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57 verses for “Gregory the Great”

Theophania · Book 4 3:23Eusebius of Caesarea6. It is commonly assumed by the Roman Catholics, that Christianity was unknown in Britain until Austin the Monk introduced it at the command of Gregory the Great. With how much truth this is done the reader will see, when he finds that the Fathers generally asserted the contrary. See the "Lux Evangelica" of Fabricius, and Stillingfleet's " Origines Ecclesiae Britannicae."Letters · Letter 28 1:5Basil of Caesarea2. And yet, if he whom you mourn had not reached extreme old age, certainly, as regards his government of your church, he was allowed no narrow limit of life. He had as much strength of body as enabled him to show strength of mind in his distresses. Perhaps some of you may suppose that time increases sympathy and adds affection, and is no cause of satiety, so that, the longer you have experienced kind treatment, the more sensible you are of its loss. You may think that of a righteous person the good hold even the shadow in honour. Would that many of yon did feel so! Far be it from me to suggest anything like disregard of our friend! But I do counsel you to bear your pain with manly endurance. I myself am by no means insensible of all that may be said by those who are weeping for their loss. Hushed is a tongue whose words flooded our ears like a mighty stream: a depth of heath never fathomed before, has fled, humanly speaking, like an unsubstantial dream. Whose glance so keen as his to look into the future? Who with like fixity and strength of mind able to dart like lightning into the midst of action? O Neocaearea, already a prey to many troubles, never before smitten with so deadly a loss! Now withered is the bloom of you, beauty; your church is dumb; your assemblies are full of mournful faces; your sacred synod craves for its leader; your holy utterances wait for an expounder; your boys have lost a father, your elders a brother, your nobles one first among them, your people a champion, your poor a supporter. All, calling him by the name that comes most nearly home to each, lift up the wailing cry which to each man's own sorrow seems most appropriate and fit. But whither are my words carried away by my tearful joy? Shall we not watch? Shall we not meet together? Shall we riot look to our common Lord, Who suffers each of his saints to serve his own generation, and summons him back to Himself at His own appointed that? Now in season remember the voice of him who when preaching to you used always to say "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers." The dogs are many. Why do I say dogs? Rather grievous wolves, hiding their grille under the guise of sheep, are, all over the world, tearing Christ's flock. Of these you must beware, trader the protection of some wakeful bishop. Such an one it is yours to ask, purging your souls of all rivalry and ambition: such an one it is the Lord's to show you. That Lord, from the time of Gregory the great champion of your church down to that of the blessed departed, setting over you one after another, and from time to time fitting one to another like gem set close to gem, has bestowed on you glorious ornaments for your church. You have, then, no need to despair of them that are to come. The Lord knoweth who are His. He may bring into our midst those for whom peradventure we are not looking.Orations · Oration 2 1:3Gregory of NazianzusIt is generally agreed that this Oration was not intended for oral delivery. Its object was to explain and defend S. Gregory's recent conduct, which had been severely criticised by his friends at Nazianzus. He had been recalled by his father probably during the year a.d. 361 from Pontus, where he had spent several years in monastic seclusion with his friend S. Basil. His father, not content with his son's presence at home as a support for his declining years, and feeling assured of his fitness for the sacred office, had proceeded, with the loudly expressed approval of the congregation, in spite of Gregory's reluctance, to ordain him to the priesthood on Christmas Day a.d. 361. S. Gregory, even after the lapse of many years, speaks of his ordination as an act of tyranny, and at the time, stung almost to madness, as an ox by a gadfly, rushed away again to Pontus, to bury in its congenial solitude, consoled by an intimate friend's deep sympathy, his wounded feelings. Before long the sense of duty reasserted itself, and he returned to his post at his father's side before Easter a.d. 362. On Easter Day he delivered his first Oration before a congregation whose scantiness marked the displeasure with which the people of Nazianzus had viewed his conduct. Accordingly he set himself to supply them in this Oration with a full explanation of the motives which had led to his retirement. At the same time, as the secondary title of the Oration shows, he has supplied an exposition of the obligations and dignity of the Priestly Office which has been drawn upon by all later writers on the subject. S. Chrysostom in his well-known treatise, S. Gregory the Great in his Pastoral Care, and Bossuet in his panegyric on S. Paul, have done little more than summarise the material or develop the considerations contained in this eloquent and elaborate dissertation.Against the Donatists · Book 2 14:19Optatus of Milevis51. Memoriis Sanctorum communicantes . The reference is to Romans xii, 13. It is quite unintelligible to us until we learn that some ancient MSS. had ταῖς μνείαις instead of ταῖς χρείαις . The reading μνείαις is in the Acts of Pionius (second or third century) and in the bilingual codices D and G; it was therefore the Western and Old Latin reading. It is used, amongst others, by St. Hilary, Ambrosiaster, St. Peter Chrysologus and St. Gregory the Great, who writes (De Verbis Domini exxxvii. 