain of
Scripture, and watered men's souls with his sermons'" (Dialogues,
i. 4 ; Dudden, i. 347~348).
3 Dial. ii. 36.

SAINT GREGORY'S MONASTIC DISCIPLINE 83
we can hardly doubt that it was St. Benedict's Rule
that he made the basis of his own regulations. This
he seems to have somewhat altered and adapted to the
conditions existing in large cities like Rome. Inter
alia, he devoted more time to study and less to work.
The Rule thus modified was known as St. Gregory's.
Such a Rule is referred to very early, namely, in a
letter written by Pope Honorius to Honorius, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, in which he speaks of St.
Gregory's Rule (sectantemque . . . Sancti Gregorii
regulam)} St. Dunstan prescribed that the seven canoni
cal hours should be recited by the monks of Canter
bury during Easter, "after the fashion of St. Gregory"
(septem horae canonicae a Monachis in Ecclesia Dei,
more canonicorum propter aucthoritatem S. Gregorii
celebrandae sunt). This custom was abolished by
Lanfranc.2 Gregory treated the monks as quite a different
order and class of beings to the working clergy, and
it was he who first countenanced (in a moderate
way) what became a very great evil in the Middle
Ages, namely, the exemption of the regular clergy
from episcopal control, which supervision had been
insisted upon by the Council of Chalcedon.
This was not all. He endeavoured to draw a
rigid line between monks and the secuiar clergy in
other ways. He would not allow a priest or deacon
1 Bede, E. and H. ii. 18.
2 Cone. Monast. apud Reiner, par. iii. p. 899. Wilk. Con. inter.
Constit. Lanfranc. i. 339. See also Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church,
i. 301, note.

84 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
to become an abbot unless he gave up his pastoral
clerical functions, fearing that his less regulated life
might impair the discipline of the monastery. It was,
of course, necessary that some monks should be also
priests in order to celebrate Mass in the communities;
nor did the Pope wish to prevent monks becoming
bishops, but every monk called to an ecclesiastical
office, or benefice, was to leave his monastery and
not return to it ; nor would he consent that Urbicus,
Abbot of St. Hermas and General Superior of the
Sicilian monasteries, should be elected Archbishop
of Palermo. He deemed the life of a monk and
of an ecclesiastic to be incongruous and mutually
injurious to each other.
He reformed and made more stringent the
monastic discipline. He pitilessly deposed all abbots
leading an irregular life, and forbade bishops to
shelter rebellious or vagabond monks, or those who
had been excommunicated by their abbots ; nor
would he permit the monks to wander about from
one house to another, and to prevent this he, insisted
that each monastery should have a secular and paid
procurator. To prevent incontinence he ordered
that the monasteries of the two sexes should be
planted far apart, and that on no pretence should
women have access to communities of men. The
Council of Chalcedon had expressly excommunicated
all monks who married. Its decrees on this subject
were strongly upheld by Gregory, but his kindly
disposition was not equal to imposing very harsh
penalties. When his friend Venantius, who had

SAINT GREGORY'S MONASTIC DISCIPLINE 85
been a monk, left his monastery and married, he
expostulated with him and with his wife, and when
he became a widower tried to induce him to adopt
the monk's habit again ; but when he died without
having done so, he adopted and looked after his
two orphan daughters, whom he styled dulcissimae
filiae.
His father's three sisters had all taken vows, and
he accordingly took a keen interest in the discipline
of female communities, and he sustained by the
doles and generosity of the Church 3000 nuns who
had taken refuge in Rome from their ruined convents.
He made an excellent rule that the abbesses chosen
by the communities should be at least sixty years
old, thus following up the regulation of Leo the
First, which was in conformity with the decrees of
several councils and was confirmed by a law of the
Emperor Majorian passed in 458. He further in
sisted that nuns should not receive the veil and the
solemn benediction, nor should their noviciate end
until their fortieth year. The breach of this rule,
and the pernicious and morbid argument that young
girls should be encouraged to dedicate their virginity
to God by which it was sustained, was the cause of
infinite mischief and scandal in later centuries.
He was most sensible in deeming the con
templative life unsuited for many temperaments and
for unquiet and restless souls, and he held that no
one should become a monk who had not first tried
an active life and tested his own capacity and tastes.
He thus enlarged the noviciate to two years, St.

86 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Benedict having prescribed one only. It was only
after a trial of two years that the lay dress was to be
discarded and the tonsure given ; and he enjoined a
married man who had left his wife to join a monastery
in Sicily to return to her, which was another salutary
dictate of good sense, since, if the practice had
become general, it would have been an easy and
demoralising form of divorce.
Gregory was a determined foe to monks owning
private property (" peculiarity," as it was called) and
therefore to their making wills. Those who wished
for private property, he declared, had not the hearts
of monks. On this rule being rigidly enforced in
the economy of a monastery he was inexorable.
We have a grim proof in a story told at this time
of a monk named Justus, who had attended Gregory
when he was ill, and had now himself to take to
his bed. The latter confessed to his own brother
Copiosus, who was also a monk, that in making a
sacrifice of his worldly goods he had retained three
gold pieces. Gregory having heard of this, ordered
the Prior Pretiosus to forbid any of the other
monks attending to him, commanded that when
he died his body should be thrown upon a dunghill,
and that the three gold pieces should be thrown
into his grave with him, while they chanted, " Let
thy gold perish with thee." This came about, but
presently Gregory's heart seems somewhat to have
melted, and after conferring with Pretiosus, he
declared that the erring monk had been long enough
in the flames, and he ordered thirty continuous Masses

SAINT GREGORY'S MONASTIC DISCIPLINE 87
to be said for his release. We read that the sinner
afterwards appeared to Copiosus and told him that
he had now been admitted to heaven.1 These ex
piatory Masses were afterwards known as Gregorian
Masses.
1 Dialogues, vi. 55.

CHAPTER IV
Having largely forestalled our story in order to
bring under one view the Pope's management and
regulation of the clergy, secular and regular, over
whom he presided, let us now revert again to his
doings after he became Pope.
In order to understand his political position at
this date it will be convenient to glance shortly at
the administration of that part of Italy subject to
the Empire at this time — a time of transition, when
recent administrative changes had much altered it.
I have condensed Mr. Dudden's admirable account of
the subject so far as it refers to the principal officials.
The highest official in the land, and the vicegerent
of the Emperor, was the Exarch, a title first applied
by Pope Pelagius the Second among Western
writers,1 and first used in its true sense by Smarag-
dus (585-589), whose predecessor, Longinus, had
been merely called Pra^fectus Ravenna^. He was
styled " The Most Excellent Exarch," and also
" Patrician," and was at the head of the civil ser
vice as well as of the army in Italy, and seems to
have appointed all the civil and military officers there.
"He could make peace or war on his own initiative,
while the judicature and the finance were under
1 Labbe Cone. v. 938.
88

THE EXARCH OF RAVENNA 89
his control." The power of this Byzantine Satrap
was therefore virtually supreme wherever the
Imperial rule was obeyed in Italy. He lived at
Ravenna, where he held a replica of the Court of
Byzantium in miniature, with a similar ceremonial,
in which he was treated with the abject servility
which the West had learnt from the East ; even the
highest dignitaries prostrating themselves on his
approach, and addressing him in the most fulsome
terms. When he entered a city the bishop and
foremost citizens came out to meet and escort him
with all the humility shown at Eastern courts.
This new dignitary had largely superseded the
Praetorian prefect, who had formerly controlled the
civil administration of Italy and been the chief
official of the Empire after the Emperor, but who had
had no military functions. He was still, however,
a great personage, wearing a purple robe, using a
silver inkstand, a gold pencase, and riding in a
stately car. He still (subject to the Exarch) con
trolled the finances of Italy— the collection of taxes,
the payment of salaries, the commissariat of the
troops, etc. — though he no longer had legislative
powers. He also retained a large judicial authority.
He ranked next to the Exarch, was styled " Most
Excellent " and "Most Eminent," lived at Classis,
near Ravenna, where he had a large staff of
functionaries, exercised a wide patronage, and tried
and punished evil-doers among the officials.
The Prefect of the City, who was styled Most
Illustrious, Glorious, and Magnificent, and whose

90 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
post had once been filled by Gregory himself, still
retained, in the earlier part of the latter's popedom,
the control of the administration within the walls,
presided over the meetings of citizens, and helped the
Pope in supplying the city with grain and the military
officers in concerting plans of defence. His office
was rapidly decaying, however, and he is last heard
of in the year 599, and is not named again for two
centuries. " He had, in fact," as Mr. Dudden says,
" become little more than a dignified minister of
police with a criminal jurisdiction."
It is doubtful whether the two subordinates of
the ancient Praetorian prefects, namely, the Vicars,
one of whom, the Vicarius Urbis, had jurisdiction
over Central and Southern Italy, with his seat
at Rome, and the other over the seven northern
provinces, with his seat at Genoa, still existed. If
they did so, they had become quite unimportant and
dealt entirely with financial matters.
The Governors of provinces (styled Judices
Provinciarum in the time of Justinian) still existed,
but with much curtailed functions, which were purely
judicial, and had been encroached upon by the
bishops and the practice of settling disputes by
arbitration. They cease to be mentioned in the
beginning of the seventh century. Such were the
principal officials responsible for the civil adminis
tration of Italy at this time.
A few words must now be said about the military
officials. At their head was the Exarch above
named, under whom were the Duces and the

THE MILITARY ORGANISATION OF ITALY 91
Magistri Militum, or Generals, who differed, in that
the former also exercised civil functions in a de
fined area, the latter were military officers pure and
simple. While a single district could only have
one Dux it might have several Magistri. In his
letters,1 Gregory mentions four of the latter officers in
the district of Rome. The titles and functions were,
however, not always logically distinguished, and were
frequently confused. The Dux was supreme within
his district and was a kind of minor Exarch, and
tended more and more to become independent of his
master at Ravenna ; he controlled the civil officers,
dispensed justice, managed the finance, and some
times interfered in ecclesiastical matters. He had his
chartulary, notary, major-domus, and other officials.2
Below the Duces and Magistri Militum were the
Tribunes, otherwise called Comites or Counts. They
were military officers with civil functions, and
appointed by the Exarch to take charge of and ad
minister a single town. On one occasion we find
Gregory sending aTribune to take charge of Naples.3
As we have seen, the Senate, in the old sense of
the word, had at this time ceased to exist. It had
indeed been destroyed by the terrible slaughters of
the Gothic wars. The remnant of its members who
remained, reconstituted themselves as "the Senatus
Romanus," and were assigned by Justinian the very
meagre role of superintending weights and measures.
1 E. and H. ii. 32, 33.
2 In his letters Gregory mentions the Dukes of Sardinia, Ariminum,
Campania, and Neapolis ; see Gregorovius, op. cit. i. 393, note 14.
8 lb. ii. 34.

92 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Certain Roman senators are said to have been sent
on an embassy to Constantinople in 579. After this
the senate is not mentioned again till 757, when we
find the name was used merely as a title of honour
by the Roman magnates, and it would seem that the
institution itself had ceased to exist. Meanwhile
the municipal institutions of the provincial towns
(curiae) continued to live for some time longer, but
subject to crushing taxes.
It is clear that while the civil officials of the old
Empire still existed it was as shadows of their former
selves, and that, as Mr. Dudden says, the real forces
of the Empire were the Army and the Church,
while whole parts of the country were governed by
martial law, which was inevitable in the face of the
repeated invasions of the barbarians.1
Let us now revert to Gregory and his doings as
Pope. Gregory was still a deacon when elected Pope.
The messenger who had been sent to Rome by
Gregory of Tours for some relics received them from
the hands of the Pope while still a deacon.2 1 1 was, in
fact, a not unusual practice at this period to advance
deserving deacons at one step to the rank of bishop.3
On his election Gregory duly sent synodical
letters to inform the other patriarchs of the fact.
These were addressed to John of Constantinople,
Eulogius of Alexandria, Gregory of Antioch, John
of Jerusalem, and, lastly, to Anastasius, ex-Patriarch
1 Dudden, i. 176-186. 2 Greg, of Tours, lib. x. 1.
3 E. and H. iii. 29, 39, 46 ; x. 13.

SEVENFOLD LITANY AND THE PLAGUE 93
of Antioch, who had been illegally deposed from his
office by the Emperor Justin in 570, but was after
wards restored by the Emperor Maurice. In these
letters he styles each of the other patriarchs Most
holy brother (frater sanctissimus), and claims no kind
of superiority over them. In them he also makes
his confession, in which he claims to receive the
four Gospels and the four first councils, to which
he parenthetically adds " the fifth," i.e. that held at
Constantinople in 553 a.d., which he says he equally
venerates, pariter veneror.1
The plague already mentioned was still raging
when he was elected. Gregory of Tours, who was
writing at the time, and whose information came
from his own agent (an eye-witness), reports the
address which the newly elected Pope made in the
Lateran Basilica to the people of Rome, whom he
styled "his very dear brothers," offering them con
solation and advice. In view of the terrible calamity
of the plague he further prescribed that at daylight
on the following Wednesday (traditionally said to
have been the 25th of April)2 they should organise
an imposing ceremony. They were to assemble in
seven bodies and repeat a sevenfold litany. All the
clergy were to set out with the priests of the sixth
region from the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian,
while all the abbots and monks were to set out from
the Church of the Martyrs SS. Gervasius and Pro
tasius, with the priests of the fourth region. All the
abbesses with their nuns were to set forth from the
1 E. and H. i. 24 ; Barmby, i. 25. 2 Dudden, i. 219.

94 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Church of SS. MarceUinus and Peter, the Martyrs,
with the priests of the first region. All the children
were to issue from the Church of the Martyrs John
and Paul, with the priests of the second region. The
laity were to set out from the Church of St. Stephen,
with the priests of the seventh region ; the widows
from the Church of St. Euphemia, with the priests of
the fifth region ; and all the married women from the
Church of St. Clement, with the priests of the third
region. They should then all march together with
prayers and tears to the Basilica of the Virgin Mary
(i.e. S. Maria Maggiore), where the Pope would
again address them, and they should there implore
the Almighty's forgiveness for their sins. In the
" Legenda Aurea" it is said that in this procession
Gregory carried the famous picture of the Virgin
which had been painted by St. Luke,1 and when the
plague at length ceased, a voice was heard above
the picture singing, " Regina coeli laetare," etc. ; to
which Gregory added, " Ora pro nobis, Deum roga-
mus, alleluia." Gregory also summoned the clergy
together and ordered them to chant the Psalms
and implore the pity of the Saviour during three
days. Every three hours the choirs were to chant
the Psalms and traverse the streets singing the
Kyrie eleison. " Our deacon," says Gregory of
Tours, " was present and assured us that while the
people thus raised their voices in supplication eighty
of them fell dead in the course of an hour " (i.e. from
1 The pictures still in the churches of Ara Cceli and S. Maria
Maggiore both claim to be that carried by the Pope (Hare's Walks
in Rome, ii. 226, note 2).

SAINT GREGORY AND THE EMPIRE 95
the plague). Assuredly no ecclesiastical function in
history is more full of tragic pathos than this famous
procession. It is still commemorated by the great
Rogation service on St. Mark's Day, i.e. the 25th
of April. It is from this time that there comes to us the
beautiful legend of the angel who is said to have been
seen by Gregory standing on the Mausoleum of
Hadrian (thence afterwards called the Castle of St.
Angelo), with his drawn sword, which he was seen to
sheathe as the plague abated. For many centuries
the figure of a gilded angel has stood on that tomb.
Four of these angels have at different times been
destroyed, and the present one is the fifth. It is
bronze gilt, and was put up in the reign of Pope
Benedict the Fourteenth. Gregorovius suggests
that the legend probably arose from some statue,
probably of a winged genius, which originally stood
on the Mausoleum. An altar, now in the Capitoline
Museum, bearing the representation of two foot
prints, formerly in the Church of Ara Cceli, was once
popularly deemed to preserve the footprints of the
angel seen by Gregory.1
The Pope having, as it was thought, cured the
pestilence, now made arrangements to mitigate the
famine which was impending in Italy, by the im
portation of grain from Africa and Sicily, which
still remained subject to the Empire, and were rich
and prosperous, and in both of which the Church
had rich possessions. To face plague and famine
1 Dudden, i. 220.

96 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
with such resources as were available was more
easy, no doubt, to the quondam Praefect of the City
than to steer through the political entanglements.
Italy then nominally belonged to the emperors
as Ireland belonged to the Plantagenet kings.
Their real authority was limited to the Exarchate
of Ravenna and its dependencies, as that of the
English kings was to "the Pale." The emperors had
little or no interest in a depressing land, of whose
miseries and complaints they chiefly heard, whose
language they hardly knew, and whose ancient
glory was no part of their real inheritance. They
held on to the Exarchate just as the English kings
held on to Calais as a fragment of a lost empire
and as a source of revenue, and its successive
governors, like the mediaeval Lords- Lieutenant of
Ireland, were mostly undesirable people, whose exac
tions and treacheries were only matched by those of
the Spanish viceroys in the New World. Each one
looked on his appointment as an exile, and hardly
one was a person of any capacity or public virtue.
Let us now try for a moment to realise the con
dition of Rome itself, and of its inhabitants, where
the Pope's most important functions and power were
exercised, and in the midst of which he passed
his days. It is almost impossible to describe the
woeful condition to which the magnificent capital of
Augustus and Hadrian had been reduced.
" Everywhere," in the eloquent words of Mr.
Dudden, "the eye was met by the melancholy
magnificence of great works sinking into unregarded

STATE OF ROME IN ST. GREGORY'S TIME 97
ruin. The theatres were falling in pieces, the baths
were dry and waterless, the temples were closed.
In the open spaces of the city the weeds grew freely,
the gardens and pleasure-grounds were choked with
rubbish, and the grass was pushing through the
broken pavements of the streets. On account of the
destruction of the aqueducts and the consequent
difficulty of getting water, the higher and more
salubrious quarters of the city were deserted ; and
the vast private palaces of the nobles — so huge that
it was remarked of them, ' a single house is a city n —
were empty and silent. The sumptuous shops,
which had once been the pride of the luxury-loving
Romans, were mostly closed. No libraries re
mained, save in a few churches. The 'mighty
nation of statues ' (populus copiasissimus statuarum)}
which in prodigious numbers had once decorated the
buildings and piazzas of Rome, and which even the
Christian Prudentius had characterised as the noblest
ornaments of our fatherland, were many of them
broken or removed, or lay neglected at the foot of their
pedestals, with no one to restore them into place.
The city, in short, was a city of death ; and Gregory
might well have anticipated Montaigne's remark
that there is nothing left of Rome but its grave.
"The appearance of the people was in keeping
with the aspect of their city. There was no longer
either wealth or talent left in Rome. The brilliant
society so vigorously depicted by writers like Jerome
and Ammianus MarceUinus had vanished utterly,
1 Olympiodorus, ed. Bonn, p. 469. 2 Cassiod. vol. vii. 13.
7

98 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
The Epicursean millionaires, the high-born matrons
surrounded with troops of sycophants and gossips,
the men of pleasure, the supple, scandal-purveying
churchmen, the mercenary advocates, the light-
hearted, pampered populace, — all these were seen no
more. That self-indulgent, frivolous life had burnt
quite out. Of the Romans of the sixth century,
survivors of the Gothic War, all who were swayed
by pleasure or ambition, all who cared for the
splendour of the Court or for the society of the
learned, or for opportunities of gaining distinction
and of making money, had taken their departure to
the New Rome on the Bosphorus, or had joined the
Court of the Patrician at Ravenna. The very few
who remained in Rome were for the most part little
better than beggars,1 living miserably in corners of
the great ruinous mansions which they had no longer
the means of keeping up, or huddled together in
tenements in the lower quarters of the city, where
they fell a prey to the malaria which was engendered
from the swamps caused by the destruction of the
aqueducts. The whole population, estimated in the
time of Augustus at about a million, cannot in these
days have exceeded forty thousand souls. And these
were all that were left in a city which, besides in
numerable public buildings, contained nearly eighteen
hundred palaces for the wealthy and more than forty-
six thousand lodging-houses for those less well-to-do.
1 " Tanta egestas et nuditas," says Pope Pelagius in one of his
letters, " in civitate ista est, ut sine dolore et angustia cordis nostri
homines, quos honesto loco natos idoneos noveramus, non possimus
adspicere" (Ep. 14 ; Migne, Pat. Lat. lxix. 408).

STATE OF ROME ABOUT 600 99
" Everything in the place was stagnant. Civil
life was hopelessly dislocated. Political activity
there was none. . . . There was no commerce or
manufacture to restore prosperity. Learning had
departed in the train of Wealth. Agriculture, which
had revived under the rule of Theodoric, was
utterly decayed. The Campagna, which once pre
sented the appearance of ' a great park, studded with
villages, farms, lordly residences, temples, fountains,
and tombs,' was now a dangerous and pestilential
wilderness, and nothing but the lines of broken aque
ducts and the charred ruins of villas and country houses
bore witness to the life that had once flourished there. " a
It will be interesting to recall a striking instance
of the migration of the upper classes to Constanti
nople at this time. It may be illustrated by the
correspondence of Gregory with an aristocratic lady
called Rusticiana, to whom the Pope wrote five
letters. She was very rich, and Gregory rebukes
her for forsaking her old home at Rome and migrat
ing to Constantinople, and tries to persuade her to
return. To this second migration she was not at all
sympathetic, and she consoled her conscience with
a pilgrimage to Mount Sinai and by sending the
Pope some donations, including ten pounds of gold
for the redemption of slaves, and certain hangings
for the decoration of the Church of St. Peter. It
seems she had written to ask that these hangings
or draperies might be taken to St. Peter's Church
1 Dudden, op. cit. i. 50-52. I have taken the liberty of quoting
this fine and picturesque description of Rome as it was in the days of
Gregory, which I think could not be improved.

ioo SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
with a procession of clergy singing a litany. Gregory
says this was not done, because the instruction
reached him after the hangings ; but Symmachus
(" the magnificent lord," as he styles him), with those
of her household, had been able to do otherwise
what she had desired should be done by the priests
in procession. These hangings were for the shrine
of St. Peter. Gregory calls her "Our glorious
daughter" and also "Patricia."1
The then condition of the ancient metropolis of the
world, as here pictured, has inspired one of Gibbons'
most magnificent sentences: "The lofty tree," he
says, "under whose shade the nations of the earth
had reposed, was deprived of its leaves and branches,
and the sapless trunk was left to wither on the
ground." These were the conditions under which
Gregory had to begin his work. He was crippled
by the hapless and hesitating policy of the emperors.
Their courtiers were doubtless jealous of the re
sourceful Bishop who represented authority on the
Tiber and who dared to undertake responsibilities,
and they were always ready to humiliate him. On
the other hand was the continual danger of an attack
from the Lombards, " whose only law," he plaintively
tells us, " was the sword. " There was a never-ending
struggle between these vigorous northern warriors
and the soldiery commanded by the Exarch, and
between the two the position of Rome and its de
pendencies was sometimes desperate.
" I was obliged," Gregory wrote to the Emperor,
1 E. and H. xi. 26 ; Barmby, xi. 40 ; Gregorovius, i. p. 395, note 27.

SAINT GREGORY AND THE LOMBARDS 101
"to see with my own eyes the Romans led into
Francia with ropes round their necks like dogs to be
sold in the market." The Pope himself provided
what was most urgent, wrote to the military leaders
to encourage them in resistance, pointed out to the
soldiers assembled at Naples the chief whom they
should follow, fed the people, and paid the troops
their wages and the barbarians their contributions
of war, all at the expense of the ecclesiastical treasury.
" The Emperor," he wrote to the Empress, "has a
treasure for his troops at Ravenna, but as for me, I
am the treasurer of the Lombards at Rome."
As I have said, the kingdom of the Lombards
in the north was separated from the aggressive
duchy of Spoleto in Central Italy by a long
strip of territory, through which there passed
a branch of the Flaminian Way called the Via
Anina or Amerina,1 and along which were the towns
of Sutrium, Polimartium, Horta, Tuder, Ameria,
Perugia, Lucerola, etc. The possession of this
strip of country was most important strategically
for the Romans ; not only did it separate their mortal
foes, but it was the only way, in Roman hands, by
which Rome and Ravenna could communicate.
In the earlier part of 592, Arnulf, Duke of Spoleto,
continued the desultory war against the Roman
province, the strength of whose scanty garrisons had
been so much sapped by the recent pestilence and
famine, and captured the towns on the Flaminian
Way already named. He then advanced on Rome
1 See Lib. Pont. i. p. 312 and notes.

102 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
itself. The Pope defended the place with such
resources as he had, but feeling the struggle to be
hopeless without some Imperial aid, he determined to
make a peace or truce with Arnulf, which meant, no
doubt, a large payment out of the papal exchequer.
He hardly realised, perhaps, how perilous such a
peace was for the Empire, since it left the recently
captured towns in the hands of a persistent enemy.
The Exarch and his officials were naturally exasper
ated with Gregory, and, repudiating his treaty, marched
along the Flaminian Way, recapturing the towns, and
approached Rome, which they entered with their
forces, and there was probably an uncomfortable
quarter of an hour between the Exarch and the Pope.
Agilulf, Duke of Turin, who became King of the
Lombards in the year of Gregory's accession to the
Papacy, married the beautiful Bavarian princess,
Theodelinda, the widow of the late Lombard King,
Antharis, and thus secured the throne. He was
aroused to fury by the recapture of the towns on the
Flaminian Way and the alleged breach of the treaty
which Arnulf had made with Gregory. He marched
south, recaptured the towns, and laid siege to Rome.
It would hardly be possible to match the pathos
of Gregory's letters and sermons at this time, when
it was his cruel fate to watch, as he tells us, " over
these crumbling walls, these overthrown palaces,
these buildings worn out with old age."
While the Lombards were attacking the city he
was engaged in preaching a series of forty-two homi
lies on the prophecies and visions of Ezekiel, a very

SAINT GREGORY AND THE LOMBARDS 103
favourite book with the mystics of the cloister, who
themselves constantly saw visions. These homilies
are still extant. In one of them he complains of the
obscurity of the text, and then tells us he had heard
that King Agilulf had crossed the Po, intending
to attack, and asks : " How can a poor soul thus
troubled and distracted penetrate into such mys
teries?"1 In another homily he says: "Let no
man blame me if I put an end to this discourse.
You all perceive how our tribulations increase. The
sword and death are everywhere. Some return to
us with their hands cut off, with the news that others
are taken or killed. I must be silent because my
soul is weary of life." As a matter of fact, Agilulf,
who devastated the Campagna and the country
round, did not proceed to capture the city, which
was thus spared a repetition of the previous sackings
by Alaric, Genseric, and Totila. This lucky exemp
tion was doubtless due to several causes — the dangers
of the Campagna fever and a possible diversion by
the Exarch ; perhaps, also, to Gregory's negotiations
with Agilulfs wife, Theodelinda, who had acquired
a great influence over the Lombards. Although a
Bavarian princess, she was descended from the old
Lombard kings on her mother's side. She was
orthodox and thus befriended the Pope, whose faith
ful friend she became, and it was probably by her
intervention that when war was presently renewed
between her husband and the Exarch, Gregory was
enabled to obtain a special truce for Rome and its
1 Vide Horn. 18.

104 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
surrounding territory, no doubt by the payment
of a large sum. Thus did the Pope, in spite of
Emperor or Exarch, by his own tact and skill secure
for Italy a great material success.
This phase of Gregory's public life has been, I
think, misunderstood by some of his recent biog
raphers. They speak of his continually enlarging
the power of the Pope by acting ultra vires. We
can find no complaint of this among his contempor
aries, except in the single instance of his making
peace with the Lombard Duke of Spoleto without the
knowledge or concurrence of the Emperor. The
fact is, Gregory was neither an ordinary Pope nor
an ordinary ecclesiastic. He had filled one of the
most dignified offices which the Emperor had in
his gift, that of Praefect. He had been a man of
great wealth, he had been an ambassador at Con
stantinople for many years, and he had as manager
of the Papal Patrimony shown what a great man of
affairs he was. No wonder that in these terrible
times, when Italy was broken up into a patchwork
of communities, and those belonging to the Emperor
were often far away and difficult to administer,
the services of the great Pope should have been
gladly welcomed in supplementing the secular re
sources of the Crown by being permitted to make
appointments and to conduct the local administra
tion which in other times and under other conditions
would have been hardly possible.
It was thus he was able to appoint Leontius
as military governor of a town in Etruria which was

SAINT GREGORY AND THE LOMBARDS 105
in a particularly forlorn condition, namely, Narnia,
30 miles from Rome.1 More especially, however,
were his services needed in the south (which was so
far from Ravenna), and, having heard that Arichis,
the Duke of Beneventum, was contemplating an
attack on Naples, he did not hesitate to nominate a
Tribune named Constantius to take command of
the city and to order the garrison to obey him (uti
praedicto magnifico viro tribuno ; sicut et fecistis,
omnem debeatis pro serenissimorum dominorum
utilitate vel conservanda civitate obedientiam
exhibere)} While we approve and admire the Pope's energy
and administrative skill, we must not disguise
the risks he had run in the process, nor that in
his anxiety to save Rome he had left the Italian
dominions of the Emperor in a perilous position
by conceding to the Lombards the possession of
the key of the whole position at Perugia. No wonder
the Emperor wrote him stinging letters, in which
he spoke of his simplicity and artlessness in the
presence of the artful astuteness of the Lombards.
In his reply, which was assuredly a form of letter
seldom written to and still less seldom tolerated by
an Emperor, the Pope does not spare his phrases and
speaks with great bitterness, and especially resents
the term "fatuus " as applied to himself. "Nam in
eis urbano simplicitatis vocabulo mefatuum appellat,"
he says. He acknowledges that he had indeed been
simple to allow himself to be put in such a situation
1 E. and H. ii. 33, and note 3. 2 lb. ii. 34-

106 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
— quod ita esse ego quoque ipse confiteor. He goes on
to speak of the heroism of another Gregory, namely,
the Praetorian prsefect, and of Castus, the Magister
Militum, or general, in the late struggles, and protests
against their having been treated with contumely
because the Roman authorities had a grievance
against himself.1
My friend Mr. Oman has some very sage
comments on the wider results of the Pope's
intervention in the politics of Italy at this time,
with which I quite agree. He says : "The peace
made by Agilulf with Gregory was from the
political side a huge mistake on Agilulf 's part. The
Lombards were still slowly advancing, and captur
ing one by one the remaining Imperial fortresses.
They should never have halted till they had carried
their kingdom up to its natural boundaries. The
treaty of 599 perpetuated the anomaly by which
isolated patches of Roman territory in the marsh, the
mountains, or the shore were interspersed amongst
the duchies of the conquerors."
" A few years later, when the Exarch Gallicinus
broke the treaty by kidnapping Agilulf's daughter
and carrying her off to Ravenna, Agilulf consented
to renew the agreement after tearing away from
the Empire two more great towns, Padua and
Mantua. He should have pushed on and made an
end of the Exarchate when the opportunity was in
his hands, for in 603-605 the wretched Phocas was
Emperor at Constantinople, and, oppressed with his
1 E. and H. v. 36.

SAINT GREGORY AND THE LOMBARDS 107
Persian war, could send no succour to his lieutenant
in Italy. But Agilulf allowed himself to be easily
propitiated, and the Imperial forces remained to serve
as thorns in the side of the Lombard monarchy,
and to prevent the unification of Italy for more
than twelve hundred years. That Rome, Venice,
Ravenna, and Naples were never incorporated
with the Lombard realm was mainly due to the per
sonal regard which Agilulf and Theodelinda bore to
the Roman pontiff. Remote as the cause may seem,
it was undoubtedly the source of half the political
and religious complications of the Middle Ages.
The Papal Peace, as it has been called, of 599 was the
origin of the temporal sovereignity of the Bishop of
Rome in the Ducatus Romanus. . . . If Agilulf had
pressed the siege of the city in 593, Rome would
have become a provincial town of the Lombard
realm, or at the best its capital. . . . The Lombard
sealed thereby the ultimate ruin of his own people." 1
Speaking of the gains to Italy of the otherwise
wise policy of Agilulf and his wife, Oman says:
" The first monuments of the Lombards date back to
Agilulf. The sacristy of the basilica which he and
his wife built in honour of St. John the Baptist at
Monza, hard by Milan, still contains many curious
relics of the pious pair. The crown which he
dedicated, and which Paul the Deacon noted two
hundred years after, is gone, but there still survives
his large pectoral cross and a quantity of Theode^
linda's gifts, the most notable of which is an
1 Mason's Mission of Augustine, Dissertation i. pp. 170, 171.

ro8 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
extraordinary life-sized hen and chickens in silver.
There is no similar treasure of the seventh century
extant anywhere."1
Let us now return again to our immediate sub
ject. It was a sad fact that Maurice the Emperor
and Gregory the Pope got on so badly together.
Maurice was one of the best of the Byzantine rulers,
a fine soldier and a gentleman, and he has unjustly
been visited with many hard words by Gregory,
whose exacting, sarcastic, and patronising phrases, it
must be said, he bore with great patience. I f J ustinian
had been in his place the great Pope's career would
certainly have been cut short at an early stage, and
he would have been exiled or treated with contumely.
It was not the Emperor's fault that the Persians and
Avars needed so much of his attention and were so
troublesome in his reign, and that at all hazards he
was obliged to protect his eastern dominions, what
ever became of Italy. If the Exarchs did little to
help, they had little means at their command. Yet
it was partly their tactlessness in dealing with the
Lombards which brought so many troubles on the
country, and it was perhaps also the feeling among
some of them that what Belisarius and Narses had
done they might possibly do again.
One incident is worth reporting where the two
great men worked amicably together. Things were
very bad at Rome in the spring of 595. There was
a shortage of corn and a famine seemed impending.
Maurice thereupon sent a sum of thirty pounds of
1 Mason's Mission of Augustine, Dissertation i. p. 172.

ST. GREGORY AND THE EMPEROR MAURICE 109
gold to relieve the needy priests and other persons,
and a considerable sum to pay the overdue wages
of the soldiers, which was distributed under the
surveillance of Castus the general. By this means
a threatened mutiny was avoided. The Pope in his
reply says that what could be spared from relieving
the blind, maimed, and feeble had been divided
among a large number of poor women who had fled
to the city from the provinces, and who had been
placed in nunneries where there was room for them,
while others were in great destitution.
It was a very fortunate thing that in these times
the papal treasury was itself well filled, and that it
was possible out of it to do something to mitigate
the pressure of the Lombard arms by ransoming
prisoners, etc ; for this purpose the Pope even allowed
churches to sell their plate. Still larger payments
could also be made out of these rich resources betimes.
Thus when the Pope made a pact with the Lombards
in 593, without the concurrence of the Emperor or the
Exarch, and secured their withdrawal, we can hardly
doubt that it involved the payment of a large sum
of money which he had to find. It was doubtless
this money rather than the prayers and gravity of the
Pope, as reported by the " Continuator of Prosper,"
that influenced the Lombard to withdraw. He tells
us that the colloquy between the Pope and the Lom
bard King which led to the withdrawal of the latter
took place on the steps of the basilica of St. Peter's.1
This was not the only peaceable victory gained
1 See Prosper. Cont. Havn. ap. M.G.SS. antiq.ix. 339 ; Dudden, ii. 23.

no SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
by Gregory over the Lombards. With the assist
ance of the Princess Theodelinda and by the zeal of
the Italian bishops they were presently converted
from Arianism to orthodoxy, and thus (apart from
the merits of the controversy) they were drawn
closer to the old Italian people whom they had some
times so mercilessly abused.
The work of converting the Lombards, we are
told, was expedited by one of Gregory's most famous
books, which he wrote at the instance of his friend
and protege" the Deacon Peter, and which he dedi
cated to Theodelinda. This book is known as his
Dialogues, and consists of lives of the various famous
monks and pious men who had lived in Italy. It
is full of miracles and marvels with homiletic applica
tions. It is written in four books. This famous
work was translated into Anglo-Saxon by Bishop
Werfurth in the reign of Alfred the Great.
Having converted the Lombard Arians, Gregory
proceeded to reconsecrate certain Arian churches,
which had remained closed and deserted since the
expulsion of the Goths, after which no Arian services
had been permitted in Rome. One of these, situated
in the Suburra, had been built and decorated by the
Gothic King Ricimer, and his body had been buried
there. It was rededicated to St. Agatha of Catania,
a Sicilian saint. Another, near the Merulan Palace
in the third region, was rededicated to St. Severinus
of Noricum, some of whose relics Gregory ordered
to be forwarded to Rome and placed in it.1
1 E. and H. iii. 19 and iV. 19 ; and Dial. iii. 30,

SAINT GREGORY AND THE EXARCHS in
Having thus succeeded in more or less staunch
ing the wounds which the Lombards had made in
the Italian community, Gregory next faced a greater
evil still, and the one which was really sapping the
Empire of its life-blood, namely, the exactions and
cruelties of the Exarchs, the provincial governors,
and the tax-collectors. It must have been a gall
ing thing for him to receive the rapacious Exarch
Romanus in his basilica of the Lateran at Rome
(when he went there to receive the taxes after he had
recovered the Perugian country, while a crowd at
tended him with banners flying) ; and to have to con
fess that he was only the vicar of his earthly master.
Gregory was, of course, in temporal matters the sub
ject of the Emperor, and theoretically had spiritual
jurisdiction only. Writing to one of his friends, he
says : " How can the affairs of Italy prosper under a
prince (i.e. the Exarch) who traffics in the offices of
State, who only listens to evil counsels, who only
appoints corrupt ministers, and who sucks the very
blood of the people?" Again, he says : "The malice
of Romanus is worse than the sword of the Lom
bards. We would rather meet open enemies who
kill us, than these State officials who consume us
with their rapine and fraud."
On another side, the Exarch of Africa, on whom
Sardinia was dependent, sold to the pagan peasants
in that island the permission to sacrifice to their idols,
and continued to charge them for the privilege after
they had been converted by the efforts of Gregory.
When reproved by the Bishop of Cagliari, he replied

112 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
that, having undertaken to pay a large sum for his
post, he could not otherwise discharge the obligation.
In Corsica the poor people were reduced to selling
their children in order to raise money to pay their
dues, whereon many fled to the Lombards, who
treated them more tenderly. In Sicily we read of
the ill deeds of another exacting tax-collector named
Stephen. Besides his grievances against the rapacious
officials, Gregory also had some personal differences
with the Emperor, in which he resented what he
deemed the latter's interference in spiritual matters.
Thus there having been an election of a Bishop at
Salona in Dalmatia, two candidates were selected ;
one was supported by Maurice and his Exarch,
and the other by the Pope. Although the Emperor
eventually had his way, the discussion caused great
soreness and harass, and evidently from his letters
it rankled in the Pope's mind, who felt it was not a
personal matter he was fighting for, but one which
has occupied many soiled pages of history, namely,
the question of what rightly belongs to Caesar and
what belongs to God. '
Another discussion between the two great men
was carried on in a more friendly way. It referred
to a serious matter in which there was really no
common ground between the disputants. The
afflatus which was seizing everybody at this time for
escaping from the worries and the toils of life by
retiring from the world, was seriously affecting the
civil service and the army, just as the conversion of

ST. GREGORY AND THE EMPEROR MAURICE 1 1 3
the Mongols to Buddhism destroyed their martial
spirit and converted a large part of their then active
manhood into monks. The Imperial authorities
had to face this difficulty, and we find Maurice pro
pounding a new law by which, in the first place, he
forbade public functionaries from holding ecclesias
tical preferment ; and secondly, forbade soldiers still
on service and veterans with unexpired obligations
becoming monks or clerics. The worldly wisdom of
this enactment is obvious, but it was not reasonable to
expect an enthusiastic champion of monasteries
whose kingdom was in another world, and who had
himself sacrificed this world with great personal loss,
toapproveof this (however otherwise) sensible policy.
Gregory appealed to the Emperor in fervid terms
against the new law. His letter on this occa
sion is a model of good taste and skilful pleading.
" The man," he says, " who fails to speak sincerely
to the Serene Emperors (i.e. Maurice and his son
Theodosius) is responsible towards God. I am
speaking not as a Bishop nor as a subject of the
State, but in regard to an individual right (jure
privato). For, Serene Lords, you were my masters
before you became masters of all. ... I confess to
my masters (dominis meis) that this law has filled
me with terror, for it closes the way to heaven to
many. There are many who can lead a Christian
life in the world. But there are many who cannot
be saved but by forsaking all things : I who thus
speak to my masters, what am I but dust and a
worm ? . . . This power over the human race has
8

114 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
been given to 'my masters,' that they may help
those who would do well, to open up the way to
heaven and make the earthly kingdom serve the
heavenly. Yet here it is forbidden one who has
entered the terrestrial army to pass, unless when an
invalid or in retirement, into the service of our Lord.
It is thus Christ answers by me, the least of his
servants and yours : I have raised you from a secre
tary to be a Count of the Guards, from a Count to
be a Caesar, from Caesar to be an Emperor, and if
that was not enough I have made you father of an
Emperor. I have put my priests under your power,
and you now withdraw your soldiers from my ser
vice. . . . Perhaps it is supposed that none of these
men are truly converted ; but I, your unworthy
servant, have known many soldiers converted in my
lifetime who have in the monasteries given an ex
ample of every virtue and have even worked miracles.
Yet this law interdicts every similar conversion.
Inquire, I beseech you, what Emperor it was who
made a similar law " (i.e. Julian the Philosopher, or,
as the Christian apologists named him, the Apostate),
"and see whether it becomes you to imitate him, . . .
I conjure you by the terrible judge ... to soften
or abrogate this law, for the army of my masters shall
increase so much the more against the army of the
enemy, as the army of God shall increase in prayer.
In submission, however, to your command, I have
forwarded this same law into different provinces." 1
1 E. and H. iii. 6 ; Barmby, Ep. Gr. iii. 67. Comp. Montalembert,
History of the Monks in the West, ist ed. ii. no, m.

SAINT GREGORY AND JOHN THE FASTER r 1 5
Maurice must have been affected by this letter, for
he presently modified the decree, merely insisting on
men satisfying their state obligations before joining
monasteries, while soldiers should not become monks
until after three years' noviciate. This was the
length of noviciate fixed by Justinian for all monks,
but was reduced by Gregory to two years, in all
cases except those of soldiers. The most serious
dispute between the two great men, however, arose
out of the growing pretensions of the Patriarch
of Constantinople, John, styled Jejunator, or the
Faster, who became Bishop of Constantinople on
April n, 582. At the Council of Constantinople,
held in 381, the Bishop of Constantinople had
been given honorary rank next after the Bishop
of Rome, on the political ground that Constan
tinople was treated as New Rome and was the
imperial capital. By the 28th Canon of the
Council of Chalcedon (451), patriarchal jurisdiction
had been given to this Eastern patriarch over the
Metropolitans of the Pontic Asian, and Thracian
dioceses. Pope Leo protested against this at the
time. The question of his actual status was now com
plicated by another matter, in which Gregory fought
very strenuously but apparently with scant sym
pathy from the great mass of the Episcopate.
Dioscorus of Alexandria had been given the title of
CEcumenical. It had been applied to Pope Leo the
First in some documents read at the Council of
Chalcedon, and had also been used by some of their

n6 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Eastern correspondents to Popes Hormisdas, Aga
petus, and Boniface the Second.
Justinian had also given to the Bishops of his
capital the style of CEcumenical, to which John the
Cappadocian (5 17-520), at the Council of Constanti
nople in 518, and Mennas (536-552) set up claims,
but they had not apparently hitherto presumed to
adopt it. John, named the Faster from his austeri
ties, who greatly exalted the position, was no sooner
installed than he took the above-named title. Pope
Pelagius protested against it, and threatened to ex
communicate him for thus infringing on the privi
leges of other Bishops. In 587 John summoned a
Council at Constantinople in his own name as the
CEcumenical or Universal Patriarch. Certain acts
of that Council were, on this ground, repudiated by
Pope Pelagius the Second, while he forbade the
Archdeacon Laurentius, who succeeded Gregory as
apocrisiarius at Constantinople, to assist John in
administering the mass. The pretension was indeed
an extravagant one, for the See was not even an
ancient Apostolic See (seeks apostolica). But it must
be remembered that the complaint against its use
at this time was not that it was new, but that it
was the first time that a Bishop had unreservedly
applied it to himself, and Gregory no doubt felt that
it was meant as a distinct assertion of superiority
on the part of the Bishop of New Rome over the
Bishop of Old Rome, which with his views he could
not endure.
While Gregory, as we have seen, styled John a

SAINT GREGORY AND JOHN THE FASTER 1 1 7
Patriarch in the synodical letter issued at his own
accession, he sent protests to him in regard to his
usurpation which had continued, and also bidding the
apocrisiarius Sabinianus (whom he styles a Deacon)
to abstain from saying mass with him until he with
drew the claim, and in a sharp letter written to John
he protests against his setting himself up above other
Bishops. " Peter himself," he says, "a member of the
Universal Church, Paul, Andrew, John, what were
they but heads of particular communities, and yet all
were members under one Lord." In a paragraph
lower down he reminds him that the Fathers at the
Council of Chalcedon had offered the objectionable
title to the prelates of his own Apostolical See of
Rome, but they had never used the title, nor wished
to do so, for fear it might have been thought they
had denied it to all their brethren.1 This state
ment about the Council of Chalcedon, which is
repeated by Gregory in other letters, was based on
a sophistication in the Latin copies of the Acts of
that Council, and does not occur in the Greek
originals, in which the Pope like the other Patriarchs
is called olKov(ieviKo<; apxieirio-Koiros} The passage,
nevertheless, shows that Gregory claimed no such
proud title for himself. He also wrote letters to the
Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, bidding them
join him in the protest, and described the claim John
had made in using the offensive title as an infringe
ment of their rights and dignity as well as his own,
1 E. and H. v. 44.
2 Giesler, Ecc. Hist. 2nd period, ist div. ch. iii. § 94, note 72 ;
and Barmby, Letters of Gregory, v. 18, note 5.