3, 7, last chapter): ' Communicatio Memoriis sanctorum martyrum.' Both readings were known to Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Jerome, Rufinus, Augustine and Pelagius. So we see that in following this reading St. Optatus does not stand alone. There is, however, little, if any, doubt that St. Paul really wrote ταῖς χρείαις .The 30 Canons 1:17Council of Chalcedon of 451A great scandal in the "Asian diocese" had led to St. Chrysostom's intervention. Antoninus, bishop of Ephesus, was charged, with "making it a rule to sell ordinations of bishops at rates proportionate to the value of their sees" (Palladius, Dial. de vita Chrysost, p. 50). Chrysostom held a synod at Ephesus, at which six bishops were deposed for having obtained their sees in this manner. Isidore of Pelasium repeatedly remonstrated with his bishop Eusebius on the heinousness of "selling the gift" of ordinations (Epist. I., 26, 30, 37); and names Zosimus, a priest, and Maron, a deacon, as thus ordained ( ib. 111,119). A few years before the council, a court of three bishops sat at Berytus to hear charges brought against Ibas, bishop of Edessa, by clerics of his diocese. The third charge was thus curtly worded: "Moreover he receives for laying on hands" (Mansi, vii. 224). The xxvijth Trullan canon repeated this canon of Chalcedon against persons ordained for money, doubtless in view of such a state of things asGregory the Great had heard of nearly a century earlier, "that in the Eastern Churches no one comes to holy order except by the payment of premiums" (Epist. xi. 46, to the bishop of Jerusalem; compare Evagrius's assertion that Justin II. openly sold bishoprics, V. 1). It is easy to understand how the scruples of ecclesiastics could be abated by the courtly fashion of calling bribes "eulogiae" (Fleury, XXVI, 20), just as the six prelates above referred to had regarded their payments as an equivalent for that "making over of property to the Curia," which was required by a law of 399 (Cod. Theod., xii. 1, 163, see notes in Transl. of Fleury, i. 163, ij. 16).The 30 Canons 1:18Council of Chalcedon of 451The e!kdikoj , "defensor," was an official Advocate or counsel for the Church. The legal force of the term "defensor" is indicated by a law of Valentinian I. "Nec idem in codera negotio defensor sit et quaesitor" (Cod. Theod., ii. 10, 2). In the East the office was held by ecclesiastics; thus, John, presbyter and "advocate" was employed, at the Council of Constantinople in 448, to summon Eutyches (Mansi, vii. 697). About 496, Paul the "Advocate" of Constantinople saved his archbishop from the sword of a murderer at the cost of his own life (Theodor., Lect. ii. 11). In the list of the functionaries of St. Sophia, given by Goat in his Euchologion (p. 270), the Protecdicos is discribed as adjudicating, with twelve assessors, in smaller causes, on which he afterwards reports to the bishop. In Africa, on the other hand, from a.d. 407 (see Cod. Theod., xvi. 2, 38), the office was held by barristers, in accordance with a request of the African bishops (Cod. Afric., 97; Mansi, iii., 802), who, six years earlier, had asked for "defensores," with special reference to the oppression of the poor by the rich (Cod. Afric., 75; Mansi, iii. 778, 970). The "defensores" mentioned by Gregory the Great had primarily to take care of the poor (Epist., v. 29), and of the church property (ib, i. 36), but also to be advocates of injured clerics ( ib. , ix. 64) and act as assessors ( ib. , x. 1), etc.The 30 Canons 1:19Council of Chalcedon of 451The next office is that of the Prosmonarius or, according to a various reading adopted by many ( e.g. Justellus, Hervetus, Beveridge, Bingham), the Paramonarius. Opinions differ as to the functions intended. Isidore gives simply "paramonarius:" Dionysius (see Justellus, Biblioth., i., 134) omits the word; but in the "interpretario Dionysii," as given in the Concilia, freedom has been taken to insert "vel mansionarium" in a parenthesis (vii. 373; see Beveridge, in loc.). Mansionarius is a literal rendering; but what was the function of a mansionarius? In Gregory the Great's time he was a sacristan who had the duty of lighting the church ( Dial. , i. 5); and "ostiarium" in the Prisca implies the same idea. Tillemont, without deciding between the two Greek readings, thinks that the person intended had "some charge of what pertained to the church itself, perhaps like our present bedells" (xv. 694). So Fleury renders, "concierge" (xxviij. 