118 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
and he rather artfully reminded them that the Sees
both of Antioch and Alexandria shared with that of
Rome the prerogative of being more or less the
children of St. Peter. That of Alexandria had been
founded by St. Mark, St. Peter's disciple, while,
according to common opinion, Antioch had been
St. Peter's See before he became Bishop of Rome,
so each one of these Sees really represented the
See of the Apostles, and they had the Prince of the
Apostles in common.1
Again, in writing to Eulogius, the Patriarch of
Alexandria, he says : " As it is known to all that the
holy Evangelist Mark was sent by his master Saint
Peter to Alexandria, it binds us both together in the
unity of the master and his disciple, so that I seem
to preside over the See of the disciple because of
the master and you over the See of the master on
account of the disciple, ut et ego sedi discipuli prae-
sidere videar propter magistrum et vos sedi magistri
propter discipulum}
Lastly, in another letter written to the same
bishop he says: "Wherefore there were many
apostles, but with regard to the principality itself
the See of the Prince of the Apostles alone has
grown strong in authority, ' which in three places is
the See of one.' For he himself exalted the See in
which he deigned to rest and end the present life.
He adored the See to which he sent his disciple
as Evangelist (i.e. Alexandria). He himself estab-
1 Letter to Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch, E. and H. v. 39.
2 E.andH.vi. 58.

SAINT GREGORY AND JOHN THE FASTER 119
lished the See in which, though he was afterwards
to leave it, he sat for seven years (i.e. Antioch).
Surely, then, it is the See of one, and it is one See
over which by divine authority three bishops now
preside. Whatever good I hear of you, this I im
pute to myself. If you believe anything good of me,
impute this to your merits, since we are one in Him
who says, ' That they all may be one ; as thou art in
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ' "
(John xvii. 2\)} This elaborate argument of the
Pope is forgotten by those who claim for Rome
alone the privilege of being Peter's See.
John was meanwhile supported by the Emperor
(in spite of Gregory's warm protest bidding him dis
allow the title and, if necessary, coerce the Patriarch
to obey) ; and by some of the Eastern bishops, not
withstanding that the title was such an encroach
ment on the rights of the Eastern patriarchs both of
Antioch and Alexandria. Gregory, alluding to the
surname of Faster, writes sarcastically ; " Our bones
are dried up with fasting and our spirit is full of
pride, we have a proud heart under these miserable
garments. Lying down on ashes we aspire to great
ness." Meanwhile, he adopted for himself the title
of "Servant of the servants of God" (servus servorum
Dei). This title had also been used of himself by
St. Augustine, Ep. ad Vitalem, by Pope Damasus,
Ep. iv. ad Stephanum et Africae Episcopos} and it
has been adopted by all popes since Gregory, and
1 E. and H. vii. 37 ; Barmby, vii. 40.
2 See Barmby, Epistles of St. Gregory, bk. i. 1, note.

120 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
among them by some very proud Popes, on whom
this badge of humility does not sit easily. As we
have seen, Gregory would not accept the title of
Universal Bishop, or Pope, which was offered to him
by the Patriarch of Alexandria. To the latter he
wrote : "I want to increase in virtue and not in
words, nor do I deem that to be an honour to myself
which sacrifices that of my brethren. My honour is
the honour of the Universal Church. My honour
is the established strength of my brethren. I feel
myself truly honoured only when each one who
deserves the honour is not denied it. Away with
these words which inflate vanity and wound charity."
Notwithstanding the pressure of many influential
people, the Patriarch, who was supported by Maurice,
refused to give way, and the title to which Gregory
objected is still used by the patriarchs of Constanti
nople. John the Faster died in 595 very poor,
having spent all his means in almsgiving, and when
an inventory of his goods was taken, there were only
found a wooden trestle, a woollen tunic and a worn
mantle. The Emperor had these relics removed to
the palace, and at Easter he himself slept on the little
bed. Notwithstanding the controversy, Gregory,
after his death, gave him the title of " Very Pious,"
and the Greeks have counted him among the saints.
Cyriacus, his successor, continued to be friendly with
Gregory without giving up the style of Universal
(CEcumenical). We now reach a famous turning-point in the
world's history. The Emperor Maurice had reigned

MURDER OF MAURICE AND HIS FAMILY 121
for twenty years, and had shown many of the qualities
of a great prince, and had it not been that he was
continually hampered by having to meet a very
powerful set of external enemies who made great
drains on the resources of the Empire, he might have
been classed among the more fortunate of rulers.
"In 591 he had brought to a successful close the
long Persian war which had been for nineteen years
draining the resources of the East. A fortunate
change of governors in Persia had enabled him to
make a creditable peace, by which he won back
not only the lost fortresses of the frontier, but a
new province, the district of Persarmenia."1 The
inevitable wars with the Persians, the Avars, and
Slavs, especially the last two, were especially costly,
for the enemy had to be continually appeased by the
payment of large sums of money, and the armies were
continually in a state of feverish and not very glorious
campaigning. These payments had to be dragged
out of an impoverished country, and necessitated
economies which were ill understood and appreciated,
and the Emperor acquired the reputation of being
mean and grasping, and especially did his economies
cause discontent among the not too well or regularly
paid soldiery, with whom he became increasingly un
popular, nor did his policy towards them in his later
life savour much of tact. Thus, for some unexplained
reason, perhaps because the enemy had demanded
an altogether exorbitant payment, he in 599 refused
to ransom 12,000 of his men who had been made
1 Oman, op. cit. 173.

122 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
prisoners by the Avars, who thereupon mercilessly
slew them. The tragedy earned for the Em
peror the dangerous names of Miser and Murderer.
Two years later, he ordered the army which was
guarding the Balkan provinces to winter in the land
of the Slavs beyond the Danube, in order to save
supplies. This led to a mutiny ; the soldiers refused
to cross the river, and, placing a centurion named
Phocas on a shield, they gave him the title of Exarch
and marched towards the capital.
Phocas stands out in history among the great
est monsters who have ruled over men, illiterate,
drunken, sensual, passionate, and cruel. His very
personal appearance — his diminutive and deformed
person, the closeness of his shaggy eyebrows, his
red hair, his beardless chin, and his cheek disfigured
and discoloured by a formidable scar, which grew
black when he was in a rage, are spoken of as fit
emblems of his low and savage nature.1
He presently reached Constantinople, whence
Maurice, who had no adequate force to oppose him,
fled to Chalcedon. He refused to offer a hopeless
resistance, and was put to death, as were his five sons,
together with Constantine the Patrician and George
the chief Notary.2 Their bodies were thrown into
the sea, and their heads were exposed in the city,
and then buried. This was in November 602. This
terrible tragedy would hardly occupy these para
graphs but for the conduct of Gregory in the matter,
1 Barmby, Gregory the Great, p. 131.
2 Gibbon, v. 45 ; E. and H. xiii. 1.

ST. GREGORY AND THE EMPEROR PHOCAS 123
which was quite intolerable, and is a fair measure
of what the best of men will do when acting under
ungoverned exasperation. The Patriarch of Con
stantinople was a devoted friend of Maurice, who
had always sustained the claims of his See, and he
did his best to protect the Imperial family, especially
the ladies of the household of Maurice, from the
cruelties inflicted on them. This was greatly re
sented by Phocas, who accordingly extended a very
friendly hand to the Patriarch of the West, and he
made ample professions of devotion both to the
Pope and to the Church.
These civilities were soothing to the Pope, even
when offered by such an evil-doer. The announce
ment of the coronation of Phocas and his wife,
Leontia, did not reach Rome till the kalends of May
603, when messengers also arrived bearing the
images (icona) of the two sovereigns crowned with
laurel. They were taken to the great hall in the
Lateran Palace called the Basilica Julii, where they
were acclaimed by all the clergy and the senate in the
words, Exaudi Christe ! Focae Augusto et Leontiae
Augustae vita. ("Hear, O Christ. Long life to
Phocas the Emperor and the Empress Leontia.")
" Then," continues the story (which, according to
Ewald and Hartmann, was derived from some pro
bably official Annals), "the most holy and apostolical
Pope Gregory ordered the images to be placed in
the oratory or chapel of St. Cesarius, which was
situated in the Imperial palace on the Palatine."1
1 E. and H. xiii. 1.

124 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
All this has a grim and unpleasant sound, but it
was not all.
Gregory had received many kindnesses from
Maurice, and he ought to have respected the
decencies of life rather better than to exult as he
did when he heard of his death. No doubt he
was very sore at Maurice's countenance of the pre
tensions of John the Faster to use the title of Uni
versal Bishop. He had also resented Maurice's
attitude on the controversy about the three chapters ;
and perhaps also the hapless policy of the Exarch
and his master towards the Lombards. Above
all, probably what rankled in his mind was the
epithet applied to him by Maurice, when, without
the consent of the Emperor, he had made a com
promising peace with the Lombards and had been
styled a ' ' simpleton " for his pains. Anyhow it is plain
that he came to bitterly dislike Maurice. This is
quite true, and perhaps not entirely unjustified ; but
that he should have addressed his murderer, and the
murderer of so many reputable persons, in the terms
of flattery contained in his congratulatory letters is
intolerable and shocking, for he could hardly plead
ignorance of what was taking place at Constanti
nople, and of the manner of man he was who was
now at the helm. His ties with the capital were
close, and his correspondents there were numerous.
His first letter to Phocas commences with the phrase,
"Glory to God in the Highest, who, according as it
is written, changes times and transfers kingdoms,
. . . sometimes when the merciful God has decreed

THE COLUMN OF PHOCAS IN THE ROMAN FORUM. To face p. 124.

ENHANCEMENT OF THE PAPAL POWER 125
to refresh the mourning hearts of many with his
consolation ; he advances one to the summit of
government, and through the bowels of his mercy
infuses the grace of exultation into the minds of
all. . . . We . . . rejoice that the Benignity of
your Piety has arrived at Imperial supremacy.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be
glad (Ps. xev. 11); and let the whole people of the
republic, hitherto afflicted exceedingly, grow cheer
ful for your benignant deeds. Let the proud minds
of enemies be subdued under the yoke of your
domination," etc. etc. In a second letter to Phocas
he begins with the phrase : "It pleases us to con
sider with rejoicing and great thanksgiving, what
praises we owe to Almighty God, and how the yoke
of sadness has been removed, and we are come to
times of liberty under the Imperial piety of your
Benignity " ; and it ends with the words, " May the
Holy Trinity guard your life, for many years, so that
we may the longer rejoice in the good effects of your
Piety, which we have received after long waiting."
A third letter written to his equally bloodthirsty
wife, the Empress Leontia, begins: "What tongue
may suffice to speak, what mind to think, what great
thanks we owe to Almighty God; for the serenity of
your Empire, in that such hard burdens of long
duration have been removed from our necks, and
the gentle yoke of Imperial supremacy has returned,
which subjects are glad to bear. Glory, then, be
given to the Creator of all by the hymning choirs of
angels, and thanksgiving be paid by men on earth,

126 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
for that the whole republic, which has endured
many wounds of sorrow, has at length found the
balm of your consolation." x
The effusive language of Gregory about Phocas
and his wife were no doubt largely due to the well-
timed deference of the latter to the Pope. It will
not do to say that it was drawn from him, when he,
perhaps, hardly knew the real character of the
tyrant. As late as February 60 1, two years before
his own death, Gregory writes to the Patriarch of
Jerusalem : " Let thanks be given without ceasing
to Almighty God, and let prayers be made for our
most pious and Christian Emperor, and for his most
tranquil spouse, and his most noble offspring, in
whose time the mouths of heretics are closed."
This last clause perhaps explains a good deal.
Let us now sum up shortly what Gregory had
been able to do as a politician and a statesman in
the first few years of his pontificate. The most
important thing of all for the permanent peace of
the world, and for the uniting of men in a common
feeling of brotherhood, was the conversion of the
Arians of Italy. Whatever the merits of the con
troversy between them and the orthodox party,
there can be no doubt that the existence and con
tinuance of the schism at this time was a source of
continual danger and menace to the Western world,
and divided men by the most trying and irritating
of solvents, namely, a feud involving heretical
charges, when a heretic was deemed a criminal and
1 E. and H. xiii. 34, 41, 42 ; Barmby, xiv. 31, 38, 39.

ENHANCEMENT OF THE PAPAL POWER 127
worse than a pagan. The bringing of Italy again
into close relation with Gaul and Spain, by uniting
them into one common Christian fold, even if only
nominally in some cases, was a stupendous gain to
the world, when there was little or no moral re
straint anywhere except that imposed by the Church,
and when every man's hand, or, rather, every tribe's
weapons were directed against its neighbours.
This change led further, no doubt, to the great
enlargement of the Pope's prestige and authority.
As Patriarch of the West, his became the supreme
Court of Appeal in matters of morals and discipline.
As he lived in Rome he was surrounded by men
trained as lawyers, and holding the traditions of
the ancient Roman courts in their hands. No one
cared to dispute his appellate jurisdiction. Bishops,
priests, and laymen gladly accepted the Pope as their
common arbiter, adviser, and friend, and more especi
ally so now, when he had done so much to piece
together the riven garment. His own high character,
gifts, and administrative powers made him still more
popular. The paragraphs which Gregory of Tours
(who was born about the same time, and who died
before the Pope), devotes to him, prove what a per
sonality as well as a Pope he was felt to be, and
this is even more obvious to any one who will read
his correspondence. We must not push this theory too far, however,
nor suppose that at this time the Pope's authority in
spiritual matters was what it became when the
individual initiative and influence of each bishop

128 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
was swamped by that of the great Roman Metro
politan. In an earlier chapter I have brought
together (so far as I know) all the passages in
which Gregory states his view as to the real extent
of the Papal Primacy, and they show how com
pletely he repudiated the style of CEcumenical
Patriarch, which he describes as "a wicked and
blasphemous title."1 Nothing could be in greater
contrast to the pretensions of later Popes. In this
behalf let me quote a passage from Dr. Fried-
rich's great work: "Cardinal Lucca says2 it is
the ' opinio in hac Curia recepta ' that the Pope is
Ordinarius Ordinariorum, habens Universum mun-
dum pro dioecesi, so that bishops and archbishops
are only his ' officiales,' or, as Benedict xiv. observes,3
the Pope is ' in tota Ecclesia, proprius sacerdos ;
potest ab omni jurisdictione episcopi subtrahere
quamlibet Ecclesiam.'" In Merlinis Decis. Rot.
Rom., ed. 1660 (Dec. 880) we read: "Papa est
dominus omnium beneficiarum." '* Nothing of this
extraordinary claim, which makes the Pope the
concurrent ordinary in every diocese, and reduces
the bishops to the position of mere vicars of the
Pope, is to be found in any of Gregory's voluminous
writings, in which, on the contrary, he disclaims
and repudiates it in language of studied scorn. He
may have been wrong and the later Popes may
have been right, but they cannot both be right,
and inasmuch as all Popes have been pronounced
1 E. and H. v. 18 ; viii. 30. 2 Relat. Curiae. Rom. Diss. iv. 10.
3 De Synod. Dioces. x. 14 ,- v. 7. 4 Janus, 422, note.

ENHANCEMENT OF THE PAPAL POWER 129
infallible, in this issue we have a logical knot which no
casuist, however subtle, has been able to disentangle.
Still the Pope's power was greatly enhanced by
Gregory, and not merely in spiritual matters. In
Italy his recent successes as a diplomatist, and the
relief they gave to the community, must have greatly
increased the papal power, not merely in religious
matters, but in civil ones too. He was the first
Pope who negotiated treaties independently of the
Emperor, and who presumed to act in dealing with
other communities as if he had a secular status
of his own as well as a spiritual one. The great
possessions of the Holy See in Italy, Sicily, and
elsewhere made him virtually a Prince of this
world, and when the representatives of the Eastern
Empire were limp and lax and allowed the reins to
slip, and chaos to come in view, it was natural that
the Italians should have clung to the one institution
which was well administered, and to the one
authority wielded with wisdom, equity, and force.

CHAPTER V
In the previous pages I have almost entirely
limited myself to Gregory's doings in the lands
south of the Alps. I now propose to describe his
work to the north of those mountains in Spain
and Gaul, and shall have to enter into some detail
in view of the ultimate goal of my work.
In the time of Gregory a small portion of the
maritime border of Southern Spain, with its capital
at Corduba (Cordova), still remained, as we have
seen, subject to the Empire. The rest of the pen
insula was held by the Visigoths. In addition to
their possessions in Spain, the Visigothic kings also
ruled a portion of what is familiarly known as
Gaul or France, which the Franks had not been
able to take from them, namely, the country south
of the Garonne, known as the land of Narbonne,
or Septimania, which was also called Gothia for a
long time after.
The Arian form of Christianity was held by the
ruling family among the Visigoths and the greater
part of the aristocracy of the country who were of
Visigothic blood. On the other hand, the descend
ants of the old Roman population, who formed a
considerable proportion of the people, were ortho-

SAINT GREGORY AND THE VISIGOTHS 131
dox Catholics, as were the Suevians, a German
tribe which had kept up its independence behind
the northern mountains, and which had recently
been subjected by the Visigoths.
The great King Leovigild (568-589), who did
so much to consolidate the Visigothic power, was
chiefly thwarted in that work by the fact just
named which united the Byzantines in the south,
the Suevi in Gallicia and Lusitania, and a large
proportion of the Romanised peasants in other parts
of Spain. His son Hermenigild in 579 married Ingunthis,
the daughter of Sigebert, King of Austrasia, and of
his wife Brunichildis. Although she was then only
thirteen years old, she could not be persuaded to
abandon her religion. Leovigild assigned the
Province of Baetica as an appanage to the married
pair. Hermenigild fixed his capital at Seville, where
the famous orthodox archbishop, Leander, the friend
of Gregory, had his see.
Under the joint influence of his wife and of
Leander, Hermenigild was himself converted to
orthodoxy and given the name of John.1 His
conversion may have been further influenced by
the ambition of trying to oust his father from
the throne. It is certain that when he presently
rebelled he was supported by the orthodox party
in various parts of Spain.
In view of this revolt his father now made certain
1 Gregory of Tours, v. 39 ; St. Gregory's Dialogues, iii. 31 ;
Paul the Deacon, iii. 21.

132 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
concessions to the orthodox. Although a heretic, he
went to pray in Catholic churches, and under his
influence the Arian synod at Toledo decreed that " it
is not necessary for those who come to our Catholic
faith from the Roman religion " (a notable phrase)
"to be rebaptized, but they are to be purified merely
by imposition of hands and reception of the com
munion, and are to give thanks to the Father,
through the Son, in the Holy Ghost." By this con
cession — by bribery and other promises — he secured
the adhesion of a number of the Catholic clergy
to the Royal creed.1 Two years later he attacked
Hermenigild, drove him from Baetica, and com
pelled him to fly to Corduba, then the seat of power
of the Byzantine possessions in Southern Spain,
which was surrendered to Leovigild by its Byzantine
commander, the Praefect Comitiolus, for a bribe.
Hermenigild was then exiled to Valencia, and,
having apparently tried to escape to the Franks,
he was presently put to death at Tarragona in
585. Gregory of Tours suggests that this was at
the instance of Leovigild. The Spanish writers,
John of Biclaro and Isidore of Seville, as well as
the neutral chronicler, Gregory of Tours, all de
scribe Hermenigild as a mere rebel and tyrant, and
make no pretence that he was a martyr to his faith.2
Gregory the Pope, on the other hand, had
doubtless been influenced by his friend Leander
and the other Spaniards whom he had met at
1 Joh. Biel. Chron. ad. an. 580 ; Dudden, i. 405.
2 lb. 406.

CONVERSION OF THE VISIGOTHS 133
Constantinople, where they had gone to further
the cause of the young prince. He tells a quite
fantastic story about Hermenigild having been
killed in a brutal manner by his father after he had
been in vain pressed to abandon his orthodoxy, and
reports that after his death the sounds of psalmody
were heard around his body, while lighted lamps
were seen. This seems to be an unhistorical
fabrication imposed upon the too credulous Pope,
who was always willing to believe what he was
told to the credit of orthodoxy. " A close examina
tion of all the sources," says Professor F. Gorres,
"has led me to the conclusion that the supposed
martyrdom of Hermenigild cannot be substantiated."
Mr. Dudden, after quoting this phrase, continues :
" But the Roman Church has preferred the Gre
gorian account to that of the Spanish historians,
who were alone qualified to relate the facts. By
a brief of Sixtus the Fifth in 1585, the cult of
St. Hermenigild was instituted in Spain ; Urban
the Eighth made it general throughout the Roman
Church."1 In 589 Leovigild was succeeded by his second
son Reccared. He was probably largely induced to
change his faith by political considerations and by a
desire to get into closer relations with the Byzantine
Emperor, whose prestige still exercised great fascina
tion in the West, and with whom the great orthodox
bishops, Leander of Seville and Licinianus of Carta
gena, had much influence. Only a few months after
1 Dudden, i. 407.

134 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
his accession he summoned a synod at Toledo, at
which he abjured Arianism and induced many bishops
and nobles to do the same. The king's change of
faith was not everywhere accepted, and the Arians
broke out into revolt in several places. These dis
turbances were soon suppressed, and in May 589
a great council was held at Toledo, attended by
Reccared and his queen, by the principal Visigothic
nobles and courtiers, by sixty-two bishops, and a
large number of the inferior clergy. At this synod
Reccared made a great speech, probably composed
by Archbishop Leander, who regulated the pro
ceedings of the Council with the Abbot Eutropius.
Leander was a remarkable personage. Like
Gregory, he was of noble birth. He was a theo
logian and a strong opponent of Arianism. He
wrote homilies on the Psalms, composed music, was
a student of ritual, a great devotee of Monachism,
and wrote excellent letters.
In his address to the synod, King Reccared
declared that he had been inspired by God to
restore the Goths to the orthodox fold, and asked
the bishops to aid him in the work. He then
denounced Arianism, gave his adherence to the
four general councils and all other councils which
agreed with them, and recited the creeds of Nicsea
and Constantinople and the definition of Chalcedon.
It is notable that nothing is said about the so-called
Athanasian creed, which is nearly conclusive that it
was not then in existence, for on no occasion would
its recital have been more appropriate than at this

SAINT GREGORY'S LETTER TO LEANDER 135
great repudiation of Arianism. After he had fi nished,
the clergy and nobles who had been converted from
Arianism professed the orthodox faith, denounced
Arianism in twenty-three anathemas, and repeated
the creeds, etc., as their master had done. These
were subscribed by eight Arian bishops and their
clergy and by the nobles. The synod agreed to
certain canons ; inter alia, to one providing that the
Creed should be recited at the time of Holy Com
munion, so as to secure that the faithful should be
perfectly acquainted with the articles of their belief.
After this, Leander preached a fine sermon, apos
trophising the work they had done " in destroying
the wall of discord which had separated them " and
in securing the union of the Church, with Christ as
a corner-stone.1 Leander wrote to inform his close friend the
Pope about the happy event. His letter took
some time to travel, and it was not till the year
591 that it was acknowledged by Gregory, who
expressed his great gratification at the news. In
this letter he styles Leander Bishop of Hispalensis
(now Seville), and he calls the "Glorious King"
Reccared, their common son (communem filium).
He uses a pretty phrase about the king, in which
he says: "In describing his character to me in
thy letters thou hast made me love him, though I
know him not" (Cujus dum mihi per scripta
vestra mores exprimitis, amare me etiam quem
nescio fecistis). One of the clauses of the letter is
1 Dudden, i. 409.

136 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
devoted to some remarks on the "Trine" immer
sion in baptism practised generally in the Catholic
Church, but apparently not among the orthodox in
Spain, who, to differentiate themselves from the
Arians, who had adopted it, used one immersion
only. Gregory approves of Leander's continuing
this practice, on the ground that the people, in
numbering the immersions, might proceed to divide
the Deity, adding that so long as one faith was
preserved there was room for diversity of practice.
In the same letter Gregory tells Leander he is
sending him a copy of his Pastoral Rule and the
first and second parts of his Moralia.1
Under the year 595 Ewald and Hartmann
publish the letter appended to Gregory's book just
named, in which he had dedicated the work to his
old friend. In the heading he styles Leander
Most Reverend and Most Holy and calls him
Coepiscopus.2 Four years later, and doubtless at the request
of Leander, Gregory sent the former the pallium,
with permission to use it at Mass. Gams, the
historian of the Spanish Church, holds that this
also involved the conferring on Leander of the
vicariate of the Holy See in Spain, which had
been conferred on his predecessors, archbishops of
Seville, by Popes Simplicius and Hormisdas,3 but
in such a case we should have expected an express
reference to the fact in the Pope's letter. It is
1 E. and H. i. 41. 2 lb. v. 53a.
3 Gams, ii. 2, p. 47 seq. ; E. and H. ix. 227.

SAINT GREGORY'S LETTER TO RECCARED 137
probable, in fact, that the gift of the pallium did
not in this case secure any enhanced papal authority
in Spain, where Reccared, who had been so recently
converted, might easily have resented what he
might interpret as an encroachment of a foreign
power. Gregory says very handsome things about the
king's abandoning the Arian heresy, a fact which
he says had been reported to him by the priest
Probinus. He also praises him for having refused
a bribe offered by the Jews to tempt him to have
an enactment which had been made against them
revoked. He further thanks him for the gifts he
had sent to St. Peter, and sends him in return
some filings from the chains of that Apostle en
closed in a key, with a cross containing a portion
of the True Cross, and some hair of John the
Baptist, and tells him how he had sent Leander
the pallium, according to ancient custom (pallium
a beati Petri apostoli sede transmissimus, quod
et antiquae consuetudinis et vestris moribus et ejus
bonitati atque gravitati debemus.)1
Reccared's conversion had greatly strengthened
his hands. As Oman says : "It took away the
great barrier between the Visigoth and the Roman
which had hitherto rendered any true loyalty to
the Crown impossible ; the two nations soon began
to coalesce and melt into a single people. It is of
no small interest to note that Reccared, first of all
the kings of Spain, was able to trust his armies to
1 E. and H. ix. 228.

138 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Roman generals and to count on the enthusiastic
support of Roman bishops." He died in 60 1.
It would seem that Gregory had undertaken
to mediate between Reccared and the Byzantine
emperor, and in a letter to the king he asks him
to send a copy of the pact alleged to have been
made in the time of Justinian, with the Gothic
king, Athanigild, of which the copy in the Imperial
archives was said to have been burnt with many
other documents in a fire.1 In addition to this the
Pope suggested to him that the document, if found,
might not be in his favour, and that it would be well
for him to look for it among his own charters be
fore compromising himself. These letters, it would
seem, were sent to Spain by the Abbot Cyriacus.
The only case of which we have any notice in
which Gregory claimed any jurisdiction in Spain
is referred to in certain letters, whose genuineness is
doubtful and which profess to have been written by
the Pope in August 603 to John the Deacon, who is
described as holding the office of a Defensor there,
and who was on his way to Spain. These letters
contain instructions how he was to act when he
arrived. He is supposed to have gone thither to
intervene in a very serious and important issue, in
which two bishops, Januarius of Malaga and Stephen
(whose see is not named in the documents, but who
Hartmann identifies with a bishop of Cartagena),
were involved. They had been tried and deposed,
according to the Pope, in a cruel and unjust manner
1 E. and H. ix. 229.

CONDITION OF GAUL UNDER THE FRANKS 139
by a synod of bishops acting at the instigation of
a Roman official, namely, Comitiolus, the praefect
of the Byzantine possessions in Spain, who is
called a Patrician and Magister Militum. The three
documents entrusted to John the Defensor are a
Capitolare, or schedule of instructions in regard to
the case to be tried, and the process of investiga
tion ; secondly, a collection of Imperial laws against
which the opponents of the appealing bishops had
offended ; and, thirdly, the formula according to
which Januarius, if innocent, was to be acquitted.1
In case they were found to be innocent, the bishops
who had tried the two appellants, and consecrated
the successor of Januarius, were to be excommuni
cated, and the latter was to be sent to Rome for
punishment, or handed over to Januarius to be dealt
with. If the bishops who condemned Januarius
pleaded that they had acted under durance their
punishment was to be reduced. In regard to
Stephen, the defensor John was to see that the
accusers and witnesses had been different persons,
that the accused had been duly confronted with the
witnesses and had had a fair opportunity of defend
ing himself, and to inquire whether the witnesses
were slaves, poor men, or men of bad character, or
had a grudge against the bishop.2 The deposition
of the bishops had taken place some years before,
and it would seem that Comitiolus was dead, but
it was to be insisted upon that he or his heirs
1 E. and H. xii. 47, 49, 50 ; John the Deacon, ii. 11.
2 Dudden, 413.

140 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
should restore the episcopal property if a wrong
had been done. What is important to remember
is that this appeal to Rome and Gregory's inter
vention had nothing to do with any jurisdiction in
the Visigothic part of the peninsula, and only refers
to the maritime district still subject to the Emperor,
whose official was the person involved. We have
no satisfactory evidence that Gregory ever exer
cised any patriarchal jurisdiction in any part of
Spain directly subject to the Visigoths.
Let us now turn to Gaul. There are few more
difficult things than to realise the condition of Gaul
at this time. Like " India," which is a most in
definite term, the word " Gaul " represented a
heterogeneous collection of communities united by
one name, but differing greatly inter se.
The so-called barbarians who conquered and
occupied it in the fifth century are treated by many
as if they were very much alike because they
came from beyond the Rhine and spoke German.
The fact is, they were exceedingly different in
temperament and habits. The Burgundians and
Visigoths, like the Lombards, were Christians,
although Arians (as were many remarkable men
of the time), and readily accepted a good deal of the
Roman civilisation, took over the Roman admini
stration, and in a large measure also its laws.
Thus it came about that the south of Gaul where
they settled soon became prosperous and cultured
again, as those words were understood in the
sixth century. Provence and the Rhone valley, in

CHLOVIS AND HIS DESCENDANTS 141
fact, passed through the change of masters with
very little break in the continuity of their history.
It was very different in the north and centre of
Gaul, where the conquering tribes were much more
ruthless and barbarous, and where the destruction
of the old civilisation was almost complete. There
are few more terrible nightmares in history than
the conquest and government of Northern and
Central Gaul by the Franks under the first dynasty
of their long-haired kings, when lust, passion,
murderous cruelty, rapine, and degradation spread
over a land once so carefully ruled and so
prosperous under its Roman masters.
Chlodowig, generally known as Chlovis, the
first great conquering king of the Franks, died in
511, after successively defeating the Alemanni, the
Burgundians and Visigoths, and reducing them
to pay tribute. He thus became virtually master
of Gaul ; the only exceptions being Provence and
Dauphine (which formed part of the Empire of
Theodoric), the north-western peninsula which is
now known as Brittany, and the province of
Septimania, south of the Garonne, held by the Visi
goths. Provence and Dauphine were ceded to the
Franks by the Ostrogothic king, Witiges, for a
payment of ,£80,000 in the year 536. While the
Franks thus became nominally masters of nearly
all Southern Gaul, and derived a considerable
revenue thence, they apparently interfered little
with the administration. The population remained
largely Roman in blood, and the land was largely

142 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
held by semi-Romanised Burgundians and Visi
goths. The real Frank land was North and North
Central Gaul.
Chlodowig's dominions were divided among his
four sons, of whom Chlothachaire or Chlothaire,
survived the rest. In 560, a short time before his
death, the latter reunited the Frank empire in his
own hands.
His kingdom was again divided among his
four sons. Sigebert took Austrasia or Eastern
Gaul, including the cities of Rheims and Metz,
with a large extension into Germany. With this
he also held Provence, and some territory in the
borders of Aquitaine and Burgundy, including the
city of " Arverni " (? Clermont). Gunthrainn or
Guntran took Burgundy. He has been well de
scribed as a stupid, lecherous, good-natured man,
with many mistresses, the last of whom told him
on her death-bed to put her two doctors to death,
which he did ; but he was kind and generous to his
nephews and devoted to the clergy, and is highly
praised by their spokesmen. Gregory of Tours
says: "You would have thought him a priest of
God as well as a king." While Fredegar, another
biassed witness, says : " With priests he showed
himself as a priest." They further rewarded him
by canonising him and attributing miracles to his
relics. Assuredly a very queer saint.
Neustria or Normandy, which included the lands
between the Loire and the Meuse, and comprised
the Netherlands, Picardy, Normandy, and Maine,

THE DESCENDANTS OF CHLOVIS 143
and parts of Champagne and Brittany, with his
capital at Soissons, was the portion of Chilperic,
a vicious, heartless savage, whom Gregory of Tours
calls " the Nero and Herod of our time." 1 He
murdered his wife and two sons by burning them
to death, and blinded many people ; and in imita
tion of the Roman Emperors built amphitheatres
at Paris and Soissons, where he showed spectacles.
He hated Church dignitaries, and envied their
wealth. " Behold," he used to say, "our riches are
transferred to the Churches. None reign at all save
the bishops. Our dignity is lost and carried over
to the bishops of the cities." He used habitually to
quash wills made in favour of the Church. The
bishops, when passing from Burgundy to Neustria,
used to say it was like going from heaven to hell.
He persecuted the Jews and crushed his people
with taxes.2 On the other hand, he was the most
cultured of his race. He added four new letters
to the alphabet, composed prayers and hymns, and
wrote two volumes of poetry in imitation of Sedu-
lius, in which "the quantities" were sadly at fault.
He also wrote a learned but not very orthodox book
on the Trinity,3 and finally he married the infamous
harlot Fredegundis, who had been his mistress.
Lastly, the province of Aquitaine (roughly, the
territory between the Loire and the Pyrenees)
fell to Charibert, Chlodowig's eldest son, with his
capital at Paris.
1 Op. cit. vi. 46. 2 lb. and vi. 22 ; Dudden, ii. 44.
3 Gregory of Tours, v. 45.

144 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
The Merovingian princes were chiefly dis
solute, and died young ; thus Charibert died in 567,
without male issue, and his portion was shared by
his three brothers, with a joint interest in Paris.
The most reputable of them was Sigebert, who
married the famous and beautiful Brunichildis or
Brunhilda, the daughter of Athanigild, the king of
the Spanish Visigoths, who was born an Arian, but
became orthodox on her marriage. She was clever
and cultured, and a masterful woman, but suffered
from her surroundings ; and in fighting for power
and for her offspring and proteges had few scruples
or tenderness. Sigebert was, no doubt, considerably humanised
by the influence of his Visigothic queen, and Metz
in their time became a great centre of political
and other influence. Brunichildis, as Dr. Bury
says, had received a Roman education, and had
therefore a leaning towards the Roman Empire,
and maintained a friendly intercourse both with
the old and the new Rome.1 Her husband, King
Sigebert, was assassinated in 575, probably at the
instigation of Fredegundis, leaving an only son,
of whom his widow became the guardian and tutor.
He was called Childebert, and was proclaimed
King of Austrasia by the nobles on the death of
his father, being then five years old. During his
reign the friendly intercourse between the kings of
Austrasia and the Eastern Empire continued. In
their correspondence Maurice called him son, while
1 Hist. Later Rom. Emp. ii. 160.

THE DESCENDANTS OF CHLOVIS 145
he called Maurice father. I have described how
Maurice offered him a bribe of 50,000 gold pieces
to invade Italy and attack the Lombards, and
thus protect the Imperial possessions there. He
made four unsuccessful attempts to do so, in one
of which his army was slaughtered, and in another
it suffered greatly from pestilence.
In 584 Chilperic, the infamous King of Neus
tria, was murdered at Chelles, near Paris. His
widow, Fredegundis, was the Messalina of the
Franks. King Guntran of Burgundy, her brother-
in-law, once called her an enemy of God and man.1
She was one of the most cruel and vicious women
recorded in history. On the murder of her husband
she fled to the court of Guntran, who had ex
pressed such a mean opinion of her, and offered
him the regency of Neustria on behalf of her boy,
Chlothaire, who was then three years old, which
he accepted. In 593 Guntran died childless, and his own king
dom of Burgundy passed to his nephew Childebert,
King of Austrasia, who was then twenty-three years
old, under the terms of the Treaty of Andelot, and
he thus got a very notable accession of power.
He proceeded to reduce the borders of Neustria
very greatly, leaving it only the coast lands of Frisia,
Flanders, and Normandy, while all the rest of
the Frankish territory was controlled by himself
under the tutelage of his strong-willed mother.
Having thus glanced at the secular history
1 Greg. Tur. ix. 20.

146 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
of Gaul at this time, let us turn to the state of
the Frankish Church. The Church in Gaul, like
the State, had recently passed through serious
vicissitudes, and its condition was very different
in different parts of the country.
During the fifth and earlier parts of the sixth
century the famous monastery of Lerins had formed
a focus of light from which learning and religious
zeal had permeated the country in various direc
tions, and we can hardly doubt that during the
greater part of this period the valley of the Rhone
formed the most attractive part of Latin Christen
dom. Lerins was a kind of episcopal seminary,
where many of the saints and scholars and bishops
who mark the period were trained. Things had
gone gradually worse lately. It had lost some of
its pristine glory, and the great scholars it had
turned out had shrunk considerably in numbers.
This was partly due to the replacement of the
tolerant Burgundians and Visigothic Arians by the
rude and rough Franks (who were orthodox, but
exceedingly ignorant and superstitious) as masters
of the country. Later on the conquest of North
Italy by the Lombards cut off that peninsula from
any but intermittent intercourse with Gaul, and the
Gaulish Church became very isolated. Still, as we
shall see, there were good men left among the
bishops of Southern Gaul, and learning was by no
means extinct. What had sadly gone to pieces
was the discipline of the clergy. Widespread
corruption and simony existed, which became some-

CONDITION OF THE FRANKISH CHURCH 147
what later appalling, and the need was great for
some controlling influence from outside, strong
enough to induce or compel the barbarous Frankish
kings and their nobles to cease treating the Church
as an object of mere worldly advancement, and its
prizes as things not to be given to the good and
learned, but to be scrambled for by those without
any vocation for the priesthood, who, like the lay
abbots and lay bishops of a later date in Germany,
had lost all shame.
The fact that so large a part of the German
tribes who had overrun the Empire were Arians,
made the orthodox popes very tender to the ill-
doings and truculence of the Franks, which were
largely condoned because they also were orthodox.
Thus in 581 Pope Pelagius, writing to the Bishop
of Auxerre,1 speaks woefully of the sufferings of
Italy, and reminds his correspondent that the
Franks were members of the Catholic Church
forming one body under one head, and adds that
God had in a wonderful manner united their kings
to the Roman Empire in the confession of the
orthodox faith in order to provide a bulwark for
Italy, and especially for the original home of the
Catholic faith, Rome. He begged his correspondent
to see to it that the Frank kings did not ally them
selves with the Church's unspeakable enemies the
Lombards, and thus meet condign punishment from
heaven with them, when the day of vengeance came
to both.
1 Pelag. ii. Ep. iv.

148 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
This tenderness to the Frankish rulers, which
was shared by Pope Gregory, led him especially to
tolerate the Erastian theories which they cultivated,
and their continual interference with the administra
tion of the Church. Meanwhile the most shameful
trafficking in livings and sees, and a persistent
opposition to reforms, prevailed. The laxity was
especially marked in the centre and north of Gaul,
and Gregory of Tours has left us a weird picture of
the condition of things, all the more weird because
he was such an uncompromising champion of his
Church. Professor Bright and Mr. Dudden have con
densed a picture of the state of the Church in Gaul
at this time, based on a series of examples recorded
by him. The clergy were mostly of servile origin
(for it was forbidden to ordain a freeman without the
king's permission), and they had the peculiar vices
of slaves — greed, sensuality, and undue subservi
ency to the temporal rulers. All intellectual move
ment was at a standstill. Simony was rife, bishoprics
were given away by Court favour, and laymen were
ordained to wealthy sees. The bishops had become
landed lords and courtiers. They meddled in politics,
and were found mixed up in all manner of discredit
able intrigues, and even bloodshed. They oppressed
their parochial clergy, who, in return, resisted their
authority to the utmost, and formed conspiracies
against them. Owing principally to the jealousies
and dissensions of the rival kingdoms, the power of
the metropolitans had declined. Hence the bishops

CONDITION OF THE FRANKISH CHURCH 149
had, to a great extent, emancipated themselves from
all control and rarely met in synod. In the sixth
century only fifty-four councils were held in Gaul ;
in the seventh only twenty. The bishops allied
themselves closely with the kings, of whom they
became the counsellors and advisers, and whom, in
return for certain concessions, they permitted to
encroach upon the privileges of the Church. Thus
in all that concerned its relation to the State, the
Church had lost independence.
The excesses of the clergy, recorded by Gregory
of Tours, were astounding. We read of one bishop
who was so addicted to wine that he had frequently
to be carried by four men from the table, and who
was so avaricious that he made no scruple of annex
ing the estates of his neighbours. When one of his
presbyters refused to give up to him some private
property, he had him buried alive in a tomb already
occupied by a putrefied corpse. He was utterly
ignorant of all literature, and paid great court to
the Jews. Another prelate used to become so
bestially intoxicated that he was unable to stand ; a
third, on suspicion of fraud, violently assaulted his
archdeacon in church on Christmas Day ; a fourth
set himself to persecute to the death all the friends
of his holy predecessor ; a fifth used to beat his
enemies with his own hands, exclaiming, " Because
I have taken Orders, am I therefore to forego my
revenge ? " An abbot, mixed up in many robberies,
assassinations, and other crimes, compelled a poor
man to leave his house in order that he might

150 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
commit adultery with his wife, and was killed by
the outraged husband. A cleric, who was a school
master, endeavoured to corrupt the mother of one
of his pupils, and afterwards, on being forgiven by
his bishop, conspired with an archdeacon to murder
his benefactor. Two bishops rode armed to battle,
and killed many with their own hands. They
attacked with armed force one of the brethren
while he was celebrating the anniversary of his
consecration, tore his vestments, killed his attend
ants, and robbed him of all his plate. Many persons
in their own dioceses they murdered.
Queen Fredegundis deputed two clerics to
assassinate Childebert — giving them knives with
hollow grooves in the blades filled with poison ;
another cleric she sent to make away with Bruni
childis, her rival. A bishop and an archdeacon were
accomplices in the murder of Bishop Praetextatus in
Rouen Cathedral, while he was "leaning on a form
to rest himself" during the Easter service. Though
the victim shrieked for help, none of the clergy
standing by went to his assistance. Gregory of
Tours says that he suppresses some episcopal mis
deeds that he knows of, lest he should be thought to
speak evil of his brethren. But he tells us quite
enough to enable us to gauge the character of the
clergy of the Frankish Church. Certainly we meet
with some instances of noble and self-denying men,
such as Nicetius of Lyons, Germanus of Paris, and
good Bishop Salvius, who, "when constrained to
accept money, at once made it over to the poor."

VERGILIUS AND THEODORE 151
But as a whole the Gallican clergy, both high and
low, were as brutal and degraded as the abandoned
princes and nobles among whom they lived. The
Merovingian society was utterly and abominably
corrupt, and the history of Gaul at this period
presents a record of horrors and crimes unequalled
in the annals of any Western nation.1 A notable
instance of the corruption and simony among the
clergy is mentioned by Gregory of Tours,2 where he
tells us that a certain Eusebius, in 591, obtained
the See of Paris after presenting many gifts (datis
multis muneribus)}
As we have seen, when Gregory was elected
Pope, there had arrived at Rome a representative of
his namesake the Bishop of Tours. On his return
the latter took back with him "a golden, i.e. gilded,
chair " for use in his church.8 Dr. Bright tells us
that by ancient custom in Gallic churches (long
kept up at Orleans) a newly consecrated bishop, on
arriving at the city, was placed in a chair and
carried on the shoulders of the clergy {humeris
religiosorum) or nobles (nobilium) into his cathedral
for enthronement. At Soissons the ritual provided
that he was to be so carried by the Count of Soissons
and three other lords. He also instances how
St. Wilfred at a later date was similarly carried on
a golden seat. This reminds us of the " sella gesta-
toria " of the Popes.4
To Aries, the famous Roman city on the Rhone,
1 Bright, p. 487 ; Dudden, ii. 53-55. * Hist. Fr. x, 26.
3 See the Benedictine Life of Gregory, iii. 3. 8.
4 See Bright, op. cit. 242 and notes.

152 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
had been generally, though not universally, conceded
the primacy of Gaul. This had arisen from the
tradition that it was at Aries, Christianity was first
introduced by St. Trophimus, and had thence spread
over the country, and also from the fact that Aries
was long the home of the Praefect of Gaul.
In Gregory's time the Archbishop of Aries was
Vergilius, who well sustained the fame of the See
of Hilary and Caesarius. He was trained at Lerins,
where he had been a monk and abbot.1 He was a
scholar, and is said to have built the churches of
St. Stephen in the city of Aries, and of St. Saviour
and St. Honoratus outside its walls. He was styled
Saint, and held the see from 588 to 610.
A not distant neighbour of Vergilius was
Theodore, Bishop of Marseilles, who was also
styled Saint, and is described by Gregory of Tours
as of eminent sanctity. His life was, however,
a troubled one, for it coincided with the struggle of
Childebert and his uncle Guntran for the posses
sion of Marseilles. He was cruelly persecuted by
Guntran, and ill-used by his own clergy, who took
the side of the Burgundian king. He held the
see from 575 to about 594-2
It would seem that Vergilius and Theodore had
sent a joint letter to congratulate Gregory on his
accession to the Papacy. Gregory's answer is
dated in June 591, acknowledges their congratula
tions, and also mentions that certain Jews from
1 Chron. Lerin, i. 87.
2 E. and H. i. p. 71, note ; Smith, Dictionary of Christian Bio
graphy, iv. 934.

PATRIMONY OF THE CHURCH IN GAUL 153
the Roman province who had visited Marseilles
on business had complained that in the latter dis
trict their co-religionists were being coerced into
Baptism, instead of being persuaded. While the
Pope praised the good intention at the back of the
policy, he urged that the result must be to make
those who were converted in this fashion presently
return to their old superstitions, and be more
obstinate than ever.1 In April 593 he sent a letter
to Dinamius the Patrician, who was the Frankish
governor of the province of Marseilles, and who
was also the rector or guardian of the patrimony of
St. Peter in the Marseilles diocese. The patri
mony of the Holy See in Gaul was divided into
two portions, situated in the provinces of Marseilles
and Aries respectively. In this letter Gregory
acknowledges the receipt by the hands of Hilary
(probably the notary so-called, mentioned in several
letters 2) of 400 Gallic solidi (Gallicani solidi). This
sum was apparently collected from the patrimony in
the diocese of Marseilles, for, according to Gregory
of Tours, Dinamius had been appointed rector of
the province of Marseilles by the King of Austrasia.3
The Gallic solidi here mentioned were lighter than
the Byzantine ones in the proportion of 21 to
20^ siliquae}
The Pope sent Dinamius a present of a small
1 E. and H. i. 45. 2 lb. i. 73-75-
3 Hist. Fran. vi. 7. 11, and Ven. Fort. Carm. vi. 9. 10 ; E. and H.
i. p. 191.
* Le. the silver coins so called. See E. and H. op. cit. i. p. 191,
note 2.

154 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
cross containing some filings from the chains which
had bound St. Peter, and which he said, if carried
about his neck, would keep him from sin for ever
(in perpetuam a peccatis solvant). In its four arms
were also studded portions of the gridiron (craticula)
on which St. Lawrence was burnt, which he hoped
might cause his correspondent's mind to glow with
the love of God.1
Shortly after this the Patrician Arigius was
appointed to the post of Governor of Marseilles,
instead of Dinamius, who was apparently displaced
by King Childebert. He undertook to look after
the papal patrimony there until new arrangements
were made.
On April the 5th, 595, the Pope in a letter urges
the managers of the papal estates and farms (con
ductors massarum sive fundorum) in Gaul to be
discreet in their behaviour, as befitted their position
as officers of the Church, and to beware of plunder
ing or ill-using the people. He says that he had
arranged to send them a superintendent or con
troller (i.e. Candidus, vide infra) whose journey had
been hindered by the winter. Pending his arrival
he counsels them to obey the Patrician Arigius.2
Aries, as we have seen, had been generally
conceded the primacy of Gaul, and it had been
usual in earlier times for its archbishop to receive
the pallium from the Pope. Thus it had been sent
to Caesarius by Pope Symmachus to Auxantius and
Aurehanus by Pope Vigilius, and to Sapaudus by
1 E. and H. iii. 33. 2 lb. v. 31.

ST. GREGORY'S LETTER TO CHILDEBERT 155
Pope Pelagius the First,1 while as early as 417 Pope
Zozimus had made Patroclus of Aries his vicar.2
We now find Vergilius writing to Rome to ask
for the pallium, according to ancient custom, while
King Childebert his master supported his claim.
It would seem they also asked that Vergilius might
be nominated the Apostolic vicar in Childebert's
dominions. On August the 12th, 595, the Pope
wrote several letters to Gaul. The first was ad
dressed to Vergilius. In it he said that it was well
known how the faith in Gaul had spread from
Aries, and he then proceeds to grant what the
bishop and King Childebert had asked for.
He further speaks of having been informed by
several persons that in parts of Gaul and Germany
no one attained to Holy Orders without paying
for them. He urges the necessity of stopping the
scandal, and'adds that if a contention should arise on
matters of faith or other matters among the bishops,
he should lay the matter before an assembly of
twelve of them, and if Vergilius should be in need of
the judgment of the Apostolic See to strengthen his
own, he was to make a special report of the case, so
that it might be terminated by a suitable sentence.3
In another letter, addressed to the bishops of Gaul,
he bids them be diligent in attending the general
synods summoned by Vergilius, and if any one was
unavoidably prevented going to the synod, he was
to send a priest or deacon in his place to represent
1 E. and H. i. p. 368, note 2. 2 See Dudden, ii. 57.
3 E. and H. v. 58.

156 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
him, so that the bishop who was absent should be
duly informed of what had taken place, and have
no excuse for not complying with it. He concludes
with another injunction about simony.1
A third letter, dated the 15th of August 595,
was sent to King Childebert. In this the Pope ac
knowledges the receipt of his appeal in support of
Vergilius, and reminds him that he had sent the
latter the pallium, and also constituted him Papal
vicar, in his kingdom, i.e. in Austrasia, Burgundy,
and Aquitaine. He begs him to exercise his
power to put down scandals among the priest
hood and to stop the appointment of bishops who
had not passed through a previous training in Holy
Orders. " Those," he urged, " who had been made
bishops immediately from being laymen, continued
to be laymen in speech and action after consecra
tion ; and thus," he effectively says, " one who was
never a pupil himself is suddenly, through his rash
ambition, made a master to others, though he has
never learnt what he has to teach." How could
such a one intercede for the sins of others who had
never bewailed his own ? He illustrates his view
by some apt phrases. He says that freshly-built
walls were not loaded with beams until they were
dry and had had time to settle, for fear that the
whole structure might collapse — similarly, timber
used in building was dried and seasoned before a
weight was put upon it. Again, in the Royal armies
only tried men were made into generals, why in
1 E. and H. v. 59.

LETTER TO THE BISHOP OF SAINTES 157
the spiritual host should those command who had
not seen the beginning of warfare ? Gregory pressed
his correspondent to put down simoniacal promo
tions to dioceses or cures of souls. He also asks
that his own fellow-bishop Vergilius might be per
mitted to carry out his work as his predecessors
had done in the days of Childebert's father, and he
bids him do this for the sake of God and the
blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles.1
On the death of her husband Sigebert, King of
Austrasia, his young widow Brunichildis married
Merovach, the son of her brother-in-law Chilperic,
King of Neustria. The marriage was incestuous
according to the law of the Church, and was in
other ways an unhappy one for Merovach, who was
pursued hither and thither by his enraged father
Chilperic, and eventually committed suicide or
was made away with by Fredegundis. Presently
Brunichildis joined her son, the King of Metz,
where her influence became supreme, and where
she played the part of a great queen.
In September 595 the Pope wrote her a letter,
couched in flattering diplomatic phrases, in which
he spoke of her solicitude for the spiritual as
well as the worldly welfare of her kingdom, of her
Christianity and her love for Peter, the Prince
of the Apostles. He commends to her care the
priest Candidus, and the small patrimony of the
Holy See in her dominions, over which he had
appointed him as overseer, with the duty of looking
1 E. and H. v. 60 ; Dudden, ii. 57, 58.

158 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
after it and of recovering such portions as might
have been lost since a similar officer had been ap
pointed, which was some time before (tot tempora).
He begs her to do this, that St. Peter the Apostle,
who had the power of binding and loosing might
give her joy in her offspring and absolution from
all ills afterwards.1
A similar letter was sent to her son Childebert.
In this the Pope speaks of the patrimony in question
as being the property of " Peter, the Prince of the
Apostles," and says he had appointed Candidus to
take charge of it since he had heard that Dinamius
the Patrician, who, on his recommendation, had
governed it, could do so no longer. " To be a
king," he said, "is nothing extraordinary, for there
are other kings beside you ; but to be a Catholic,
which others are not deemed worthy to become —
this is great indeed."2 The Pope at the same time
sent the king a set of keys of St. Peter, containing
a portion of his chains, which, as we have seen,
was a favourite gift of his.
In July 596 we find the Pope writing a letter to
Palladius, Bishop of Saintes (Santonensi), who had
informed him that he had built a church dedicated to
St. Peter and St. Paul, and to the martyrs Lawrence
and Pancratius, and had put in it thirteen altars,
of which four had not been dedicated, because he
desired to insert in them some relics of certain
saints. The Pope accordingly sent the relics, and
bade him receive them with reverence, and above
1 E. and H. vi. 5 ; Barmby, vi. 5. s lb. vi. 6.

STATE OF GAUL ON CHILDEBERT'S DEATH 159
all to provide for the priests ministering at the
altars.1 He also sent a fresh letter to Queen Bruni
childis, who, it would seem, had also written asking
for some relics of St. Peter and St. Paul, and bid
ding her (as he bade the bishop) see that they were
reverently deposited, and that those in attendance
on them were duly provided for.2
About this time we find Brunichildis making
strong efforts to secure the pallium for her favourite
bishop, Syagrius of Autun, to whom she was ap
parently under some obligation. It is probable that
he was of noble birth, and related to Syagrius, the
correspondent of Sidonius Apollinaris. He had
been consecrated by St. Germanus of Paris about
560, and acquired great influence (probably by his
courtly manners, tact, and culture) over King Guntran,
and now over Queen Brunichildis. He became
Bishop of Autun, where Vergilius, now Primate of
France, had been archdeacon. He was a busy pre
late, and attended numerous councils. St. Ancharius
of Auxerre was his disciple. He himself was styled
Saint, and his name-day is the 17 th of August.
That he was a person of excellent quality may be
measured by the opinions recorded of him. Gregory
of Tours calls him venerabilis et egregius antistes ;
Gregory the Pope, reverendae memoriae episcopus ; 3
Venantius Fortunatus, dominus sanctus et apostolica
sede dignissimus papa} The surprise is that he was
1 E. and H. vi. 48 ; Barmby, vi. 49.
2 E. and H. vi. 55 ; Barmby, vi. 50.
3 E. and H. xiii. 11.
* Migne, Pat. Lat. lxxxviii. 191.

160 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
never given one of the metropolitan sees, of which
and of the pallium he was quite worthy.
We now reach perhaps the most disastrous event
in Merovingian history, namely, the death of
Childebert, King of Austrasia, in the early part of
596. He had been brought up by his mother to
learn the duties of a sovereign, and he shared her
wide and Imperial views, but he was doubtless
dissipated, like most of his family, and died young
accordingly. His death was much regretted at Rome,
and doubtless also at Constantinople, for his relations
with the Emperor Maurice had been, as we have
seen, very friendly. He left two sons, both illegiti
mate, who were quite small boys, and who now
succeeded him. Their names were Theodebert and
Theodoric ; the former took Austrasia, with his
capital at Metz, and the latter Burgundy, with his
capital at Orleans, and also resided sometimes at
Chalon-sur-Sa6ne. They were respectively ten and
nine years old, and were under the tutelage of their
strong-willed grandmother Brunichildis.1 As Oman
says : " She was hated as a Goth, as the stirrer-up
of many bloody and unsuccessful wars, and as the
slayer of many unruly nobles who had risen against
the Crown in the days of her grandsons' minority."
The whole of Gaul was now under the rule of three
children (Neustria being subject to Chlothaire the
Second), a condition of things almost incredible, and
which necessarily led to the disintegration of the
whole community and the substitution of a crowd
1 Fredegar, ch. xvi.

SAINT GREGORY'S LETTER TO DINAMIUS 161
of predatory nobles, each one virtually his own
master, for the one mailed fist. Notwithstanding
Brunichildis' skill, resources, and courage, she had
not the necessary forces to save such a state from
eventual anarchy and chaos.
Gaul had been torn in pieces for years past by
the civil strife of the two queens Brunichildis and
Fredegundis, the wife of Chilperic, King of Neustria,
the latter of whom, as we have seen, was an intoler
able woman, consumed by lust and violent passions,
while her crimes form a notable chapter both of
history and romance. She died in 597, after hav
ing unsparingly used poison and the dagger upon all
who thwarted her. It is ominous of her character
that Pope Gregory never mentions her. Her young
son, Chlothaire 11., after sustaining an unequal fight
against the sons of Childebert, was now reduced to
rule over a portion only of Neustria, namely, that
which was bounded by the Seine, the Oise, and the
sea.1 Dinamius, above mentioned, had retired into
private life, and with his sister Aureliana had
devoted himself to good works, and had endowed
the Convent of St. Cassian at Marseilles, which
they had perhaps founded in some private build
ings of their own. Gregory, in a letter written in
October 596, at their request, granted to Respecta,
its abbess, certain privileges, namely, that on the
death of any abbess there, she should be succeeded
1 Duodecim tantum pagi inter Esara (Oise) et Secona (Seine) et
mare litores Oceani Chlothario remanserunt. Fredegar, ch. xx.
11

1 62 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
not by a stranger, but by one elected from among
its members, whom the bishop of the place should
ordain. He further provided that -no bishop or
other ecclesiastic should have any power over the
property of the nunnery, but it should be under
the complete control of the abbess for the time
being. If, again, on the Saint's anniversary or the
dedication of the convent, the bishop should go
thither to celebrate Mass, the Office must be so
arranged that his throne (cathedra) should only
be put in the chapel on the days when he was
saying Mass, and on his departure it should be
removed from the same (de oratorio). On other
days the Mass was to be said by the priest who
the bishop should appoint. On the other hand, he
provided that the bishop was to punish the abbess
or nuns according to the rigour of the recent canons,
if any of them should commit a fault demanding
punishment. The Pope concludes by an exhorta
tion that the abbess should show zeal in so ordering
her congregation that the malice of the malignant
might not be aroused.1
In May 597 the Pope wrote to his rector in
Gaul, Candidus, to say he had heard from a certain
Dominican that his four brothers, who had been
redeemed from slavery by the Jews, were now
detained in their service at Narbonne, which was
then in the land of the Visigoths. He told him
that it was shameful for Christians to be thus
living as servants in a Jewish house, and that he
1 E. and H. vii. 12 ; Barmby, vii. 12.

ST. GREGORY'S LETTER TO BRUNICHILDIS 163
should use due diligence to have them redeemed
and released.1 The Visigothic laws of King
Reccared specially forbade the holding of Christians
in servitude by Jews.2 In July 597 Gregory again
wrote to Dinamius the Patrician and his sister
Aureliana acknowledging their letter and the re
ligious zeal which it showed, and promising that
when it was completed he would send them the
book for which they had asked.8
In September of the same year the Pope wrote
to Brunichildis praising her Christian fervour, and
telling her that in accordance with her expressed
wish he had greatly desired to confer the pallium
on the Bishop of Autun (who, be it remembered,
was only a suffragan bishop, while his Metropolitan,
the Archbishop of Lyons, had not himself received
it). The Pope said he had now got the Emperor's
consent through his agent at Constantinople. He
goes on to say that many good reports had reached
him about Syagrius, and especially from " John
the Regionarius" ; "but," added the Pope, "there
had been many hindrances." In the first place, the
person who had been sent for the pallium was im
plicated in the error of schism (i.e. probably in
regard to the Three Chapters), next, the queen
wished the distinction to come from the Pope him
self, and not at her suggestion, while the bishop, for
whom it was desired, had not asked for it, which
had been hitherto a condition of granting it. Inas-
1 See Greg, of Tours, vii. 21.
2 See E. and H. i. p. 464, note. s lb. vii. 33.

1 64 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
much, however, as he was wishful to comply with
her request, he had sent it to the rector, Candidus,
charging him to deliver it in the Pope's stead.
Syagrius was in the meanwhile to draw up a
petition with the other bishops, and give it to
Candidus. He then goes on to press her not
to allow any one in her dominion to obtain Holy
Orders by bribes or by any one's patronage or
relationship, but only to let such be elected to the
episcopate or other offices as most deserved it by
their life and manners, for it was a wicked thing to
sell the Holy Spirit. Nor was she to suffer a lay
man to be consecrated as a bishop, nor until by
long practice he had learnt what to imitate and
what to teach.
The Pope goes on to beg her to recall to the
unity of the faith those schismatics who had severed
themselves from the Church, and explains that he re
fers explicitly to the question of the Three Chapters.
His words are worth quoting. " As for us," he
says, "we venerate and follow in all respects the
Synod of Chalcedon, whence they take to them
selves the clouds of a pestiferous excuse (pestiferae
nebulas excusationis adsumunt), and we anathe
matise all who presume to diminish or add to them.
" They," he says (meaning the schismatics), "reject
the Universal Church, and all the four Patriarchs "
(omnes quatuor patriarchas . . . refugiant). "He
who had been sent for the pallium, when he was
asked why he stood separated from the Universal
Church, acknowledged that he did not know,"

ST. GREGORY'S LETTER TO BRUNICHILDIS 165
Lastly, Gregory begs the queen to restrain her
subjects from sacrificing to idols, worshipping trees,
or exhibiting sacrilegious sacrifices of the heads of
animals (ut idolis non immolent, cultores arborum
non existant, de animalium capitibus sacrificia sacri-
lega non exhibeant), because he had heard that many
of the Christians combined going to church with
the worship of demons. This he begs her to do for
fear that baptism, instead of rescuing them, should
rather add to their punishment. He bade her also
speedily punish the violent, the adulterous, and the
thief. In regard to the volume she had asked for
he had sent it, and had asked his representative,
Candidus, to give it to her, and he concluded with
commending her to the protection of the Almighty.1
This is a very interesting letter for many reasons.
In the first place, it shows that the distant emperor
still claimed the right to veto the giving of the
pallium, in the case of sees not previously so dis
tinguished. Secondly, it shows that the Church in
Gaul at this time was largely permeated if not
entirely devoted to the so-called heresy of the
Three Chapters. Thirdly, it proves what a survival
of paganism there still was among the reputedly
Christian Franks. This survival was especially pre
valent among the rustics of Austrasia and Maritime
Neustria. It is interesting to note how vigorous
Brunichildis continued to be at this time. "Vigilant
and alert, she was ever travelling restlessly around
the borders of the realm spying out rebels to crush,
1 E. and H. viii. 4.

1 66 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
building roads and castles, keeping a wary eye
upon every count and bishop." 1
It is some time before Gregory is again found
corresponding with Gaul. In May-June 599, he
wrote to Desiderius, the Bishop of Vienne, about a
certain Pancratius, the bearer of the letter, who was
a papal deacon (diaconus apostolorum), and now
wished to become a monk, but the bishop had put
some pressure on him to remain a secular. The
Pope urged him not to oppose the man's wish,
which was merely to retire from the Church militant
to a more peaceful one.2 This shows how the
Pope's heart was still glowing warmly for the ascetic
against the secular form of the religious life.
At this time we find him sending an important
personage to Gaul with letters to the various
bishops, and with the special commission to restore
the lost discipline of the Church there in regard to
simony, etc. This was Cyriacus, who was then the
Abbot of St. Andrew's, and therefore, no doubt,
specially trusted by Gregory. Among others to
whom he commended him was Serenus, Bishop of
Marseilles, to whom he wrote in July 599. In his
letter the Pope takes the opportunity of rebuking
the bishop for having broken and cast out certain
images or perhaps pictures (imagines) in churches
which he had found people were adoring. While
commending his zeal in preventing objects made
with hands from becoming the subject-matter of
worship, he blames him for breaking the images,
1 See Oman, op. cit. 163. 2 E. and H. ix. 157.

VERGILIUS, BISHOP OF ARLES 167
since pictorial representations were made use of in
churches, so that those ignorant of letters might
read, by looking at the walls, what they could not
read in books, and he tells him he ought to have
preserved the images and rebuked the people.1
Cyriacus also carried letters for other bishops ;
one of them was addressed to Vergilius, Bishop of
Aries. This was apparently inspired by some one at
Aries. It recalls that King Childebert had founded
a monastery for men there, and endowed it with
certain property, and in order to ensure that his
purpose might be fully carried out, and that the
monks should not be disturbed, he had requested
the Holy See to confirm his grant and to confer
certain privileges on the monastery, both in the
management of its affairs and the appointment of
the abbot. This he did because he felt that what
had been settled by the Apostolic See no exercise
of unlawful usurpation would afterwards molest.
The Pope says that in furtherance of this wish his
own predecessor Vigilius had written to Aurelius,
the previous Bishop of Aries, supporting with
apostolical authority what was intended to be done.
He, Gregory, now wrote to remind Vergilius of
what Aurelius had done, and to confirm it.2
In another letter of the same date, addressed
to Arigius, Bishop of Gap, consoling him for the
death of some of his relatives, the Pope goes on to
say he had been informed that when the bishop
1 E. and H. ix. 208; Barmby, ix. 105.
2 E. and H. ix. 216 ; Barmby, ix. ill.

1 68 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
was at Rome he had asked that he and his arch
deacon might be permitted to wear dalmatics.
This had been delayed because of the sickness
already named, and because the Pope did not
wish to concede a new thing inconsiderately and
suddenly. He now granted the demand, and sent
the dalmatics by the hands of the Abbot Cyriacus.
The journey of Cyriacus was directed especially
to Autun, for whose bishop he was taking the
long-promised pallium. The Pope had granted
this on condition that he would summon a synod
to put down the crime of simony, to prevent laymen
from receiving ecclesiastical appointments, and
women living in the houses of clerics ; and he
desired Syagrius and also Arigius, the Bishop of
Gap, to write and inform him by letter of all its
proceedings.1 While Brunichildis was entirely devoted to her
bishop, Syagrius of Autun, she was implacable
towards another prelate, one of the four Metro
politans of Gaul, namely, Desiderius, Archbishop
of Vienne, who had denounced her incestuous
marriage with her nephew. She accordingly
thwarted him in every way she could, and eventu
ally, after the death of Gregory, had him put
to death. Vienne was once the capital of the
ancient Provincia Viennensis.2 When the praetorian
praefect of Gaul removed his quarters thence to
Aries, the latter became the metropolis, soon after
which the Bishop of Aries began to be decorated
1 E. and H. ix. 219. 2 Not. Gall. xi. 3.

LETTER TO BISHOP DESIDERIUS 169
with the pallium by the Pope.1 There was therefore
a good deal of prima facie plausibility in the claim
set up by the See of Vienne, and long maintained,
of its primacy over Aries, and in its bishop asking for
the pallium for himself. Desiderius urged upon the
Pope that his predecessors had had it in former times
(usum pallii ejus sacer dotes antiquitus habuisse)}
While the Pope would doubtless have con
ceded the pallium to so famous a man and to so
famous a see, he was afraid of exasperating Queen
Brunichildis, so he had to temporise. In a letter
written to him in July 599, he says he had been
informed by the Regionarius John, of the ancient
privileges conferred on Vienne by the Holy See,
including the use of the pallium. He had, accord
ingly, had the register searched, but had found
no evidence there ; if any were forthcoming he
would attend to it (Nam qui nova concedimus,
vetera libentissime reparamus).3 This was evidently
an evasion. In a short letter of the same date
to Candidus, the rector of the patrimony, he bids
him, if he can, to help a Gallic priest called
Aurelius who desired to have charge of an oratory
(oratorium, i.e. a chapel), or undertake a charge of
a priest or abbot.4
As a result of the struggle between the Lombards
and the Franks, certain parishes had been detached
from the diocese of Turin (Taurina) and formed by
King Guntran into the new See of St. Jean de
1 E. and H. ix. 220, note. 2 lb. ix. 220.
3 lb. ix. 220. * lb. ix. 221.

170 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Maurienne, subject to the Franks. Gregory accord
ingly wrote to Syagrius about it. In his letter he says
that, after the captivity and plunder of the Bishop
of Turin, he had suffered serious prejudice in his
parishes (in parochiis suis) which were within the
boundaries of the Franks, even to the extent of
another person having been constituted bishop there
without his having committed any crime, and had
also been deprived of the property of his church,
while an innocent priest had been removed from his
altar. The Pope entreats Syagrius, therefore, to
protect him, and to see that no wrong was done to
him. He was to act in the matter not only on his
own initiative, but by a special appeal to the two
young kings.1
This letter the Pope supported by one addressed
to the two latter rulers, recalling the facts to them,
begging them to make due inquiry and to correct
the wrong by restoring to the Bishop of Turin, who
was called Ursicinus, the parishes formerly in his
see, and also the property belonging to them. Nor
should the fact of his church being detained for the
present by his enemies be at all to his disadvantage.2
As Mr. Dudden says, the Pope's suggestion was im
practicable. It was not reasonable to suppose that
in those days, when bishops were so powerful, a
ruler would allow a portion of his territory to be
under the ecclesiastical supervision of a foreign
bishop. A Frankish king might reasonably think
1 E. and H. ix. 214, and note ; Barmby, ix. 115.
2 E. and H. ix. 226 ; Barmby, ix. 116.

SAINT GREGORY'S LETTERS TO SYAGRIUS 171
that if the churches were restored the parishes
would presently be claimed by the Duke of Turin
as part of his dominions. Gregory's remonstrance
was therefore of no effect, and the diocese of
Maurienne continued to be a thorn in the side of
the Lombard prelate.1
In another letter to Syagrius he writes, with
regard to two refractory bishops, namely, Menas of
Toulon, on whom he makes a pun, illi episcopatus
nomen non sit in honore sed onere, and adds that he
was a very secular person and had gone to Gaul.
The other, Theodore, who belonged to the Province
of Milan, had also gone to Gaul to escape from
the discipline he had incurred. The Pope begs
Syagrius to see to it that both of them were sent
back to Italy to be duly dealt with.2 It is curious that
the two letters to Syagrius just cited should have
been written to one who, however great his prestige,
was not a Metropolitan, and only a simple bishop.
In another letter addressed to the same bishop
and of the same date, the Pope speaks highly of the
reputation of his correspondent. He goes on to
say that in accordance with his request he had sent
him the pallium, to be used in the celebration of
Mass only, and he was to have it on condition
that he would summon a synod to correct the things
of which he had complained. While the granting of
the pallium was not to interfere with the Metro
politan authority of the Church of Lyons, it was to
be understood as conferring on his diocese of Autun
1 Dudden, ii. 77. 2 E. and H. ix. 223.

172 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
and himself, as bishop, the first place immediately
after Lyons. The other bishops were to take rank
according to the dates of their ordination, whether
in sitting in synod or subscribing their names, etc.,
and he ends up by hoping that his increase of
dignity would be marked by increased zeal.1 The
conferring of the pallium on Syagrius, while it was
withheld from others having Metropolitan rank, is
a proof of the extent to which Gregory carried his
courtly deference to Brunichildis. In a similar letter
of the same date addressed by the Pope to Syagrius
of Autun, Etherius of Lyons, Vergilius of Aries,
and Desiderius of Vienne (let it be noted that
Syagrius is mentioned first), he says he approaches
them by his present writings, in accordance with the
apostolic institutes, so that, leaning on the rules of
the Fathers and the Lord's commands (the order of
the words is curious), they might put away avarice.
He goes on to say how he had long heard of the
simoniacal practices prevailing in Gaul, and adds
that one who buys an ecclesiastical office covets not
to be a priest, but to be called one. It prevents there
being any trial of a man's conduct, any carefulness
about his moral character, or any inquiry into his life,
and shows that he alone is deemed worthy who can
pay the price. He calls attention to this being the
oldest of all heresies, and one which was specially
condemned by the apostles (i.e. in the case of Simon
Magus). In regard to those who argued that the
price paid in such cases accrued to the advantage
1 E. and H. ix. 222.

SAINT GREGORY'S LETTERS TO SYAGRIUS 173
of the poor, he said that it could not be accounted
almsgiving when that was dispensed to the poor
which was got by unlawful dealings. If hospitals
and monasteries were built with the price of sacred
"orders," it did not profit, for he who buys does
more harm than he who dispenses the price. All
simoniacal heresy, under guise of almsgiving, was
therefore to be abjured.
The Pope then goes on to reprobate another
practice prevalent in Gaul, and already mentioned,
namely, the sudden elevation of laymen into
bishops without passing through the lower orders.
He also calls attention to the practice of women
living with those in sacred orders, and holds that
they must have no women living with them save
those whom the sacred canons allowed. Lastly, to
prevent dissensions, he urges that priests should
assemble together sometimes, so that there might be
discussion about cases that arose, and salutary con
ference about ecclesiastical observances, and points
out that by the rules of the Fathers a synod was to
be held twice annually, or at least once without fail,
so that nothing wrong or unlawful might be ventured
upon while a council was being delayed, and adjures
them to keep this regulation for their posterity.
He accordingly asks them to summon a general
synod. This, he counselled, should be held under
the presidency of Arigius, the Bishop of Gap (which
seems a mistake for Syagrius of Autun), and the
Abbot Cyriacus. At such a gathering all things
opposed to the sacred canons should be condemned,

174 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
and notably the matters above named, concerning
all of which Bishop Syagrius and Cyriacus were to
fully inform him.1 The synod was apparently either
not summoned, or inefficient, for we presently find
the Pope again writing about the same abuses.
At the same time, with the above letter, a second
one was sent to the two young Frankish kings,
Theodebert and Theodoric, in which he also de
nounces the simony already mentioned. He further
complains of certain churches which had been re
lieved from paying taxes having to pay them in
another way in the form of bribes, and he also
reprobates the sudden promotion of laymen to be
bishops, and consequently asks the kings, as a great
gift to God, to order a synod to be summoned, in
which it might be ordained, in the presence of
Cyriacus, that these things should be condemned
and stopped. He also expressed his distress that
Jews were allowed to keep Christian slaves in
their kingdoms, and asks them to issue an ordin
ance on the subject.2
Lastly, Gregory sent a letter to Brunichildis, the
strong-willed grandmother of the two boys and the
real ruler of Gaul, which is phrased in diplomatic
and complimentary terms, in which he calls atten
tion to the same abuses and asks that the synod
upon which his heart was so set might be summoned
in the presence of Cyriacus, when these things
should be forbidden. The Pope tells her he has
1 E. and H. ix. 218 ; Barmby, ix. 106.
2 E. and H. ix. 215 ; Barmby, ix. no.

LETTER TO VERGILIUS AND SYAGRIUS 175
taken special care to delegate the management of
this synod to Syagrius, "who," he says, "we know
to be peculiarly your own," and begs her, therefore,
to lend a willing ear to his supplication on this
account. Because he had shown great zeal in
the English mission (vide infra), he had sent him a
pallium as a reward and encouragement, and he
concludes with a renewed mention about the em
ployment of Christian servants by Jews.1
In another letter of this date, written to Ver
gilius, Bishop of Aries, and Syagrius of Autun in
regard to a certain Syagria (probably a lady of
rank), who, having entered a religious house and
even changed her habit, had been forced to marry ;
he charges that they had failed to interfere in her
defence. He plainly tells them that if this was so
they were rather hirelings than shepherds, and bids
them exhort the woman, so that she might make
amends with weeping for the loss of chastity, "which
in her body it was not allowed her to preserve," and
further, that as she still desired to devote her pro
perty to pious uses, she might be permitted, after
putting aside a due provision for her children, to do
so. He bids them take his brotherly admonition
kindly, since even a bitter cup is taken gladly when
offered with a view to health.2
In October 600, Gregory wrote to Conon, the
Abbot of Lerins, praising him for the way he
ruled his monastery, of which he had heard from
1 E. and H. ix. 213 ; Barmby, ix. 109.
2 E. and H. ix. 224 ; Barmby, ix. 114.

176 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
his own fellow-bishop, Menas, the Bishop of Toulon
(" Telesinus"), of whom he had made complaints in
an earlier letter. He contrasts his conduct with the
laxity of his predecessor, Stephen, and duly encour
ages him.: At the same time he wrote a sharp and
caustic letter to Serenus, the Bishop of Marseilles,
who, it would seem, had questioned the genuineness
of the Pope's previous rebuke about images, which
he had suggested had been concocted by Cyriacus.
Gregory again pressed on him the difference between
adoring a picture and using it for edification and for
the illiterate to learn from. He further says that
antiquity had (not without reason) allowed the
histories of saints to be painted in venerable places.
The Pope adds that in consequence of the bishop's
acts the greater part of his spiritual children had
suspended themselves from his communion. If he
could not retain his old sheep, how could he attract
new ones ? and he bade him use zeal to recall those
who had left. He should call them together and
show them from Scripture that nothing made with
hands is to be adored. He must also tell them
that he had broken the pictorial representations
because he had seen them misuse them, and that
if they merely wished to learn from them he would
have them restored and thus appease them, and
he should press on them that " they ought from
the pictures to catch the ardour of compunction
and bow themselves in adoration before God." He
further rebukes Serenus for associating with bad
1 E. and H. xi. 9 ; Barmby, xi. 12.

SAINT GREGORY'S LETTER TO DESIDERIUS 177
men, inter alios, with a certain priest who had
given way to his lust, and bids him cut himself
off entirely from him, while as to others reported
to be bad, he was to restrain them by fatherly
exhortation, and if they would not obey he was to cast
them out. He bade him remember how execrable
it was in the sight of men if vices were nurtured
by those whose duty it was to punish them.1
On 22nd June, Gregory wrote to Vergilius of
Aries, counselling him who claimed to have his
own hands clean from simony to exercise the
jurisdiction which belonged to him and restrain
others, and to insist on a synod being summoned
to root it out. He also called his attention to the
complaints he had received about his fellow-bishop,
Serenus of Marseilles, as referred to in the previous
letter, and asked him to inquire into them.2
At the same time the Pope wrote to Desiderius,
Bishop of Vienne, who, it seems, had asked him for
some favour (probably a pallium). This, Gregory
suggests, he felt disposed to grant him, but he had
hesitated, since he had found that he was in the
habit of expounding grammar to certain persons.
The teaching of grammar no doubt involved the use
of materials and examples from heathen literature.
This the Pope took amiss, since he said the " praises
of Christ cannot find room in the same mouth as
the praise of Jupiter." "And, consider," he says,
"what a heinous thing it is for a bishop to sing
1 E. and H. xi. 10 ; Barmby, xi. 13.
2 E. and H. xi. 38 ; Barmby, xi. 55.
12

178 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
what is not even becoming in a religious layman."
Candidus the Rector, on his return to Rome, had
denied the reports about Desiderius, and tried to
excuse him, but the Pope seems to have doubted
his testimony. If it should prove to be false, he
said, that he devoted himself to trifles and secular
literature, he would, without hesitation, grant what
he had requested.1 This letter confirms the view
that Gregory entirely disliked secular literature, and
no doubt his influence greatly depressed its study
in favour of obscurantism in the Western Church.
It also afforded him a fresh excuse for refusing
Desiderius the pallium and thus preventing Bruni
childis from feeling sore. In a letter of the same
date, written to Aetherius of Lyons, he commends
him in glowing terms for his zeal, obedience, and
rectitude, but, as usual, presses him with the other
bishops to summon a synod as soon as might be
in order to put down the scandal of simony. In
regard to the privileges claimed by him for the
bishops of his see, as of ancient custom, the Pope
says he had had search made, but could find no
evidence of it, and he prudently asked to be
furnished with the evidence, so that he might
know what ought to be granted.2
In a second letter of the same date, written to the
Bishop of Gap (Vapincense) in affectionate terms,
the Pope commends Candidus the Rector of the
patrimony of St. Peter.8 He similarly commends
1 E. and H. xi. 34 ; Barmby, xi. 54.
2 E. and H. xi. 40. 3 lb. xi. 44.

LETTERS TO THE GAULISH BISHOPS 179
him in another letter of equal date to Asclepiodotus
the Patrician of the Gauls. He asks the latter to
help and support Candidus in his arduous labours
of providing for the poor, etc. The Pope also
sends him a key of the sepulchre containing filings
from St. Peter's chains to wear about his neck as
a charm,1 assuring him they would protect him
against all ills (omnia adversa vos muniat).
In another letter, of 22nd June 601, he asks
Vergilius, Bishop of Aries, to receive kindly, and
take friendly counsel with, the Bishop of Autun
if by chance he should visit him. The latter
bishop had probably been on a visit to Rome.2
In two letters of commendation written to the
two young Frank princes, Theodoric and Theo-
debert on behalf of missionaries going to Britain,
the Pope again urges upon them both, in reply
to their letters offering to further the cause of the
Church, to summon a synod to deal with simony.3
In a similar letter, dated the 22nd of June 601,
written to Brunichildis and in which the language
of fulsome diplomacy is again liberally used, Gregory
acknowledges her letters expressing her good dis
position towards the Church, and again presses
her to summon a synod to put down simony in
the kingdoms of her grandsons.4
In June 601, Gregory wrote a letter to Chlo
thaire, the King of Neustria, being the only direct
communication with that kingdom which we know
1 E. and H. xi. 43- 2 Ib- xi- 45-
3 E. and H. xi. 47, 50 ; xi. 59, 60.
* E. and H. xi. 49 ; Barmby, xi. 62.

180 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
he ever had. In it he urges upon him his usual
refrain, namely, to summon a synod to put down
abuses in the Church.1 It is curious that this letter
should have been the only one he wrote on the
subject which had any effect, for we hear of synods
being called by Chlothaire in 60 1 and in 603
or 604.2 It is not possible to read the correspondence
here condensed between the great Pope and the
rulers and bishops of France without having our
regard for him enhanced. In season and out
of season he presses upon them the shameful
condition of Church discipline among the Franks,
the widespread, unblushing simony, the appoint
ment of illiterate and untrained men to the great
sees, etc. etc., and he urges upon them the only
possible remedy alike efficient and likely to last,
namely, the regular summoning of provincial
synods for the discussion and trial and preven
tion of such abuses. It is equally clear that his
advice and counsel were unpopular. The rulers,
with the notable exception of Guntran of Burgundy,
revelled in the profit and power that came to them
in this Erastian land by allowing things to remain
as they were, while the bishops who had been
1 E. and H. xi. 51 ; Barmby, xi. 61.
2 Dudden, 69. This' is apparently the last genuine letter written
by Gregory to the princes or bishops of Gaul. The letters to
Brunichildis (E. and H. xiii. 7), to Aetherius the Bishop (ib. 8),
to King Theodoric (ib. 9), to Senator, priest, and abbot (ib. n), to
Talasia, abbess (ib. 12), and to Lupus, priest and abbot (ib. 13), all
dated in November 602, seem to me open to the gravest suspicion.
Vide ante, Introduction.

ST. GREGORY AND THE GAULISH CHURCH 1 8 1
for many years without restraint or criticism were
impatient of both.
It must be said that the Pope's methods were
not always easy to bear. The Bishop of Autun
was a venerable and respectable old gentleman,
and under other conditions none would have
questioned his desire for the pallium, which gave
him dignity and prestige among his brethren,
but he was, after all, a suffragan of the Archbishop
of Lyons, and to give him the pallium, while
withholding it from his Metropolitan, was not
likely to conciliate the latter. Again, in regard
to the Archbishop of Vienne ; to refuse him the
same distinction because the imperious Queen of
Austrasia had a bitter personal dislike to him,
and to write him letters reproving him for reading
the classics, as if he were a schoolboy and not
a distinguished scholar, was hardly likely to be
cheerfully forgiven. It would seem that on all
sides among those who were powerful to initiate
reforms in Gaul, there were very few who felt dis
posed to march along the road pointed out by the
Pope, and in those turbulent, difficult times even
sympathetic bishops might feel some hesitation in
calling together their clergy too often, and having
all kinds of uncomfortable questions raised. On
the other hand, the Pope dealt with the secular
rulers of Gaul with a skilful and tender hand.
He forgave them much because they were orthodox
and perhaps also because he felt that they came
from a rough untutored stock, among whom the

1 82 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
amenities of life had been little studied, and he
doubtless thought, as did St. Francis of Sales, that
"more flies are caught by a spoonful of honey
than by a whole barrel of vinegar." One other
prudent thing he also did in carefully studying and
avoiding the prejudices and the sensitive jealousy
of the rough Frankish kings by not encroaching
on their privileges and power. He fully conceded
to them the right to summon synods to approve
decrees and to suppress ecclesiastical abuses.
Mr. Kellett has a striking passage on the
subsequent history of the intercourse of the Popes
with Gaul. He says : " After the death of Gregory
the First, communication between the popes and
the kings and bishops of Gaul seems to have
practically ceased for many years. The failure of
the great Pope to effect any reformation in that
country appears to have deterred his feeble suc
cessors from attempting it. The disorganisation of
the Church then became complete. After Vergilius
no vicar of the Apostolic see was nominated for
nearly a century and a half. No Metropolitans
were appointed. Every bishop became independ
ent, and did what seemed right in his own eyes.
To add to the darkness of the outlook Columban
and his monks were expelled by Brunichildis, and
thus the clearest light of Christianity in Gaul
was quenched."1 On the other hand, monasticism
flourished and spread exceedingly, but there was
no direct intercourse with or control by Rome.
1 Kellett, Cambridge Hist. Essays, ii. 82.

"THE HUNDRED YEARS OF SILENCE" 183
For more than a century, says Mr. Dudden,
there appears to have been no intercourse between
the popes and the Frank rulers ; at any rate, till
the time of Gregory the Second no documents
exist which can be quoted in proof of any inter
communication. Rome left the Merovingian princes
to their fate.1 1 Op. cit. ii. 98.

CHAPTER VI
It will be now interesting to shortly picture to
ourselves the condition and administration of the
patrimony of St. Peter at this time. It was, in fact,
enormous in extent, and comprised lands granted
by the Emperor, legacies or gifts from the faithful
rich, especially those who had withdrawn to monas
teries, and many other sources. Grisar calculates
its amount at 1800 square miles of territory and
.£300,000 of income, while an Italian estimate, says
Dudden, puts the area at 1360 square miles, and
the revenue at ,£120,000 in money, and ,£300,000
in kind. It was scattered over a wide area, its
largest and most fertile portions being in Sicily and
Africa. Another portion was situated at Ravenna,
and other small estates were in Liguria and
the Cottian Alps. In Central Italy were pro
perties in the old province of Samnium, near
Nursia in the Sabine country and about Tivoli.
Between the Appian Way and the Via Latina, and
as far as the sea, was the Patrimonium Appiae,
while on the left bank of the Tiber was the
largest estate of all, known as the Patrimonium
Tusciae. A third estate, known as the Patrimonium
Labicanae, extended between the Via Labicana
184

3? I !?JfcStt3^j&»

--^^>icj5SiWM&SK

PORTRAIT OF ST. GREGORY IN STATE DRESS,
FROM AN IVORY DIPTYCH ON A BOOK
AT MONZA, PRESENTED BY HIM TO
QUEEN THEODELINDA. To face p. 184.

THE PATRIMONY OF SAINT PETER 185
and the Arno, while the fourth extended from the
Via Tiburtina to the Tiber, and was known as the
Patrimonium Tiburtinum. These estates near
Rome eventually included the greater part of
the Ager Romanus, comprising most of the
modern Campagna,1 and were dotted with olive
plantations. In Rome itself the popes owned con
siderable house property and gardens. They also
had an estate at Minturnae, as well as the islands
known as I sole di Ponza on the coast. The forests
of Lucania and Bruttii supplied them with wood
for church building and repairs, and other posses
sions were situated at Otranto and Gallipoli in the
heel of Italy. Outside Italy the Pope's wide estates
at Germanicia, near Hippo in Africa, and especially
in Sicily, were the principal granaries of impover
ished Italy. He also had properties in Sardinia
and Corsica, small estates in Dalmatia (where the
property was known as Recula S. Petri inter Dal-
matias2) and Illyria, and lands also in the south of
Gaul ; but he apparently owned no land in Spain or
the East.3 A portion of these estates was leased in
perpetuity, or for a life and two specified heirs, for
a fixed rent, by a contract called emphyteusis. In
the case of worthless lands the lease was a per
petual one. It is a good proof of the popularity of
these leases, and the prosperity of the tenants under
them, that the Pope should write to his deputy
Peter, to tell him that many came to Rome desiring
1 Gregorovius, op. cit. i. 388, 389. 2 Grisar, op. cit. 600.
3 Gregorovius, i. 387 ; Dudden, i. 297, 298.