29); and Newman, reading "paramonarion," takes a like view (note in Transl. of Fleury, vol. iii., p. 392). But Justellus (i. 91) derives "paramonarius" from monh/ "mansio," a halting-place, so that the sense would be a manager of one of the church's farms, a "villicus," or, as Bingham expresses it, "a bailiff" (iii. 3, 1). Beveridge agrees with Justellus, except in giving to monh/ the sense of "monastery" (compare the use of monh/ in Athan., Apol. c. Arion, 67, where Valesius understands it as "a station" on a road, but others as "a monastery," see Historical Writings of St. Athanasius, Introd., p. xliv.). Bingham also prefers this interpretation. Suitor takes it as required by "paramonarios" which he treats as the true reading: "prosmonarios" he thinks would have the sense of "sacristan."The 30 Canons 2:13Council of Chalcedon of 451Here observe (1) the definite assertion of episcopal authority over monks, as it is repeated for greater clearness in the last words of the canon, which are not found in Marcian's draft, "It is the duty of the bishop of the city to make due provision for the monasteries." and compare canons 8, 24. Isidore says that the bishop must "keep an eye on the negligences of monks" (Epist., i. 149). The Western Church followed in this track (see Council of Agde, canon xxvii., that "no new monastery is to be rounded without the bishop's approval," and 1st of Orleans, canon xix., "Let abbots be under the bishop's power," and also Vth of Paris, canon xij., Mansi, viii., 329, 354, 542, etc.), until a reaction set in against the oppressiveness of bishops, was encouraged by Gregory the Great (Epist., i. 12; ii. 41), the IV Council of Toledo (canon li.), and the English Council of Hertford (canon iij., Bede, iv. 5, and Bright's Chapters of Early Engl. Ch. Hist., p. 244), and culminated in the system of monastic exemptions, of which Monte Cassino, St. Martin's of Tours, Fulda, Westminster, Battle (see Freeman, Norm. Conquest, iv. 409), and St Alban's were eminent instances.This canon, cut up and mutilated, is foundin the Corpus Juris Canonici , Gratian's Decreturn, Pars II., Causa XVI., Quest. L, can. xij., and Causa XVIII., Quest. II., Canon X.The 30 Canons 5:3Council of Chalcedon of 451Here a new institution comes into view, of which there were many instances. Julian had directed Pagan hospices ( cenodokeia ) to be established on the Christian model (Epist. xlix.). The Basiliad at Caesarea was a cenodkeion as well as a ptwkeion ; it contained katagwggia toij cenoij , as well as for wayfayers, and those who needed assistance on account of illness, and Basil distinguished various classes of persons engaged in charitable ministrations, including those who escorted the traveller on his way ( touj parapempontaj , Epist. xciv.). Jerome writes to Pammachius: "I hear that you have made a `xenodochion' in the port of Rome," and adds that he himself had built a "diversorium "for pilgrims to Bethlehem (Epist. xvi., 11, 14). Chrysostom reminds his auditors at Constantinople that "there is a common dwelling set apart by the Church," and "called a xenon" (in Act. Hom., xlv. 4). His friend Olympias was munificent to "xenotrophia" (Hint. Lausiac, 144). There was a xenodochion near the church of the monastic settlement at Nitria ( ib. , 7). Ischyrion, in his memorial read in the 3d session of Chalcedon, complains of his patriarch Dioscorus for having misapplied funds bequeathed by a charitable lady cenewsi kai ptwkeioij in Egypt, and says that he himself had been confined by Dioscorus in a "xenon" for lepers (Mansi, vi. 1013, 1017). Justinian mentions xenodochia in Cod., i. 3, 49, and their wardens in Novell., 134, 16. Gregory the Great orders that the accounts of xenodochia should be audited by the bishop (Epist. iv., 27). Charles the Great provides for the restoration of decayed "senodochia" (Capitul. of 803; Pertz, Leg., i. 110); and Alcuin exhorts his pupil, archbishop Eanbald, to think where in the diocese of York he could establish "xenodochia, id est, hospitalia" (Epist. L.).The 30 Canons 9:22Council of Chalcedon of 451The secularization of monasteries was an evil which grew with their wealth and influence. At a Council held by the patriarch Photius in the Apostles' church at Constantinople, it is complained that some persons attach the name of "monastery" to property of their own, and while professing to dedicate it to God, write themselves down as lords of what has been thus consecrated, and are not ashamed to claim after such consecration the same power over it which they had before. In the West, we find this abuse attracting the attention of Gregory the Great, who writes to a bishop that "rationalis ordo" would not allow a layman to pervert a monastic foundation at will to his own uses (Epist. viii., 31). In ancient Scotland, the occasional dispersion of religious communities, and, still more, the clan-principle which assigned chieftain-rights over monasteries to the descendants of the founder, left at Dunkeld, Brechin, Abernethy, and elsewhere, "nothing but the mere name of abbacy applied to the lands, and of abbot borne by the secular lord for the time" (Skene's Celtic Scotland, ii., 365; cf. Anderson's Scotland in Early Christian Times, p. 235). So, after the great Irish monastery of Bangor in Down was destroyed by the Northmen, "non defuit,"says St. Bernard, "qui illud teneret cure possessionibus suis; ham et constituebantur per electionem etiam, et abbates appellabantur, servantes nomine, etsi non re, quod olim exstiterat" (De Vita S. Malachioe, vj.). So in 1188 Giraldus Cambrensis found a lay abbot in possession of the venerable church of Llanbadarn Vawr; a "bad custom," he says, "had grown up, whereby powerful laymen, at first chosen by the clergy to be "oeconomi" or "patroni et defensores," had usurped "forum jus," appropriated the lands, and left to the clergy nothing but the altars, with tithes and offerings (Itin. Camb. ii., 4). This abuse must be distinguished from the corrupt device whereby, in Bede's later years, Northumbrian nobles contrived to gain for their estates the immunities of abbey-lands by professing to found monasteries, which they filled with disorderly monks, who lived there in contempt of all rule (Bede, Ep. to Egbert, vij.). In the year of his birth, the first English synod had forbidden bishops to despoil consecrated monasteries (Bede, iv., 5).The Bazaar of Heracleides · Book 1, part 1 13:22Nestorius73. Cp. p. 73, n. 1. Here we seem to find that although Nestorius looks on the death of Christ as ransoming mankind from the devil, yet he rejects certain ways of explaining that theory of the Atonement. Is it not possible that he is denying such a doctrine as is found extant in Gregory the Great ( Moralia xxxii. 12-xxxiii. 6), where the devil is cheated through ignorance of the Crucified being divine and therefore immortal? Nestorius argues that the Cross must be a real moral victory by the Man, not an unexpected triumph by a concealed deus ex machina. Such a triumph would really mean the defeat of mankind. The individual humanity of Christ might have been exalted, but the devil's fetters would be rivetted on the rest of mankind. It is interesting that according to the traditional account of Nestorius' teaching he is himself open to precisely this charge.Letters · Letter 21 From Eutyches to Leo 1:10Leo the GreatI call upon you before God, who gives life to all things, and Christ Jesus, who witnessed that good confession under Pontius Pilate, that you do nothing by favour. For I have held the same as my forefathers and from my boyhood have been illuminated by the same Faith as that which was laid down by the holy Synod of 318 most blessed bishops who were gathered at Nicaea from the whole world, and which was confirmed and ratified afresh for sole acceptance by the holy Synod assembled at Ephesus: and I have never thought otherwise than as the right and only true orthodox Faith has enjoined. And I agree to everything that was laid down about the same Faith by the same holy Synod: of which Synod the leader and chief was Cyril of blessed memory bishop of the Alexandrians, the partner and sharer in the preaching and in the Faith of those saints and elect of God, Gregory the greater, and the other Gregory , Basil, Athanasius, Atticus and Proclus. Him and all of them I have held orthodox and faithful, and have honoured as saints, and have esteemed my masters. But I utter an anathema on Nestorius, Apollinaris, and all heretics down to Simon, and those who say that the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven. For He who is the Word of God came down from heaven without flesh and was made flesh in the holy Virgin's womb unchangeably and unalterably as He Himself knew and willed. And He who was always perfect God before the ages, was also made perfect man in the end of the days for us and for our salvation. This my full profession may your holiness consider.Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 25:11Pirkei DeRabbi EliezerA certain young man of the people of that city saw them, and he ran and told all the men of that city, and they all gathered together at the door of the house to do according to their wont, even deeds of sodomy, [ The first editions omit “deeds of sodomy.” A parallel occurs in Clement of Alexandria, Pæd, iii. 8.] as it is said, "And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, || Where [ The MS. does not give this part of the verse.] are the men who came to thee to-night? bring them forth unto us that we may know [ “Know” in the sense of punishing offenders, cf. Judg. 8:16; see Parchon’s Heb. Lexicon, s.v. ידע; or perhaps it is used here in the sense of carnal knowledge.] them" (ibid. 5). What did Lot do? Just as Moses gave his life for the people, [ The first editions read “Israel.” See Mekhilta, p. 34b.] so Lot [ The first editions read: “So Lot gave his life for them.” By going out to reason with the men of Sodom, who threatened to deal with him according to their wont.] gave up his two daughters instead of the two angels, as it is said, "Behold, now, I have two daughters" (ibid. 8). But the men [ Of Sodom.] would not agree (and did not accept them). What did the angels do to them? They smote them with blindness until the dawn of the (next) morning. All were treated with (measure for) measure. [ See Pal. Targum, Gen. 19:24: “And the word of the Lord had caused showers of favour to descend upon Sodom and Gomorrah that they might repent, but they did not.”] Just as he had taken them by the hand without their will and taken them into his house, so they took hold of his hand, [ Cf. Gen. 19:16 ff. Some of the later editions omit the words “the hand of his wife.” See Midrash Haggadol, c. 291 f.] and the hand of his wife, and the hand of his two daughters, and took them outside the city, as it is said, "But he lingered; and the men laid hold upon his hand" (ibid. 16). And they [ The angels.] said to them: [ Lot and his family. The text in Gen. (19:17) says, “Do not look behind thee”; note that the singular number is employed.] Do not look behind you, for verily the Shekhinah of the Holy One, blessed be He, has descended in order to rain upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire. [ Pal. Targum, Gen. 19:24, reads: “There are now sent down upon them sulphur and fire from before the word of the Lord from Heaven.” See Ẓohar, Gen. 107b f.] The pity of 'Edith [ The MS. reads either “‘Erith” or “‘Edith.” Midrash Haggadol, c. 293, has “‘Edith.” In Jalḳuṭ, in loc., “‘Erith” is the reading. ’Edith points to “‘Ed,” witness, for such was the pillar of salt. “Ado” is the reading in the Book of Jashar (xix. 52). Pal. Targum, loc. cit. 26, reads: “And his wife looked after the angel to know what would be the end of her father’s house, for she was of the daughters of the men of Sodom, and because she sinned by