1 86 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
lands on islands belonging to the Church. To some,
he says, he had granted leases and refused them to
others, and he wished him to take care in the matter,
as his only motive ought to be the good of the
Church.1 In another letter written to the Defensor
Romanus, he warns him against accepting as tenants
the Imperial recruiting officers called scribones,
since they had a bad reputation. One of them,
whom he calls Gentis vir magnificus scribo, for
whom he makes an exception, should be charged
a rent of 20 pigs, 20 wethers, and 60 fowls.2 A
much larger part of the patrimony was not
leased, but owned as an English gentleman
owns his estate, and its administration was con
trolled and superintended by the ubiquitous and
indefatigable Pope. The stewards and adminis
trators of these estates under his supervision were
called rectores patrimonii. They had generally
been laymen, but Gregory chiefly employed deacons
and subdeacons, or, in remote districts, even bishops
for the purpose. To them he was continually writ
ing letters of guidance or reproach. Under them
there were certain officials called defensores ecclesiae,
or Church guardians, whose appointment needed for
its sanction letters under the Pope's own hand. The
protection of the poor is specified in one of Gregory's
letters, as the main object of these defensores. They
were also to recover runaway slaves, and lands which
belonged to the Holy See, and had been unjustly
1 E. and H. i. 79 ; Barmby, i. 72. See also E. and H. ix. 125.
*E.andH.ix. 78.

ACTORES, NOTARII AND CHARTULARII 187
occupied by others ; but they had frequently a much
wider commission. Dr. Barmby has collected some
details about their duties. Not only were they to
carry out works of charity, but also to maintain the
rights and property of churches, to rectify abuses in
monasteries and hospitals, to see to the canonical
election of bishops, and to the supply of ecclesiastical
ministrations during the suspension or incapacity of
the holders of sees, to assist bishops in the exercise
of discipline, and even to rebuke and coerce bishops
themselves when negligent in their duty, and to
admonish them when living immoral lives, to act
against heretics, and to arrange about holding local
synods. In some cases they were also themselves
rectores patrimonii. They constituted a schola, or
guild, as did also the notaries and subdeacons. In
598 Gregory directed that seven of them in Rome
should be styled rectores regionarii, as was already
the case with the notaries and subdeacons. These
Regional rectors were entitled to sit in assemblies of
the clergy when the Pope was not present, and they
managed the property in the seven regions of Rome.
They were not necessarily in sacred orders, but might
marry and have families. To assist the defensors
and rectors were a lower grade of officials styled
adores, answering to our clerks, who had to be ton
sured, and whose offices were conferred by diploma.
When the work was specially heavy, another class,
i.e. sworn notaries (notarii, also called chartularii),
were appointed. The head of the notaries was
called Primicerius notariorum. All these officials

1 88 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
had to keep account books, and to present them
every indiction.1
Below these again were the conductores, or
"farmers," each of whom superintended "a massa,"
or estate, comprising several farms (fundi). They
collected the rents and dues (pensiones) from the peas
ants, which were paid in money and kind, and were
responsible to the Roman agents for the amount ;
like other publicans in similar position, they were
often exacting, cruel, and oppressive. Their posts
were hereditary, and guardians of their interests were
duly appointed during the infancy of their children.
Such was the hierarchy of officials which the Pope
had doubtless partially inherited from the old Roman
polity. The actual tillers of the soil were divided
into two classes — the peasants, or serfs, called coloni,
or rustici, and the slaves. Although nominally
free, the former were attached to the soil (ascripti
glebae), and could not move or marry out of the
estate on which they worked, without permission.
They had private property, which was, however,
always considered to be pledged for the next rent :
they could not sell it without the landlord's consent.
In legal actions they must be represented by the
landlord, and could be punished by him at his
discretion. They were, however, protected by
documentary titles, each one having his rights and
duties entered in a separate register named Libellus
securitatis} Slavery was a recognised institution,
1 Barmby, Letters of Saint Gregory, etc., Prolegomena, vii.,
viii., xii.
2 Gregorovius, ib. 388 ; Dudden, op. cit. i. 305.

THE PEASANTS AND THEIR BURDENS 189
and there were large numbers of slaves who acted
as herdsmen, shepherds, and tillers of the soil on
the lands occupied directly by the Pope and by
private proprietors on what we call demesne lands.
To protect these hardly-used coloni and slaves
was the duty of the Rector, who represented the
Pope on each estate.
The best known of these rectors was the sub
deacon Peter, whom the Pope refers to so tenderly
in the opening scene of his famous Dialogues, when
he tells us that from his earliest youth he had been
his bosom friend, and had shared his studies in Holy
Scripture. He was a somewhat careless, happy-go-
lucky creature, transparently honest and simple, and
the Pope in his letters to him treats him and his faults
with a mixture of tenderness and gentle sarcasm.
He by turns rebukes and pleads with him on his
inattention and unbusinesslike habits like an affec
tionate uncle. To him he entrusted the care of the
papal patrimony in Sicily, which was divided into
two estates, the Syracusan and Palermitan. Peter's
predecessors had performed their duties tyrannically,
and permitted a great many iniquities to be done
in the name of the Church, and Gregory in his
correspondence gives him minute instructions how
he was to act.
The Church lands were tilled, as we have seen,
by the native peasants (coloni). They enjoyed the
result of their labours subject to the payment of a
certain land-tax (burdatio) and also of a tithe of the
produce, sometimes paid in kind and sometimes com-

190 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
muted. These dues had, no doubt, been in former
times paid to the Roman officials, and the Church
merely succeeded to them. The massae (or praediae)
were sometimes grouped into larger estates, which
were farmed out to farmers (conductores), the farmers
accounting for certain amounts to the Church and
exacting what they could from the peasants. This
method of collecting dues naturally led to oppression.
Among the abuses which had sprung up, and
which Gregory commissioned his agent Peter to
correct, were the use of false measures for weighing
the tithed grain and that purchased from the peasants
for the use of the State, and the over-valuation of
the tithe when it had been compounded for a year of
plenty and was made the measure of years of scarcity.
It had been the custom, in addition to the tithe, to
exact various extras, such as granary dues, etc., while
the farmers claimed illegally to take for themselves
3^ out of every 70 measures of grain. This was
\ now disallowed, and each peasant was to have a
charter made out, specifying the exact amount he
l had to pay. Unjust and excessive weights were
I ordered to be broken. The burdatio was apparently
the tax due to the civil power. In order that the
peasants (who had to pay it before their crops
were available) should be able to do so, they were
obliged to borrow money at exorbitant rates from
pawnbrokers. Gregory provided that the Rector
should advance the money and have it repaid by
instalments. In regard to the marriage fees (nuptiale com-

LAPSED PRIESTS, ETC. 191
moda) of the rustics, they were in no case to exceed
a solidus, or gold piece, and if the people were poor
they were to pay less. These fees were not to be
credited to the Church, but to the farmers (con
ductores). The heirs of the farmers were to succeed
to their goods, and they were not to be confiscated
to the Church, as had often been the case ; and if
they left little children, guardians were to be ap
pointed for them.
If any one of a family misbehaved he was to be
personally punished and not fined, as the fine would
come out of the common fund of the family, and so
all would be punished for the fault of one ; and no
presents were to be received from such ill-doers. If
a farmer made an exaction from a peasant and was
compelled to refund, the sum was to be returned to
the peasant, so that the Church should not share in
his rapacity. New tenants of the farms were not to
pay consideration for their position, which would
be a temptation to change them, and thus the land
would cease to be cultivated. In the case of a
certain farmer, Theodosius, who had been a de
faulter in the payment of his dues and had exacted
a double payment from the peasants of their tax,
this was to be returned to them out of the sale
of his effects ; if any balance remained over, it
was to be paid to his daughter, who was also
to have her father's basin (baciola1) returned to
her. In another case, after providing for the rectifica-
1 E. and H. i. 42.

192 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
tion of several small acts of injustice and of misfortune
of a private kind, Gregory orders his agent to set
apart a portion of the money of the church of
Canusium for the relief of the clergy there, who
seem to have been in want.
In regard to lapsed priests, i.e. those who had
committed some offence, rendering them liable to
excommunication, he provided that they should be
sent to some poor monastery to be reclaimed by
penance ; their property was to be given to their
relations, but a portion was to be reserved for the
poor monks who took charge of them ; if they
belonged to a community the Church was to retain
a claim to this property.
It had been the practice for subdeacons to marry,
but it seems, from a letter of the Pope to the sub
deacon Peter, dated May 591, that three years be
fore, an order had been issued in Sicily forbidding
them to have conjugal intercourse with their wives.
This Gregory deemed unreasonable, but in future
no married men were to be ordained. None but
those subdeacons who had lived in chastity were
to be advanced in the Church.
In the same letter1 Peter was to see to the
nuisance which had arisen in consequence of the
disturbance of monasteries in the recent wars, by
which many monks were wandering from monastery
to monastery without leave of the abbots. I n another
letter he advises him to settle certain vagrant monks
together with the Bishop of Taurianum, in Bruttii
1 E. and H. i. 42.

LETTERS TO PETER THE DEACON 193
(whom they had once obeyed), in the Monastery
of St. Theodore, at Messina.1
In regard to a monk who had left half of
his property to the Defensor Fantinus, and thus
broken a very rigid monastic rule about owning
private property, the Pope nevertheless ordered
that the money should be paid over, since Fantinus
had deserved, but not yet received, a proper recom
pense for his services.
It is surprising, in reading these letters, to see
the tender solicitude shown for all the oppressed
and suffering, especially for women and children,
and the care taken by the Pope that anything that
had been unjustly done should be rectified. Inter
alia, he sent back three onyx phials (amulae
onichinae) which had been sent to him, and which
he ordered to be restored to the owner, from whom
they had been improperly taken.2
In another letter written to the same agent, the
Pope enters into details in regard to the manage
ment of his farms in Sicily, which show what a
practical man of business he was. Thus he writes :
" Cows which are barren with age, or bulls which
are useless, ought to be sold, so that some profit
may accrue from them. As to the herds of mares
which we keep very unprofitably, I wish them all
to be disposed of except 400 of the younger ones
for breeding." Those dispensed with were to be
handed over to the farmers, to be turned into cash,
so that they might make some return for the loss
1 E. and H. i. 39. * Ib. i. 42, and vol. i. p. 68, note 4.
'3

194 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
they had caused in successive years, " for it is hard
for us to spend 60 solidi on the herdsmen and not
get sixty pence from the herds." The herdsmen, he
thought, "should also make some profit out of the
cultivation of the ground. All the implements at
Syracuse and Palermo belonging to the Church must
be sold before they perished entirely from age. " Then
comes a passage showing that the Pope's palfreys
came from Sicily, where in the time of Pindar the
best coursers for the circus were bred. Gregory is
sarcastic on the subject : " Thou hast sent me one
wretched nag (caballum miserum) and five good
asses. The nag I cannot ride, it is such a wretched
one, and those ' good asses ' I cannot ride because
they are asses (non sedere possum quia asini sunt)."
In the same letter he instructs his agent about
the disposition of various gifts to poor monasteries,
people, etc. etc. He further summons him to come to
Rome, apparently to explain a charge of receiving a
bribe, which had been made against him. Before
leaving, he tells him to give a little present (parvum
aliquid exenium) to the recruiting officers (scriboni)
to make them well disposed towards him, and some
thing also, according to ancient custom, to the
Praetor. He was to give these " tips " by the hand of
his successor, so as to conciliate their favour towards
him. One sentence in the letter is a good specimen
of the way Gregory sometimes rebukes his rather
hapless official by a timely sarcasm. " I have heard,"
he says, "that the building in the Praetorian Monas
tery is not yet even half completed ; which being the

LETTERS TO PETER THE DEACON 195
case, what can we praise for it but thy Experience's
fervour ? " The last sentence is also interesting :
he bids Peter give to the Praetorian Monastery
a volume of the Heptateuch out of the goods of
Antoninus the Defensor, and to take the rest of his
books to Rome with him.1
In another letter to the same correspondent he
tells him how for some years there had been com
plaints about the way that the representatives of
jthe Church had invaded the boundaries of other
I owners, and taken their slaves and moveables
without any judicial process. He bids him cure
this, and take care that no tituli were wrongfully
attached to any urban or rural farm.2 Titulum
>imponere was the act of posting up a written claim
| to property. He ends this letter by saying that it had
been customary for bishops to pay a complimentary
visit to Rome on the Pope's birthday. Gregory ob
jected to this flattery, and, if they had to go thither,
preferred they should do so on St. Peter's natal day,
by whose bounty they were pastors (ut ei cujus largi-
tate pastor es sunt, gratiarum actiones solvant)}
The Pope does not mince his phrases in speak
ing to his careless agent Peter. Thus he says :
" We thank thy Solicitude for that, after we had in
formed thee in the business of our brother to send him
back his money, thou hast consigned the matter to
oblivion as if something had been said to thee by the
least of thy slaves. But now let even thy Negligence
1 E. and H. ii. 38 ; Barmby, ii. 32.
2 E. and H. i. 39a. 3 Ib. i. 39a ; Barmby, i. 36.

196 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
— I cannot say thy Experience — study to get this
done." And he concludes the letter : " Read all these
things over carefully, and put aside all that familiar
negligence of thine. My writings which I have sent
to the peasants, do thou cause to be read over
throughout all the estates, that they may know in
what points to defend themselves under our authority
igainst acts of wrong, and let either the originals or
:opies be given to them. See that thou observest
|everything without abatement, for with regard to
what I have written to thee for the observance of
justice, I am absolved ; and, if thou art negligent,
vthou art guilty. . . . Thou hast heard what I wish
to be done, see that thou do it."
In all this we see something more than the
monk and Pope : we see the trained Roman official,
the upright prefect of former days. What strikes
one, perhaps, most, is how much of the administra
tion of justice had passed out of the hands of the
regular courts, and how much better off the tenants
of the Church must have been than other people.!
The Pope kept a strict watch himself over the whole
administration. His special attestation was required
in various kinds of documents relating to his metro
politan province, as in authorising " the consecration
of churches, oratories and monasteries, the deposition
of relics, the rebuilding of churches burnt by fire, the
erection of episcopal residences, the use of baptist
eries, the wearing of the pallium, the unification of
churches," etc.1 1 Dudden, i. 387.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PAPAL ALMS 197
John the Deacon describes in some detail the way
in which the great income of the papal estates, which
were managed in such a businesslike fashion, was dis
pensed. The whole income of the property was duly
entered up in a great ledger, which had been instit
uted by Pope Gelasius, and was thence called Gelasii
polyptycon. Having summoned the various Church
officials, and those of the palaces, monasteries, lesser
churches, cemeteries, deaconries, and guest-houses
within and without the walls, each was given the
number of solidi to which he was entitled, according
to the ledger. These gifts were distributed four
times a year — namely, at Easter, at the Feast of thej
Apostles (29th June), on St. Andrew's Day (30th
November), and on Gregory's own fete day (3rd
September). Very early on Easter Day, Gregory
used to sit in the Basilica of St. Vigilius, near which
he lived, to exchange the kiss of peace with the
bishops, priests, and deacons, etc., when it was his
habit to give each of them a gold piece ; while on the
Feast of the Apostles and on the anniversary of his
own consecration he gave them some money and
dresses made of foreign material.
On the first day of each month doles were given \
to the poor, consisting of wine, cheese, vegetables,
bacon, meat, flesh, and oil, according to the season,
while gifts of paints and other foreign products were
given to the more well-to-do people. Every day,
again, he entertained twelve strangers at his table,
and he used to send cooked meats by his mes
sengers to the sick and infirm poor, while to the

198 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
impoverished of higher rank he sent a dish from
his own table before he himself sat down to dine.1
With the gift he generally sent a message always
marked by the Pope's tender consideration for the
feelings of the impoverished man. One of his letters
toTheotisca, the sister of the Emperor Maurice, illus
trates another phase of his eleemosynary work. He
tells her how the city of Crotona on the Adriatic had
the year before been sacked by the Lombards, and
nian^^captixes — men, women, and children — had
been made, only some of whom had been redeemed,
since the captors demanded a large ransom. He had
idevoted one half of the gift she had sent him to their
( redemption. With the other half he had purchased
bedclothes for the handmaids of God, " whom you
call monaslriae" (in Latin sanctimoniales), "inasmuch
as they suffered from the bareness of their beds
during the great cold of winter." Of these he said
there were then, according to the official list, 33,ooo\
in Rome, who received eighty pounds annually frorm
the possessions of St. Peter, which he says was very t
little for so many. He claims that their tears and/
austerities had preserved the people of Rome for
many years from the hands of the Lombards.2 The
official list above named was doubtless the so-called
Pergrande Volumen mentioned by John the Deacon
as preserved at the Lateran, and containing a list of
all the people in Rome and the suburbs and other
towns, with details about their sex, age, and profes-
1 John the Deacon, ii. 24-28.
2 E. and H. vii. 23.

SAINT GREGORY'S MANIFOLD CHARITIES 199
sion, and the payments they were entitled to receive.1
-VThus elaborately were the systematic alms, so dis
tasteful to modern political economy, provided for by
>the large-hearted if not too prudent Pope. His bio
grapher Paul tells us how he looked after the division
of the Church's revenue among the fourfold objects
to which it was assigned, — the Bishop, the Clergy,
the fabrics and services of the Church, and the poor.
He had a list of the deserving poor prepared, who
were to share his charity. While he organised a
great system of methodical charity, he also dispensed
large sums in individual gifts to those he deemed
deserving. Those in need found him a ready helper,
perhaps a too ready helper ; doles of beans, wheat,
wine, or gold pieces were given unstintingly wherever'
he heard of deserving people. To a bishop named]
Ecclesius, who complained that he was suffering!
from cold in the winter, he sent a cloak with a double *
nape (Transmissimus amphiballam tunicam)} To
Eulogius, the Patriarch of Alexandria, he sends
six of the small palls called aquitanian, and one
or two napkins.3 With a letter to Theodorus the
physician he sends a duck and two ducklings,
" that when he looked upon them he might think of
himself." 4 Again, in a letter to the Lombard queen,
Theodelinda, he tells her he is sending a phylacta
(i.e. a cross with some wood from the Cross of
Christ inserted), and a lection of the holy gospel
enclosed in a Persian case for her son Advald, who
1 Op. cit. ii. 30. 2 E. and H. xiv. 15.
8 Ib. vii. 40. * lb. iv. 32.

200 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
became king of the Lombards in 616 a.d., and three
rings, two of them with hyacinths (cum iacinthis),
and the third with an albula (?) for her daughter.1
A certain MarceUus doing penance at Palermo was
supplied with food, clothes, and bedding for himself
and his servant.2 The recipients of his charity were:
very various: e.g. a former Istrian schismatic,
three Jewish converts, a decayed provincial
governor who was in great poverty, an old blind
serf of the Church, and some nuns at Nola so
poor that they could not buy food or clothes, etc.
Three sons of a defensor who had died in debt to
the Church had their father's property restored to
them. A tenant of the Church who had suffered
losses had half his rent remitted. To a certain
consiliarius who had no servants he presented a
Sicilian slave. Argentius, a colonus of the Church,
was given a property in order that he might exer
cise his accustomed hospitality curam hospitalitatis
habere. He was also lavish in other ways. To
Peter, an abbot of St. Peter's on the island of
Eumorphiana, he gave 1 500 pounds of lead for build
ing purposes ; estates in Rome were given to two nun
neries, and 3000 nuns were supported by the Church.
To celebrate the dedication of an oratory at Palermo
he gave 10 gold solidi, 30 amphorae of wine, 200
loaves, 2 orcae of oil, 12 wethers and 100 hens. He
founded a guest-house at Jerusalem, and sent 15
cloaks, 30 blankets and 1 5 beds to the monks of Mount
Sinai; while he made over 10 mares and a stallion to
1 E. and H. xiv. 12. 2 Ib. i. 18.

THE SUPPLIES OF CORN AND WOOD 201
a hospice in Sicily, and sent 1 60 solidi to purchase
baptismal robes for converted Jews, etc. etc.1
We can understand what an increasing number
of applicants there would be for the contents of a
purse which never seemed exhausted, and how often
indiscriminate alms demoralised large numbers of
people. We can hardly realise, perhaps, the difficulty <
of providing for the poor in Rome caused by the
destruction and emigration of the richer citizens,
who had dispensed large sums in eleemosynary
work in the city. The Church now undertook
this work, which was well organised. In each of
the seven ecclesiastical districts of Rome was a
Diaconia, or deaconry, under a deacon, whose ac
counts had a special administrator. In these the
poor, old, and destitute were supplied with food.
Various Xenodochia, or guest-houses for strangers,
existed in Rome, where the poor could be housed.
Corn, again, was publicly distributed in the monas
teries and basilicas.2 John the Deacon tells us that
Gregory also sent the Abbot Probus to found a
guest-house at Jerusalem.3
The heaviest administrative load he had to
bear was, however, seeing_that_ Rome _i£seJl was
regularly jand_du]y_43rovided with sufficienjL.corn
to avoid famines, which meant vigilance in collect
ing, storing, and shipping it from Sicily and Africa.
A certain amount of the corn required was supplied
1 E. and H.pass. ; Dudden, i. 317, 318.
2 Dudden, i. 247. 3 Lib. ii. 52.

202 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
by the State, but the greater part came from
the Papal patrimony and was stored in the Papal.
/granaries, which he took care were always replen
ished. In a letter to his agent Peter he says there
(was danger of a famine at Rome ; he bids him get
from the dealers corn of the year's growth to the
'value of fifty pounds of gold, and to lay it up in
Sicily in places where it would not rot, so that in
(February it would be ready to be transported on the
ships which he would send for the purpose ; and in
case there should be a delay in sending the latter, he
was himself to charter some ships for the purpose.
The corn thus stored was not to interfere with that
which it was customary to send to Rome in Sep
tember and October. It would further seem that
the ships belonged to the State, but a certain
number of them had been assigned to the Pope for
this transport.1
It was not only for the portage of corn that ships
were employed by the Pope.
Egypt, which was so fertile in other ways, did not
produce timber trees, and we find Gregory writing
to Eulogius, the Patriarch of Alexandria, saying he
wished to send him some timber of larger size, but
no ship went thence to Italy capable of carrying it,
and he was ashamed to send the smaller kinds.2
The large timber, it would seem, was to be used
for masts and rudders (arbores ac turiones)} As
Eulogius seems to have complained in a second
letter of some wood the Pope had sent having been
1 E. and H. i. 70. ! Ib. vii. 2. 3 Ib. xiii. 45.

ST. GREGORY'S TABLE, AT WHICH HE USED TO FEED TWBLVE POOR MEN (WEEKLY NOW), IN THE
CHAPEL OF STA. BARBARA AT ST. GREGORIO.

To face p. 202,

EPITOME OF THE POPE'S ADMINISTRATION 203
too short, he again explains that this was because
there were no available ships of sufficient size.
Eulogius wished to pay for the timber, but this the
Pope would not hear of. He said he could not
charge for what had cost him nothing. He adds
that he had sent him some more short timber
through the ship-master (nauclerium), and would
send larger pieces the following year.1
Such is an epitome of the Pope's arrangements
for the management of the great estates of the
Church and for dealing with their income. It will
be conceded that this part of his work was done
with eminent business skill, and he, no doubt, put
its finances on a sound basis. What he could not
secure was that future popes should have his
training as a lawyer and man of affairs, and that
the personnel of the great establishment should
always secure a suitably vigilant supervision. (
1 E. and H. viii. 28 ; Barmby, viii. 29.

CHAPTER VII
Let us now turn from Gregory the Pope, the
administrator, politician, and man of affairs, to
Gregory the ecclesiastic and theologian. The
Liber Pontificalis, which records so many monu
ments the handiwork of other popes, has little to
say of those of Gregory. It does not mention a
single church built by him, and only refers to one
among those which he reconsecrated, namely, the
Arian Church built by the Goth Ricimer styled
Magister utriusque Militiae. Gregory rededicated
it to St. Agatha, his favourite saint, probably
because she was a Sicilian. He inscribed her
name, according to Aldhelm,1 in the Canon of
the Mass. The church is still known as St. Agatha
dei Gothi, and is attached to the Irish College.
It was reconsecrated in 591 or 592, and Gregory
tells us in his Dialogues (iii. 30) the prodigies
that then occurred. He there relates that this
church, which he calls St. Agatha in Suburra,
had long been closed. The Pope went to re
open it with the relics of St. Stephen and St.
Agatha, and a great crowd of people. The church
being full, a hog was noticed at the performance of
1 De Virgin., ch. 42.
204

THE CHURCH OF SAINT AGATHA 205
Mass running about among the legs of the congre
gation, and then rushing for the door. This, he
gravely assures us, was the unclean spirit which had
previously possessed the place. The next two
nights a tremendous noise was heard in the roof of
the church, which then ceased for ever. This, he
tells us, was the old enemy taking his final depart
ure. A few days later, on a clear day, a beautiful
scented cloud came down from the sky and settled
on the altar, covering it like a canopy, which was
seen by the serving priest and others. The lamps
at the same altar were also accustomed to relight
themselves after they were put out.
Gregory made this, one of the Diaconal churches
of Rome, where grain and other provisions were
distributed from the public granaries (horrea). In
rededicating the church, says Duchesne, Gregory
preserved the decorations of the building, the walls
of which were covered with a marqueterie of marbles,
and the apse was occupied with a mosaic which was
destroyed in 1589, but of which a copy exists in
MS. Vat. 5407. It represented Christ seated on a
terrestrial globe surrounded by the twelve apostles.
Below the figure of Christ were the words, " Salus
totius generis humani." An inscription seen by
Baronius recorded the building of the church by
Ricimer, who was consul 459-472. a In the nave
are still twelve of the original columns of very rare
reddish-yellow granite, with Ionic capitals, taken
from some ancient building.
1 See Lib. Pont. Greg I.,'ed. Duchesne, notes.

206 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Paul the Deacon says : " Other Pontiffs gave
jthemselves up to building churches and adorning
;them with gold and silver ; but Gregory, while not
entirely neglecting this duty, was wholly engrossed
|in gaining souls, and all the money he could lay
Ihis hands upon he was anxious to bestow upon the
poor."1 If Gregory was not given to building churches,
he looked after their repairs. (" Omni vitae suae
temporae sicut novas basilicas minime fabricaret,
ita nimirum fabricatarum veterum sarta tecta cum
summo studio annualiter reparabat." 2) On the other]
hand, the Pope was very businesslike in insisting on /
proper provision for the upkeep of churches before)
he would allow them to be consecrated. Thus, inj
one case, Januarius, a deacon of Messina, wishing)
to found a basilica, the Pope ordered the bishop to';
see to it that no bodies were buried there, that am
endowment of at least ten solidi a year should be'
carefully secured, and that it should suffice after the i
donor's death for the repair of the building, the supply j
of lights, and the support of the officiating clergy.
The deed was also to contain an express clause
providing that the founder had renounced all interest
in the church save the common one of worshipping
there, and that he had provided the necessary relics
to put into the foundations. Although we do not read
of his building churches, we find him conveying lands
to the basilica of St. Paul to maintain lights there
in honour of the Apostle. This was recorded in an
1 Vit. 16. 2 John the Deacon, Vit. iv. 68.

SAINT GREGORY'S GIFTS TO THE CHURCH 207
inscription still extant in that church.1 As Mr.
Dudden says, the custom of burning lights at the
shrines of saints and martyrs, which was defended
by St. Jerome, had become general at this time.2
The Liber Pontificalis tells us he built a ciborium
or baldacchino (fastigium) with its four columns
of pure silver for the altar of St. Peter's. He also
made a covering or veil for the Apostle's shrine,
ornamented with the purest gold and weighing
100 lb. The ciborium was removed to St. Maria
Maggiore by Leo the Third. Gregory built a
second one in the basilica of St. Paul.3
He held two ordinations annually, one at Quad
ragesima, and the other in the seventh month.
Altogether, during his Pontificate, he ordained thirty-
nine priests and five deacons, and consecrated
sixty-two bishops.4 He was a strict adherent him
self of the practice of saying mass daily and pressed
it upon others, and made special provision for daily
masses in the churches of St. Peter, St. Paul, and
St. Pancras.
The alterations made in the Roman Liturgy by
Gregory have been much illuminated lately by the
1 This gift, which was apparently from his own private property,
and which, if he had been a monk, he must long before have sur
rendered, he describes as the farm (massd), called Aqua Salvias, with
all its dependencies, the vineyard (cella vinaria) Antoniano, the Villas
Pertusa, Bifurco, Primiano, Cassiano, Silonis, Corneli, Tessellata,
and Corneliano, with all the appurtenant rights, implements, etc.,
together with two gardens situated on the Tiber between the river
and the Porticus of the Church of St. Paul, and two small closes
(terrulas) called Fossa latronis (E. and H. xiv. 14).
2 Op. cit. i. 260, note 1. 3 Joh. Diac. Vit. Greg. iv. 68.
4 Lib. Pont. sub. nom. Greg.

208 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
researches of M. Duchesne and Mr. Dudden, whose
conclusions seem incontrovertible. They were par
tially based on the practice he had noticed when
at Constantinople. This he doubtless thought an
improvement on that then used in Italy, which was
contained in the Sacramentary of Gelasius. This
was not to the taste of some, who complained that
it meant making the Church of Rome subservient to
that of Constantinople. In a letter to John, Bishop
of Syracuse, written in October 598, he refers to
these complaints. The usages in question, he says,
were chiefly that he had caused the Alleluia to be
said at Mass out of the season of Pentecost (extra
pentecosten tempora) ; second, that he had provided
for the subdeacon to proceed to the altar unvested ;
and third, that the Lord's Prayer and the Kyrie
Eleison were to be said immediately after the Canon,
and before the breaking of the bread instead of after.
He replied that in reference to the more frequent sing
ing of the Alleluia, it had been an ancient Roman
practice, derived from the Church of Jerusalem by
the tradition of St. Jerome and Pope Damasus.
In regard to the subdeacons, the practice he
followed was the old one which had been dis
placed by one of their pontiffs in favour of their
wearing linen tunics. In regard to the Kyrie
Eleison, he denied that his practice was that of
the Greeks, for they said it all together, while at
Rome it was said by the clerks and responded to
by the people. Christe Eleison was also always said
at Rome, which was not the practice of the Greeks.

ALTERATIONS IN THE LITURGY 209
In regard to altering the place of the prayer in the
Mass, he said it was his own doing and not derived
from the Greeks, as he deemed it more proper that
" the prayer which our Redeemer composed over his
Body and Blood should be said directly over the
oblation, as was the custom of the Apostles." Again,
as to the Lord's Prayer, he said the Greeks repeated
it all together, while with themselves it was said by the
priest alone. He claimed, therefore, that instead of
always following the Greeks he had himself amended
their old usages, or appointed new and more profitable
ones. He concludes the letter with the words :
" Who can doubt that the Church of Constanti
nople is subordinate to the Apostolic See ? It is
constantly admitted by our Lord the Emperor,
and by my brother, the Bishop of that city. But
am I on that account to reject what there is of
good in that Church ? As it is my duty to correct
my inferiors when they err, so am I ready to imitate
them when they do well. It is folly to refuse to learn
what is good because I think myself superior."1
"The repeating of the Kyrie Eleison, Christe
Eleison at the beginning of Mass," says Mr. Dudden,
"had been adopted at Rome as early as 529, and
was not an introduction of Gregory's. This we
gather from a Canon of the Council of Vaison."3
In addition to the changes here referred to, the
Liber Pontificalis (from which it was doubtless
taken by Bede) tells us he also added certain words
to the prayer, Hanc igitur oblationem, in the Canon
1 E. and H. ix. 26 ; Barmby, ix. 12. 2 Op. cit. i. 266.
14

210 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
of the Mass, namely, diesque nostras in tua pace
disponas atque ab ceterna damnatione nos eripi et in
elect orum tuorum jubeas grege numerari.1
These changes, together with that referred to
in a previous chapter as enacted by the Synod of
595, about the singing of parts of the Mass by the
deacons, comprise all the changes in the Liturgy
we can attribute with probability to Gregory, and
there is no real foundation for the notion that he
entirely reformed it, as John the Deacon and other
later writers affirm.2 Duchesne has shown that
the Sacramentary which passed under the name of
Gregory was, in fact, "a Pope's book," i.e. a book
containing the prayers used by the Pope when
presiding over ceremonies. He concludes that a
number of services in it are clearly later than the
time of Gregory. Notably, as was remarked long
ago, the so-called " Mass of St. Gregory," for he
could not have mentioned his own festival. The
book no doubt contains a number of prayers in use
in St. Gregory's time and earlier, but in the form in
which we have it, it doubtless dates from the time of
Pope Hadrian the First.3 As is well known, during
Lent, except on Saturdays and Sundays, the Mass,
properly so called, which would be then inappropri
ate, is not celebrated ifl Roman Catholic churches,
and there is substituted for it the Liturgy of the praa-
sanctified. This, says M. Duchesne, has come to

1 Lib. Pont, Greg., Bede, ii. i ; E. and H. ii. I.
2 See the question discussed by Mr. Dudden, i. 267-271.
3 Duchesne, op. cit. 123.

THE SO-CALLED GREGORIAN MUSIC 211
be attributed to St. Gregory, for what reason is not
known.1 A special service of some importance was
perhaps first introduced by St. Gregory, at least (as
Duchesne says) the most ancient notice of it was
contained in his Register, and was doubtless first
used in the year 598. This is the annual litany
(a word originally meaning a procession) which
took place on the 25 th of April, the same date as
the Pagan festival of the Robigalia. It used to set
out from the Church of St. Lawrence in Lucina ; a
station was then held at that of St. Valentine outside
the walls, another at the Milvian bridge, with its last
halt in the atrium or paradise of St. Peter's, the
service concluding in the Basilica itself.2
There is a greater difficulty in deciding the
exact connection of Pope Gregory with the so-
called Cantus Gregorianus or Gregorian Music. I
shall turn for guidance in this very technical matter
to the latest authorities. The Rev. W. H. Frere
says : " Plain song (Cantus Planus) is the name now
given to the style of unisonous ecclesiastical art-
music which arose before the development of
harmony. In its earliest days it was called by
more general names, such as musica, cantilena, or
cantus ; but when harmony arose and brought with
it measured music (musica mensurataov mensurabilis)
with a definite system of tune values, a distinguish
ing name was required, and cantus planus was
adopted in order to emphasize the fact that the
older music differed from the newer in having no
1 Duchesne, op. cit. 272. * Ib. 288.

212 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
definite tone values. . . . The synagogue music of
the pre-Christian era was probably of the same
character, and the traditional music of the synagogue
of to-day is in fact very characteristic of the style.
The history of Latin plain song represents the
evolution of melody from the artistic point of
view."1 Substantially, according to Mr. W. S. Rockstro,
it may be traced back to the Greeks. The early
Roman church music, he says, " was pre-eminently
Greek in character and personnel, therefore its
church music was not different in this respect from
the Roman secular music, which clung closely to the
Greek tradition. . . . Even when Greek ceased to
be the liturgial language of the Roman church, there
is no reason to think that any break came in the
continuity of the Greek tradition so far as the
music was concerned."2
It developed, however, greatly among the Latins.
This was in the main along three lines, forming
what Mr. Frere calls three dialects or styles. The
Ambrosian used in the diocese of Milan, the
Mozarabic in Spain, and thirdly, the so-called
Gregorian, the last of which developed especially in
Rome, and presently spread over Gaul, Africa, and
the Celtic lands, probably supplanting earlier styles
there. The name Gregorian which attaches to this
latter class, points to some influential personage
1 Article " Plain Song,'' Diet, of Music, vol. iii. 760.
2 Ib. vol. ii. 224, article "Modes."

THE SO-CALLED GREGORIAN MUSIC 213
called Gregory as connected with it, and this
personage has generally been deemed to have been
Pope Gregory the First.
" The whole tendency of modern inquiries," says
Mr. Frere, " has been to show that St. Gregory had
a personal share, to say the least, in the arrangement
of the collection." He admits that this conclusion
has on several occasions been seriously questioned,
"but," he continues, "fresh researches have shown
that the collection attained a final form shortly after
St. Gregory's death, and was thereafter considered
as closed. Moreover, a comparison of Gregorian
and Ambrosian versions of the same melody show
that a skilful hand had done in the former case
exactly the sort of editing which is ascribed to
St. Gregory. It may therefore be concluded that
the Gregorian music of the Mass comes from
St. Gregory's hand practically unaltered."1
Mr. Rockstro argues in the same way. He says :
" There are many lines of evidence that converge to
show that the main bulk and nucleus of this music
is to be dated as belonging to the fifth and sixth
centuries. A persistent tradition ascribes the final
regulation of it to St. Gregory (590-604). The
festivals and other occasions for which the music
was written are as a rule earlier than his date, and
the festivals of later origin differ markedly from
the pre-Gregorian festivals in having borrowed,
instead of original music provided for them ; this is
especially the case in the Mass. Further, the text
1 Diet, of Music, vol. ii. 255, article "Gregorian Music."

214 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
of the Latin Bible employed is an ancient one, that
was for most purposes superseded in the fifth and
sixth centuries." 1 This does not mean that Gregory
was the inventor of the so-called Gregorian music, but
only that he was the person who gave it its final form.
During the two centuries before his time, the
more primitive form of the Plain Chant was in
vogue which was associated with the name of
Ambrose. It is generally supposed that in this
Ambrosian style four "modes" or scales were
alone in use, in which every plain chant was then
written, those beginning and ending respectively on
the notes now called D, E, F, and G, and which
were respectively known as the Dorian, Phrygian,
Lydian, and Mixolydian. These were afterwards
known as " the four authentic modes."
Presently four other modes were introduced
which were known as " plagal," and directly derived
from the former, and which were respectively named
Hypodorian, Hypophrygian, Hypolydian, and
Hypomixolydian.2 The introduction of these new
modes was the special feature which Gregory is
supposed to have added to the plain chant, but it is
clear that the whole of these eight modes were known
long before his day and in use at Rome. " It is in
fact impossible to trace back the eight familiar
forms to the time of their first adoption into the
services of the church."3
As we have said, it is probable that Gregory gave
1 Diet, of Music, iii. 226, article " Modes, Ecclesiastical."
2 Op. cit. ii. 760, Rockstro, Plagal Modes. s Ib. ii. 766.

THE SO-CALLED GREGORIAN MUSIC 215
them their final forms, and in all probability drew
on his long experience at Constantinople for the
materials of his reform. The amount of Gregory's
modifications it is not possible with our present
knowledge to discriminate. What we can affirm
as virtually certain is that a large part of the music
known specifically as Gregorian was current at
Rome long before Gregory's day.
It will be well to realise a little more closely
what it consisted in, since it was this Gregorian
plain song that was imported into England by
Augustine and flourished so much here. "In the
earliest Christian days the psalms were recited by
a single soloist, who monotoned the greater part
of the psalm, but inserted various cadences or in
flexions at certain points of distinction in the
services. This was probably but the carrying out
of what had long been current in the synagogue."1
Presently it became customary for the congrega
tion to interject some small " response " at the close
of each verse, such as " Amen " or Alleluja, or " For
His mercy endureth for ever." Later the process
was elaborated, and became more like a modern
litany. Later again the part of the congregation
was largely taken by a body of trained singers
forming a choir, which encroached more and more
upon the former duties of the soloist, and the choral
melody called the " respond " was developed.2
The chief ancient pieces in the Graduate (or
music book for the Mass) are, the introit at the
1 Diet, of Music, iv. 73, Frere, " Responsive Psalmody." 2 Ib.

216 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
beginning of the service ; the graduale with Alleluja,
i.e. the tract preceding the Gospel ; the offer
tory which accompanies the preparation of the
oblations, and the communion which accompanies
the taking of the sacrament. This music, accord
ing to Mr. Frere, belongs exclusively to the fifth or
sixth centuries.
The responsive psalmody just described was
from early times supplemented in the East by
another form known as antiphonal, in which the
singing of the psalter was done by two alternat
ing choirs, and the refrain, instead of being a mere
brief tag, was a definite melody. From the East
it spread to the West, and was patronised by St.
Ambrose of Milan. The " Hours " were thus sung
by monks and canons, the occupants of the 'stalls on
each side of the choir singing the verses alternately.
In other places the antiphonal singing took place
between two choirs alternately, and properly speak
ing by men's voices alternating with women's or
boys' voices.1 The music book for the Mass was
originally called Cantatorium, and afterwards Gradu
ale or Grayle, while the music book for the " Hours "
was known as the antiphonarium.2
It is not improbable that, like Leo xi. in our
time, Gregory encouraged the use of more austere
music and discouraged the lighter melodies associ
ated with the name of St. Ambrose. A sentence
in one of his letters to Desiderius, Bishop of Vienne,
seems to imply this. The Ambrosian music was
1 Diet, of Music, i. 92, Frere, sub. voc. " Antiphon." 2 Ib. p. 95.

THE SO-CALLED GREGORIAN MUSIC 217
also at first distasteful to the great St. Augustine,
who afterwards became reconciled to it. Martene
says Dr. Barmby, quotes quite an ancient writer
to the effect that in the Benedictine Monastery
of Monte Cassino Ambrosian music was for
bidden.1 Gregory was credited, not only with the in
vention of the so-called Gregorian music, but with
being the founder of the Schola Cantorum or Sing
ing School at Rome, and his very inaccurate bio
grapher, John the Deacon, says, " He built for it two
habitations, one under the slopes of the Basilica
of St. Peter the Apostle, and the other under the
houses of the Lateran palace." It is clear that
John's statement about the Pope having founded the
Roman singing school, known also as the Orphano-
strophium or orphanage, cannot be sustained. It
was in existence long before his time, and was
variously ascribed to Pope Hilary and Pope Syl
vester, and we have no evidence of any kind, save
the statement of John the Deacon, who wrote three
hundred years after the Pope died, for the account.
The Pope is more credibly reported to have in his
leisure hours actually instructed the boys in their
singing, and the whip with which he chastised
them, and the antiphonary he is said to have used,
were shown in later times. This is partially con
firmed by Bede, who tells us that Putta, who became
Bishop of Rochester, was an adept at chanting in
1 See Martene de Antiq. Eccles. Rit., vol. iii. p. 8 ; Barmby,
Gregory the Great, 189, 190.

218 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
the Roman manner, which he had learned from
Gregory's disciples.1
The ruthless critic has also disposed of
Gregory's claim to the composition of several
hymns, some of the most famous, indeed, in the
Roman service books. " The Gregorian authorship
of these compositions cannot, however, be maintained.
As M. Gevaert says, ' Tout le monde sail que la
liturgie locale de Rome n admettait pas cette catigorie
de chants, ni au VI'. siecle ni beaucoup plus tard.' " *
It is not a pleasant duty to disturb and destroy
the legendary embroidery which, in Pope Gregory's
case as in many others, has credited the great per
sonage with the deeds of lesser men, or even the
combined work of generations of men. In his case
enough and to spare remains to fully justify the title
of Great, without legends that will not stand the
breath of criticism.
One great reform introduced by Gregory, which
still subsists, was that of the calendar. He was
the first to date events by the days of the month
as we do now, instead of in the ancient fashion
by calends, ides, and nones.3 He was also the first
Pope to reckon by indictions (i.e. cycles of fifteen
years), and he uses the Constantinopolitan indiction
1 Bede, E. and H., H.E. iv. 2.
2 Les Origines du Chant Liturgique, p. 18 ; Dudden, i. 276. In
Belgium he came to be looked upon as the patron saint of schoolboys,
patronus addiscentium litteras, and in the Acta Sanctorum, Jany. ii.
P- 3^3, par. 6, we read: " Erat tunc festum Gregorii Papae, quem frater
speciali affectu diligebat ; quia in ejus festo scholas ad discendum
alphabetum cum aliis pueris primitus intravit." Dudden, ii. p. 271.
3 Plummer, Bede, vol. ii. 153 ; quoting Ideler, ii. 191.

SAINT GREGORY AS A PREACHER 219
beginning on ist September.1 It was reserved for
his namesake, Gregory the Thirteenth, to make the
much more important rectification of the calendar
which goes by his name. Gregory, among his
manifold accomplishments, is said to have been a
skilful scribe. Bede speaks of his having written
many and large books, notwithstanding his con
tinual bad health.2 His successor, Innocent in., is
said to have sent a whole Bible written by him to
the Bishop of Livonia in 1203 : Papa Innocentius
. . . Bibliotecam beati Gregorii manuscriptam epis-
copo Lyvoniensi mittit}
Gregory deemed the capacity for teaching, and
especially that of preaching, a bishop's most im
portant endowment, and in this respect he set
others a fine example, for he was essentially a great
preacher. It is noticeable that among the earlier
Popes the only ones whose sermons are preserved
were St. Leo and St. Gregory himself. Certain
churches and the cemeteries where the martyrs had
been buried were selected as preaching places by the
latter and called stations (stationes). On the great
festivals, when crowds might be expected, the great
basilicas were so used ; on the festivals of the lesser
saints the stations were fixed at one or other of the
churches dedicated to the particular saint. " The
Pope arrived on horseback, escorted by his deacons
and the high officials of the palace ; he was received
1 Bright, 48, note 5 ; quoting Bened. Edd. in Ep. i. I ; Jaffe", R. P.,
pp. 93 ff. ; Plummer, op. cit. vol. ii. 39, note.
2 E. and H., H.E. ii. 1. 3 See Pertz, xxiii. 247.

220 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
in state, and from the sacrarium proceeded to his
throne behind the altar. As he passed up the nave
seven candlesticks were borne before him, incense
was burnt, and a psalm was chanted by the choir.
Mass was then celebrated, and a sermon delivered.
During the preaching of the sermon the Pope re
mained seated on a marble chair. Sometimes he
recited them himself, and sometimes when unwell
they were dictated to notaries. They were after
wards revised and published, and a standard text
was deposited in the Papal archives. Forty of
these sermons are extant, nine preached at St.
Peter's, six or seven at St. John Lateran, four at
St. Laurence, two each at St. Maria Maggiore, St.
Agnes and St. Clement's, and one each at St. Paul-
without-the- Walls, St. Felicitas, St. Stephen, St.
Andrew, SS. MarceUinus and Petrus, St. Sylvester,
St. Felix, St. Pancratius, SS. Nereus and Achilla,
SS. Procopius and Martinianus, SS. John and Paul,
St. Menas, SS. Philip and James, and St. Sebastian."1
Gregory's sermons were plain and simple, popular
and practical, and he seldom discussed dogmas. They
abound in parables and allegories, anecdotes, stories
of the saints, of visions, and of encounters with angels
and demons, in which the Pope fully believed : but
the truth of the occurrences was quite of secondary
importance to its edification, etc. etc. He also de
lighted in mystical interpretations, which he found
lurking in the most matter-of-fact phrases in
Scripture, and which were often far-fetched. He
1 John the Deacon, ii. 18 ; iv. 74.

SAINT GREGORY AS A PREACHER 221
quotes Scripture profusely and generally very
aptly, had an extraordinary knowledge of all its
parts, and was the first to experiment in anything
like a systematic way in the use of illustrations
drawn from other than scriptural sources, and he
dots epigrams about his paragraphs like bits of
stained glass in an old window. Contrasting the
methods of preaching to the wise and the simple,
he tells us the former were for the most part con
verted by argument and reasoning, the latter better
by examples.1 His most famous collection of
sermons, known as the Magna Moralia, which he
carefully revised, was that devoted to the Book of
Job. " Of ancient or oriental manners he knew
nothing, nor did he look upon the book as a poem.
To him it was pure unimaginative unembellished
history, which he interpreted allegorically." From
this famous book the Irish called him Gregory of
the Moralia} Besides this and his forty homilies
on the Gospels, he composed twenty others on
Ezekiel, in which his mystical and allegorical
tendency had full play.
He showed great good sense in moderating the
fanaticism and extravagance which is a common
product of the ascetic life. Extreme Sabbatarian
views then prevailed, notably in Gaul, and among
" the Celts " (i.e. of Britain), among whom any kind
of work was strictly forbidden on Sunday, even
washing the person as well as the face and comb
ing the hair. Referring to this subject the wise
1 Pastoral Care, iii. 6. 2 See Plummer, Bede, vol. ii. 70.

222 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Pope, addressing the Roman citizens, bids them
not be deluded by these extravagant theories. "If
any one," he says, "craves to wash for mere luxury
and pleasure, we do not allow it on other days than
Sunday, but if for bodily need we do not forbid it,
even on the Lord's day. . . . If it is a sin to wash
the body on the Lord's day, why is it not a sin to
wash the face on the same day ?"1
Gregory was a devoted believer in the miraculous
virtues of relics, " which had been much encouraged
by the great Church leaders, such as Basil and
Chrysostom in the East, and Ambrose and Augus
tine in the West."
It is really incredible how, with the decay of
criticism and real knowledge, this cult spread all
over the Christian world. There was no pretence
or mistake about its meaning. At first, perhaps, it
represented a not unnatural desire to possess some
object reminiscent of a person whose life had been
exemplary, or who had done conspicuous service to
the Church or otherwise, and who had been given
the ambiguous style of a saint, which was in many
cases confirmed by the Ghurch authorities. It was
not, however, possible to restrain the imagination
and fervour of the devout to this very innocent
form of respect. It speedily resulted in the idea
everywhere rampant, that there was a much greater
virtue in these remains than the fact that they might
be means by which the example and teaching of
saintly men could be cherished and their memories
1 E. and H. xiii. 3.

CULT OF RELICS IN THE SIXTH CENTURY 223
kept green by having scraps of their bones or old
clothes close at hand. The quite materialistic and
magical notion which doubtless had a pagan origin
was everywhere spread about among both clerics
and lay folk, that these objects had special virtues
in themselves by which men could with their help
be cured of diseases, or rid themselves of mental
or bodily distress, or secure protection against the
devil and all his hosts or the machinations of
wicked men and women.
The temptation was the greater because it was
so easy to summon poetry and imagination in favour
of the view, and it seemed to create a direct tie
between the living and the dead which looked very
close, however factitious. Thus it came about that
the place where the dead saint lay was supposed
to have a suffused light hanging over it, that the
soil in which he or she was buried was said to be
fragrant with sweet odours, and the remains them
selves were reported to be the cause of many
miracles, and were accordingly the trysting-places
of pilgrimages and processions in which thousands
of poor people joined, with a full faith that they or
those dear to them would be thus healed of their
complaints, or protected against temporal dangers
and spiritual enemies.
Mr. Dudden has collected from the works of
Gregory of Tours a very instructive list of relics at
this time venerated in France which I will quote.
" Here," he says, "among the rest we find men
tioned the holy spear, the crown of thorns (which

224 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
kept miraculously green), the pillar of the scourging,
and the seamless coat, which was enclosed in a chest
in a very secret crypt of a basilica in a place called
Galathea. Here also we read of relics of St.
Andrew preserved at Neuvy near Tours, blood of
St. Stephen in an altar at Bordeaux, some drops
of sea-water which had fallen from the robes of the
proto-martyr, when he was seen in a vision after
succouring a ship in distress, and a shoe of the
martyr Epipodius." Further, it was thought and
believed that the miraculous powers of the saint
might be manifested not only through his actual
relics, but also through objects which had been as
sociated therewith, such as dust from his tomb, oil
from the lamps that burnt in front of it, and rags of
cloth (brandea) which had been placed on the sarco
phagus. These objects as well as the original relics
were deposited in reliquaries (sanctuario) and pre
served in churches either underneath or within or
behind the altar ; sometimes they were borne in
solemn procession, occasionally they were worn by
private individuals about their persons. In the sixth
century they were regarded as necessary for the
consecration of churches, and frequently in the case
of old churches which had not been dedicated in
this way, the omission was supplied.1
A very large proportion of these relics were
sophistications, and it is virtually certain that all the
very old ones were. As is quite well known, they
were duplicated and triplicated and multiplied, so
1 Dudden, . pp. 277, 278.

CULT OF RELICS IN THE SIXTH CENTURY 225
that almost every saint must have had several heads
and a great number of limbs, while the relics of their
clothing and other surroundings prove them to have
had outrageous wardrobes, and as having been any
thing but ascetics. Churches and monasteries, to the
great scandal of the pious, have had fierce polemics
about their respective claims to particular relics of
their cherished saint, who has been something more
than a mere patron to them, namely, an attractive
bait for pilgrimages and processions. A huge trade
in spurious relics arose in very early times, and went
on right through the Middle Ages, especially in the
days of the Crusaders, greatly to the profit of the
Jews and Levantine Greeks who trafficked in them.
This nefarious trade has come down to our own
days.1 The most famous of all the relics existing in
Gregory's time were the alleged bodies of St.
Peter and St. Paul preserved at Rome, about which
he in one of his letters gives a wonderful account,
proving better than any mere criticism the extra
ordinary superstition which (in the case of the Pope)
was consistent with so many high qualities.
In a letter written by Gregory to Constantina
1 It will be remembered that not many years ago, when Cardinal
Vaughan claimed to have secured the remains of St. Edmund for
the consecration of his great cathedral, other claimants to the
possession of the relic arose, and the Cardinal, who utterly failed to
substantiate the pedigree of his treasure, confessed that it was in
different whether the relics were genuine or not ; so long as the
faithful believed in their genuineness their virtue remained. What
ever the virtue of this apology, it has the advantage of justifying those
who see no absurdity in the cult of the multiplied heads of the same
saint in various churches.
15

226 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Augusta, the wife of the Emperor Maurice, who
had asked him to send her the head or some other
part of the body of St. Paul for the church then
being built in his honour in the palace, he replied
that he neither could nor dared, since the bodies of
St. Peter and St. Paul in their churches were so
endowed with miraculous and terrible powers that it
was not possible to pray there without fear, and when
his predecessor wished to change the silver canopy
or covering of St. Peter's body, although it was fifteen
feet away, a dreadful portent occurred. In his own
time, in making some repairs near the sepulchre of St.
Paul, the workman in digging disturbed some bones
which were unconnected with the tomb, but as he
presumed to lift them he died suddenly. Again, when
searching for the body of St. Laurence the Martyr,
whose place of sepulchre was not exactly known,
they came upon the tomb. Although the monks and
sacristans who were at work did not venture to touch
it, they all died within ten days. Gregory then goes on
to say that it was not the custom of the Romans, when
they gave relics of the saints, to presume to touch
any parts of their bodies, but to put a cloth (bran-
deum) into a casket (pyxis) and to place this awhile
near the body, and when taken up to remove it rever
ently to the church to be dedicated, when the same
results followed as if part of the body itself had been
put there. Some Greeks having doubted this, his
predecessor, Pope Leo, had cut such a cloth with a
pair of scissors, when it began to bleed ! ! ! Thus at
Rome and in all the West it was deemed sacrilegious

CULT OF RELICS IN THE SIXTH CENTURY 227
to touch the actual remains of the saints, and they
wondered greatly at the custom of the Greeks, which
was to take up the body of a saint entire. He
reports a story of some Greeks who went there some
two years before, and who at night dug up the bones
of dead men in an open field near the Church of
St. Paul. When they were arrested and asked why
they did this, they replied that they were going to
take them to Greece and there to pass them off as
saints' bones. He said further, that on the death
of the Apostles, certain men came from the East to
recover their bodies as being those of their country
men. They carried them two miles out of the city
to a place called Catacombas, i.e. the Catacombs, and
deposited them awhile, intending to remove them
presently, but when they tried to do so a terrible
storm of lightning and rain prevented them, and
they were thereupon redeposited where they after
wards lay.
He said that, all this being so, he dared not
touch nor even look at these remains, but in order to
satisfy the Empress he was sending her some filings
of the chains which the Apostle Peter had worn
round his neck and hands and which had miraculous
effects.1 Of these filings he says that since many
people went to Rome hoping to get a little portion
of them, a priest attended with a file ; sometimes a
portion came off quickly, but at others the file was
drawn a long time over the chains without anything
being got.
1 E. and H. iv. 30 ; Barmby, iv. 30.

228 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Gregory, as we saw, brought back certain relics
for his monastery when he returned from Constanti
nople, In one of his letters1 he thanks John the
Abbot for sending him the tunic of St. John from
Syracuse. John the Deacon in his Life tells us that
this tunic, which had short sleeves, was in his time
preserved at St. John Lateran with a dalmatic sup
posed to be that of St. Paschasius.2 Other famous
relics in Rome at this time were the gridiron of St.
Laurence, a piece of the Holy Cross, and various
relics of John the Baptist, while a nail from the cross
of St. Peter is said to have been sent by Gregory to
the recluse Secundinus.3 The chains of St. Paul and
St. Peter, it was claimed, were preserved at Rome,
and in two churches — one set, with apparently the
older pedigree, at St. Pietro ad Vinculam, and the
other in the basilica of St. Peter. The latter are
often mentioned in Gregory's letters, in which they
are apparently named for the first time. The Pope
used to have filings from them enclosed in a small
cross or a gold key, copied from that which locked
St. Peter's sepulchre. These were supposed to cure
the sick when put on their bodies. In sending some
to Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch, he says : Beati
Petri apostoli vobis claves transmisi, quae super egros
positae multis solent miraculis coruscare} The keys,
he recommended, should be hung round the neck.
The magical and prophylactic properties of such
1 iii. 3-
2 Vit., lib. iii. ch. 57, etc. See E. and H., op. cit. i. 161, note.
3 Dudden, i. 278.
* E. and H. i. 25 ; see also ib. 29 and 30.

THE MAGICAL USE OF RELICS 229
relics enter into a great many stories of miracles in
this very credulous age. They were also danger
ous ; thus Gregory, in writing to Theoctista, tells a
story of a certain Lombard who in some city beyond
the Po picked up one of these golden keys of Peter.
"In order to see if it was gold he took his knife out
to cut it, but instead he thrust it into his own throat
and died. Presently Antharith, the Lombard King,
and his retinue came up, and none of them dared lift
the key up. Whereupon a Lombard who was a
Catholic took it up, and the King sent it to the Pope,
who sent it, in turn, to the Byzantine princess."1
Miraculous properties were assigned to many sub
stances. Thus in a letter of Gregory to Leontius,
the ex-Consul, he thanks him for sending him " oil
of the Holy Cross " and wood of aloes, one to bless
by the touch and the other to give a sweet smell
when burnt. Dr. Barmby tells us that in the
Itinerarium of Antoninus of Placentia there are
mentioned flasks (ampullar) of onyx, containing oil
which had been in contact with the wood of the
true Cross, supposed to be preserved in Constantine's
Church at Golgotha, and which on this contact
boiled over. In later times such oil was supposed
to flow from the Cross itself.2
Relics and similar objects were not the only
materials used in the scarcely disguised magical
practices of the Church at this time. Thus, sancti
fied water and oil and salt were all used in the
sacrament of baptism, and each of them had to be
1 E. and H. vii. 23. 2 Ib. vii. 23 ; Barmby, viii. 35.

230 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
deprived of the lurking demons within it by exor
cism before it was used, and similarly with the
sanctification of churches and graveyards, etc. These
and similar notions had their real pedigree in the
dim twilight of early history, and their most devel
oped parallels in the ritual of the priests of Baby
lonia. The phylacteries, with their scraps from the
Sacred Book, so much in vogue in the Church of
the sixth century, were in essence the same as
the similar magical formulae known to nearly every
old religion, and notably that of the Jews. The
existence of ever-present evil spirits continually
pursuing the life of man with temptations to do
evil and bringing him misfortune, was a belief most
vividly held at this time by all classes, and no small
part of the work of the clergy was the discomfiting
of his enemies by means of various exorcisms and
other methods. Among these the greatest favourite
was the sign of the cross, and its use is mentioned
in many places in Gregory's Dialogues. Mr. Dudden
has collected a number of instances from that work.
Thus he says : " Loaves and cakes were marked with
the cross. Men signed themselves when they went
to sleep, ate or drank. A nun wandering in the
garden of her convent plucked and' ate a lettuce
without first making the holy sign, and in conse
quence was possessed by a devil. At the exorcism
which followed, the spirit cried out, ' What have I
done ? What have I done ? I was sitting upon a
lettuce and she came and ate me.' The sign of the
cross was several times used in working miracles.

HOW A JEW OUTWITTED THE DEMONS 231
On one occasion holy water was employed."1 The
use of sanctified and exorcised water for aspersion,
for crossing themselves on entering church, for
mixing with the mortar at the sealing of the altar
stones and the washing of the altar at a dedication
of a church, all seem connected with the similar
uses of lustral water in the pagan temples. A very
elaborate service dealt with the preparation of the
holy oils. It was called the Chrismal Mass, and
was celebrated on Holy Thursday. At this the oil
for anointing the sick and used in extreme unction
was duly blessed, and was then deemed to possess
special curative virtues, imparted by the breathing
upon them by the priest and his making the sign
of the cross over them. A sentence from one of
the prayers used, will show how close akin the whole
thing was to pagan magic: " Emitte, quaesumus
Domine. Spiritum sanctum Paracletum de caelis in
hanc pinguedinem olei, quam de viridi ligno pro-
ducere dignatus es ad refectionem mentis et corporis
. . . ad evancuandos omnes dolores, omnem infirmi-
tatem, omnem aegritudinem mentis et corporis" etc.2
In many of the legendary tales which Gregory
tells us in the Dialogues, about which he seems to
have no doubts, there is a naive childishness which
seems incredible in one so endowed with practical
wisdom. One or two of these stories must suffice as
samples. A certain Jew was once travelling along
the Appian Way from Campania to Rome. His
road passed by Funda, where there dwelt a bishop
1 Dudden, i. 353. 2 Duchesne, op. cit. 306.

232 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
named Andrew, who was a good and chaste man,
but permitted a certain religious woman to live
under his roof as a housekeeper. When the Jew
drew near Funda, night was falling, and as he had
nowhere to go to, he found shelter in a ruined temple
of Apollo. But these shrines had a bad reputation,
and therefore (although a Jew) he took the precau
tion of protecting himself from demons by making
the sign of the cross. Even so he was too terrified
to sleep. As he lay awake at midnight, he beheld
a crowd of evil spirits moving before one who ap
peared to be their chieftain, and who took his seat
within the temple. The chieftain then interrogated
each of his followers as to what he had been doing
in the world. One thereupon stepped forward, and
said he had been tempting Bishop Andrew in regard
to his housekeeper, and had succeeded so well that
the Bishop had that very evening given her a playful
slap. He was duly praised, and promised a reward
if he completed his evil work. Then turning towards
the Jew, he asked how such a person came to be
there. The demons then looked at him, and were
amazed to find him marked with the sign of the cross.
Alas, they cried, here is an empty vessel, but yet it
is signed. They therefore fled. When the Bishop
heard the story he turned away his housekeeper and
all the other women in his household. The Jew was
converted, and the Temple of Apollo turned into a
church and dedicated to St. Andrew.1
Let us now turn to another story in which
1 Dialogues, iii. 7.

INFLUENCE OF SAINTLY MEN ON ANIMALS 233
poetry and pathos have a place. A certain old
Abbot of Praeneste had a protdge who was a monk
in the abbey, who fell ill, and foreseeing that he
would die asked leave to prepare his own sepulchre.
The abbot, having also fallen ill, saw that he would
die before his friend, and asked the latter to put
him in the grave he had fashioned for himself. He
replied that the grave was too small for two. But
the abbot was importunate, and undertook there
should be room. The priest presently died, and
when the brethren carried him to the grave he had
made for himself they found that the abbot's corpse
filled the whole place. Then one of them appealed
to the dead abbot to fulfil his promise that the
grave should hold them both. Thereupon the
latter, who lay with his face upwards, turned over
on his side, and thus made room for his friend.
This, we are told, was done in view of them all.1
Elsewhere we have stories of the influence of
saintly men on animals. Thus Gregory tells of a
hermit named Florentius, who one day found a
bear close to his oratory after he had finished his
devotions, holding its head down to the ground and
showing no sign of cruelty, and he understood it
to mean that it wished to do him a service. He
therefore ordered it to look after four or five
sheep which he owned, and it consequently used
to lead them down to the field and take them
back again at twelve o'clock, and when he wished
to fast, it brought them later or earlier, as he wished.
1 Dialogues, iii. 24.

234 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
This power of doing miracles aroused the envy of
other monks, who killed the bear ; upon which
Florentius cursed them, and they were struck with
leprosy and died.1
Tales of this kind abound in the Dialogues,
and some of them, as told by the Pope, are sometimes
fantastic beyond description : thus he tells us in the
gravest way that Fortunatus of Tosti had an extra
ordinary skill in putting whole legions of devils out
of possessed persons. A certain Tuscan lady having
violated an ecclesiastical rule was seized in church
by an evil spirit. The priest tried to cast it out by
covering the lady with the altar cloth, but as he had
persevered beyond his strength the spirit also entered
into him. The lady was then taken by her relatives
to certain wizards, who plunged her into a river,
reciting at the same time magical incantations. The
result was that though the first demon was driven
out, a whole legion entered in, and from that time
the woman began to be agitated with as many
emotions and to shriek out with as many voices
as there were devils in her body. At last she was
brought to Fortunatus, who prayed over her for many
days and nights, and in the end cured her with
difficulty.2 Again, another day, a priest of Valeria,
named Stephen, returning from a journey, said
carelessly to his servant, "Come, you devil, take
off my stockings." Immediately invisible hands
began to unloose his garters. The priest in great
terror cried out, " Away, foul spirit, away ! I spoke
1 Dialogues, iii. 15. 2 Ib. i. 10.

APPARITIONS AND GHOSTS 235
not to thee, but to my servant." So the devil de
parted, leaving the garters half untied. " Whence,"
moralises Gregory, " if the old enemy be so ready
in things pertaining to our body, he is yet more
eager in watching the thoughts of our hearts."1
Turning from this subject to a pleasanter one,
pointing to the extreme realism of the faith of these
times, we have several stories of the souls of the
recently dead having been seen which may be
matched by the ghost stories and the stories of
second-sight of our own day. " Many of our time,"
writes Gregory, "whose spiritual sight is purified by
undefiled faith and frequent prayer, have often seen
a soul departing from the body." Thus Benedict
beheld the soul of his sister Scholastica depart in the
form of a dove, and that of Germanus, Bishop of
Capua, carried to heaven by angels in a globe of
fire. Gregorius, a monk at Terracina, beheld the
soul of his brother Speciosus when the latter died
at Capua. Some people sailing between Sicily and
Naples saw the soul of a certain recluse carried up
to heaven.2 Some monks in a monastery six miles
from Nursia saw the soul of their dying abbot fly
from his mouth in the form of a dove. A hermit
living at Lipari, and gifted with second sight,
declared that on the day of his death he saw the
soul of King Theodoric, who was an Arian heretic,
without shoes and girdle, and with his hands
bound, taken between Pope John and Sym
machus the Senator (both of whom he had put to
1 Dialogues, iii. 20. 2 Ib. passim.

236 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
death), and thrown into Vulcan's Gulf, " which is not
far from that place." l This last phrase reminds us
that in early times the mouths of volcanoes were
considered as entrances to hell, as they had in earlier
times been deemed entrances to Hades, and Gregory
tells us the mouths of these craters were getting
bigger, to accommodate the larger crowds who had to
pass through as the world grew older. A message
sent by one dying man to another, stating that a
ship was ready to take them to Sicily, was inter
preted to mean they were bound for hell through
the Sicilian volcanoes. It is not remarkable (for
the belief was universal in the Middle Ages) that in
Gregory's Dialogues the stories told imply a material
hell with a real fire. His Deacon Peter, who in the
Dialogues plays the part of Boswell to Johnson, and
puts the question which the Pope answers, asked
him how it is possible that a corporeal thing like
fire can hold and torment that which is incorporeal
and without body. The Pope asked, in turn, if
angels and devils were not incorporeal ? and hav
ing got an affirmative answer, he crushes his
questioner with Matthew xxv. 41, "Go into ever
lasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and
his angels."2 Miracles were the everyday explana
tion of all unusual phenomena then as now, and
in most cases they argue an extreme simplicity
in the narrator and a want (which was not felt) of
any critical faculty or scientific knowledge. Thus
we read inter alia in the Dialogues "of fish mirac-
1 Dialogues, iv. 30. 2 lb. iv. 29.

CREDULITY DISPLAYED IN DIALOGUES 237
ulously supplied to an ascetic on a fast day ; of great
rocks removed or arrested by prayer ; of a saint
rendered invisible to his enemies ; of poison made
innocuous by the sign of the cross ; of lamps lighted
without hands or burning without oil ; of wild
beasts, birds, and reptiles gifted with miraculous
intelligence ; of glass and crockery smashed and
made whole ; of provisions miraculously provided or
increased ; of raging fires stayed ; of sick persons
and animals healed ; of dead bodies raised to life or
miraculously preserved, or singing or moving or
undergoing unnatural transformation in the tomb ;
of springs produced by prayer, and rivers altering
their course ; of second sight ; of the casting out of
devils."1 Such are samples of the many stories told in
the Dialogues, which are utilised by Gregory to
impart lessons in morals and in dogma to his friend
Peter, and which made his name so famous. The
Euchologium Graecum calls Gregory 6 SoOXos a-ov
rpr}<y6pio<s rov AtaXoyov, and in the Legatio of Liud-
prand he is quoted as " Gregorius, qui a vobis
appellatur est Dialogus." 2
These stories emphasise for us in part the mixture
of shrewdness and superstition which characterised
Gregory's mind. Here is Mr. Dudden's judgment
upon them, with which I quite agree. " It is certainly
astonishing that the clear-headed man who managed
the papal estates and governed the Church with such
1 Dudden, i. 333, 334.
2 Pertz, iii. 351 ; Plummer, Bede, vol. ii. p. 70.

238 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
admirable skill should have contributed to the pro
pagation of these wild tales of demons, and wizards,
and haunted houses, of souls made visible, of rivers
obedient to written orders, of corpses that scream
and walk. And % yet such is the fact. The land
lord of the Papal Patrimonies and the author of
the Dialogues are one and the same person, and
in him we have, perhaps, the first genuine Italian
example of the mediaeval intellect."1 The fact
is, the critical faculty had been almost suppressed
among men of culture and letters in the Church,
who were in continual dread of some new heresy
arising by its employment, and who everywhere dis
couraged the study of dialectics. Gregory's touch
stone of historic truth was a very simple and easy
one. He claims to believe the stories told by the
good and pious as if he had seen the events with his
own eyes, and definitely says that he had received a
certain report from those who were so good that he
could not doubt their truth. Granting the honesty
of the witness, he held that the credibility of the story
followed as a matter of course.
On the subject of dreams, Gregory was a good
deal more rational. In the forty-eighth dialogue of
the fourth book he tells us there are six kinds of
dreams. Sometimes, he says, they proceed of too
much fulness or emptiness of the stomach ; some
times by illusion, sometimes by both thought and
illusion, sometimes by revelation, and sometimes by
both thought and revelation. The two first we
1 Op, cit. i. 356.

SAINT GREGORY'S VIEW OF DREAMS 239
know by experience to be true, and the four
last we find named in Scripture. He quotes
passages from the Bible which, he holds, show
that dreams are sometimes illusions of our secret
enemy : as " dreams have made many to err, and
hoping in them have they been deceived " ; 1 and
again, " you shall not be soothsayers or observe
dreams." As showing that they sometimes come
both of thought and illusion, he quotes the saying
of the wise man : " dreams follow many cares." 2 Of
those that come by mystical revelation he cites
Joseph's dream,3 and the angel's message to the
Virgin to go to Egypt with the Child. While of
those coming both from thought and divine revela
tion he cites Daniel's report about the dream of
Nebuchadnezzar. " Some dreams come from many
roots, nor is it easy to know from what cause they
proceed " ; he contends, therefore, that we ought to
believe them with hesitation.
To holy men alone, he holds, is it given to decide
between illusions and revelations, and between mes
sages from the good and bad spirits, and he therefore
counsels a healthy scepticism in the matter. As
an example he quotes the case of a man who lived
at Rome, and dreamt he had had long life
promised, yet died directly after. St. Catherine
of Sienna similarly claimed it as a privilege of
saints to discriminate between illusions and true
revelations.
1 Ecclus. xxxiv. 7. 2 Eccles. v. 3.
3 Gen. xxxvii. 5-10.

240 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Note. — Since writing the previous chapter I have come across
one or two other ritual changes, etc., attributed to Saint Gregory. It
would seem that it had been the custom at Rome for the neophytes at
their first Easter Mass, immediately after the Canon, to be given a
drink composed of honey, water, and milk, which had been specially
blessed. This was doubtless in view of the very long and trying
service they had gone through. This potion, says Duchesne, is
mentioned in the sixth century by Johannes Diaconus in his letter
to Senarius and in the Leonian Sacramentary, but does not appear
in later documents of the Roman liturgy. Herr H. Usener (Rhein
Mus., vol. Ivii. p. 189) argues that it was suppressed in the time of
Saint Gregory, and probably by that Pope himself (Duchesne, 315
and note 1). Duchesne says that in later rituals the lustral water
with which the people were aspersed at the consecration of a church
was called Gregorian. I also think it probable that, in several
matters of which we have no record, the differences between the
primitive usage in Spain, Gaul, and Ireland, and'at Rome were due
to Gregory's innovations.

CHAPTER VIII
Saint Gregory's influence on the theology of the
Middle Ages was profound. He was treated by
the Latin Church as the greatest of its doctors,
and it is impossible to deal with his life without
giving an epitome of his views and of his innova
tions in matters of Faith and Morals.
It need hardly be said that nowhere in his
writings can we find any claim to be the infallible
judge of Dogmatic Truth. The doctrine of papal
infallibility has no place anywhere in his works any
more than in those of. his predecessors or in those
of his successors for several centuries. His whole
thought was entirely opposed to anything of the
kind. While, as we have seen, he claims for the
Roman See the position of being the senior one in
Christendom, it is only as the administrative head
of a hierarchy in which all the Episcopate has equal
rights. Primus inter pares is the position he alone
asks for. This again was only in matters of discipline
and Church order, and in insisting on every one
submitting not to the Pope's but to the Church's
standards and definitions of truth and dogma.
He was, in his own eyes, the senior executive
official of the Church and nothing more. He
16

242 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
knew too well how the popes had in most cases
been selected, and the method of selection went
on on similar lines after he was gone. Like the
other influential officials in the Empire, he was
really the nominee of the Emperor, nor could he
take his seat until his appointment had been con
firmed by the head of the State. The election by
the Roman people, lay and clerical, was a form only,
just as the election of an English bishop by the
chapter of his cathedral is. The congd d'e"lire
really came in both cases from elsewhere, and it
has always come from elsewhere in the case of the
popes. There is more than a witty joke in the
grim saying of a later satirist, that a pope's election
is the result of the Holy Spirit, working in the Con
clave, qualified always by the veto of the Emperor
of Austria — in at least one instance not long ago
by the veiled veto of another sovereign who was
not even a Catholic.
To return, however, a pope selected in this
fashion would, prima facie, be a singularly unsuit
able vessel in which to enshrine infallibility. It is
important to emphasise what is a portentous fact,
namely, that so great and influential a pope as Saint
Gregory, agreeing in this with his predecessors and
successors, should have been quite unconscious of
the Divine afflatus with which he or they were
endowed. In the case of Gregory, as we shall see
(even if he unwittingly possessed so great a gift), it
is clear that it did not protect him from some very
doubtful opinions on matters of Faith and Morals.

THE BASILICA OF ST. SABINA.
An almost perfect specimen of a great Church in St. Gregory's time.

To face p. 242.

ST. GREGORY AND PAPAL INFALLIBILITY 243
Apart from this, we nowhere find in his writings,
any more than in those of any of his predecessors
or of his successors for some centuries, a hint that
the popes have two voices — one when they are sup
posed to speak ex cathedra and as the mouthpiece
of the Church, and the other the workaday language
of the gentle and simple, the good and the wicked,
the educated and the ignorant individual popes who
make up the very human galaxy of the occupants of
St. Peter's chair. They were all, so far as we know,
quite ignorant of the distinction so vital and im
portant to everybody. If they knew it they took
no pains to give poor mortals a hint how they were
to discriminate in difficult cases between the language
of popes on different occasions, and thus save them
not merely from mental difficulties but from
moral ones which might land them in dire
punishment. We can only guess what Gregory would have
said if he could have foreseen that a huge Council,
meeting at Rome twelve hundred years later, would
pronounce him capable of infallible decisions, and
would nevertheless fail to offer any criterion of the
occasions when the infallibility was to be deemed
authoritative, and when and how ex cathedra judg
ments were to be distinguished from fallible opinions.
He would not surely have left the position so that
no two theologians could be got to agree upon a
definition, and simple men must be content to
accept with all humility the position that each in
dividual pronouncement is to be judged by itself

244 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
according to the a priori prejudices, motives, and
interests of the technical advisers of the Roman
Curia, and of the very potent Society of Jesus
which so largely inspires it. Vicarious infallibility
like this would have been rejected by the robust
good sense of the Pope as both useless and
dangerous. The ultimate source of Gregory's theology, ac
cording to his view, was not his own innate wisdom
and divine inspiration, but the teaching of the Bible
and what he found in it.
As he says in the Magna Moralia, " Holy
Scripture is incomparably superior to every form
of knowledge and science. It preaches the truth
and calls us to the heavenly fatherland," etc. etc.
To him the whole of Scripture was directly inspired
by the Holy Spirit. He consequently brushed aside
as irrelevant and of very secondary interest, ques
tions as to who wrote the books and when they
were written. The writers, he held, were mere
passive scribes ; the words were those of the Holy
Spirit.1 He no doubt felt much handicapped in his study
of Scripture by the fact that he knew neither of the
1 Quis haec scripserit, valde supervacue quaeritur, cum tamen
auctor libri Spiritus sanctus fideliter credatur. Ipse igitur haec
scripsit, qui scribenda dictavit. Ipse scripsit, qui et in illius opere
inspirator exstitit, et per scribentis vocem imitanda ad nos ejus
facta transmisit. Si magni cujusdam viri susceptis epistolis
legeremus verba, sed quo calamo fuissant scripta quaereremus, ridi-
culum profecto esset epistolarum auctorem scire sensumque cognoscere
sed quali calamo earum verba impressa fuerint indagare, etc. (Mor.,
Praef. 2).

ST. GREGORY AND AUTHORITY OF BIBLE 245
languages in which it had been originally written,
namely, Hebrew and Greek, and could only get at
its contents through translations.
In his time two such translations were available.
— one, the old Vulgate, whose origin and date are
still so obscure, but which had been the guiding star
of the Latin Church from its beginning. This
edition of the whole Bible was translated from the
Greek, which was the mother- tongue of the New
Testament, while in the Old Testament, which was
originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, it fol
lowed the old Jewish Greek translation known as
the Septuagint. Beside this was the new version,
which had been made by Jerome, who followed
the Hebrew and Aramaic texts in the Old Testa
ment and the Greek in the New.
The most important distinction between the two
was not so much the considerable difference in their
texts but in their Canons ; this especially affected the
Old Testament, in which Jerome followed the shorter
Canon of the later Jews, while the old Vulgate
followed the longer Canon of the older Jews as
found in the Septuagint, and treated the so-called
apocryphal books as canonical.
While Jerome's new version had at this time,
especially in Gaul, largely displaced the old Vulgate,
the latter still retained its hold upon Africa and
largely also upon Italy. Gregory used both
versions. In the introduction to his commentary
on Job above cited, he explains his attitude in the
words : Novam translationem dissero, sed, cum

246 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
probationis causa exigit, tunc novam, nunc veterem
per testimonia assumo ; ut quia sedes apostolica cui
auctore Deo praesideo, utraque utitur, mei quoque
labor studii ex utraque fulciatur}
This applies, however, only to the text. It is
perfectly plain that in regard to the Canon, Gregory
followed that of the old version, which had been
affirmed by three African Councils and in the letter
of Pope Innocent the First to the Gaulish bishop
Exuperius, and he habitually quotes the so-called
apocryphal books just as if they were on precisely
the same level as other parts of Scripture.
The question of the canonicity of this or that
book never troubled him. He accepted the Bible
as the Church had handed it to him, as a divinely
inspired work which she in her dogmas illuminates
by bringing to light its hidden things and clearing
up its obscurities.2 "The ultimate appeal is to
Scripture itself; and the propagation of the Scrip
ture throughout the world is the raison d'itre of the
Church."3 There was no necessity at that time for
keeping the Bible hidden from the educated laity.
This objection to its general use only arose when
the Lollards and Hussites used it for attacking the
authority of the Church. The usefulness of Bible
reading was delightfully presented in a letter of
Gregory to Barbara and Antonina, the daughters
of his friend the Patrician Venantius. " I wish you,"
he says, "to love the reading of Holy Scriptures,
1 Intr. Ep. to the Moralia. 2 Moralia, xviii. 60.
3 Horn, in Ez. i. 10, par. 87.

ST. GREGORY'S INTERPRETATION METHODS 247
that so long as Almighty God shall unite you to
husbands you may know how you should live and
how you should manage your houses " (Et qualiter
vivere et domum vestram quo modo disponere
debeatis)} Gregory made little or no difference in his
estimate of the two Covenants, and he argues about
them just as a very different person with a very
different outlook, Luther, argued at a later day,
namely, that all Scripture is concerned with the
revelation of God in Christ, and that Christ is the
subject of all Scripture, and every word and act in
it receives in Christ its ultimate significance.2
Christ was to him the centre of the Old Testament
as well as the New. The one foretells by allegory
and prophecy what the other openly proclaims.
The Old Testament is the prophecy of the New,
the New the explanation of the Old.3
This extravagant theory could only have been
sustained by one who continually, like so many of
his predecessors and contemporaries, put aside the
plain language of the two Testaments, and especially
treated the Old Testament as largely a cryptic
1 E. and H. xi. 59 ; Barmby, xi. 78. 2 Moralia, vi. 1.
8 " In Testamenti Veteris littera Testamentum Novum latuit per
allegoriam. Utraque Testamenta ita sibi in Mediatore Dei et homi-
num congruunt, ut quod unum designat hoc alterum exhibeat. . . .
Inest Testamento Veteri Testamentum Novum. Et quod Testa
mentum Vetus promisit, hoc Novum exhibuit; et quod illud occulte
annuntiat, hoc istud exhibitum aperte clamat. Prophetia ergo
Testamenti Novi Testamentum Vetus estj et expositio Testamenti
Veteris Testamentum Novum" (Horn, in Ez. i. 6, pars. 12, 15) ; and
again, " Per omne quod Testamentum Vetus loquitur Testamenti Novi
opera nuntiantur " (Moralia, xxxix. 73).

248 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
document whose real meaning was only accessible
to those who could translate it into allegories and
by the most forced and fantastic of interpretation.
He habitually adopts this method of exegesis,
in spite of certain warnings he gives others as to
the dangers of this method of interpretation. Even
so Gregory was constrained to admit that in many
cases the Old Testament contained the germ or
root only, of which the ripe fruit was to be found in
the New, and that the doctrine of the Old Testa
ment was imperfect and in many cases concealed
from the simple and uneducated " so that the common
people could understand the letter but not the inner
meaning." x He further continually urged, like
Luther long after, that, as Mr. Dudden says, " God's
word appeals to character rather than to intellect."
In order to understand it a man must lead a godly
life, and he who desires to understand the mysteries
can only do so because he loves God. I shall return
to Gregory's method of interpretation presently.
It was not only nor chiefly in interpreting the
Bible that the Pope's lack of knowledge of Greek
embarrassed him. The early Christian Church was
essentially a Greek church. Its earliest writings,
especially the discussions with the heretical sects,
were nearly all written in Greek. Its terminology
was largely Greek, and it was in Greek alone that
many of the technical ecclesiastical terms had a full
meaning which could not be adequately translated
into Latin. Virtually all the theology of the first
1 Horn, in Ez. ii. 4, par. 9 ; Moralia, xviii. 60.

ST. GREGORY'S INTERPRETATION METHODS 249
three centuries was Greek. To none of these
sources could Gregory get access at first hand. He
could only in part get at the results through such
Greek books as had been translated by Hilary and
Rufinus and through the Latin translation of the
Acts of the Eastern Councils.
In regard to- the Councils, he accepted the first
four without question and all the findings of the fifth
one, except those relating to " The Three Chapters "
which we have discussed in an earlier page. This
exception, as we have seen, was a very illogical one,
for it pro tanto made him a reviser and judge of the
finding of a Council, a position he never dreams of
adopting in any other case. Except in this instance
he was perfectly orthodox as orthodoxy was
defined by Councils.
In regard to the Creeds, he is supposed to have
departed from their accepted form in one respect
only — namely, in accepting the double procession
of the Holy Ghost, which was contained in none of
the Creeds until his day, when we find it occurring
apparently for the first time in the declaration of
King Reccared on his abandoning Arianism at the
Council of Toledo in 587. The innovation was then
made at the instance of Leander, the Archbishop
of Seville and Gregory's friend, probably under the
influence of the Spanish theologian, John of Biclaro,
and was apparently derived from them and was
inserted by John the Deacon in the form of the
Creed he puts in Gregory's mouth. It is included
by John the Deacon in the profession of faith he

2 so SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
makes Gregory affirm when he became Pope. The
general adoption of the clause in the accepted Creeds
of the West, including those of the Reformers, took
place much later (see Appendix), and it was always
excluded by the Eastern Church, as it is rightly
excluded now by it, for whatever its truth may be
it has no adequate Conciliar authority. It was a
rash and unjustifiable thing for an alteration involv
ing a dogmatic pronouncement to be thus foisted
into the symbols of the Church by the mere initi
ative of any individual divine or ecclesiastic, however
excellent a person he might be, and with however
good a motive. It was a bad example, and was
followed in other matters afterwards by many un
scrupulous glossators and interpolators.
Apart from his acceptance of the pronouncements
of the Councils and the Creeds on points of dogma,
Gregory for the most part followed the earlier
Fathers, and treated their replies to the various
heresies as conclusive. He was not fond of polemics.
The need for them had indeed largely gone by
since all the great heresies were extinct. The only
important fight involving doctrine and not discipline
which he had, was that with Eutychius of Con
stantinople, which we have described above.1 In most
of the great Christian issues he accepted the lead
ing of Augustine. For instance, on the questions of
free will, of grace, of the transcendent superiority of
faith to reason in matters spiritual, and the doctrine
of God, Gregory's account of His attributes comes
1 Ante, p. 22, etc.

SAINT GREGORY'S DOGMATIC TEACHING 251
directly from Augustine, so with the doctrines of
the Trinity, of original sin, and of Christ's miracul
ous birth. For the most part he followed orthodox
lines through the tangled metaphysics with which the
discussions of the earlier Christian centuries had sur
rounded the double personality of Christ, the doctrine
of the atonement, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
He, however, illustrated all these questions with a
surprising wealth of Biblical and other examples, and
with an ingenuity and refinement and an expendi
ture of acute thought which was astounding when
we consider how much of his life was devoted to
the practical duties of his office. It is really sur
prising how seldom he is found halting in traversing
fields where so many fierce battles had been fought
with the ingenious sophistries and word-splittings of
the earlier Greek writers.
Where he chiefly shone, however, was in dealing
with secondary matters in which the field was
open to any amount of conjecture, and where the
opinion of the Church had not been fixed by Conciliar
and other pronouncements. It was here that
Gregory surpassed all other commentators, since he
adopted the most flexible and elastic of criteria.
Mr. Dudden puts the case with his usual skill. "It
has been pointed out," he says, " that according to
his license of interpretation, there is nothing that
might not be found in any book ever written. As
interpreted by the allegorical method, any passage
in Scripture may mean almost anything : every word
is a revelation, and the expositor is inevitably

252 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
tempted to substitute his own fancies for plain
teaching, and to involve himself in a labyrinthine
confusion of symbolical obscurities. Gregory him
self was aware of the dangers of the method. He
found by experience that very different interpreta
tions might be given of the same passage, and he
was willing to regard all as legitimate that were in
accordance with the faith of the Church." " In
understanding Holy Scripture," says the Pope,
" whatever is not opposed to a sound faith ought
not to be rejected."1
We must remember, however, that he was not
the inventor of this supple method of interpretation.
" In the West, allegory was the fashion, and a sober
exegesis on a grammatico-historical basis was practi
cally unknown. Before Gregory, Augustine had
taught a fourfold sense of Scripture, and after him
the doctors maintained a threefold (Paschasius), a
fourfold (Aquinas), a sevenfold (Angelom of Lux-
euil), an eightfold (Odo of Cluny), and even an in
finite number of senses in Scripture (Scotus Erigena)
. . . the immense popularity of the Magna Moralia
in the Middle Ages is an incontrovertible proof
of the attractiveness of the method." 2
Gregory was, however, its great master, and it
was so characteristic of him and had such wide
results that a few paragraphs may fitly be devoted
to a more concrete treatment of it.
Gregory's greatest work, his commentaries on
1 E. and H. iii. 62 ; Barmby, iii. 67 ; Dudden, ii. 307, 308.
2 Dudden, ii. 309.

ST. GREGORY'S INTERPRETATION METHODS 253
Job, entitled Magna Moralia, which he composed
at Constantinople and afterwards revised, was the
one in which his peculiar exegesis and fantastic
moralising are most displayed. " As a commentary
in the modern sense of the word, the Magna Moralia
is well-nigh worthless ; ... of the original language
he knew nothing, of Oriental manners and modes
of thought Gregory had no conception. He never
seems to have realised that the book was a poem, or
to have made the smallest allowance for poetical ex
pressions, usages, and metaphors. He understood
it all with gross literalness, and yet at the same time
beneath the letter he discovered, or fancied he dis
covered, a wealth of esoteric meaning."1 Milman
says : " 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 a wonderful history, an allegory containing in
its secret sense the whole theory of the Christian
Church and Christian sacraments, and a moral philo
sophy applicable to all mankind." 2 " The form of
the book disgusts the modern reader. . . . It is the
endless allegorising, the twisting of every word and
phrase into a symbol of hidden truth, that is so
inexpressibly wearisome. . . . But whatever opinion
modern students may form of Gregory's masterpiece,
there cannot be the slightest question of its great
popularity from Gregory's time onwards through the
Middle Ages. ... It became a favourite text-book
of Christian doctrine. Manuscripts were multiplied,
1 Dudden, i. 195. ' Op. cit. 2nd ed. i. 406.