salt she was manifestly punished; behold, she was made a statue of salt.” The Second Version adds: “until the time of the resurrection shall come when the dead shall arise.”] the wife of Lot was stirred for her daughters, who were married in Sodom, [ See Midrash Haggadol, loc. cit.] and she looked back behind her to see if they were coming after her or not. And she saw behind [ The first editions read: “behind her.”] the Shekhinah, and she became a pillar of salt, as it is said, "And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" (ibid. 26). [ The first editions add the following: “And she stands even now. All day the oxen lick it and it decreases up to her feet, and in the morning (the pillar of salt) grows afresh, as it is said: ‘And his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt’” (Gen. 19:26). In the days of Maimonides all trace of the pillar had been lost. The Book of Jashar (xix. 54) reads: “And the oxen which stood in that place daily licked up the salt to the extremities of their feet, and in the morning it would spring forth afresh and they again licked it up, unto this day.” For a parallel Christian Midrash, see “A Strain of Sodom” in A.N.C.L. xviii. p. 230. See Jalḳuṭ, Esth. § 1055; Jalḳuṭ, Exodus, § 256. See Koran (ed. Rodwell), lxxxvii. p. 301, and Josephus, Ant. i. 11. 4, for references to Sodom. On Lot’s wife, see Wisdom x. 7; Cyril of Jerusalem; Mystagogue’s Catechism viii.; Augustine, de Civ. Dei, x. 8. On the Flight from Sodom, see Ambrose, Flight from the World, 54; Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule, iii. 27. On Lot’s hospitality, see Chrysostomus, Hom, xxxiii. 2; cf. Heb. xiii. 2. See also Grünbaum, op. cit. pp. 132 ff., and Ginzberg, op. cit. pp. 108 ff.]Life of St. Severinus · English translation 46:104Eugippius71. Sanctuaria. Reliquiae is also used with the same meaning; as, for example, three lines above. The relics need not be of any great extent. Gregory the Great gave orders on at least three occasions that sanctuaria or reliquiae of Severinus himself should be furnished for the consecration of churches or oratories. Epistolae, iii, 19; ix, 181; xi, 19. This was a hundred years after the saint had been securely buried.Life of St. Severinus · Indices 3:24EugippiusGregory the Great, 71.Fragments of Letters · Introduction 1:12Gildas the WiseThere were thus extant Letters of Gildas that held a high place in the estimation of the Churches of Britain and Ireland early in the seventh century. Of this we have confirmatory evidence in a letter of Columbanus, written about A.D. 595-600, to Pope Gregory the Great. (See the letter in full before Vita I.) In that letter, while requesting the opinion of Gregory on three points, he mentions the interesting fact that Gildas, or Giltas as he calls him, had written of those bishops that were irregularly ordained, because guilty of Simony. These words may be regarded as describing the second main part of Gildas' De Excidio (cc. 62-110). But Columbanus further mentions a correspondence between Vennianus and Gildas, respecting the monks who were abandoning their monasteries for the better seclusion of desert places. Seebass, in Zeitschrift f. Kirchengeschichte, xiv, 437, concludes that Vennianus must be, not Finnian, the founder of Clonard, who died about 549, but Finnian of Maghbile (Moville), whose death is placed by some in 588, by others in 610. The question is an exceedingly difficult one, as the evidence seems conflicting and confused; yet one is certainly safe in the assertion that a considerable time must have intervened between the writing of the De Excidio and the penning of letters that would supply such |257 extracts as these. The whole perspective is changed. Further, if Finnian, the founder of Clonard, died about 549, then it is natural that we should find Gildas' correspondent in the later Finnian of Moville. One is almost tempted to seek the sources of some of these extracts in writings of a different kind: there were published at Louvain, in 1667, a collection of the writings of Columbanus made some five years previously by Fleming, and these contain short sermons or addresses to monks, called Instructions. They have been lately edited separately by Seebass, in the Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, xiv, 76-92. We know how faithfully Columbanus clung in Gaul to the usages of his native Ireland; so that in these very Instructiones, we may discern a usage which originally came from Wales, whence the newer monastic institutions of Ireland had been, directly or indirectly, inspired. Such addresses by Gildas, if preserved might furnish matter for quotation to a writer who was drawing up a collection of Canons.The Ruin of Britain · Introduction 3:8Gildas the WiseIN the present edition, it is intended to publish in a collected form the works ascribed to Gildas for which, roughly speaking, a date is assigned during the twenty years that elapsed between A.D. 540 and 560. The earliest references to Gildas that have come down to us are the two made by Columbanus in his letter to St. Gregory the Great, which must have been written between thirty and forty years after the death of the British writer ( i.e., A.D. 595-600). In the first passage, he is mentioned as Gildas auctor who has written against simony in bishops; in the second, as having been engaged in correspondence, respecting the monks who were leaving their convents to become hermits, with Vennianus, probably Finian, the abbot of Clonard in Meath, to whom Gildas sent "an exceedingly noble answer" ( et eligantissime illi rescripsit ). Gildas is thus widely known, not very long after his death, as a writer on ecclesiastical abuses, and as a correspondent whose opinion on new and doubtful movements was highly valued in Ireland.Ecclesiastical History, Third Part · Book 5 1:23John of Ephesus7. These officers were called Scribones, and Du Cange quotes a passage from Gregory the Great, to prove that their duty was to travel into the provinces with the emperor's commands, and even sometimes with authority to see them executed Their rank is shewn by his calling them 'viri magnifici'Commentary on the Song of Songs 1:1Gregory the DialogistGregory the Great Commentary on the Song of Songs 1:3Gregory the Dialogist[Editor's note: The commentary on the Song of Songs translated here appears in Migne's Patrologia Latina under the name of Pope Gregory the Great, but it is a composite medieval text. The brief opening section (prologue through roughly Song 1:8/1:9) is Gregory's authentic but unfinished exposition, delivered orally to a small circle of monks and preserved from notes taken by his notary Claudius; Gregory himself expressed dissatisfaction with the transcript and never revised it to completion. The much longer continuation, which carries the allegorical interpretation through the entire biblical book to 8:14, is the work of the eleventh-century Norman Benedictine Robert of Tombelaine, a monk and hermit who lived in seclusion on the tidal islet of Tombelaine near Mont-Saint-Michel. Medieval copyists, recognizing Robert's profoundly Gregorian style, heavy dependence on the saint's imagery, and monastic spirituality, routinely transmitted the two pieces as a single work under Gregory's far more famous name—an attribution that persisted in manuscripts and early prints. This richly allegorical and tropological reading (the Bride as Church or individual soul, the Bridegroom as Christ) proved influential on later medieval exegesis, including the Glossa Ordinaria, and remains a valuable witness to eleventh-century Benedictine contemplative theology.]Dialogues · Book 1 1:1Gregory the DialogistGregory the Great, Dialogues (1911) Book 1. pp.1-48 Dialogues · Book 1 1:2Gregory the DialogistThe Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope of Rome Dialogues · Book 2 1:1Gregory the DialogistGregory the Great, Dialogues (1911) Book 2. pp. 51-101 Dialogues · Book 3 1:1Gregory the DialogistGregory the Great, Dialogues (1911) Book 3. pp. 105-174 Dialogues · Book 4 1:1Gregory the DialogistGregory the Great, Dialogues (1911) Book 4. pp. 177-258.Dialogues · Book 4 11:16Gregory the Dialogist41. Ibid. p. 214. Theodoricus (Thiuda reiks), whom we call Theodoric the Goth, was born in 454, invaded Italy as the delegate of the Emperor Zeno in 489, and, by his capture of Ravenna from Odoacer in 493, founded the short-lived Ostrogothic kingdom. In 500, he came to Rome as a pacific and beneficent sovereign, hailed by the Romans as a new Trajan, pledging himself to maintain the Roman laws for the benefit of the Roman People. He restored the walls and decreed the preservation of the monuments of the city, "King of the Goths and Romans in Italy," he ruled nominally as the representative of the Emperor at Byzantium. Himself an Arian, Theodoric during the greater part of his reign treated Arians and Catholics with the same impartial justice as he did Goths and Romans in the political field. But the reconciliation between the Byzantine Court and the Holy See in 519, the consequent tendency of the Roman Senate towards Constantinople rather than towards Ravenna, and the increasing bitterness between Arians and Catholics both in East and West, gradually alienated the King from his Catholic and Roman subjects, and he finally degenerated into a religious persecutor and suspicious tyrant. The philosopher Boethius was tortured to death by his orders in 524 or 525 ; Symmachus, the Head of the Senate, was executed in 525 ; and Pope John I. ( cf, above, Bk. III. chap. 2) died in the King's dungeons at Ravenna in May, 526. Theodoric followed his victims to the grave on August 30, 526, the day on which, according to his decree, all the Catholic churches in Italy were to have been surrendered to the Arians. At some uncertain date, his body was cast out of his magnificent tomb at Ravenna : Agnellus of Ravenna, who wrote in the first half of the ninth century, states that it had been done before his time ( Liber Pontificalis, in Migne, P.L. cvi. col. 535) ; but there seems no foundation for the assertion of Fra Salimbene, the thirteenth-century chronicler of Parma ( Cronica, ed. Holder-Egger, pp. 209, 210), that it was St. Gregory the Great himself who ordered this work of desecration to be carried out. The crater mentioned in this unpleasant legend is either that of Vulcano or Stromboli, two of the Lipari islands.Dialogues · Introduction 1:1Gregory the DialogistGregory the Great, Dialogues (1911) Introduction. pp.xix-xxvi.Dialogues · Introduction 1:6Gregory the DialogistThe four books of Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, "concerning the life and miracles of the Italian Fathers and the eternity of souls," were written in 593, three years after his elevation to the papacy, at the request of certain monks of his household.Dialogues · Preface to the online edition 1:1Gregory the DialogistGregory the Great, Dialogues (1911). Preface to the online edition Morals on the Book of Job · index 1:5Gregory the DialogistST. GREGORY THE GREAT,Commentary on the Song of Songs 15:3BedeExcerpts From Gregory the Great