254 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
epitomes compiled. Bythe twelfth century numerous
translations had been made of it, and it was regarded
as indispensable for every well-furnished library.
Nor can we wonder at the success of the work.
The Magna Moralia is a mine of theology, and
the unambiguous, matter-of-fact way in which the
dogmas are dealt with commended it to many who
were unable to follow the subtle reasonings of
Augustine." x
" The fanciful element in Gregory's exegesis is
best illustrated in his explanation of numbers.
Thus, three is generally supposed to have some
reference to the Trinity ; five to the senses, and
hence to the whole world of sense ; seven to the
sevenfold gift of the Spirit, or to rest, as denoted by
the seventh day, or to this life as denoted by the
days of the week. . . . But Gregory's explanations
of words are often no less fanciful than his ex
planations of numbers ; especially as he is fond of
attaching more than one meaning to the same
word. He says : In sacro eloquio cum quilibet unus
sermo dicitur, non semper unam eandemque rem
significare credatur. Thus the words 'sun,' 'lion,'
' ox,' may be understood in a good or a bad sense.2
Sometimes Gregory gives three meanings to one
word,3 sometimes as many as five.4 Again, in his
interpretation of the typical significance of Old
Testament characters thus : Isaac means God,
1 Dudden, i. 195, 196.
2 Horn, in Ez., ii. 7, par. 1 ; Moralia, v. 41.
3 Ex. gr. somnus, Moralia, v. 54.
4 Ex gr. herba, Moralia, xxix. 52.

ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION 255
Jacob the Gentiles, and Esau the Jews,1 but in the
Moralia, xxxv. 26, Isaac typifies the Jewish people,
and Jacob, Christ ; elsewhere Isaac is a type of
Christ. ... In the Homilies on the Gospels he
has frequently missed the most important and
suggestive part of the teaching, in his anxiety to
pass to a mystical interpretation." 2
Dr. Barmby has selected another series of ex
amples of Gregory's marvellous ingenuity in this
behalf. On the text : "There were born unto him
seven sons and seven daughters. His substance
also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand
camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five
hundred she-asses," Gregory comments thus :
" 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 the 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 of Rebecca
having ridden on a camel, expressing her Gentile
condition, when she journeyed to meet Isaac, but
1 Horn, in Ez. i. 6, par. 3.
2 Dudden, ii. 307, 308, note.

256 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
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 Samari
tans receive the law in part, but in part reject it.
The oxen and asses are explained in a similar style."
Dr. Barmby may well add that this fashion of
interpretation "allows anything whatever to be
drawn out of the text according to the mind of the
theologian."1 As another sample of his mystical interpretation,
and at the same time an account of the baptismal
practice then in vogue, we may quote a passage from
one of his letters to his friend Bishop Leander, whom
he styles "dudum mihi in amicitiis familiari ter
junctis." 2 He says : " In regard to threefold immer
sion no truer answer can be given than what you have
yourself felt to be right — namely, that where there is
one faith a diversity of usage does no harm to Holy
Church. Now we in immersing thrice signify the
sacraments of the three days' sepulture ; so that when
the infant is a third time lifted out of the water, the
resurrection after three days may be expressed. Or
if any one should, perhaps, think that this is done
out of veneration for the supreme Trinity, neither
so is there any objection to immersing the person to
be baptized in the water once, since, there being one
substance in three subsistencies (in tribus subsistentiis
una substantia est) it cannot be in any way reprehen
sible to immerse the infant in baptism either thrice
or once, seeing that by three immersions the Trinity
1 Barmby, Gregory the Great, 178, 179. 2 Dial. iii. 31.

HIS THEORY OF THE OTHER WORLD 257
of Persons and in one the singleness of the Divinity
may be denoted. But inasmuch as up to this time
it has been the custom of heretics to immerse infants
in baptism thrice, I am of opinion that this ought not
to be done among you ; lest while they number the
immersions they should divide the Divinity, and
while they continue to do as they have been used to
do, they should boast of having got the better of our
custom." *
Let us now turn to that part of his theology
which Gregory derived from the Ascetics, whom
he loved so well, and to whose views he gave so
much authority.
Here Gregory's attitude caused a great revolu
tion in the beliefs of the Church. With him tradition
meant not merely that of the corporate voice of the
guardians of the Church's doctrine, its bishops, as
delivered at and settled by general Councils. It
meant the much more unstable and dangerous and
elusive views of the hysterical, detached, lonely,
self-conscious, ecstatic hermits, monks, and devotees
whose visions were supposed to be inspired, and were
fully believed by Gregory to be so. Out of these
he created a new world of strange demons and
angelic beings and a very material hell and heaven,
the one full of horrors and the other of naive poetry,
which under the shadow of his name overflowed
into every pulpit and every sermon, and eventually
formed the largest part of the popular Christianity
of the Western Church. Let us turn shortly to
1 E. and H, i. 41 ; Barmby, Eps. of Greg. i. 43.
17

258 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
this, and we will begin with his notions about
the powers of evil. Mr. Dudden has admirably
pointed out how the whole outlook in regard to
these creatures as previously held was modified
by Gregory. He, in fact, incorporated into it many
fantastic elements which came from the excited
imaginations of the ascetics and anchorites who, in
their solitary hours of meditation, fasting, self-
abnegation, and torture, conjured up visions which
the Pope accepted as true on the ground that he
held their reporters to be good and honest men.
Thus modified, this theory became the chief armoury
from which the mediaeval Church and especially the
friars drew their most effective weapons for mentally
flogging the poor and simple into what they deemed
their duty. Mediaeval artists galore, drew a large
part of their inspiration from the same source, and
covered the walls of the churches with incidents
from the supposed experiences of the Saints, that
appealed far more in their grim realism to the
popular mind than the contents of the sacred
volume, which was seldom heard at first hand.
As Mr. Dudden says : " In Gregory's Dialogues
we meet for the first time with the fully developed
conception of the mediaeval devil. Here Satan is
represented no longer as the portentous power of
darkness, but as a spirit of petty malice, more
irritating than awful, playing all manner of mis
chievous pranks, and doing at times serious damage,
but easily routed by a sprinkling of hply water or
the sign of the cross. The devil of Gregory's

ST. GREGORY'S THEORY ABOUT THE DEVIL 2 5 9
Dialogues is in all essential respects the same as
he who flung a stone at Dominic and got bespattered
with Luther's ink. He is represented at one time
as making his appearance all on fire, with flaming
mouth and flashing eyes, yet condescending to make
a pun on the name of a saint ; at another time dis
guised as a physician carrying horn and mortar, and
riding on a mule ; again, under the form of a little
black boy on a bird with flapping wings. He
haunts a house in Corinth, rendering it uninhabit
able through his imitations of ' the roaring of lions,
the bleating of sheep, the braying of asses, the
hissing of serpents, the grunting of hogs, and the
squeaking of rats.' He lives for three years under
the form of a serpent in the cave of a holy hermit
of Campania." 1
In such representations as these the devil has
lost much of his terror and has become comparatively
innocuous. He is already the cunning impostor,
full of tricks and devices, with whom the Middle
Ages were familiar, and his attendant demons have
undergone a similar transformation. These demons
have the right of entering into human beings and
taking possession of them on the occasion even of
quite slight faults. Witches and wizards, on the
other hand, are believed to have had traffic with
them, and the doctrine of demoniacal agency
already bore fruit in the burning and maltreatment
of the supposed sorcerers. " The conception of
the devil world which for centuries prevailed in
1 These stories are all from the Dialogues. See Dudden, ii. 368.

260 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
the Church was substantially the same as that of
Gregory." 1
Gregory's views of the next world were also
largely built up by him out of the reported visions
or hallucinations of those whose reputed goodness
made their testimony in his eyes have somewhat
of the character of inspiration. These were in
corporated in the Dialogues, which became very
largely the authoritative vade mecum on such topics,
and naturally inspired the dogmatic teaching of the
Church on the subject.
With Gregory, Hell was a subterranean region,
as far below the earth as the earth itself is below
the sky, and volcanoes gave access to it. There
was a higher and a lower region in it. The former
a place of weariness, but not of torment, where on
account of original sin the souls of all the ancient
saints were delivered till Christ descended and set
them free. The lower hell was the prison of the
damned, a bottomless abyss of corporeal fire, created
from the beginning of the world for the punishment
of the wicked, and which, be it remembered, was
supposed in some way to torment disembodied
spirits who had no nerves and no bodily pain.
Before the Judgment the spirits of the damned were
alone tormented. After the Judgment their bodies
were also to be burnt in the infernal furnace. " It is
necessary to believe, credi necesse est," says Gregory,
" that from the day of their departure the reprobate
are burnt with fire. This continues for ever, but
1 Dudden, ii. 367-369.

SAINT GREGORY'S THEORY OF HELL 261
without destroying its victims. Nor does the pain
relieve them from continual terror and despair.
Before the Judgment they are further tormented
by witnessing the blessedness of the good in
heaven. After the Judgment the wicked will no
longer see the good, although the good will see the
wicked. The actual sufferings of the damned are
not' all the same, but are apportioned to the
degrees of wickedness of the punished." See
Dudden,1 who quotes the Moralia, Dialogues, or
the Homilies for each one of these statements.
Such was the horrible creed on the subject of
Hell taught quite honestly by a man who was
essentially good and in many ways very wise and
very tender. It was made more horrible by the
extreme theories of predestination then held which
were inherited from Augustine, and by the justifica
tions offered for it by the Pope in very sophistical
arguments in which he attempts in vain to reconcile
these notions with the attributes of the Almighty
Father and the Fountain of all Good. The
Scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages, and
the so-called Holy Office or Inquisition, followed
Gregory very closely in these matters. They also
became the subject-matter of thousands of realistic
pictures and of tens of thousands of sermons, and
presently formed the basis of some of Dante's
most lurid passages in his immortal poem. We can
understand what an overwhelming power was thus
placed in the hands of the priesthood for coercing
1 ii- 435. 436.

262 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
the strongest wills into submission and for obtaining
what concessions they wished from sick and dying
sinners. This weapon was used with uncontrollable
vigour by the Dominican preachers and the
Franciscan evangelists, most of them very ignorant,
superstitious men, and many of them also quite
unscrupulous. Let me quote a story from Gregory's
Dialogues in proof of what I say. " There was
a saintly deacon of the Roman Church called
Paschasius, a man of great holiness, much given
to almsdeeds, devoted to the poor, and unselfish.
Unfortunately he was a supporter of the Anti-Pope
Laurentius, the opponent of Pope Symmachus (as
suredly a very venial offence where the difficulty of
deciding was so great). He nevertheless died with
the reputation of a saint, and a demoniac was healed
by touching the dalmatic on his bier. A long time
after, Germanus, Bishop of Capua, was ordered by
his physicians to take a course of hot baths, and in
the midst of the steaming vapour he saw Paschasius.
The spirit told him that he was being thus punished
for having taken the part of Laurentius, and he
begged the bishop for his prayers. The latter went
away and prayed, and when he returned the spirit
had vanished." L Here was a saintly man condemned
to the pains of hell fire merely because he had sup
ported one candidate instead of another in a struggle
for the papal chair.
Such being Gregory's view of hell and its in
habitants, it will be well to consider his views of the
1 Dialogues, iv. 40.

THEORIES OF PENANCE AND PURGATORY 263
ways of escaping from it ; these consisted of penance
and purgatory.
In regard to penance, Gregory bases his position
on the arbitrary postulate that no sin can be left
unpunished, and he treats God as essentially the
avenger of sin. He goes on to argue that the eternal
penalties for sin can only be averted either by self-
imposed suffering (penance) or suffering imposed
upon us by God for our own good, and he urges
that by the self-punishment of penance, sin is blotted
out, so that it no longer remains to be judged and
punished. With Gregory as with the Schoolmen,
the process of penance is, first, perception of sin
and then contrition for it followed by conversion ;
secondly, confession of sin ; and thirdly, the com
pensation made in respect of it, consisting of alms,
tears, meditation on the shortness of life, asceticism,
etc. These he claims as an offering of virtue, by
which we pay the fine of our evil actions, and
which releases us from the debt of sin. He further
urges that our good works must be proportionate
to our sins. Lastly, he points out that by paying
the fine of one sin, a man does not obtain licence
to commit another. He must refrain from sin in
future if his penance is to be effective, nor will the
prayers and oblations of priests wash away his sins ;
every man must bear his own burden of sin. Like
Augustine, however, he holds that good works alone
will not suffice to wipe out sin unless supplemented
by the mercy of God and the pleading of Christ.1
1 Dudden, ii. 419-426.

264 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
It will be noticed that all this most elaborate
argument is based on an obiter dictum of the Pope
upon the necessity of sin being followed by punish
ment, which is unsupported by Biblical authority,
where the blood of Christ is said to suffice to
wash away all the sins of erring men ; and secondly,
to another obiter dictum that the punishment due to
sin can be averted by self-torture and the abnegation
of human pleasure and joy, or by doing good works.
He held, in fact, that the grace and the sacrifice of
Christ did not satisfy the conditions of pardon and
salvation unless and until sin itself had been
purged, and this purging involved "a system of
compensations by which good works are balanced
against sins, and eternal punishment is remitted
in consideration of adequate suffering."
For those who had failed by this most incon
sequent method to undo the effects of their sins in
this life a method was discovered equally remote
from all Biblical authority, namely, Gregory's special
interpretation of the meaning of Purgatory. The
doctrine of Purgatory, which also became an awful
instrument terrorising men and women and for
extorting money from them in later times, was still
undeveloped. Gregory was the first of the Fathers
to lay down that this doctrine " ought to be believed."
It had been long taught that at the Day of Judgment
all men would be called upon to purge their sins by
a fiery ordeal, and Augustine had gone so far as to
offer a pious opinion only that the souls of some
might have to suffer this purgation in the inter-

SAINT GREGORY'S THEORY OF PURGATORY 265
mediate state, but the opinion (in the West at least)
was almost universal that this purgation took place
only at the Judgment. Gregory distinguishes three
classes of men : the utterly bad, who on their death
go immediately to hell ; the completely good, who
similarly go to heaven, " and enjoy the vision of
God even before the Judgment " ; and those who are
too good for one place and too bad for the other, and
only imperfectly good, and who, according to him,
at their deaths go at once into purgatory and there
remain till the Judgment. He thus dogmatically
lays down what was quite a new doctrine, for which
there is no authority whatever except his obiter
dictum. The only authority he cites, in fact, is
1 Corinthians iii. 12.
In one of the Dialogues, iv. 41, he seems to
excuse his departure from primitive tradition in this
matter. He says : " The future age is now so near
at hand that it almost touches us, and therefore its
nature is more nearly revealed. We stand as it
were in the twilight of the dawn, and the light is
already breaking in."
Gregory affirms further that the prayers of the
faithful on earth may shorten and soften the pains
of purgatory, which may also be lightened by the
offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice.1
While Gregory taught that the souls of the good
would immediately on their death go to heaven, he
held that it was only after the Judgment that they
would be joined by their bodies. In regard to this
1 Dialogues, iv. 40 ; Dudden, ii. 429.

266 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
latter view he allows that many of his contempor
aries had questioned the possibility of the body of
man being restored from the dust into which it
had been resolved. He argued at great length
the other way, and doubtless largely fathered the
mediaeval view on the subject. Let us now pass
on again. The sixth and seventh centuries were famous,
among other things, for the number of " saints "
which were added to the muster-roll of that motley
body. What constitutes a saint in the technical
sense has, so far as I know, never been defined. A
great many of them were very worldly saints, and
the title was very easily obtained. In Ireland,
apparently, all the members of certain families
were styled saints, as all Roman Catholic priests
are now called father (a style rejected by Christ
when applied to Himself), while any man who led
a fairly exemplary life in those wicked days, or did
the Church an eminent service, obtained the dis
tinction almost as a matter of course. Gregory,
however, would appear to have limited the meaning
of the term saint a good deal more than his contem
poraries ; and, judging from one of the canons passed
at his Synod of Rome in 595, he held that the only
people who were worthy to be so treated were the
apostles and martyrs. He also, as Mr. Dudden
says, never teaches, like his namesake of Tours,
that the invocation of saints is a necessary part of
a Christian's duty, or that their assistance is in
any sense indispensable for salvation. Rather

ST. GREGORY ON INVOCATION OF SAINTS 267
his doctrine seems to be in general accord with
that approved by the Council of Trent, that the
saints reigning with Christ offer their prayers to
God for man, and that it is "a good and useful
practice" to invoke their prayers, assistance, and
protection.1 The lucky people who were pronounced to be
saints were presumed to have gone to heaven
immediately on their death, and it became the
fashion to appeal to them to intercede for their
protdgds. They were thus supposed not only to
work for the latter, but themselves to do miracles
after their death. The practice of invoking them
was much approved by Gregory, who quotes many
examples of cases where the saints are supposed
to have appeared and lent their support to poor
struggling mortals and brought benefits to them
after such appeals.
In a sermon preached on the festival of SS.
Processus and Martinian, he says : " Make these
saints, beloved, your patrons in your trial before the
severe Judge ; take them as your defenders in the
day of the awful terror. . . . Behold the severe
Judge, Jesus is coming. There is before us the
terror of that mighty army of Angels and Arch
angels. In that assembly our case will be tried.
. . . The Holy Martyrs are here ready to be our
defenders. They wish to be asked ; I may say they
beg us to beg them. Seek them then to support
your prayer, fly to them to protect you from your
1 Dudden, ii. 371.

268 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
guilt; for the Judge Himself wishes to be entreated
that He may not punish sinners."1
It has been often remarked how very seldom
Gregory mentions the Virgin, whose cult had then
scarcely begun in the West. He nowhere refers to
her having been without actual sin, as was stated by
St. Augustine, but speaks expressly of the sinfulness
of all human beings except Christ Himself. Nowhere
does he mention the Assumption of the Virgin
which is spoken of by his contemporary Gregory
of Tours. Nor does he in any way countenance
the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, declar
ing, on the contrary, that Christ alone was conceived
without sin.2 He, however, unmistakably affirms
the perpetual virginity of Mary.3
The best proof that the cult of the Virgin in the
sense understood in the modern Roman Church
had not begun in the time of Gregory in Italy, is
to be found in a remarkable fact pointed out in the
very neutral pages of Duchesne. He says, speaking
of the four festivals of the Presentation, generally
known as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin
(14th February), the Annunciation (25th March), the
Nativity (8th September), and the death (dormitio)
of the Virgin (15th August) : " It is certain that they
were not yet in existence in the time of Gregory.
Not only does he never make mention of them, but
the same is true of all the documents bearing on the
1 Horn, in Ez. xxxii. 8 ; Dudden, ii. 369, 370.
2 Moralia, xi. 70, xviii. 84 ; Horn, in Ez. ii. 4, par. 17.
s Moralia, xxiv. 3, xviii. 85 ; Horn, in Ez. xxvi. par. I, xxxviii.
par. 3 ; Exp. in Sept. Psalm. Poenit. v. 27 ; Dudden, ii. 373.

HIS SLIGHT REFERENCES TO "THE VIRGIN" 269
Roman usage prior to, or considered to be prior to,
the seventh century, such as the Calendar of Carth
age, the Leonian Sacramentary, etc." But what is
still more conclusive, these festivals were still
unknown to the Anglo-Saxon Church at the begin
ning of the eighth century. They do not appear
either in the Auxerre recension of the Hieronymian
Martyrology or in the Gallican liturgical books.
These four festivals, Duchesne says, were of Byzan
tine importation, and were introduced in the first
place at Rome. The countries of the Gallican rite
knew nothing of them until they adopted the Roman
liturgy.1 The Church of " Rome " in Italy seems
to have celebrated no festival of the Virgin before
the seventh century.2 Gregory's references to the
Virgin in the Dialogues are extraordinarily few
considering what a place she fills in the later litera
ture of the Church. He only once refers to an
invocation of Mary when he tells a story of a Bishop
Bonifacius, whose nephew, a priest, having sold his
horse for twelve crowns, laid them up in a chest.
Being abroad upon some business, certain poor
people pitifully begged of the Bishop for some
relief. Having no money by him, and not wishing
to send them home empty-handed, he accordingly
broke open his nephew's strong box and took the
twelve crowns, which he gave to the poor folk. On
his return the latter was very angry, and abused his
uncle, saying, " All others can live with you; I alone
am not suffered to be quiet. Give me my money
1 Duchesne, Christian Worship, 1T2., 273, 2 lb. 271-273.

270 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
which you have taken out of the box." To appease
him he went into the Church of the Virgin Mary,
and, lifting up his hands with his vestment upon
them, he prayed to her, and received in answer to
his prayer a miraculous gift of twelve gold solidi
" as bright as if they had just come from the mint."
These he cast at the raging priest, at the same
time denouncing him for his intention of using the
hidden money for simony.1
In another place in which a story of the
Virgin is related, she is said to have appeared in
a vision to a little maiden called Musa, and shown
her several other little people of her own years
clad in white, and asked her whether she wished
to join them and enter her service. On her assent
ing, the Virgin bade her put away her laughter and
pastimes and adopt a serious life, and said that
in thirty days she should join the company she
had seen. When the thirtieth day arrived, being
ill of an ague, she saw the Virgin and her company,
who bade her join them. Upon this she twice said,
" Behold, blessed Lady, I come." In his comment
on the story the Pope says, " Seeing mankind is
subject to many and innumerable vices, I think that
the greatest part of heaven is replenished with little
children and infants."2 Many similar stories, but
not perhaps so naive, could be gathered from later
legends, the one associated with Lourdes being
especially notable.
On the subject of angels Gregory's vivid imagina-
1 Dialogues, i. 9. 2 lb. iv. 17.

SAINT GREGORY ON ANGELS 271
tion produced a very remarkable new departure, which
was also a great source of inspiration to mediaeval
painters and preachers, and fixed in a settled form
the many aspects of this very intangible subject
which had arisen in the visions and ecstatic thought
of numberless ascetics and anchorites and simple
people. Like Augustine, he treats the angels as
creatures who, with men alone, have the gift of
reason, both being made in the image of God and
as being in substance intermediate between God
and man. He treats them as endowed with vast
knowledge, but as quite incap^ablejof understanding
or rivalling the infinitude of God. Like all things
created they are liable to change, "otherwise," he
argued, " ' the great apostasy ' would not have been
possible." They are absolutely free from sin, and
are never weary of contemplating the Almighty.
In regard to their functions, they first govern the
world in general ; secondly, they regulate, assist, and
champion various nations. Thus he argued that
the angel who spoke to Daniel was the guardian of
the Jews of the Captivity, while Michael protected
those who remained in Judaea. They only fight for
their proteges when the latter are doing right.
Thirdly, they protect and minister to individuals ;
and lastly, they act as direct messengers and envoys
from God to man. They communicate sometimes
by words, and at others by things, by mental images,
by heavenly substances (as a voice from a cloud), or
by worldly substances (as the voice of Balaam's ass).
They are divided into different grades and orders.

272 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
The angels proper carry messages of small import
ance to men, the archangels messages of greater
importance. The latter alone have names ; each
order, nine in all, up to the seraphim, has its
special vocation, which he describes. The original
number of the angels was reduced by Satan's
apostasy, and will be restored at the end of the
world when the several places left vacant in the
various orders will be filled by the redeemed of man
kind, and Gregory apparently taught that it was in
order to fill up the deficiency among the original
number of angels that man was created. Angels
were not to be worshipped, for since the Incarna
tion man was no longer inferior to the angels.1 This
is a good sample of Gregory's method of deductive
reasoning and of using purely arbitrary premises
in his arguments, and thus making a parade of
knowledge which is really nothing more than
fantastic imagining. In this he was really a fore
runner of the Schoolmen for whom he provided so
many subjects.
In Gregory's scheme of arrangement for the
heavenly hierarchy he differs in one respect from
his predecessor, the Pseudo Dionysius,2 in putting
" the Virtues " on a more exalted plane. The
Scholastic writers eventually adopted the view of
the latter, and Dante describes the Pope as smiling
when, on entering heaven and viewing the angelic
host, he realised the mistake he had made. Dante's
lines run thus : —
i Dudden, 358-364. 2 De Coel. Hier, ch. 6-9.

,-SJH-v-.'S|7*^ J! -

Iff

THE CASTLE OF ST ANGELO.

See page 95.

To face p 272

VISION OF HEAVEN FROM THE DIALOGUES 273
"E Dionisio con tanto disio
A contemplar questi ordini si mise,
Che li uomb e distinse, com'io.
Ma Gregorio da lui poi si divise:
Onde si tosto, come gli occhi aperse
In questo ciel, di se medesmo rise."
Paradiso, xxviii. ; see also Dudden, ii. 361.
In one of the stories told by Gregory in his
Dialogues, we have a picture of the next world
which is apparently the first example of a long
series culminating in the wonderful creations of
Dante, and which it may be interesting to some to
read it as Gregory tells it. I shall give it in the
quaint words of a seventeenth-century translator.
"A certain soldier at the time of the recent
plague being brought to the point of death, his soul
was carried out of his body and lay void of all sense
and feeling, but coming quickly again to himself,
he told them that were present, what strange things
he had seen. He said he saw a bridge, under
which a black and murky river did run, that had a
filthy and intolerable smell : but upon the farther
side thereof there were pleasant green meadows full
of sweet flowers, in which there were also divers com
panies of men apparelled in white : and there was
suGh a delicate savour that the fragrant odour thereof
did give wonderful content to all them that dwelt and
walked in that place. Divers particular mansions
also there were, all shining with brightness and light,
and especially one magnificent and sumptuous house,
which was a building the brick whereof seemed to
be of gold ; but whose it was, that he knew not.
18

274 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
" There were also upon the bank of the foresaid
river certain houses, but some of them the stinking
vapour which rose from the river did touch, and
some other it touched not at all. Now those that
desired to pass over the said bridge were subject
to this manner of trial : if any one that was wicked
attempted to go over, down he fell into that dark
and stinking river; but those that were just and
not hindered by sin, securely and easily passed
over to those pleasant and delicate places. Then
he said also that he saw Peter, who was steward
of the Pope's family and had died some four years
before, thrust into a most filthy place, where he
was bound and kept down with a great weight
of iron : and inquiring why he was so used, he
received that answer, which all we that knew his
life can affirm to be most true : for it was told
him that he suffered that pain, because when him
self was upon any occasion to punish others, that
he did it more upon cruelty than to show his
obedience. Then also he saw a Priest whom he
knew, who coming to the foresaid bridge passed
over with as great security, as he lived in this
world sincerely.
" Likewise on the same bridge he saw Stephen
(mentioned by Gregory in a previous story), who
being about to go over, his foot slipped, and half
his body hanging beside the bridge, he was drawn
by the legs downwards of certain terrible men that
rose out of the river ; and by certain other white and
beautiful persons, he was pulled upwards by the

VISION OF HEAVEN FROM THE DIALOGUES 275
arms. And whilst they strove thus, he that beheld
all this strange sight returned to life, not knowing
in conclusion what became of him." The Pope,
commenting on this, suggests that in the struggle
for Stephen's body it was the sins of the flesh
that pulled him down while his works of alms
plucked him up, but in that secret examination
of the supreme judge, which of them had the
victory, that neither we know nor he that saw
it. Reverting again, he says that "old men and
young, girls and boys, did carry the bricks of
gold for the house before mentioned, proving," he
says, " that those to whom we show compassion in
this world will labour for us in the next." He adds
that a certain shoemaker called Deusdedit having
died, another had a vision about him in which
he saw that he had in the next world a house or
building, but the workmen worked at it only on
Saturday, and on inquiry it was found that when
living, all the money he earned during the week
which was not spent on his apparel and food, he
gave in alms every Saturday at St. Peter's Church,
whence it was that his building went forward upon
that day.1
1 Op. cit. iv. 34, ed. E. G. Gardner, pp. 224, etc. Mr. G. F. Hill says
in a note to this story, id. p/224 : This famous and important chapter
may be regarded as the germ of the later mediaeval visions of Hell,
Purgatory, and Heaven. The bridge is " the Bridge of Dread," said
to be of Oriental origin, which occurs in so many of the later visions of
the other world (though not in the Divina Commedia) ; this is its first
appearance in the West, the Latin version of The Visio Sancti Pauli,
in which (though not in the original Greek) it also occurs, being later.
The sumptuous house of gold is the ultimate source of the empty
throne seen preparing (probably for St. Bernard) in the vision of

276 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Let us now turn shortly to Gregory's views on
the Sacraments. He does not attempt to supply
a doctrine of the conception or number of the
Sacraments. He passes the subject over in
silence.1 In regard to the Sacrament of Baptism,
which he calls Sacramentum fidei, he contends
that it completely removes the guilt of original
sin. The unbaptized have to suffer for this
original stain although they have never com
mitted actual sin. In the case of adults it not
only wipes out original sin, but any actual sins
committed before the immersion. This seems
very inequitable, since children who die before
baptism by no fault of their own, and have never
committed an actual sin, are devoted to the fires
of hell ; while grown-up people who have com
mitted a great many sins before they are baptized,
have a clean slate made for them by the thauma-
turgical qualities of some holy water or of a few
sentences pronounced by a priest, and escape all
punishment. That human beings, when mere babes and not
yet guilty of actual sin, should be sent for all eternity
to hell merely because of the carelessness or
wilfulness or ignorance of others, which no action
of their own could possibly circumvent, and that this
tremendous penalty should be warded off by the
Tundal ( Visio Tungdali, p. 54), and for Henry vn. (the Emperor in
the Divina Commedia, Par. xxx. 133-8). The episode of the priest
who passes safely over the bridge is dramatically expanded in the
vision of Tundal (op. cit. 1 5, 27).
1 Dudden, ii. 414.

SAINT GREGORY ON THE FALL OF MAN 277
quite accidental fact that some well-disposed person
was at hand to sprinkle them with water and
pronounce the all-potent formula, has been deemed
by most men who have tried to define the limits
of Eternal Justice and Righteousness, as incom
mensurable with those qualities as they under
stand them, and as the reductio ad absurdum of
theological metaphysics.
In regard to the Eucharist, which Gregory calls
Sacramentum or Mysterium Redemptoris, his teach
ing has become the standard. He is emphatic
in making it not merely a sacrament, but also
a sacrifice. He does not, of course, attempt
any physical explanation of the mystery. To
him the presence, although undefined, was a real
presence. It was long after his time when the
Schoolmen, with the help of Aristotle, introduced
the theory of Transubstantiation. The sacrifice, he
holds, is not a mere figurative and commemorative
one, but a renewal of the Passion, and it frees the
living from temporal suffering and from inconven
iences like imprisonment, shipwreck, illness, etc. ;
while it can also release souls from purgatory.1 He,
on the other hand, makes the exercise of penance
and self-sacrifice on the part of the partaker a con
dition of the efficacy of the Eucharist.
Let me quote a famous passage from the
Dialogues as illustrating his point of view : —
"This sacrifice," he says, "doth especially save
our souls from everlasting damnation, which in
1 Dudden, iii. 416, 417.

278 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
mystery doth renew unto us the death of the Son
of God : who, although being risen from death, doth
not now die any more, nor death shall any further
prevail against him : yet living in himself im
mortally, and without all corruption, he is again
sacrificed for us in this mystery of the holy oblation :
for there his body is received, there his flesh is
distributed for the salvation of the people : there
his blood is not now shed betwixt the bands of
infidels, but forced into the mouths of the faithful.
Wherefore let us hereby meditate what manner of
sacrifice this is, ordained for us, which for our
absolution doth always represent the passion of the
only Son of God : for what right believing Christian
can doubt, that in the very hour of the sacrifice, at
the words of the Priest, the heavens be opened, and
the quires of angels are present in that mystery of
Jesus Christ ; that high things are accompanied
with low, and earthly joined to heavenly, and that
one thing is made of visible and invisible."1
Gregory's theory about man's original condition
was that he was born with an actual immortality of
the soul and a potential immortality of the body,
that is to say, that unless he had sinned he would
not have had to face death, but his life would
have been eternal and unchangeable. He would
have known nothing of the necessities of infancy,
youth, manhood, or old age, of heat and cold,
hunger and thirst, health and disease, nor could
he have encountered hope and fear, passion and
1 Dialogues, lib. iv. 58.

SAINT GREGORY ON ORIGINAL SIN 279
desire. Like the angels, he had the privilege of
contemplating the Creator. Further, in the presence
of temptation, he had the power of choosing between
good and evil, and might, if he had willed it, have
served either God or the devil. The initial problem of
all theology, why man was given this choice instead
of having been made incapable of falling, he refused
to face. " When the mind," he says, " silently faces
such questions, it fears lest by its very audacity in
questioning it should break out into pride, and it
restrains itself with humility and keeps down its
thoughts."1 By Gregory the fall of man was accepted in
its plain natural sense as it occurs in Genesis, and
no attempt was made by him as it was by Augustine
to give the story an allegorical and mystical sense.
The devil tempted Adam, and Adam yielded
voluntarily to him, although he had the power to
resist him if he had so willed, and consequently, as
the Pope says, "by overthrowing us in our first
parent the devil rightfully as it were held man in
bondage." Like Augustine, Gregory attributes
Adam's fall chiefly to pride. He wished to become
like God, not by righteousness, but by power, and
secondly by sensuality (the lust after the forbidden
fruit). By his fall he forfeited for the bodies of himself
and his descendants the gift of immortality, while
his soul and theirs lost the purity and blessedness
of its original condition. Secondly, they lost their
1 Moralia, ix. 51.

280 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
stability and peace, and became subject to the
vicissitudes of life. Thirdly, they lost their spiritual
vision, and with it the knowledge of God, the power
to contemplate Him and the capacity for apprehend
ing the invisible realities of the spiritual world :
they retained the power, however, of discriminat
ing between right and wrong. Lastly, the Fall
weakened the human will. Augustine had taught
that it only retained the power to choose what is
evil (which is no choice at all). Gregory, on the
other hand, held that the will was not lost, but so
much weakened and crippled that it was no longer
able by its own efforts and without the help of
grace to do righteous things. He used one of
his ever-ready similes to illustrate the conclusion,
and compared the weakened will to a caged lioness
which, once perfectly free, and having rushed into
the cage by its own effort, could not now release
itself by its own efforts but only by the hand of grace.
A will thus absolutely dependent on another's will
as its inspirer, can hardly be called free. Secondly,
the Fall initiated the great struggle between the
soul and the body ; the latter refused to obey the
former, and the lusts and passions were let loose.
" The only escape was the thorny path of weeping,
of obedience, of despising the visible and repressing
the appetites."
Gregory held that sin was not a substantial
thing which can exist apart from goodness, but the
defect and corruption of a good nature. It resulted
from the temptation of the devil, and the consent

COMPROMISE WITH AUGUSTINIANISM 281
and acquiescence of the human will. The devil
would be powerless without the co-operation of the
human will. The devil tempts man with some sin
which man finds pleasant and amusing, and he
thereupon consents, and every sin begets other
sins. He justified the punishment of sins com
mitted in ignorance, since ignorance of the Divine
law was originally the result of sin. He classes
sins into elaborate categories.
He follows Augustine in treating original sin
as the innate corruption of the soul which makes
all sin possible, and this corruption of the race was
due to the initial corruption of its first progenitor.
" When the root became rotten the branches also
became rotten." Only baptism, he held, could re
lease from some of the penalties of this original
sin. Not all the penalties, however. It could not
restore to man the primeval possession of an im
mortal body. In the case of the unbaptized, God
visits the sins of the fathers on the children.
Gregory declares that we all are born "children of
Gehenna," " condemned sinners," and " infected by
sin from our very origin," and children who have
exercised no act of will are condemned to ever
lasting torment for their birth alone. The Saints
of the Old Testament were excluded, he held, from
paradise after death and kept in Hades without
torment until by the descent of Christ they were
set free from the taint and admitted to the presence
of God. This was, of course, completely incon
sistent with Gregory's rigid insistence elsewhere that

282 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
without baptism a man cannot see God, and which
he applied without flinching to the heathen who
had died unbaptized. This inheritance of sin was
propagated, according to his teaching, by the carnal
desire and its product physical procreation, and this
in itself prevented any one born of woman being
holy. He does not, however, any more than
Augustine, follow this argument to its logical con
clusion and condemn wedlock as sinful. If entered
upon for producing offspring he deems it lawful,
but he treats celibacy as the higher and better state.
With Augustine he deems the origin of the soul
an unsolved mystery, but favours the view called
Traducianism, according to which it is born with
the body and equally with the body is the result of
procreation, and is not a separate creation of the
Almighty (Creationism).
While man, according to Gregory, is born prone
to sin and with a corrupt nature, so that even if
he does not do sinful things he has sinful thoughts,
he deemed these to be the result of unavoidable
sin, and therefore different in quality to the sin
resulting from consent. It was the wilful com
mittal of sin and the neglect to atone for it which
he alone deemed unforgivable.
Man being thus utterly corrupt through both
original and actual sin, his malady could only be
cured by the Incarnation of Christ, who by His
obedience repaired the disobedience of Adam.
According to Augustine, the grace of Christ is
the only remedy for the fall of man, and nothing

ST. GREGORY'S VIEWS ON PREDESTINATION 283
that he can do to save himself will avail him in
the least. To this view of his master Gregory
did not entirely assent. According to him, there
is some merit and virtue in man's consenting and
co-operating will. The initiator, however, of all
good he considered to be the precedent and
enabling grace of God. Man cannot unaided
make the feeblest tentative effort after holiness.
He can only help to make the success perfect
by rightly using his will. This conclusion is
not very logical, it was a compromise with
Augustine's non-compromising doctrine of grace
which men have found so hard to bear. When
analysed, however, it lands us naturally in the same
dilemma. Mr. Dudden, to whom I have been under
special obligations in this analysis of Gregory's
theology, says, "Gregory's position stood midway
between pure Augustinianism and semi- Pelagian-
ism. Gregory softened the latter down in the
way it was softened down in the famous Canons
of Orange. "This compromise, transmitted by Gregory to
the Middle Ages, found general acceptance, but
strict Augustinianism at all times had its adherents
and obtained a new and important development at
the Reformation. By the majority, however, the
semi-Augustinian compromise of Gregory has been
preferred." The compromise was a very thin one,
for Gregory is almost as savagely persistent as
Luther in affirming that God does not bestow
grace on man because he has done good works,

284 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
but in order that he may do good works, and he
holds that grace is in no wise earned but is given
freely, and the sole reason for the gift is the in
scrutable will of God. When once given, however,
Divine grace works within man merits which God
rewards, which means, in fact, that God rewards His
own handiwork. The argument is clearly a circular
one. Gregory, while holding this view, held further
that this initiating grace (known as Prevenient
Grace) which "disposes a man to will the good he
willed not " is followed by subsequent grace which
enables him to do the good he wills. The Pre
venient Grace, he held, emancipates the will, and
then co-operates with it, while Augustine treats it
as irresistibly determined by the dominating grace.
It is hard to see how Gregory's "Will" can be
defined as free. Its acts are in every case de
scribed as consequential and as resulting from an
initial impulse from the Divine Will.
Augustine's theory of grace was, like Calvin's,
free from all doubt and hesitation, and it led him
straight to an equally rigid and, may I say, equally
revolting theory of predestination. According to
this view the Maker and Father of mankind elected
from among His human creatures a certain and fixed
number to whom He imparted His saving grace,
while all the rest He left in their own wickedness,
passing them over so that they earned damnation.
Both the elect and the damned had their fate
therefore fixed long before, and each section were
working out in their lives what had been irrevocably

ST. GREGORY'S VIEWS ON PREDESTINATION 285
settled long before in the secret counsels of God.
It makes no difference to this awful conclusion
whether the Almighty's so-called reprobation was
active, or merely passive and indifferent. His re
sponsibility was the same. Gregory was doubtless
loath to adopt such a terrible conclusion in its naked
plainness, but he has no solution of it which is not
contradictory or factitious. At one time he argues
that God's grace was freely offered to all. In one
place, however, he interprets the definite statement
in 1 Tim. ii. 4, as Augustine does, i.e. as meaning
not that God offers it to all men, but that inasmuch
as it is offered to men of every class and character,
therefore it is given to all men, which is a subterfuge.1
At another time he seems willing to adopt the older
theory, that God elects those whom He foresees will
persevere in faith and good works. Inasmuch as this
very perseverance, however, was by his theory due
to the grace of God and is not possible without it,
it only means that God foresees the result of His
own future grace, which is a mere delusive fallacy of
logic. He himself in another place offers an argu
ment against this theory of " praedestinatio ex prae-
visis meritis" as it was called, namely, the difficulty,
if it were true, of equating the damnation of unbap
tized infants with the absolute justice of God.
"Two little ones," he says, "come to the light.
To one it is granted to return to redemption by
baptism ; the other is taken away before it is
washed by the regenerating water. And the son
1 Moralia, vi, 21.

286 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
of believing parents is often cut off without faith,
while that of unbelievers is often removed by the
grant of the Sacrament of faith. Perhaps some
may say that God knew that the former would act
wickedly even after baptism, and on that account
did not bring him to the grace of baptism. But if
this is so, then undoubtedly we have an instance of
sins being punished even before they are committed,
and what right-thinking man could say that Al
mighty God, who releases some from the sins they
have committed, yet condemns in others these very
sins even when not committed." 1 This argument
seems very hard to answer, and it led to Gregory
eventually falling back on Augustine's more logical, if
more terrible and to simple minds more inexplicable,
conclusion, that if by any accident or fault or design
on the part of its parents or guardians, a child
fails to have a few drops of water sprinkled on it
while a certain formula is uttered, that child is damned
without hope to all eternity. A good many people
would, it may be hoped, even in the sixth century,
prefer to silently believe that a stupendous mysti
fication underlies a postulate so cruel and so con
trary to the defined attributes of God as the loving
Father of man and the Dispenser of love and mercy.
Justly, we do not distinguish between pushing a
man into the water and letting him alone when there
if we can save him. His blood is equally on our
hands. It is little use to lay down a monstrous
proposition like this and then to say that the matter
1 Moralia, xxvii. 7.

ST. GREGORY'S VIEWS ON PREDESTINATION 287
ought not to be discussed, since one thing is alone
certain, namely, that nothing can be unjust which is
done by the Just One, and that the whole matter is
a mystery. The real mystery is that a good and
able man should deliberately argue that the Pattern
of all goodness was thus constituted, and should
then further argue that God shows mercy to the
elect without justice, and justice to the reprobate
without mercy. The elect as well as the reprobate
must experience God's justice, if He be just.1
Thus did these good Fathers spin their cobwebs
and exhaust their dialectical ingenuity in trying to
solve the insoluble and to define the indefinable.
The problem of free will and determinism is as
hopeless in theology as it has proved itself to be in
philosophy, and to get round the interminable anti
nomies in which logic loses itself when it deals with
such a subject is like trying to settle whether space
has or has not limits. Its definite settlement seems to
be beyond the reach of human wisdom, but the human
heart and the human conscience nevertheless con-
1 It will be well to quote a paragraph from the Dialogues to show
Gregory's method in these very abstract fields. Gregory having told
his companion Peter a story, the latter inferred from it that such as
be of great merit and in favour with God can sometimes obtain those
things which be not predestinate ; whereupon Gregory replies : " Such
things as be not predestinate by God cannot by any means be
obtained at His hands ; but those things which holy men do by their
prayers effect, were from all eternity predestinate to be obtained
by prayers. For very predestination itself to life everlasting is so
by Almighty God disposed. God's elect servants do through their
labour come to it, in that by their prayers they do merit to receive
that which Almighty God determines before all worlds to bestow
on them." He then quotes Gen. xxi. 12, xxvii. 29, xxii. 17, and
xxv. 21 (Dialogues, i. 6).