Commentary_on_the_Wisdom_Of_Solomon 2:18Rabanus MaurusGREGORY THE GREAT. For it is written of him: But by the envy of the Devil, death entered into the world (Wis. 2:24). Because he himself lost heaven, he envied the man who was created, and, ruined, he increased his own damnation by ruining others. The envious must be admonished to recognize the many falls to which the growing ruin subjects them, because, while they do not cast envy out of their hearts, they are led into open wickedness of deeds. For if Cain had not envied his brother’s accepted offering, he would not have come to extinguish his life. Therefore it is written: And the Lord looked upon Abel and his gifts; but to Cain and his gifts He did not look. And Cain was very angry, and his face fell (Gen. 4:4). [ Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule, PL 77.3.10] died 604 AD Commentary_on_the_Wisdom_Of_Solomon 3:12Rabanus MaurusGREGORY THE GREAT. Again, through the pen or reed, the pursuit of temporal glory is expressed, as it is said of the just through Wisdom: The just will shine, and run to and fro like sparks among stubble (Wis. 3:7). For indeed, he calls the life of worldly people stubble, who, like stubble, advance outwardly through temporal glory as if to lofty heights, but inwardly become empty of the solidity of truth. Therefore, the kingdom of the Jews is also compared to stubble, when, through the prophet, it is said of the Lord appearing in the truth of the flesh: A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench (Isa. 42:3). [ Gregory the Great, Morals on Job, PL 75-76. Sixth and last part.4.7] died 604 AD Commentary_on_the_Wisdom_Of_Solomon 5:18Rabanus MaurusGREGORY THE GREAT. In all these things, it is clearly seen what a certain wise man testifies about the Lord, saying: and creation shall fight with him against the foolish (Wis. 5:20). Indeed, the world fights with the Lord against the senseless when, in the punishment of sinners, the adversity of the elements takes part. Yet pain does not come forth from the earth, because every insensible thing is stirred to our affliction by the impulse of our own actions. [ Gregory the Great, Morals on Job, PL 75-76. 2.14] died 604 AD Commentary_on_the_Wisdom_Of_Solomon 6:8Rabanus MaurusGREGORY THE GREAT. [Verse 6] In Holy Scripture, when the sun is presented figuratively, sometimes the Lord is signified by it, as is stated in the book of Wisdom, where it is said that all the wicked, upon recognizing their own condemnation at the final judgment, will say: We have strayed from the path of truth, and the light of justice did not shine for us; and the sun did not rise for us (Wis. 5:6). As if they were openly saying: The ray of inner light did not shine upon us. Therefore, John also says: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet. For in the sun is understood the illumination of truth, but in the moon, which wanes with its monthly cycles, is understood the mutability of temporality. [Gregory the Great, Exposition of the New Testament, 24.38] died 604 AD Commentary_on_the_Wisdom_Of_Solomon 6:25Rabanus MaurusGREGORY THE GREAT. [Verse 16] The paths of life lead to the Creator. Through visible things we have departed from God; through the same things we ought to return to God. For the paths to the Creator are the works of creation considered. When we observe what has been made, we marvel at the power of the Maker. In these paths, all wisdom meets us with providence, because the power of the Maker is set before us to be sought in everything that appears to be wonderfully made; and wherever the soul turns, if it pays careful attention, in these very things it finds God, through which it had departed; and it recognizes His power again from the consideration of those things, for the love of which it had abandoned Him; and through those things by which it fell perversely, by these things turned rightly it is recalled. For where we have fallen, there we must strive to rise; and as if by rising there, we fix the hand of consideration where, by the foot of careless love, we had fallen and lay neglected. For since we have fallen from the invisible through the visible, it is fitting that we should lean again on the visible to return to the invisible, so that by the same way by which the soul descended to the lowest, by that same step it may return to the highest; and by the same steps by which it fell, it may rise, while, as has been said, those things well considered call us back to God, which, badly chosen, separated us from Him. [ Gregory the Great, Morals on Job, PL 75-76. 5.14.18] died 604 AD Commentary_on_the_Wisdom_Of_Solomon 7:17Rabanus MaurusGREGORY THE GREAT. And it often happens that they speak boldly, but nevertheless do not know how to live according to what they say. Therefore a certain wise man rightly said: But may God grant me to speak these things with understanding (Wis. 7:15). For understanding is indeed derived from perception. And he who desires not only to speak from knowledge, but also from understanding, wishes to experience what he says by feeling, not merely by knowing. But the mind of the arrogant does not penetrate the sense of their own words, because it is repelled from inward taste and right judgment toward those outward favors which it loves. True knowledge, however, affects, it does not exalt; nor does it make those it fills proud, but rather causes them to lament. When anyone is filled with this knowledge, he first desires to know himself; and now, being conscious of himself, he becomes wiser through it the more he truly recognizes his own weakness in it; and humility itself opens to him a wider path to this knowledge; and while he observes his own frailty, the very knowledge of sublime secrets reveals to him hidden depths, and being pressed by this knowledge, he becomes more subtle, so that he may be drawn to hidden things. Therefore Elihu, in the afflictions of blessed Job, does not find true reason, because he does not know how to seek it humbly; and being more ready to rebuke than to console, he says: This, therefore, is where you are not justified. (Job 33:12) [ Gregory the Great, Morals on Job, PL 75-76. 