288 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
tinue to revolt against the notion that the best
efforts of the most ideal men count for nothing in
the scheme by which rewards and punishments are
awarded by the Fountain of all justice ; which is
Augustine's intolerable paradox. The mass of men
will continue to lean to the opposite view, and will
still cherish the motive which caused Gregory to
separate even only a little from his master Augustine
in this matter, although few of them can sanction his
arguments or adopt his actual conclusion.
Dr. Bury condenses another aspect of Gregory's
theology in a few telling sentences, for which he
acknowledges obligations to Toepffel. He says:
" In doctrine he followed the respectable authority
of the founder of Latin theology, St. Augustine.
But theology was the Pope's weak point ; here the
coarse fibres of his nature are apparent, his want of
philosophy, his want of taste. Take, for instance,
his theory of the Redemption. Influenced by famili
arity with the ideas of the Roman law, men were
prone to look on the Redemption as a sort of legal
transaction between God and the devil, in which the
devil is overreached. Gregory, true to the piscatorial
associations of the first Bishop of Rome, presents
this idea in a new, original, and definite form. It is
easy to identify Leviathan in Job with the Evil One ;
and once this identification is made, it is obvious
that the redemption must have been a halieutic
transaction, in which God is evidently the fisher
man. On His hook He places the humanity of Jesus
as a bait, and when the Devil swallows it the hook

SUMMARY OF ST. GREGORY'S THEOLOGY 289
pierces his jaws . . . this grotesque conception is
put forward earnestly, not as a mere play of the
imagination." 1
I have here collected some of the chief matters
in which Gregory's influence upon theological
thought was profound and definite. Those who
wish to read a masterly account of his theology as a
whole I must remit to the volumes of Mr. Dudden.
I cannot improve upon the summary with which he
concludes his admirable work.
"The importance of the teaching of the Fourth
Doctor of the Latin Church," he says, "lies mainly
in its popular summarisation of the doctrine of
Augustine, and in its detailed exposition of various
religious conceptions which were current in the
Western Church, but had not hitherto been defined
with precision. On the other hand, Gregory pro
vided what may be termed a popular version of
Augustine. That is to say, he restated his views in
simple, unphilosophic form, and at the same time
toned some of them down in the interests of natural
piety. Thus, for example, the doctrine of God is
reproduced in simple language, and the doctrine of
Grace is modified in the practical interest by the
vigorous assertion of the freedom of the will. So
popularised, Augustinianism was erected into a
standard by Gregory, and thus passed over to the
Middle Ages. On the other hand, Gregory was
the first to give clear expression to many current
religious conceptions which had been hitherto im-
1 Op. cit. ii. 157.
*9

290 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
perfectly defined, as, for instance, the conception of
Purgatory or of the Eucharistic sacrifice. In his
exposition of such ideas he made a distinct advance
upon the older theology, and influenced profoundly
the dogmatic development of the future.
" The combination of Augustinianism with the
conceptions ofj the popular religion, thus effected by
Gregory, is the ground of the system of mediaeval
Catholicism. The Schoolmen worked on Gregory's
material. They analysed his theology, restated his
propositions in scientific form, and endeavoured to
reconcile them to the understanding by elaborate
dialectical proofs. Doctrine, as was natural, de
veloped in the process, and the schemes of
Scholasticism present many points of contrast with
the teaching of the Morals and the Homilies. Yet
it should be borne in mind that it is on Gregory's
work that these later systems in the main are based.
It is the ideas and doctrines emphasised by him,
that afterwards became of first-rate importance in
the Church. . . . Gregory's theology is important in
the history of dogma : yet we do not find in it new
ideas or the settlement of difficult questions. But
he does sum up the teaching of the older Fathers
and brings it into union with the opinion of his time.
He does consolidate and strengthen the Catholicism
he found, preparing the matter for future elabora
tion. ... He gives to theology a tone and an
emphasis which cannot be disregarded. And from
his time to that of Anselm no teacher of equal
eminence arose in the Church. For a period of

SAINT GREGORYS FALLIBILITY 291
nearly four centuries the last word on theology
rested with Gregory the Great." 1
It is important, in view of modern theories about
papal infallibility, to remember some facts about
Gregory's dogmatic position. We have seen that,
while agreeing in the main with his master, another
Doctor of the Church, namely, Augustine, he very
considerably qualified the latter's views about such
critical matters as the responsibility of man for his
acts and the freedom of his will. He revolted
apparently from the terrible fatalism which really
underlies Augustine's views on the subject, but he
did so by forms of logic which have been generally
deemed unsound and are obviously elusive and
inconsequent. He accepted Augustine's premises
in their fulness, and tried to soften them in their
application by methods which are obviously de
lusive, if not disingenuous. The fact is, Gregory
was a great moralist but a poor philosopher, and in
trying to make Augustine's theories more palatable
he involved himself in self-contradictions which his
master, if then living, would have pierced through
and through with his very effective lance. The real
truth is, that it is Augustine's premises which are at
fault and not his conclusions, which is equally true of
Augustine's greatest pupil, Calvin, who in much later
times shrank from no application of his mechanical
logic. They both pressed the case to a revolting
conclusion, which compelled them to treat Divine
Justice, Mercy, and Rectitude as the very converse
1 Op. cit. ii. 442, 443.

292 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
of the abstractions we connote by the same terms
when we make them the bases of Human Morality.
Who, then, is to judge between Augustine and
Gregory, and between both of them and the de
mands of the human conscience in such an issue ?
To those who have accepted papal infallibility it is
apparently a necessity that they should follow the
Pope, who was a Church Doctor, rather than his
master, the African Bishop, who was also a Doctor
of the Church. Yet it would be difficult to find in
the history of the dogmatic teaching of the Roman
Church on the subject of Gregory's theory of
qualified free will or of grace, evidence that it has
accepted either his arguments or his conclusions on
these subjects.
This is not all ; there are other matters in which
Gregory's position, when measured by the accepted
Church teaching, savours of heresy. Thus, as
Mr. Dudden says, Gregory, while cherishing the
Chalcedonian formulas, cherished also views on the
Incarnation distinctly Doketic in tendency.1 In
respect to the ignorance of Christ as man, Gregory
asserts the Doketic views without the slightest am
biguity. His statements regarding Christ's mental
anguish and His temptation are less explicit, but
their general tenor seems to be to the same effect.2
He would not tolerate any human limitation to
Christ's human omniscience, a view which is not
now received by the Roman Church. As we shall
see, in one of his answers to the questions of the
1 Op. cit. ii. 293. 2 Ib. 329-331.

SAINT GREGORY'S FALLIBILITY 293
later Augustine, Gregory, in regard to the degree of
consanguinity within which marriage is permissible,
created much trouble, and was repudiated by the
Church, while some forged letters under the name of
Felix of Messina were produced in order to do away
with the effect of the Pope's unwary pronouncement.
The prayers which the Pope offered for the
delivery of the pagan Emperor Hadrian's soul
from hell, as attested by some very early records of
his miracles, and in many works of art, were gener
ally deemed quite unorthodox by subsequent writers
of authority. His biographer, John, had to try and
excuse them ; so did Thomas Aquinas.
It is plain, therefore, that either Gregory was
mistaken in his published opinions as Pope on very
important dogmatic questions, and was not therefore
infallible, or else that the Roman Church has erred
in following other teachers.

CHAPTER IX
In the last chapter we saw to what critical and almost
inconceivable lengths Gregory pursued his own
premises in interpreting the ways of Providence ;
there still remains to be considered a notable example
of his character, i.e. his extraordinary intolerance at
times. No word so well describes what I mean.
With him no thought was more firmly fixed than
that salvation was to be found in the Church alone.
Heretics and schismatics " being severed from the
Church were also separated from Christ, and were
outside the sphere of operation of the Holy Spirit."
Hence they could not hope for salvation, which was
to be found only within the Church. He said " the
Holy Universal Church proclaims that God cannot
truly be worshipped save within herself," and as
serted that all they who were without her pale would
never be saved.1 No sacrifices were accepted by
God,2 no prayers were heard,3 no forgiveness of sin
was obtained, save through the merits and interces
sion of the one Catholic Church.* " For it is the
Church alone through which God willingly accepts
a sacrifice, the Church alone which intercedes with
1 Moralia, xiv. 5. 2 Ib. Pref. 17.
3 Ib. xxxv. 12. « Ib. xviii. 42.
294

ST. GREGORY'S THEORY OF THE CHURCH 295
confidence for those that are in error. The true
sacrifice of the Redeemer was offered only in the
one Catholic Church. It is in the Church alone
that a good work is faithfully carried on. It is the
Church alone which guards those who are within it
by the strong bond of charity, and in which we
truly contemplate heavenly mysteries, for truth
shines forth from the Catholic Church alone."1
" Good works, innocence and obedience, perfection
and eternal life, are not to be had by any who
are outside the Church."2 "Even the merit of
martyrdom is denied them. For though heretics
and schismatics suffer in the name of Christ, they
are not purified by their suffering. Their sins are
punished but not purged away, and all their torment
is void of merit or saving efficacy."3
" Hence, though a man displays heroic deeds,
faith of a sort, and even miracles, he is none the
less without hope of salvation, if he be not joined
to the one Church, which gives the saving stamp to
all." The Church, Gregory held, was not only Holy
and Catholic, but Apostolic, " of Apostolic founda
tion, and connected with the Apostles by an un
interrupted episcopal succession,"4 and the only
authority for doctrine. " Though her dogmas have
been gradually elaborated, they are all based on
the teaching of the Apostles." 5 The custodian and
1 Moralia, xxxv. 13.
2 Ib. xxxv. 33, and Greg. Exp. Sup. Cant. Canticorum, vi. 9.
3 Moralia, xviii. 41, 42. " Marty rem non facit poena sed causa?'
E. and H. ii. 49.
4 Moralia, iv. 61 and 62. 5 lb. xxvii. 14 and 15.

296 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
interpreter of Holy Scripture, she alone can
explain the obscurities of the Old Testament J and
draw out the full meaning of the brief testimonies
of the New,2 for she alone is gifted with wisdom3
from on high. Unlike the heretics, she makes no
pretence to hidden or cryptic knowledge. She
requires that men should receive her decisions on
things that cannot be comprehended by reason,
with faith. " Many of her doctrines she cannot
herself understand ; 4 others she deliberately refuses
to elucidate, that men may not be puffed up with
intellectual pride." "She asks her sons to accept
her dogmas with unquestioning faith, every act
of faith being thus an act of obedience."5 Mr.
Dudden has in these pregnant sentences,6 each
supported by a quotation, admirably condensed for
us the haughty and imperious demands made by
Gregory on behalf of his Church. No wonder he
should have had nothing but scorn for heretics and
schismatics, and no wonder that his teaching on this
subject should form the bone and marrow of modern
Encyclicals and Syllabuses, and that all advances
in our own day for peace or brotherhood or union,
on any terms but unqualified surrender, from those
outside her fold should have been met by contemptu
ous scorn. It is plain that there is no method of
equating differences of this kind except absolute
domination on one side and absolute submission on
the other. The true father of the intolerance and
1 E. and H. ix. 26. 2 Moralia, xxvii. 14, 15.
3 Ib. xviii. 18. * Ib. xiv. 32.
6 Ib. xx. 2. 6 Dudden, ii. 405-414.

SAINT GREGORY ON CHURCH AND STATE 297
bigotry and exclusiveness of the mediaeval Church
and its Roman successor in our day was Gregory.
He was eminently fair-minded and judicial, save
where schism and heresy were in question, when he
shaped the prejudices of succeeding ages in their
full rigour — feeling, no doubt, that in the face of
enemies pressing the Church on all sides, he who
rent the garment was the worst of traitors.
He was a warm champion of the union of
Church and State. "The latter," he taught, " should
work for the furtherance of Divine law and worship.
Earthly rulers were entrusted with the duty of
preserving the pax fidei. Theirs it was to maintain
law and order in the Church, to guard its secular
interests, and to compel its enemies, whether pagans,
schismatics, or heretics, to submit to its authority."1
He summed up his view on the respective provinces
of the civil and religious jurisdiction in his rule,
" Quod vero fecit fecerit, si canonicum est, sequimur :
si vero canonicum non est, in quantum sine peccato
nostro, portamus." 2
Towards pagans and Jews he acted very much
like other Christians in authority in his time. Pagans,
like heretics, were treated much more hardly than
Jews. Pagan tenants, Gregory held, might be per
secuted and have intolerable exactions imposed on
them to compel their conversion.3 Idolaters and
diviners were to be reclaimed : if freemen by im
prisonment, and if slaves by stripes and torture.
1 Dudden, ii. 413. 2 E. and H. xi. 29.
3 Ib. iv. 26.

298 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
He is found writing to the Bishop of Cagliari,
pressing upon him to cause the idolatrous peasants
in Sardinia who were serfs of the Church to be
baptized by force, and to fine those who were
refractory ; while he similarly pressed upon the
Emperor to execute the severe decrees issued by
his predecessors against the Donatists.
Jews were treated by him with a good deal
more tenderness than pagans or heretics. We shall
see presently that he was very stringent against
their dealing in Christian slaves, otherwise his
regulations about them were generally humane.
Jews, however, were not allowed to proselytise or
build new synagogues. On the other hand, he
insisted that they should not be coerced into receiv
ing baptism or molested in the synagogues they
already had. When tenants of the Holy See, they
might be bribed, however, to change their faith by
the offer of lower rents.1
This form of bribery was done quite undis-
guisedly. Thus Gregory, writing to Cyprian the
Rector in Sicily in regard to the Jews living on
the lands of the Church, tells him to advertise
the fact widely that whoever among them was
converted should have the burdens of his holding
lightened, and this was to be done by a regular
system. One who paid a solidus in rent was to have
a third remitted. If three or four, he was to have
one solidus deducted. If still more, proportionately.
The Pope argues that such transactions would not
1 E. and H. ii. 38, v. 7.

SAINT GREGORY AND THE JEWS 299
be unprofitable, since by these payments the Jews
would be brought to the grace of Christ ; and even
if they themselves came with little faith, he artfully
argues that those born of them would be baptized
with more faith, so that in any case they or their
children would be won.1 In another letter to the
sub- Deacon Anthemius he urges that Jewish con
verts should be helped with money when in want,
and he specifies a certain Justa and her sons as
deserving recipients.2
He also deprecates harsh treatment of Jews.
Thus he writes to Bacauda and Agnellus, two
bishops in Sicily, saying that the Jews at Terracina
had petitioned him in regard to their synagogue at
that place. It seems this synagogue was so near
the church that the sound of the psalmody from
the former reached the latter. His agent, Peter,
was to inquire into the case, and if he found that
this proximity was really a nuisance he was to
secure the Jews a fresh site. In another letter,
to Paschasius, he forbade the Jews to be op
pressed or vexed unreasonably, since they were
permitted in accordance with justice to live under
the protection of the Roman laws, and they ought
to be allowed to keep their observances as they
had learnt them without hindrance.3 Again, he
writes to Fantinus the Defensor that the Jews of
Panormus (i.e. Palermo) had complained that their
synagogues, with the guest-chambers that were
1 E. and H. iv. 36 ; Barmby, v. 8.
2 E. and H. v. 46 ; Barmby, iv. 31.
8 E. and H. ii. 6, xiii. 15 ; Barmby, i. 10, xiii. 12.

300 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
under them or attached to their walls, and the
gardens adjoining, together with their books and
ornaments, had been wrongfully appropriated by the
Church officials. He ordered that due amends
should be made.1
In a second letter to Fantinus, Gregory tells
him he had heard from the Lady Abbess of the
Monastery of St. Stephen at Agrigentum that
many Jews wished to be converted, but it was
necessary that some one should go there from the
Pope. Gregory therefore bids him hasten thither.
If he found them anxious to be baptized, as the
Paschal solemnity was some time off and they might
in the meantime change their minds, he was to con
sult about it with the bishop there. Penitence and
abstinence (poenitentia et abstinentia) having been
prescribed to them for forty days, he might baptize
them under the protection of the mercy of God on
a Lord's Day, or on any very noted festival that
might occur ; and if he found that some of them
were too poor to buy christening vestments, he
might charge their price in his accounts. If they,
however, wished to put off the ceremony till Easter,
he was to arrange with the bishop so that they
might for the present become catechumens, while
he meanwhile visited them frequently and made
exhortations to them. He ends by asking the
Defensor to send full details of what should occur.2
In a letter to Libertinus, the praetor of Sicily,
1 E. and H. ix. 38 ; Barmby, ix. 55.
2 E. and H. viii. 23 ; Barmby, viii. 23.

SAINT GREGORY'S MANIFOLD DUTIES 301
Gregory complains of "a very wicked Jew" called
Nasas, who had erected an altar in the name of the
blessed Elias, and had enticed many Christians to
worship there. He was to inquire and to punish
him.1 We elsewhere find the Pope rebuking the
Roman people for the Judaising practice of teach
ing that Saturday rather than Sunday was to be
kept as the Christian Sabbath, which was apparently
affected by certain of them.2
Gregory's life had been a long struggle against
sickness, which greatly emaciated his once full
body ; he suffered, like most of his contemporaries,
from gout, from indigestion, and from malarial
fever, which were no doubt aggravated by his
austerities, and he was troubled with fainting fits.
He was, nevertheless, indefatigable. He "never
rested " is the graphic phrase of his biographer,
Paul.3 Mr. Dudden condenses for us the kind of
engagements which occupied his days : " Now he
was called upon to give audience to an envoy
from Constantinople, now to preside over the trial
of an accused bishop, now to dictate some minute
directions to the governor of one of the papal
patrimonies. Sometimes schismatics or heretics
came to Rome to consult the orthodox Pope and hear
his arguments. Monks came to complain of the
oppression of their diocesans, bishops to obtain advice
in managing their dioceses, soldiers and civil officials,
ambassadors from the Lombards or the Franks,
1 E. and H. iii. 37 ; Barmby, iii. 38.
2 E. andH. xiii. 3. 8 Vita, 15.

302 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
messengers from the Exarch, priests, abbots, Jews,
slaves, women, crowded his antechambers and clam
oured for his attentions." 1 To each and all he was
accessible, and ever ready to apply his ready wit
and his sound sense and judgment to remedy the
pressing evil.
The combination of a fragile body and strenuous
life, with a continuous residence in the malarious
district of the Lateran (for he never seems to have
left Rome after he became Pope), had a natural
consequence. Gregory's career was a short one, and
he died on the 12 th of March 604, after a reign of
thirteen years, six months, and ten days as Pope.2
He was buried, as was customary, on the day
of his death, in the " porticus " or chapel of the
basilica of St. Peter, in front of the sacristy (ante
secretarium)} His body was placed, as was usual
with great personages, in an Egyptian porphyry
basin (Conca Aigyptiaca)} Two hundred years
later it was removed by his successor and name
sake, Gregory the Fourth, to an oratory near the
new sacristy within the church, and his tomb was
covered with silver panels and its back wall with
golden mosaics.5
Subsequent translations took place in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the remains
having been removed to a cypress coffin, now
1 Op. cit. i. 244, quoting the Horn, in Ez. i. 1 1, paragraphs 6 and 26.
2 See the discussion of the date in Plummer's Bede, vol. ii. p. 36.
3 Lib. Pont. Greg. I.
L Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, 223.
s Lib. Pont. Greg. iv.

SAINT GREGORY'S EPITAPH 303
rest beneath the altar in the Chapel of Clement
the Eighth, to which they were transferred on
8th January 1606. His epitaph, cited by Bede,
has been attributed to Peter Oldradus, Archbishop
of Milan and secretary to Pope Hadrian the First,
but in an Italian note to Gregorovius we read :
" Deir iscrizione incisa sulla tomba si conoscera il
tenore per copia fatte fiino nel secolo vii: non se,
cognosce lautore ; ma non fu certo Farcivescovo
Oldradio." It consists of sixteen hexameters, and
six small fragments of it have been recently re
covered, and are preserved in the subterranean
church of St. Peter.1 The last six lines of the
epitaph may be quoted. After belauding the Pope
in various ways, it continues : —
Ad Christum Anglos convertit pietate magistra,
Adquirens fidei agmina gente nova.
Hie labor, hoc studium, haec tibi cura, hoc pastor agebas,
Ut Domino offerres plurima lucra gregis,
Hisque Dei Consul factus laetare triumphis;
Nam mercedem operum jam sine fide tenes.
The phrase " Dei Consul " (Consul of God)
should be noted here.
The two concluding lines are not given by Bede.
They run : —
Hie requiescit Gregorius Papa qui sedit annos
xiii menses vi dies x — Depositus iiii idus — Martias.2
It is a notable instance of what I previously
mentioned, that men were often dubbed saints
without having had any official appointment, that
so famous a man as Gregory should have acquired
1 Gregorovius, i. p. 419, note 42. 2 E. and H. vol. ii. App. V.

304 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
the style simply on account of his widely recognised
reputation for sanctity. Thus in the life of him by
the Whitby Monk we read : " Iste [i.e. Gregory]
enim sanctus utique per 07nnem terram tam sanctus
habetur, ut semper ab omnibus ubique Sanctus Gre
gorius nominatur. Unde letaniis . . . Sanctum
Gregorium nobis in amminiculum vocamus, cum
Sanctis scilicet apostolis et martyribus, inter quos eum
in coelis Christo credimus conjunctum." 1
The evidence that the Pope's remains still re
main in St. Peter's at Rome is very satisfactory, but
it is not the only story about them.
According to a very improbable saga, reported
by Odilo the Monk in his tract on the translation
of the remains of SS. Sebastianus and Gregory,
Roidinus, the Prior of St. Medard, bribed the
sacristans of St. Peter's, opened the tomb of St.
Gregory, and carried the body off to Soissons,
where it was claimed to have been, by many writers.
St. Thomas of Canterbury made a pilgrimage
thither to invoke the help of " the Apostle of the
Church of England who lyeth in the same town
entombed," and it was said to have been destroyed
by the Huguenots. This story is inconsistent with
the better witness of the Pope's own biographers.2
Although the body as a whole is generally ad
mitted to have remained in Rome, there are many
claims in many places to the possession of disin
tegrated fragments of it. Three several heads —
one at Sens, another at Prague, a third at Lisbon,
1 Op. cit. ed. Gasquet, p. 45. 2 Dudden, ii. 274.

DISTRIBUTION OF SAINT GREGORY'S RELICS 305
and portions of a fourth at Cologne — all attest the
extravagant credulity of relic-hunters. The virtue
of the larger bones was distributed by having them
further broken and made to do service elsewhere ;
thus the upper part of the skull and another bone
are said to be in the treasury of the Cathedral at Sens.
A portion of this latter skull was begged by Pope
Urban the Eighth in 1628, and presented by him to
the Roman oratory of St. Maria in Vallicella, where
it still remains. When the Cathedral of Avignon
was rededicated in the last century; a piece of this last
bone was detached and presented to the church there,
at the instance of Pope Gregory the Sixteenth. This
is not all. Mr. Dudden has collected a number of
notices of other relics of the marvellous Pope, which
I will in part appropriate. He says : "In the great
sack of Rome in 1527, a crystal vase containing an
arm of the Saint is said to have been stolen. One
pf his arms is claimed for St. Gregory's Monastery
at Rome, and another for Cambray. One of his
hands is said to be in the Cathedral of Cesena, and
a finger bone at St. Pantaleone in Cologne. The
Carthusians in the same city possess a tooth and a
large and small bone, and the Jesuits in Lisbon had
other relics. In Spain there was formerly a picture
of the Virgin, which, it was said, had been presented
by St. Gregory to his friend Leander, the Arch
bishop of Seville. A piece of his dalmatic is said
to be at St. Stephen's in Bologna. An ivory
crozier, said to have been the great Pope's* was
presented to St. Gregory's Church by Gregory
20

306 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
the Sixteenth."1 In a letter of Pope Vitalian it is
said that he sent some relics of Gregory to Oswy,
King of Northumbria.2 At Monza there is a very
early Antiphonary said to have been presented by
Pope Gregory to Queen Theodelinda.3
The artists of the Middle Ages usually asso
ciated the apostles, saints, and martyrs with some
symbolic object by which they can be recognised.
Gregory is generally represented in his papal dress
and tiara, accompanied by a dove, a book, or an
angel playing a musical instrument.
A chapel was dedicated to St. Gregory at
St. Augustine's, Canterbury, where Mass was
recited every Sunday at the altar of the Saint*
Another chapel (porticus) was dedicated to him in
the Church of St. Peter at York.5 There was also
a church dedicated to him in London.6 An altar
dedicated to him was erected in very early times at
Whitby, as is stated in his life by the Whitby Monk.
The deeds and the alleged miracles of the Pope, or
connected with his name, afforded abundant inspira
tion to the artists, both painters and sculptors, of the
Middle Ages and of more modern times. It will be
well to refer to some of the most noted. Among
these the greatest favourite was the Pope's rescue
of the soul of the Emperor Trajan from torment.
The story as reported by the Whitby Monk relates
that one day, when traversing the Forum of Trajan,
the Pope recalled a work of such charity (tam elemo-
1 Op. cit. ii. 275, 276. 2 Bede, iii. chap, xxxix.
* Marriott, Vest. Christ. 237. * Bede, ii. 3.
* Ib. ii. 20. 6 Ib. ed. Plummer, vol. i, p. cxxv.

ST. GREGORY & THE RELEASE OF TRAJAN 307
sinarium) done by the Emperor who built it, that
he deemed him to have been more of a Christian
than a pagan. As the Emperor was setting out
on an expedition with his army, he was importuned
by a widow, who said, " My Lord Trajan, here are
men who killed my son and refuse to give me
anything." "Wait till I return," he said, "and I
will make them give you redress." To which she
said, " But, my lord, if you never return no one
will do justice to me." He thereupon summoned
the wrong-doers, and made them pay her a recom
pense. Gregory, remarking on this, said that it
was the very case contemplated in Isaiah i. 17
and 18, "Judge the fatherless and plead for the
widow. Come now, let us reason together, saith
the Lord." Since he did not know what to do for
the refreshment of such a man's soul ; through the
influence of Christ working within him, he went
to St. Peter and poured forth his accustomed flood
of tears until it was divinely communicated to him
that his petition for his release had been heard. But
it was also conveyed to him that he should never
presume again to do such thing for any other pagan
(undepereum quem in se habuit Christum loquentem,
ad refrigerium anime ejus quid implendo nesciebal,
ingrediens ad Sanctum Petrum solita direxit laerim-
arum fluenta, usque dum promeruit sibi divinitus
revelatum fuisse exauditum, atque ut nunquam de
altero illud presumpsisset pagano)} This miracle
1 Op. cit. p. 39. In more than one of the tales quoted by my
friend Mr. Herbert in his most industrious book, the third volume
of the British Museum Catalogue of Romances, pp. 400, 401,

308 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
was afterwards felt to be embarrassing, and was
repudiated on the ground that Trajan had died
a pagan ; and it was therefore deemed shock
ing that a Pope should have appealed in tears to
St. Peter to release him from the torments of hell.
Gregory's biographer, John the Deacon, suggests
that the story was an English one, and would
make the English responsible for it — " Legitur enim
penes easdem Anglorum ecclesias." The anonymous
Whitby Monk, from whom I have quoted it, on the
other hand, clearly derives the story from Italy.
He begins it with the words, " Quidam quoque de
nostris dicunt narratum a Romanis," and himself
cites it as extraordinary, since no unbaptized person
can see God. As he says: "Nemo enim sine
baptismo Deum videbit unquam." 1
Secondly, we have the miracle of the bleeding
cloth, above described, which was originally told
of Leo the Great.2
Thirdly, that of a noble Roman lady, who used
to present bread of her own making for consecra
tion in the Mass, and was seen to smile when told
this bread was the Lord's body. The Pope, to
strengthen her faith, prayed that a miracle might
be vouchsafed, whereupon, when the Host on the
altar was uncovered, it was said to have been clearly
changed into material flesh stained with blood.
and 630 and 638, it is said that Gregory was offered a choice of
penalties for praying for Trajan's soul. Mr. Herberthas also directed
me to an elaborate monograph on the legend by M. Gaston Paris, in
the Bibl. de IVcole des Hautes Etudes, fasc. 35 (1878), pp. 261-298.
1 Vide op. cit. chap. xxix. 2 Vide ante, p. 226.

SAINT GREGORY'S MIRACLES 309
The Pope having prayed again, the flesh was again
converted into bread.
Fourthly, the cure of the Lombard King, who
had promised Gregory that if the latter ever became
Pope he would not molest the city of Rome. Gregory
bade him return to the food of his childhood — i.e. a
milk diet — by which he was cured. We should hardly
call this a miracle now. It clearly refers to the time
before he became Pope.
A fifth miracle reported of the Pope was of a
more grim character. He had excommunicated a
rich and powerful man who had divorced his wife.
The latter thereupon bribed two magi, or necro
mancers, to do the Pope an injury. By their
diabolic arts they caused a demon to enter the
horse Gregory was riding, so that it became very
excited, and put him in great danger. He suc
ceeded, however, in discomfiting the magi, who
confessed and were converted.
Lastly, the miracle reported in reference to his
successor as Pope, namely, Sabinianus, who joined
in, or perhaps incited, a popular outcry against him
after his death, and attributed a famine which oc
curred, to his extravagance. Sabinian did not mend
matters by withdrawing the free doles which his
predecessor had distributed, from the monasteries,
guest-houses, deaconries, and hospitals. In answer
to the appeals of the poor, he replied, "If
Gregory for the glory of his own praise entertained
all the people, I cannot afford to do the same."
Thereupon, we are told, Gregory appeared to him

310 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
three times and gently admonished him, and as he
persisted he paid him another visit, when he violently
abused and even struck the offending Pope on the
head, from the effects of which blow he shortly
afterwards died.1 In the Whitby Life we have an
epitomised version of the story, in which Gregory
is said to have kicked his successor on the head
with his foot.2
John the Deacon tells the story rather differently.
He says that the people were so enraged against
Gregory's memory that they determined to burn his
books. Thereupon his secretary, Peter, told them
a tale in order to dissuade them. This story is
better put by Gregory's earlier biographer, Paul,
who says : " Peter the Deacon, Gregory's close
friend and prot^gd, declared that when the Pope
was composing his commentary on the prophecies
of Ezekiel, a veil was drawn between them.
As the Pope kept silence for a long time, Peter,
who was acting as his secretary, made a hole
with his pen in the veil, and, looking through
it, he saw a dove whiter than snow sitting on
Gregory's head and holding its beak for a long
time to his lips, as if conveying a message. When
the dove withdrew its bill the Pope began to speak
again, and Peter went on transcribing. This hap
pened more than once, and on one occasion he saw
Gregory with hands and eyes raised to heaven as if
in prayer, receiving as before the dove's beak be
tween his lips." This naive and beautiful story, no
1 Paul. Diac, chap. xxix. 2 Op. cit. chap, xxviii.

SAINT GREGORY'S MIRACLES 311
doubt, was the origin of the dove being treated in
art as the special symbol of the Pope. It occurs in
the alleged interpolated portion of Paul the Deacon's
Life of Gregory, and is doubtless either an enlarge
ment of that told in the Whitby Life or was taken
from the original form of that Life.
Peter having told the crowd this story, further
confirmed its truth by a very solemn oath, and,
entering the ambo, or pulpit, with the Gospels in
his hand, he prayed God to take his life if the story
was not true. After repeating the statement he
suddenly died. This, we are told, was accepted as
an attestation of the truth of the legend, which does
not seem quite consequential.
The six miracles here related are especially
noteworthy for us, since they occur for the first time
in the biography of the Whitby Monk, from which
they were perhaps derived by Paul the Deacon, while
John, Gregory's third biographer, expressly says that
four of them — i.e. those of the bleeding "host," of the
bleeding cloth, of the release of Trajan, and of the
image — were stories specially current in the English
Church. He adds several tales of visions in which,
after his death, the Pope is made to appear to
several monks of St. Andrew's Monastery, includ
ing, on one occasion, himself.1
Gregory's unpopularity with the Roman people
was only transient. Their memories speedily re
verted to the many obligations they were under to
him, and his biographer, John, tells us how they kept
1 Op. cit. iv. 100.

312 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
his feast, and on the vigil went in crowds to his
tomb and affectionately kissed his unembroidered
pallium of white linen, his girdle of a thumb's
breadth, and his silver phylacta hung by a piece of
red cloth, which were all in existence when he wrote.1
They also visited their wrath on Sabinian, whose
body had to be furtively conveyed from the
Lateran to its burial by skirting the outside of
the city, so as to escape the fury of the mob.
If we have found much to distress us in the theo
logical and dogmatic views of Gregory, which became
the great armoury of Scholasticism and the inspira
tion of the methods and theories of the Inquisition,
we cannot say enough in praise of his moral and
ethical teaching. Directly we get him on this
ground, we feel what grandeur there is in the man.
Here he towers above the whole crowd of theo
logians, and takes us to a higher atmosphere where
the air is pure and fresh, and untainted by sordid
thoughts and views, and makes us feel how mean
all vice is, how contemptible is all pretence and
hypocrisy, and how necessary faith, love, and good
works are if we are to attain righteousness. He
never misses an occasion in his homilies, and in his
great work on Job, of urging that theology without
morals is mere dust and ashes, as are asceticism, long
prayers, or fasting, etc. etc., without real humility and
contrition. Let me again borrow from Mr. Dudden
some references which my readers would do well
to look up and ponder over, e.g. his analyses of
1 Op. cit. iv. 80.

ST. GREGORY'S HIGH MORAL STANDARDS 313
the virtues of fortitude,1 humility,2 truthfulness,3
obedience,4 the uses of adversity,6 the relation of the
active to the contemplative life,6 his definition of
different kinds of temptation,7 of the ascetic mean ; 8
the causes of sin,9 and his account of the conception,
birth, and growth of good in man.10 "These sub
jects," says Mr. Dudden, "are handled by Gregory
with an easy mastery, which proves him to have been
a moral theologian of high rank. No Early Father
better understood the human soul or analysed more
clearly its miseries and necessities, or indicated more
pointedly the remedies that should be applied."11
Another sentence from Dr. Barmby will emphasise
all this. He says : "As a preacher of essential
Christian morality he was ever sound and true,
nor has any one more insisted on spiritual com
munion of the individual soul with God, or more
strongly maintained the principle of justice, mercy,
and truth being of the essence of religion." 12
A good deal has been made of Gregory's occa
sional outbreaks of temper, his sarcastic humours, and
his sometimes unforgiving temper towards certain
breaches of monastic and clerical discipline. Those
of us who share his gout will be tender to his
1 Moralia, v. 33 ; vii. 24. 2 Ib. xxvii. 75-79 and xvi. 39, 40.
3 Ib. xviii. 5. * lb. xxxv. 28-33.
s Ib. Pref. 12 ; xiv. 40 ; xx. 61 ; xxiv. 45 ; xxxi. 107.
6 Ib. vi. 56-62 ; Horn, in Ez., i. 3, par. 9 ; i. 5, par. 12 ; ii. 2,
par. 8 ; ii. 6, par. 5.
7 Moralia, xii. 22.
8 Ib. xx. 78 ; xxx. 62, 63. 9 lb. xxv. 28.
10 Ib. xxx. 40, 41. n Op. cit. ii. 441 and 442, note.
12 Eps. of Gregory, Prolegomena, xxx.

314 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
irascibility, and those who have tiresome friends will
also be tender to his sarcasms against dullards and
hapless people whose sins are not less irritating
because they are sins of omission, while the times
needed a master who could be unbending and un
forgiving when his great aims were jeopardised.
Few men in history, with such a gigantic responsi
bility and load of work as he had, have got through
the task so well and wisely as he did, and with such
continual outpouring of gentle, kindly thought for the
poor, the helpless, the unprotected, and the weak.
Few again, if any, have through their lives shown
such persistent solicitude for their own ideals of what
was noble and lofty, and have lived up to the very
high standards he proposed for others in his works.
My friend Dr. Hodgkin denies his claim to be a
saint. If these do not constitute claims, I know of
none. The statesman, the lawyer, the administrator,
the bishop, the theologian, and the high-minded
Christian gentleman, can all learn ample lessons from
his correspondence and example. As to his narrow
ness and credulity, and his dogmatic outlook on
this world and the next, it was not his fault that
he was born in the moral and mental atmosphere
of the sixth century, out of which he stepped so far
in many other ways ; and that in what he fully
believed to be the approaching end of " this wicked
world " he should have tried to organise as much of
it as he could, according to the ideals of a monk,
and perhaps at times dreamt of the possibility of
such political and moral ideals as have since

CULTURE IN SAINT GREGORY'S TIME 315
fructified in the theocratic monkish polity of
Tibet. While all men are agreed in acknowledging the
high character, devotion to duty, practical ability,
administrative skill, high mental gifts, and real great
ness of Gregory, it would not be judicial to ignore
another side of his career, in which, although he was
the creature of his time (a very bad time), he put back
the finger on the clock of human progress very
materially. The period in which he lived has been
graphically called " the twilight of the Dark Ages,"
and the succeeding four centuries present us with only
occasional glimpses of dim colour " amidst the en
circling gloom." After Gregory's death the shadows
fell rapidly, and every form of human culture sank
into increasing decadence. Literature, art of all
kinds, everything that enlightens and elevates the
human mind, or is an antidote to materialism or
sybaritism, fell into deeper and deeper lethargy,
and the harvests gathered by the bright thought,
and the cultured taste, and the great ideals of the
Greeks and Romans were buried deep in oblivion.
Men's thoughts turned elsewhere than to these things.
They had become utterly weary of the fruits and
flowers which this world had produced and was pro
ducing, and were engrossed with hopes and fears in
regard to another and, as they thought, a better
world, for which this was a mere apprenticeship.
The world they pictured beyond the stars was a
strange one, which did not glow with sensual colours,
but was draped in grey and austere shadows. Nor is

316 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
it wonderful that the pendulum should have swung
very far when it began to swing, and that asceticism
and abnegation of anything that could please or bring
joy to life was deemed to be holy. That self-torture
(mental and bodily), and the persecution of every
human passion and taste, should have been con
sidered the highest of ideals. That literature and
art should alike have been (not merely neglected)
but denounced in favour of the endless metaphysical
word-splitting of half-instructed theologians trying
to paint pictures of another life (entirely beyond
human ken), and to fasten down the attributes and
the moral standards of the Almighty to definitions
of their own concocting. Lastly, that the life of the
cloister, with its continual and ceaseless prayers and
bodily suffering, and with no mental food save that
which was supplied by the Scriptures or the lives of
saints, should have been treated as the ideal exist
ence of man, and monks and nuns and anchorites as
the only people who had solved life's riddle well.
Of all this Gregory was an uncompromising
champion, and a devoted follower of the layman,
Justinian, who had finally closed the Academy at
Athens, and thus dispersed the last school of philo
sophy and all it then meant, and initiated the Dark
Ages. We find nowhere in his writings any signs
of sympathy with culture, in the modern sense of
the term. Greek, as we have seen, he did not
know, but the Latins had great poets and great
historians as well as the Greeks. He deemed their
writings pagan and wicked.

LACK OF THEOLOGICAL BOOKS AT ROME 317
It was not the study of classical books only which
was then apparently entirely discouraged in Rome.
The poverty of the Capital of Christendom in re
ligious works is equally marked. In a letter to the
Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, Gregory says
the Roman Church did not possess the Canons of
the Council of Constantinople nor its Acts, nor had it
accepted them except such as defined the objections
against the Macedonians. He therefore knew
nothing about the Eudoxians who, he understood,
had been condemned by that Synod. He could
find no mention of them, he says, either in
Philaster or in the blessed Augustine, and only in
the history of Sozomen, which was not accepted
by the Apostolic See because of its laudation
of Theodore of Mopsuestia.1 In another letter to
the Patriarch of Alexandria, who had asked the
Pope to send him "the Acts" of all the martyrs
which had been collected in the time of Con
stantine by Eusebius of Caesarea, he confesses that
he had never heard of their acts before he received
the letter of Eulogius. Besides what Eusebius
said in his books (i.e. his histories) about the Holy
Martyrs, he was not aware of any in the archives
of the Church or in the libraries of Rome, unless
it were some few things collected in a single
volume. They had the names of nearly all the
martyrs, with their passions attached, contained in
one volume, and celebrated the solemnities of Mass
on certain days in commemoration of them ; but in
1 E. and H. vii. 31 ; Barmby, vii. 34.

318 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
that volume it was not indicated who each was, and
how he suffered, but only his name, and the place and
day of his passion.1 Again, from a letter written to
Anastasius, the Patriarch of Antioch, it would seem
that even the Acts of some of the other Councils
were not then available in Rome, and notably those
of the first Council of Ephesus, which the Patriarch
had said he acknowledged. Gregory said he
only had access to an heretical document which
had been sent to him from the Royal City (i.e.
Constantinople), and which affirmed that certain
Catholic views as well as heretical ones had been
censured there, and he bids his correspondent,
in consequence, to apply to the Churches of
Alexandria and Antioch for the Acts of this Synod.
Gregory seems to say that its only Acts he had
by him approved views of Celestinus and Pelagius,
whereas it was known that those two theologians
were condemned at it : " Ilia enim Synodus, quae
sub primae Ephesinae imagine facta est, quaedam
in se oblata capitula asserit adprobata, quae sunt
Caelestini atque Pelagii praedicamenta. Et cum
Caelestinus atque Pelagius in ea synodo sint damnata,
quomodo poterant ilia capitula recipi, quorum damna-
bantur auctores."2 A more surprising confession is
made in a third letter, written to yEtherius, Bishop
of Lyons ; where he says that, as to the acts or writ
ings of "the blessed Irenaeus," they had long been
searching for them, but had not succeeded in finding
1 E. and H. viii. 28 ; Barmby, viii. 29.
2 E. and H. ix. 135 ; Barmby, ix. 49.

SAINT GREGORY'S OBSCURANTISM 319
them.1 But perhaps the most wonderful proof of
his limitations in this regard is the fact that in his
voluminous works we find no mention whatever of
the two men who, next to himself, illuminated letters
in the sixth century the most — namely, Boethius
and Cassiodorus. Gregory was as little devoted
to art of any pretensions (except perhaps music) as
he was to literature. In these matters his outlook
was that of the early Quakers and Puritans, and
he was imitated by the crowds of men who admired
him, and who in other days would have thronged
to the Alexandrian, or Athenian, or Rhodian
schools, and would have filled their homes with
things of beauty and taste. He constantly im
pressed upon his correspondents the dangers and
the wickedness of reading secular writers who
made paganism attractive, and whose philosophy
might sap their faith. For an example, it will suffice
to recall his well-known letter to Desiderius, Arch
bishop of Vienne.2 Again, as Mr. Dudden, who
tries to palliate the fact, allows : " It is very re
markable that one whose letters deal with so many
various topics should not say a word about any
schools of grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, and juris
prudence, which were formerly endowed by the
State, nor does he anywhere mention a professor
or man of letters. What is still more remarkable,
and in this he is in marked contrast with his con
temporaries, Gregory of Tours and Fortunatus, is
1 E. and H. xi. 40 ; Barmby, xi. 56.
2 Vide ante, 177, 178 ; E. and H. i. 34 ; Barmby, xi. 54.

320 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
that he shows hardly a trace of any knowledge of
the ancient authors, nor do we hear of any great
libraries then existing at Rome ; the great classical
libraries seem to have been closed or destroyed."
It seems to me that the tradition preserved by
John of Salisbury (himself a most remarkable
scholar for his period, the twelfth century), which
Mr. Dudden seems to doubt, has considerable prob
ability. He says that Gregory not only banished
the study of astrology (mathesin), but committed
to the flames the contents of the libraries in
the Palatine and Capitol in order to ensure the
exclusive study of the Scriptures ; while another
tradition says he had every copy of Cicero and
Livy he could lay his hands upon burnt ! It appears
to me that this is exactly the kind of thing Gregory
would have done with the full approval of his friends
and intimates. A fortiori is it probable that he
would have destroyed the statues of gods and
goddesses, especially the naked ones, which still re
mained in the Roman streets and perhaps also some
of the pagan temples. This would be absolutely
consonant with the whole spirit of the times in its
attitude to the old religion, whose adherents were
by no means all extinct. It is true that the fig tree
and the orange tree of culture had ceased to pro
duce any very tempting fruit. The old faiths out of
which they grew were dead and discarded, the gods
deposed, and what remained was a great mass of
magic and necromancy. It is true that the practical
teaching of ethics was also very sick. Patriotism and

LOW MORAL STANDARDS, SIXTH CENTURY 321
civic virtue were rare amidst a crowd of sybaritic
nobles and gentry and a grossly immoral court,
where selfishness prevailed everywhere among the
rich, and sullen hatred and despair among the human
kine, who worked from hour to hour and week to
week to keep this tinsel life going. It is true that
the principal literature which men then cultivated
and read was foul and nauseous, and the great
masterpieces of antiquity were neglected for the
ribaldry of Petronius and Juvenal. The coarse
material lives destroyed all taste for ideal beauty of
any kind, and the patrons of such art as remained
were dominated by the rudest standards. The
philosophers who had replaced the priests as
teachers of men, had largely become triflers, teach
ing not wisdom, but the arts of simulation and of
casuistry, in which truth was not the aim but the
victim, and the plaything of the nimblest wit.
What men cared for most when they went to "the
play," was not to hear Sophocles or Euripides,
Terence or Plautus, but to watch the disgusting
cruelties of the circus, and the slaughter of human
beings who had been specially trained to kill each
other. Life had become a form of mad epicureanism
in which duty and sacrifice were despised, and vast
crowds of slaves were employed in furnishing the
rich with luxury and debauchery.
It was amidst these surroundings that Christianity
spent its early centuries, when persecution and ill-
usage did so much to strengthen some picked men's
characters, while the Sermon on the Mount condensed

322 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
a view of life and duty which was as sharply con
trasted as may be with those in fashion. It is not
wonderful that those who sought shelter under its
shadow should have loathed the old ways, and should
have revolted against them and wished to tear them
up root and branch ; and after the State had
countenanced the new departure, that it should
have become fashionable among the highly placed
as well as the poor folk, to whom the Galilean
Prophet chiefly preached. It is not wonderful, too,
that the young and untainted should have become
recruits in larger and larger numbers to the new
life, and been sickened by the poisoned and the
rotten standards of their fathers. Nevertheless, the
fact remains that the barren darkness of the next
four centuries in culture and in learning can be
largely traced to Gregory's vehement campaign
aeainst both, and to his substitution in the Western
lands, of obscurantism for art and literature and
science and philosophy, which were only saved
from utter extinction by the preservation of a few
old books in a few old libraries, the opening of
which, some centuries later, was like the first sun
rise after an Arctic winter.
It is not altogether cheering to those whose survey
of the world's history does not allow them to ignore
other sources than Christianity for the enlightening
and moral forces which have leavened it betimes,
to remember all this. To remember, further, that
while a great moral teacher who could not naturally
see beyond the canopy of clouds which hid the blue

MUHAMMEDANISM'S MASCULINE TEACHING 323
sky in those sad days, was driving men away from
culture and beauty and enlightenment and gladness
with whips and scorpions, and bidding them march
continually down a long avenue of cypresses which
led to their graves, there was about to break upon
the world another mighty movement under the
aegis of another faith with very different ideals.
This, while it was mingled with many fantastic
details, had a masculine grip of some mighty ethical
truths and moral standards, and especially that of
reality as contrasted with pretence, and the equat
ing of conduct with the conventions uttered by the
lips. That while Rome sank deeper and deeper
into the slough of mediaeval darkness, Baghdad
and Cairo, Granada and Cordova revived arts and
letters and poetry and philosophy, and planted the
waste places of the East once more with refreshing
gardens. Their weapons were sometimes cruel,
but it remains true that (although it was at the point
of the sword) they did teach that lying and ribaldry
and moral and physical cowardice and sloth were
diseases that needed sunlight and the unbounded
forces of mental and moral culture for their dissipa
tion, and not a cloistered seclusion for their cure.
Further, that religion was not a bundle of opinions
merely, but of active duties ; and that men would be
judged, not for the shibboleths they repeated, but
for the extent to which they made the world better
and happier. They gathered a great harvest, and
presently they passed it on ; and when the Christian
world was at its lowest, it was from the Arabs, the

324 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Moors, and the despised Jews, who formed the
intermediaries, that men learned once more what
a power for creating character and sustaining
civilisation there once had been in the literature
and art of Greece, and in the laws and the stoical
fortitude of Rome. Eventually their teaching took
the Christian world by storm in the human tornado
we call the Renascence, and thus undid the well-
meant but nevertheless paralysing influence of Saint
Gregory. This was so, and yet we return again
in a gentle mood to the great man and his aims,
— mistaken maybe, but crossed by no sordid and
mean threads ; and we will conclude our notice of
him in the words of the old Monk of Whitby, who
was his first biographer : 1 —
" Sanctum Gregorium nobis in amminiculum
vocamus, cum Sanctis scilicet apostolis et martyribus,
inter quos eum in celis Christo credimus conjunctum.
Ilium que esse super familiam suam servum fidelem
et prudentem, qui in tempore tritici tam abundanter
donavit Mi mensuram, ut cunctis per orbem sacra-
menta ruminando divina, qualiter illud granum
frumenti mortuum multum cadens in terram adferens
fructum2 a fidelibus cottidie debeat libari atque in
perpetuam gustari salutem ; quo jam de eo, qui in eo
manet et ipse in illo, dicebat : beatus ille servus
quem cum venerit dominus suus invenerit sic
facientem ; Amen dico vobis, super omnia bona
sua constituet eum."z
1 Op. cit. pp. 45 and 46. 2 John xii. 24, 25.
8 Matt. xxiv. 46, 47.

APPENDIX
In reporting the declaration of faith alleged to have
been made by Pope Gregory at his accession, which
I took from the only source where it is preserved,
namely, his life by John the Deacon, I ventured to
give a warning that that source is by no means
unimpeachable, but very much the reverse. The
particular point to which importance attaches is
what Gregory's attitude was towards the famous
clause in regard to the procession of the Holy
Ghost which caused so much friction in later times.
The question in dispute is not as to the truth of
the affirmation contained in the current edition of
the Nicene Creed — with that we are not con
cerned here ; nor with Dr. Pusey's characteristic
attempt to direct the issue to that point. It is
with the justification of its interpolation in the
Creed, if any, that we have to do. As early
as the year 400 it had been deemed necessary,
at a Spanish Synod held at Toledo, to affirm
the double procession of the Holy Spirit against
the Priscillianists.1 This did not affect the Creed,
however. At the third Council of Toledo, held
1 Hefele, iii. 175.
32s

326 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
in 589, twenty-three anathemas were framed, the
third of which reads as follows : " Whosoever does
not believe or has not believed that the Holy Spirit
proceeds from the Father and the Son, etc. etc., let
him be anathema."1
In the Creed of Constantinople, as recited and
adhered to at the same Council, the words et Filio
are inserted in the clause Spiritum vero Sanctum
nee creatum nee genitum sed procedentem ex Patre
et Filio profitemur.
This is the first time, so far as is known,
that the clause occurs in any Creed. It is pos
sible that it may have been used in a Creed in
Spain before this date, but no record of the fact
remains. St. Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, in his Rule of
Faith2 speaks of the Holy Spirit as ex Patre et
Filio procedentem.
The Creed in this form was again thus subscribed
at other Councils of Toledo in 653 and 681.3 It
seems plain, then, that the interpolation was first
introduced into the Creed in Spain, and as far as
we know in 589.
Very strangely, the first evidence we have of
its being accepted in a Creed elsewhere was in
England. This was at the Council of Hatfield,
held in 680, the account of which is given by
Bede. In proclaiming its Rule of Faith, he includes
1 Swainson, The Nicene and Apostles' Creed, 145.
2 Regula Fidei, Migne, lxxxiii. p. 817. Swainson, op. cit. 235,
note 1.
3 Swainson, 147.

APPENDIX 327
the clause, et Spiritum Sanctum procedentem ex
Patre et Filio inenarrabiliter}
Dr. Bright attributes the insertion of the clause
there to the influence of Abbot Hadrian.2 This
seems to me highly improbable and contrary to all
the traditions of the latter, and I am not at all
certain that the clause was not interpolated in Bede.
After writing this, I notice that Mr. Swainson
in referring to it says : "I suppose the MS. has not
been tampered with." It is at all events curious, as
he urges, that in France the insertion of the clause
in the Creed did not take place till long after this.
He says that in the Gelasian Sacramentary and
Martyrology (considered to be of the eighth century,
and preserved in the Paris Library, 12047), m tne
recital of the Creed the Holy Spirit is said to
proceed from the Father only, showing, as he says,
that the interpolation had not then found its way
into France. Neither had it, when the Gelasian
Sacramentary was written out for French use.3
In Italy the evidence of the much later inter
polation seems quite conclusive. In its pronounce
ment on the Catholic Faith by the Council held by
Pope Agatho in 679 the Filioque clause does not
appear.4 But we can go much further. As Mr.
H. R. Percival says, in 809 a Council was held
at Aix-la-Chapelle by Charlemagne, and from it
three divines were sent to confer with Pope
1 Plummer, Bede, vol. i. p. 240 ; see Haddan and Stubbs,
iii. 142.
2 Op. cit. 361. 3 Swainson, op. cit. 146, note 2.
4 Mansi, xi. 290.

328 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Leo in., upon the subject. The Pope opposed
the insertion of the Filioque clause on the express
ground that General Councils had forbidden any
addition to be made to the formulary.1 Later on,
the Frankish Emperor asked his bishops what was
the meaning of the Creed according to the Latins.2
Fleury gives the result of his investigations, and
says: "In France they continued to chant the
Creed with the word Filioque, and at Rome they
continued not to chant it." 3 " So firmly resolved,"
continues Mr. Percival, "was the Pope that the clause
should not be introduced into the Creed, that he
presented two silver shields to the Confessio in
St. Peter's at Rome, on one of whicb was engraved
the Creed in Latin and on the other in Greek,
without the addition. . . . About two centuries
later St. Peter Damian4 mentions them as still
in place, and about two centuries later Veccur,
Patriarch of Constantinople, declares they hung
there still."
It was not till 1014 that for the first time the
interpolated Creed was used at Mass with the
sanction of the Pope. In that year Benedict viii.
acceded to the urgent request on the subject of
Henry 11. of Germany, and so the papal authority
was forced to yield, and the silver shields have dis
appeared from St. Peter's.5 It is plain that the oath
taken by the Popes at their election to preserve un-
1 Labbe, Cone. vii. col. 1194. 2 Capit. Reg. Franc, i. 483.
* Fleury, Hist. Eccl. xlv. ch. 48 ; see Percival, Councils, p. 166.
* Opusc. xxxviii.
5 Percival, Councils, Late Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 167.

APPENDIX 329
mutilated the decrees of the first five councils was
altered in order to equate it with the change thus
imposed on the Church, and that Pope Benedict the
Eighth on a most vital matter of faith reversed the
pronouncements of Leo the Third and Fourth,
Benedict the Third, and John the Eighth, and this
under the Erastian pressure of the German Emperor.
In view of this evidence as to the attitude of the
Holy See towards the insertion of the Filioque
clause in the Creed down to the eleventh century,
we can hardly doubt that John the Deacon's in
clusion of it in Pope Gregory's profession of faith
was a sophistication. It is curious that in reporting
the translation of the great Pope's Dialogues into
Greek by one of his successors, Pope Zacharias, he
actually charges the latter with having deliberately
omitted the critical words from his translation of that
work. Such an omission in a work professing to be
the translation of one Pope's work by another Pope
seems quite incredible, especially in a work so well
known as the Dialogues, and if made, only proves
the contradictory views of Infallible Popes on such
a critical question as the legitimate contents of the
Church's Creed.
The fact is, that the interpolation of the clause
into a solemn profession of faith made by such a
Church Council as that of Nicaea was originally a
wicked thing, and its continued presence where it is,
in view of the virtually undisputed facts, is little
short of a scandal. Bishop Pearson, a very serious
and orthodox scholar, says when commenting on

330 SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
the Eighth Article of the Creed : " The addition of
the words to the formal Creed without the consent
and against the protestations of the Oriental Church
is not justifiable." He then proceeds to justify it
only "so long as they pretend it not to be a defini
tion of that Council, but an addition or explication
inserted, and condemns not those who, out of a
greater respect to such synodical determinations,
will admit of no such insertions, nor speak any
other language than the Scriptures and the Fathers
spoke." The insertion of the Filioque clause was not the
only interpolation into the Nicene Creed which first
took place at the Council of Toledo ; another clause
now recited in that Creed by Roman Catholics and
Protestants alike has the same irregular origin,
namely, the words Deum ex Deo, God of God.
It is plain, therefore, that the Creed called Nicene
in our Prayer Book has no claim to that name. It
ought to be called the Creed of Toledo, and the
Synod of Toledo is not accepted as authoritative
by the English Church.

INDEX

Adores, or clerks, 187.
Aemiliana, death of, 5.
Aemilianus, the Notary, 39 n.
Aetherius, Bishop of Lyons, St.
Gregory's letter to, 178.
Africa conforms to "The Three
Chapters," 27.
Agatha, St., Church of, 204, 205.
Agatho, Pope, Council held by,
327-
Agilulf, King of the Lombards,
devastates the Campagna,
102, 103 ; St. Gregory ob
tains truce for Rome, 103 ;
result of peace, 106, 107.
Aix-la-Chapelle, Council at, 327.
Alboin, King of the Lombards,
plunders Rome, 10 ; founds
Lombard kingdom of North
Italy, 15.
Alcuin on St. Gregory, 2 ; on
St. Gregory's Pastoral Care,
54-
Aldhelm on St. Gregory, 2, 204.
Alemanni, defeat of the, 141.
Alfred, King, and St. Gregory's
Pastoral Care, 54.
Ambrosian music, 212 et seq.
Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch,
St. Gregory's letters to, 92, 93,
118, 318 ; relics sent to, 228.
Ancharius, St., 159.
Anchorites, 66.
Andrew, St., Monastery of, founded
by St. Gregory, 11, 25.
Angels, St. Gregory on, 270, 271.
Anglo-Saxon Church, by Lingard,
83 n.
Animals, influence of saintly men
on, 233.
Antharith, the Lombard King, and
the golden key, 229.

Apologia, by St. Gregory, 26.
Apparitions and ghosts, 234,
235-
Ara Cceli, Church of, picture of
the Virgin, 94 ; altar, 95.
Arianism and the Lombards, 17,
48, no, 126; among the
Visigoths, 130; and King
Reccared, 134, 135 ; among
the German tribes, 146.
Arichis, Duke of Beneventum,
105.
Arigius, Governor of Marseilles,
154.
Arigius, Bishop of Gap, and St.
Gregory, 167, 168, 173.
Aries, famous city on the Rhone,
151, 152, 154.
Arnulf, Duke of Spoleto, his
advance on Rome, 101, 102,
104.
Assidonia, 14.
Athanigild, the Gothic King, 138.
Augustine, Aurelius, 1 ; his
system of dogma, 3 ; on pre
destination, 261 ; on penance,
263 ; on the Virgin Mary,
268 ; on angels, 271 ; on Fall
of Man, 279, 280 ; on Original
Sin, 281, 282 ; his doctrines,
282-284, 289-291 ; founder
of Latin theology, 288.
Augustine, Mission of, by Mason,
107, 108.
Augustine, St., Archbishop of
Canterbury, and St. Gregory
39 n., 54.
Aurelius, Bishop of Aries, 167.
Avars, the, 19, 121, 122.
Baptism ritual, 58, 276.
Barmby, Dr., Epistles of Gregory,

332

INDEX

24 n., 59 n., 114 n., 1 19 n.,
257 n., 313 n. ; St. Gregory
and the supremacy of the See
of St. Peter, 44 ; Gregory the
Great, 78 n., 122 n., 217 n.,
256 n. ; Letters of St. Gregory,
117 n., 188 n. ; on the duties
of the rectores patrimonii,
187 ; on St. Gregory's inter
pretations, 255, 256; on St.
Gregory's high moral stand
ards, 313.
Baronius, the Jesuit, and relics,
25 ; and St. Gregory's mon
asteries, 82.
Bede, the Venerable, Historia
Ecclesiastica, 1 ; St. Gregory
the Watchful, 6 ; apocrisi
arius, 14 ; on St. Gregory
as teacher of music, 217, 218 ;
on St. Gregory as a writer,
219 ; St. Gregory's epitaph,
303 ; St. Gregory's relics,
306 ; Council of Hatfield,
326.
Belisarius conquers the Vandals,
14.
Benedict, Pope, 13 ; death, 18.
Benedict, St., of Nursia, 1 1 ; history
of, 62 et seq. ; his monasteries
and rule, 64 et seq., 81 ;
death and burial, 64.
Beneventum, Duchy of, 15, 16.
Bible, St. Gregory on authority
of, 244, 245.
Bishops, St. Gregory and, 51 et
seq. ; the right of intercession,
60.
Bonifacius, Bishop, 269.
Bright, Professor, on the Church
in Gaul, 148, 151 ; on the
Creed, 327.
Brunichildis or Brunhilda, Queen,
daughter of King Athanigild,
her character, 144, 160; St.
Gregory's letters to, 157, 163-
166, 174, 179 ; and Syagrius,
1 59 ; death of Childebert,
160; and Queen Fredegundis,
161 ; and Desiderius, 168.
Burdatio tax, 190.
Burgundians, the, 140-142.
Bury, Dr., on the Lombards and
Roman possessions, 15-18 ;
on St. Gregory's theology,

288 ; Later Roman Empire,
16 n., 144.
Byzantium, Empire of, 14.
Caecilian, Bishop of Carthage, 45.
Calvin, his theory of Grace, 284 ;
St. Augustine's greatest pupil,
291.
Campagi, 58.
Candidus and St. Gregory, 157,
162, 164, 178, 179.
Canonical Hours, the, 69.
Cantus Gregorianus and Planus,
211 et seq.
Cassian and St. Gregory, 72, 79.
Cassino, Monte, 64.
Castus, the general, 106.
Catacombs, the, 227.
Chalcedon, Council of, 26, 83, 84,
115, 117, 164-
Charibert, son of Chlodowig, 143 ;
death, 144.
Chartularii, or notaries, 187.
Childebert, King of Austrasia, in
vades Italy, 19 ; inherits the
kingdom of Burgundy, 145 ;
and Queen Fredegundis, 150 ;
St. Gregory's letters to, 156,
158 ; his death, 160.
Chilperic, King of Neustria, his
character, 143 ; murdered,
145.
Chlodowig or Chlovis, King of the
Franks, and his descendants,
141 et seq.
Chlothacaire or Chlothair, son of
Chlodowig, 142.
Chlothaire 11., 161.
Chrismal Mass, 231.
Christian Worship, by Duchesne,
269 n.
Claudius, Abbot of Classis, 39 n.
Clovesho, Council of, 2.
Coenobites, 66.
Coloni, or serfs, 188.
Columbus, a Numidian bishop,
45-
Comitiolus, a Praefect, 139.
Conductores, or farmers, 188, 190,
191.
Conon, Abbot of Lerins, and St.
Gregory, 175.
Constantinople, the patriarchate
of, 40, 41-
Corduba (Cordova), 14, 130.

INDEX

333

Corsica, poverty in, 112.
Creeds, St. Gregory on the, 249,
250 ; of Constantinople, 326 ;
The Nicene and Apostles'
Creed, by Swainson, 326 n.
Crementius, the Byzantine Prim
ate, 42.
CucuIIcb, or cowls, 75.
Cyriacus, Abbot of St. Andrew's,
120, 138, 166-168, 17.3.
Damasus, Pope, 119.
Damian, St. Peter, 328.
Dante, his description of the Pope,
272, 273.
Dauphine ceded to the Franks,
141.
Deacon, St. Gregory as, 13.
Deaconry (diaconia), 201.
Defensores ecclesiae, 186.
Desiderius, Archbishop of Vienne,
St. Gregory's letters to, 166,
172, 177 ; and Brunichildis,
168, 181.
Devil, St. Gregory's theory about
the, 259.
Dialogues. See St. Gregory's
works.
Dinamius, Rector of the pro
vince of Marseilles, 153;
St. Gregory's letters to, 161,
163.
D ionysius, the Pseudo-Areopagite,
On the Heavenly Hierarchy,
272.
Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria,
115.
Donatists, the, 45, 51.
Dreams, St. Gregory's view on,
238, 239.
Duchesne, on Church music, 56,
210, 211 ; on disciplinary
regulations, 57, 58 ; on the
Church of St. Agatha, 205 ;
on the Roman Liturgy, 208 ;
on the Easter Mass potion,
240 ; on the four festivals of
the Presentation, 268, 269 ;
Christian Worship, 269 n.
Dudden, F. Homes, on St.
Gregory, 2 ; on St. Gregory's
Dialogues and Morals, 8 ;
on the state of Rome, 10, 96,
99 ; describes the principal
Roman possessions, 16 n. ; on

the Lombards in Italy, 17,
32j 33 • St. Gregory's inti
mates, 39 n. ; on the Donatists,
45 ; on the pallium, 47 ; on
marriage after ordination, 52 ;
St. Gregory's Pastoral Care,
54, 55 ; on St. Gregory's
disciplinary regulations, 59-
61 ; on monastic life, 82 ;
on the principal Italian
officials, 88 et seq. ; the real
forces of the Empire, 92 ; the
sevenfold Litany and the
plague, 93 ; the martyrdom
of Hermenigild, 133 ; on
state of Church in Gaul, 148 ;
on the captivity of the Bishop
of Turin, 170; "the hundred
years of silence,'' 183 ; on the
patrimony of St. Peter, 184 ;
on the burning of lights at
shrines, 207 ; on the Roman
Liturgy, 208 ; list of relics,
223, 230 ; on St. Gregory's
interpretation methods, 248 ;
and theory of the other world
and the devil, 257 et seq. ; on
the invocation of saints, 266 ;
on predestination, 283 ; on
St. Gregory's theology, 289 ;
and fallibility, 292 ; and
theory of the Church, 296 ;
on St. Gregory's manifold
duties, 301 ; distribution of
St. Gregory's relics, 305 ; St.
Gregory's miracles, 311 ; and
high moral standards, 313 ;
and obscurantism, 319, 320.
Dunstan, St., and monastic
discipline, 83.
Emphyteusis, a rent contract, 185.
Encyclopedia Britannica, Dr.
Litdedale's article on " Bene
dict," 65 n., 75 n., 80 n.
Equitius,, St., 63, 82.
Eucharist, the, 277.
Euchologium Graecum, 237.
Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria,
13; St. Gregory's letters to,
42, 92, 118, 202 ; St. Gregory's
presents to, 199.
Eusebius, Bishop of Paris, 151.
Eutropius, Abbot, and the Toledo
Council, 134.

334

INDEX

Eutychius, Patriarch of Constanti
nople, and St. Gregory, 22,
23, 250.
Ewald and Hartmann, on " The
Three Chapters," 25 ; on St.
Gregory's authority as Pope,
40 et seq., 50, 51.
Exarch, the, at Ravenna, 16 n.,
18 ; status of, 88, 89, 91 ; and
St. Gregory, 102, in.
Fall of Man, St. Gregory on the,
276 et seq.
Fantinus the Defensor, 193 ; St.
Gregory's letters to, 299, 300.
Felix, Pope, and St. Gregory, 3.
Filioque, inserted in the profession
of faith, 326 et seq.
Fleury, on the insertion of Filioque
in the Creed, 328.
Florentius, the hermit, 233.
Fortunatus, Bishop of Fano, 54.
Fortunatus of Tosti, 234.
Franks, the, Gaul under, 140 et
seq. ; condition of their
Church, 146 et seq., 169,
170.
Fredegar, on Guntran, 142.
Fredegundis, Queen, her char
acter, 143-145. 15°) 157 ;
death, 161.
Frere, Rev. W. H., on Church
music, 211-216; Dictionary
of Music, 212-216.
Friedrich, Dr., on papal power,
128.
Gallicinus, the Exarch, 106.
Gaul, under the Franks, 140 et
seq. ; condition of the Church,
146 et seq., 153 ; on the death
of Childebert, 760 ; St.
Gregory and the discipline
of the Church in, 166 et
seq. ; " the hundred years of
silence," 182, 183.
Gelasii polyptycon, 197.
George, the Chief Notary, death
of, 122.
Germanus, Praefect of Rome, 34.
Germanus, Bishop of Capua, ap
parition of, 235 ; and Pascha
sius, 262.
Gevaert, M,, 218.
Gibbon, on St. Gregory, 2, 30 ;

on Rome, ioo ; death of
Emperor Maurice, 122.
Giesler, Ecclesiastical History,
117 n.
Gordian, father of St. Gregory,
3-5 ; death, 10.
Gordiana, sister of Gordian, 5, 6.
Gorres, Professor F., on the
martyrdom of Hermenigild,
133-
Governors of provinces, 90.
Gregorian music, 211 et seq.
Gregorius, a monk, 235.
Gregorovius, 81 n. ; on military
organisation of Italy, 91 ; on
the patrimony of St. Peter,
185 ; the Libellus securatitis,
188 ; on St. Gregory's epitaph,
3°3-
Gregory the First, St., the real
founder of the Papacy, 1 ;
Montalembert on, 1 ; Gibbon,
Bede, Aldhelm, Alcuin on, 2 ;
Dudden's monograph on, 2 ;
ancestry of, 3 et seq. ; birth,
6 ; ignorance of Greek, 7, 8 ;
Praefect of Rome, 9, 10 ; an
ascetic and founder of monas
teries, 1 1, 12, 21 ; becomes one
of the Seven Deacons, 11,13;
made a Papal Nuncio, 13, 18,
19 ; and the Lombards, 17 -
19 ; at Constantinople, 19 et
seq. ; literary work at Con
stantinople, 21, 22 ; con
troversy with Eutychius, 22,
23 ; and Emperor Maurice,
24, 28, 104, 105, 108, 109, 113,
124; returns to Rome, 25;
and schism of "The Three
Chapters," 25 et seq. ; and
the bishops of I stria, 27 ;
lectures on the Old Testa
ment, 28 ; objections to be
coming Pope, 29-34 ; elected
Pope, 34, 35 ; public profes
sions of faith, 35, 36 ; his
appearance described, 36-38 ;
attendants and friends, 39 ;
authority as Pope, 40 et seq. ;
authority as Patriarch, 44, 45 ;
his metropolitan authority, 47
et seq. ; and the Church
revenues, 53 ; his synodical
regulations, 54-57 ; disciplin-

INDEX

33S

ary regulations, 57-6i ; on
Church fees, 61 ; and St.
Benedict, 62 et seq. ; ad
aptation of St. Benedict's Rule,
81,82 ; his monastic discipline,
83, 84 ; synodical letters, 92 ;
the sevenfold Litany and the
plague, 93-96 ; sees an angel,
95 ; condition of Rome, 96
et seq. ; correspondence with
Rusticiana, 99 ; and the
Lombards, 101 et seq. ; his
homilies on Ezekiel, 102,
103 ; and Queen Theodelinda,
103, 107, 108, no; enhance
ment of the papal power, 104,
106, 124, 125 ; and the
Exarchs, in; objects to law
against asceticism, 112-114;
and John the Faster, 1 1 5 et
seq. ; and St. Peter's See, 117-
119; his title, 119, 120, 128 ;
and Emperor Phocas, 123-
126 ; as a politician and
statesman, 126-129 ; conver
sion of the Arians, 126 ; and
the Visigoths, 130 et seq. ;
conversion of King Reccared,
133 et seq. ; letters to
Leander, 135 ; jurisdiction in
Spain, 140 ; condition of the
Frankish Church, 147 et
seq. ; Vergilius, 152, 155, 167,
175, 177, 179 ; and Theodore,
152, 171 ; and Dinamius, 153,
154 ; patrimony of the Church
in Gaul, 153 et seq.; letters
to King Childebert, 154-156 ;
and Queen Brunichildis, 157,
159, 163 et seq., 174, 179;
and Palladius, 158 ; and
Dinamius, 161, 163 ; and
Candidus, 162, 169, 178, 179 ;
and Desiderius, 166, 169, 177,
178 ; and Arigius, 167 ; and
Syagrius, 170 et seq. ; the
See of Turin, 170; on simon
iacal practices, 172-174, 177 ;
on elevation of laymen, 173,
174 ; and the Abbot of Lerins,
175 ; rebukes Serenus, 176,
177 ; letters to the Gaulish
Bishops, 178, 179 ; and King
Chlothaire, 179 ; and the
Gaulish Church, 180-183;

the patrimony of St. Peter,
184 et seq. ; and his sub-
Deacon Peter, 189 et seq.;
on abuses, 190-193 ; his solici
tude for the oppressed, 193 ;
his business capabilities, 193 ;
distribution of papal alms,
197 et seq.; his manifold
charities, 199-203 ; ecclesi
astic and theologian, 204 et
seq. ; the Church of St.
Agatha, 204, 205 ; gifts to the
Church, 206, 207; ordinations,
207 ; alterations in Roman
Liturgy, 207 et seq. ; the
Mass and Church music, 210
et seq. ; the annual litany or
procession, 211 ; reform of the
calendar, 218 ; as a preacher,
219-222 ; the cult of relics,
222 et seq. ; magical use of
relics, 229 et seq. ; influence
of saintly men on animals,
233 J apparitions and ghosts,
234> 23S ! credulity displayed
in Dialogues, 237, 238 ; his
views on dreams, 238, 239 ;
influence on the theology of
the Middle Ages and papal
infallibility, 241 et seq. ; and
authority of Bible, 244 et
seq. ; his interpretation
methods, 246 et seq., 254,
255 ; the councils and creeds,
249, 250, 325 ; dogmatic
teaching, 250, 251 ; his theory
of the other world, 257, 258 ;
and the devil, 258, 259 ; of
hell, 260-262 ; of penance
and purgatory, 263-265 ; on
invocation of saints, 266, 267 ;
his slight references to " the
Virgin," 268-270 ; on angels,
271, 272 ; his vision of
heaven, 272-275 ; on the
Sacraments, 276 ; on the Fall
of Man, 276-280 ; on Original
Sin,278 et seq. ; and Augustin
ianism, 281, 290, 291 ; views
on predestination, 282 et
seq. ; theory of redemption,
288 ; summary of his theology,
289 ;' fallibility, 291-293 ; his
intolerance, 294 ; theory of
the Church, 294-296 ; on

336

INDEX

Church and State, 297 ; and
the Jews, 298-300 ; manifold
duties and ill-health, 301 ;
death and burial, 302, 304 ;
epitaph, 303 ; distribution of
his relics, 304, 305 ; and the
release of Trajan, 306, 307 ;
his miracles, 307-312 ; high
moral standards, 312-316 ;
culture in his time, 315-318 ;
obscurantism, 319, 322 ; low
moral standards, in sixth
century, 320-321 ; the Whitby
Monk on, 324.
His works : Apologia, 26. The
Dialogues, 3, 21, 32, 33 ; St.
Benedict, 62-64, 78, 81, 82,
no; the sub-Deacon Peter,
189 ; the Church of St.
Agatha, 204 ; the sign of the
Cross, 230 ; legendary tales,
231 et seq. ; the mediaeval
devil, 258-260 ; theory of
hell, 261, 262, 265; "The
Virgin," 269, 270 ; vision of
heaven, 273 ; the Eucharist,
277, . 278 ; predestination,
287 ; Filioque, 329. The
Homilies, 3, 6, 9, 246, 248,
254, 255, 261, 268, 290. The
Magna Moralia, 21, 22, 221 ;
Holy Scripture, 244, 246-248 ;
popularity of, 252-254 ; alle
gorical interpretation, 255 ;
theory of hell, 261 ; Original
Sin, 279 ; predestination, 285,
286 ; theology, 290 ; theory
of the Church, 294, 295 ;
high moral standards, 313.
Pastoral Care, 54.
Gregory, Epistles of. See Barmby.
Gregory the Great. See Barmby.
Gregory, Letters of. See Barmby.
Gregory, Bishop of Antioch, 92.
Gregory, Bishop of Tours, on St.
Gregory, 8, 12, 13, 24, 29, 34,
127 ; the plague, 93, 94; the
death of Hermenigild, 132 ;
on King Guntran, 142 ; con
dition of the Frankish
Church, 148-150; on Theo
dore, 152 ; on Syagrius, 159 ;
the cult of relics, 223 ; the
Assumption of the Virgin,
268.

Grisar, Roma alia fine storia
Roma, etc., 3 n.
Gunthrainn, or Guntran, King,
his character, 142,180; and
Fredegundis, 145 ; persecu
tion of Theodore, 152.
Gyrovagi, vagrant monks, 66.
Hadrian, Mausoleum of, legend
of, 95-
Hadrian, Abbot, and the insertion
of Filioque, 327.
Hartmann. See Ewald.
Hatfield, Council of, 326.
Hell, St. Gregory's theory of, 260,
261.
Hermenigild, abandons Arianism,
20, 131 ; exile and death, 132,
133-
Hilarion, Abbot of St. Andrew's,
I0- . .
Hilary, St., Bishop of Poictiers,
translates Origen's works, 22.
Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims,
54-
Hodgkin, Dr., on St. Gregory,
314-
Homilies, The. See Gregory, St.
Honoratus, Archdeacon, removal
of, 43-
Honorius, Pope, on St. Gregory's
Benedictine Rule, 83.
Ibas, Bishop of Edessa, and " The
Three Chapters," 26, 27.
Ingunthis, daughter of King
Sigebert, 131.
Innocent 1., Pope, 246.
Isidore, Archbishop of Seville, on
Hermenigild, 132 ; on the
Holy Spirit, 326.
Istria and" The Three Chapters,"
27.
Italy, Lombards in, 14, 15, 17, 18 ;
administration of, 88 et seq. ;
military organisation of, 90
et seq. ; the patrimony of St.
Peter, 184 et seq.
Januarius, Bishop of Malaga, de
position of, 138, 139.
Januarius, Deacon of Messina,
206.
Jerome, new version of the Bible,
245.

INDEX

337

Jews and St. Gregory, 298, 300.
John the Abbot, 228.
John, Bishop of Biclaro, on Her
menigild, 132.
John, Bishop of Constantinople,
92.
John the Deacon, biographer
of St. Gregory, 4, 13 n. ; St.
Gregory's profession of faith,
35. 36,249, 325 ; St. Gregory's
appearance, 36-38 ; and
Bishop Stephen, 138, 139 ;
on the distribution of papal
alms, 197, 198, 201, 207 ; on
the Liturgy, 210; Gregorian
music, 217 ; Sf. Gregory's
sermons, 220 ; St. John's
tunic, 228 ; the neophytes'
potion, 240 ; and the release
of Trajan, 308 ; on St.
Gregory's appearance to his
successor, 310.
John the Faster, Patriarch of
Constantinople, 23 ; dispute
with St. Gregory, 1 1 5 et seq. ;
death, 120.
John, Bishop of Jerusalem, 92.
John, Bishop of Prima Justiniana,
5i-
John, Bishop of Ravenna, and
St. Gregory, 50, 57.
John the Regionarius, 163.
John, Bishop of Salisbury, and
St. Gregory, 320.
John, Bishop of Squillacium, and
St. Gregory, 50.
John, Bishop of Syracuse, and
St. Gregory, 58, 208.
Judices provinciarum, governors
of provinces, 90.
Justin, Emperor, and St. Gregory,
9; death, 18.
Justinian, Emperor, and his
Empire, 14, 15; and the
Council of Chalcedon, 25-
27 ; and the title CEcumen
ical, 116.
Justus, a monk, St. Gregory's
severe discipline, 86.
Kellett's Cambridge Historical
Essays, 182.
Lanciani's Pagan and Christian
Rome, 302 n.

Lanfranc, and the seven Can
onical Hours, 83.
Laurentius, Archdeacon, apocrisi
arius at Constantinople, 116.
Leander, Archbishop of Seville,
and St. Gregory, 20, 31, 135,
256 ; and Hermenigild, 131 ;
and King Reccared, 133, 134 ;
and the double procession of
the Holy Ghost, 249.
Legatio, by Liudprand, on St.
Gregory, 237.
Leo, Pope, 26 ; miracle of the
bleeding cloth, 226, 308.
Leontia, Empress, 123 ; and St.
Gregory, 125.
Leovigild, Visigothic King, 14,
20, 131 ; defeats Hermeni
gild, 132; death, 133.
Lerins, famous monastery of, 146.
Libellus securitatis, register of
titles, 188.
Liber Pontificalis, 204, 207, 209.
Liberius, Justinian's general, 14.
Libertinus, a saintly monk, 78.
Licinianus, Bishop of Carthagena,
and St. Gregory, 22, 133.
Lingard's Anglo-Saxon Church,
83 n.
Litany, the sevenfold, 93.
Littledale, Dr., Encyclopedia Brit-
annica, on St. Benedict, 65 n.,
75 n., 79, 80.
Liturgy, alteration in the,207 et seq.
Liudprand's Legatio on St.
Gregory, 237.
Lombards in Italy, 15 et seq. ;
devastation by, 32, 80; and
St. Gregory on, 17, 101 et
seq. ; and Arianism, 18,
48 ; conversion to orthodoxy,
no.
Lombards, History of the, by Paul
the Deacon, 25.
Lucca, Cardinal, on papal power,
128.
Luther, on Scripture, 247, 248,
283.
Malaga, 14.
Mappulae, white linen covers, 57.
Marinianus, Archbishop of
Ravenna, 12, 39 n.
Mason's Mission of Augustine,
107 n.

338

INDEX

Mass of St. Gregory, 210 ; Chris
mal, 231.
Massae, 190.
Maurice, Emperor, 23 ; and St.
Gregory, 24, 54, 101, 108 et
seq. ; and the Lombards,
102 et seq. ; new law as to
monks, 1 13—115 ; and John
the Faster, 119; defeat and
murder of, 122 ; and Childe
bert, 145, 160.
Maurienne, the See of St. Jean de,
169-171.
Maurus, 63.
Maximianus, Abbot of St.
Andrew's, afterwards Bishop
of Syracuse, 20, 21, 25, 35, 39.
Menas, Bishop of Toulon, 171,
176.
Mennas, Patriarch of Constanti
nople, 116.
Merovach, marriage with Bruni
childis, 157.
Military organisation of Italy,
90, 91.
Milman on the Book of Job, 253.
Monasteries of St. Andrew, 1 1 ;
of St. Benedict, 62 et seq.,
80, 81 ; of Monte Cassino,
80, 81 ; discipline, 82-87 5 of
St. Cassian, 161.
Monastriae, 198.
Monks (see also Monasteries),
dominant motive of, 65 ;
St. Benedict's Rule for, 65 et
seq. ; various kinds of, 66 ;
St. Gregory's discipline, 83
et seq.
Monks, History of the, by Monta-
lembert, 114.
Monophysite schism, 33.
Montalembert on St. Gregory, 1 ;
History of the Monks in the
West, 114.
Moralia, Magna. See St. Greg
ory's works.
Mozarabic music, 212.
Muhammedanism's masculine
teaching, 323.
Music, Dictionary of. See Frere.
Naples, attack on, 105.
Narses plunders Rome, 10 ; re
covers Italy from the Goths,
14.

Natalis, Bishop of Salona, re
buked by St. Gregory, 43.
Nicetius, Bishop of Lyons, 150.
Notarii, sworn notaries, 187.
Novices, House of, 76.
Nuptiale commoda, marriage fees,
190, 191.
Nursia, birthplace of St. Benedict,
63-
CEcumenical or Universal Pat
riarch, dispute as to title of,
115, 116, 120, 128.
Officials, principal, in Italy and
their duties, 88 et seq.
Oman, on St. Gregory's interven
tion in politics, 106, 107 ; on
Emperor Maurice, 121 ; and
King Reccared's conversion,
137 ; on Queen Brunichildis,
160, 166 n.
Ordination, St. Gregory's rules
for, 51, 52.
Orphanostrophium, the Roman
singing school, 217.
Pagan and Christian Rome, by
Lanciani, 302 n.
Palladius, Bishop of Saintes, and
St. Gregory, 158.
Pallium, or pall, worn by St.
Gregory, 37, 38 ; by whom
used, 46, 47, 156 ; no fee for,
57-
Papal Peace, the, 107.
Papal Power, enhancement of,
128, 129.
Paschasius, Bishop of Naples, and
St. Gregory, 53 n., 299.
Paschasius the Deacon, appears
to Germanus, 262.
Pastoral Care, by St. Gregory, 54.
Pateria, 6.
Paterius the Notary and St-
Gregory, 39.
Patrimonium Appiae, Labicanae,
Tiburtinum, Tusciae,\%L\,\Z$.
Paul the Deacon, St. Gregory's
biographer, 4, 8 ; the plague,
29 ; St. Gregory's gifts to the
poor, 206 ; and miracles, 311;
History of the Lombards, 25.
Paul, St., relics of, 225-228.
Pearson, Bishop, on the Creed,
329-

INDEX

339

Peasants and their burdens, 188
et seq.
Pelagius n., Pope, appoints St.
Gregory as Papal Nuncio at
Constantinople, 18, 19 ; " The
Three Chapters," 26 ; death,
29 ; and the Council of Con
stantinople, 41, 116; Church
fees, 61 ; and the title Exarch,
88 ; on the state of Rome,
98 n. ; on the sufferings of
Italy, 147.
Penance, St. Gregory's theory of,
263.
Percival, H. R., and the Council
of Aix-la-Chapelle, 327, 328.
Pergrande Volumen, 198.
Persarmenia, 121.
Persian War, 19 ; close of, 121.
Perugia, 16 n. ; ceded to the
Lombards, 105.
Peter, St., the See of, 1 1 7-1 19;
the patrimony of, 184 et
seq. ; relics of, 225-228 ; and
the release of Trajan, 307,
308.
Phaneta, a chasuble, yj.
Phocas, Emperor, his character,
122; and St. Gregory, 123.
Plague, the, 29, 93.
Prefect, the, his position and
duties, 89, 90.
Praetextatus, Bishop, murder of,
150.
Pragmatic Sanction, the, 15.
Predestination, St. Gregory's
views on, 282 et seq.
Pretiosus, the Prior, and Justus, 86.
Probus and St. Gregory, 39.
Provence ceded to the Franks,
141, 142.
Purgatory, St. Gregory's theory
of, 264, 265
Putta, Bishop of Rochester, and
Church music, 217.
Reccared, King, 133 ; abjures
Arianism, 134, 135, 249;
death, 138 ; his laws, 163.
Rectores patrimonii, 186, 187.
Rectores regionarii, 187.
Redemption, St. Gregory's theory
of, 288.
Relics, cult of, 222 et seq. ;
magical use of, 229.

Ricimer, the Consul, builds an
Arian church, 204, 205.
Rockstro, W. S., and Church
music, 212, 213 ; Plagal
Modes, 214.
Roman possessions, 16 n.
Romanus the Exarch, in.
Rome, plunder of, 10 ; flood and
plague, 29, 93-95 ; precedence
of Pope of, 40 ; Benedictine
convent in, 81 ; the proces
sion and sevenfold Litany, 93-
95 ; condition in St. Gregory's
time of, 96 et seq. ; besieged
by the Lombards, 102 etseq. ;
Synod of, 266 ; lack of theo
logical books at, 317.
Sabinianus the Deacon, afterwards
Pope, and St. Gregory, 117,
309, 310.
Sacraments, St. Gregory on the,
276, 277.
Sacro Speco, the, 63.
Salvius, Bishop, 150.
Sarabaites, a kind of monk, 66.
Sardinia, the Pope's authority over,
48, m.
Schola Cantorum, the singing
school at Rome, 217.
Scribones, the Imperial recruiting
officers, 186.
Senate, the, 91, 92.
Serenus, Bishop of Marseilles,
and St. Gregory, 166, 176,
177.
Sertorius, the Roman rebel, 63
Sigebert, King of Austrasia, 131,
142; character and death,
144,157.
Silvia, St. Gregory's mother, de
scription of, 4, 5.
Simplicius, Abbot of Monte
Cassino, 62.
Sin, St. Gregory on Original, 278
et seq.
Slavs, the, 15, 121.
Soissons, ritual for a newly conse
crated bishop, 151.
Spain, Justinian reconquers part
of, 14, 15; St. Gregory's
work in, 130 et seq., 138.
Spoleto, Duchy of, 1 5, 16.
Stephen, Bishop, deposition of,
138, 139; a story of, 274.

34°

INDEX

Subiaco, St. Benedict at, 64.
Swainson, The Nicene and
Apostles' Creed, 326 n., 327.
Syagrius, Bishop of Autun, and
the pallium, 159, 163, 164,
181 ; and Queen Brunichildis,
159, 163, 168 ; and St.
Gregory's letters to, 171-175.
Symmachus, Pope, 262.
Tarsilla, St. Gregory's aunt, 5.
Tertullus, the Senator, 63.
Theoctista, 20 ; and St. Gregory,
30-
Theodebert, King, son of Em
peror Maurice, 160 ; and St.
Gregory, 174, 179.
Theodelinda, Queen, wife of King
Agilulf, 102, 103, 106, 107,
no; and St. Gregory, 199,
306.
Theodora, Empress, 26.
Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuepsia,
26; and St. Gregory, 152;
Sozomen on, 317.
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus,
26, 27.
Theodoric, King, son of Emperor
Maurice, 160; and St. Greg
ory, 174, 179, 235-
Theophylactus on John the Faster,
23-
"Three Chapters," Question of
the, 25, 249.
Tituli, 56, 195.
Toledo, Third Council of, 20, 249 ;
Synod at, 134, 325.
Totila plunders Rome, 10.

Traducianism, 282.
Trappists, the, 79.
Trent, Council of, 267.
Trophimus, St., 152.
Turin, See of, 169, 170.
Urban the Eighth, 133.
Urbicus, Abbot of St. Hermas, 84.
Ursicinus, Bishop of Turin, 1 70.
Usener, Herr H., Rhein Mus, 240.
Valentinian and the Benedictine
Monastery, 62.
Vaughan, Cardinal, on relics,
225 n.
Venantius and monastic discipline,
84, 85.
Vergilius, Archbishop of Aries, his
character, 152 ; asks for the
pallium, 155 ; and St. Greg
ory, 157, 167, 172, 175, 177.
Vicars, the, their jurisdiction, 90.
Vienne, See of, 168, 169, 181.
Vigilius, Pope, and St. Gregory,
26.
Virgin, the Festival of the, 268,
269.
Visigoths, the, 1 5 ; and St. Greg
ory, 130 et seq. ; as Chris
tians, 140, 141.
Werfurth, Bishop, translates the
Dialogues, no.
Wilfred, St., 151.
Witiges, the Ostrogothic King,
141.
Xenodochia, guest-houses, 201.

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