5.17.31] died 604 AD Commentary_on_the_Wisdom_Of_Solomon 16:23Rabanus MaurusGREGORY THE GREAT. [Verse 20] As a certain wise man says about the sweetness of manna: You provided them with ready bread from heaven without labor, containing every delight and all the sweetness of taste (Wis. 16:20). For manna indeed contained every delight and all sweetness of taste, because, in the mouths of the spiritual, it gave flavor according to the will of those who ate, since the divine word is both suitable for all and not inconsistent with itself, adapting to the capacity of the hearers; and when each chosen person profitably understands it according to his own measure, he transforms the manna received into a flavor of his own choosing. [ Gregory the Great, Morals on Job, PL 75-76. 2.2.22] died 604 AD Commentary_on_the_Wisdom_Of_Solomon 17:17Rabanus MaurusGREGORY THE GREAT. Therefore, it is well said by a certain wise man: Since wickedness is fearful, it bears witness to its own condemnation (Wis. 17:10). For while fear, striking the conscience because of the deed, reproves, it gives itself damning testimony for the case it commits. On the contrary, it is said by John: If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God (1 Jn. 3:21). Therefore, let the wicked flee from human eyes, but they certainly cannot flee from themselves. For since they know the evil they do, they have conscience as a witness, and their own reason as a judge. Therefore, in the sin they commit, they first encounter the judgment of their own reason against themselves. And this is perhaps what is said by the Psalmist: Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls (Ps. 42:8). For, by a wondrous order of hidden arrangement, the evil that is done is not permitted to be unknown, and the sinner already condemns himself in his conscience by his own judgment, and after his own condemnation hastens to the sentence of the eternal Judge. Therefore, for deep to call to deep is to pass from judgment to judgment. [ Gregory the Great, Morals on Job, PL 75-76. 2.27.25] died 604 AD Commentary on Ephesians · SSEph 6:35Thomas AquinasYet none of the Fathers who were to influence medieval exegesis * declared the sufficiency of the literal sense; nor did any of the commentators or theologians prior to St. Thomas. Several reasons account for this attitude. One was the grossly literal approach of those who insisted on taking figurative and metaphorical expressions in the Bible at their face value. Thus, Origen was convinced that an excessively literal interpretation lay at the roots of the Jew’s rejection of Christ for not fulfilling the messianic promises to the letter, and the Gnostic rejection of the Old Testament for its anthropomorphic portraits of God. Origen countered both by affirming that nothing in the Holy Books is unworthy of God, provided they are understood spiritually rather than literally. * St. Augustine made the same plea for an appreciation of the spiritual message of the Bible. * ” If Cassian paid little attention to the literal meaning, this was no doubt due in large measure to the fanatical adherence of the anthropomorphite monks in Egypt to the literal exposition of biblical metaphor. * St. Gregory the Great could find little time amid the dissolution of Roman civilization for the literary and historical inquiry necessary to appreciate the literal sense; spiritual exegesis offered a ready tool to communicate his deep religious insights and to fulfill his pastoral obligations. * In this aspect he is the link between the patristic and medieval monastic commentators. *Commentary on Luke · Translator Preface 1:23Thomas AquinasEutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, 553, formerly a monk of Amasea. He wrote a book denying a sensible resurrection from the dead, concerning which there was a dispute held between him and Gregory the Great, then the Apocrisiary of Pope Vigilius at Constantinople. It was afterwards condemned by Tiberius the Emperor. See Greg. Mor. 1. 14. c. 29. where the retractation of this work is mentioned.Commentary on Matthew · Translator Preface 1:4Thomas AquinasThe earliest commentaries on Scripture had been of this discursive nature, being addresses by word of mouth to the people, which were taken down by secretaries, and so preserved. While the traditionary teaching of the Church still preserved the vigour and vividness of its Apostolical origin, and spoke with an exactness and cogency which impressed an adequate image of it upon the mind of the Christian Expositor, he was able to allow himself free range in handling the sacred text, and to admit into the comment his own particular character of mind, and his spontaneous and individual ideas, in the full security, that, however he might follow the leadings of his own thoughts in unfolding the words of Scripture, his own deeply fixed views of Catholic truth would bring him safe home, without overstepping the limits of truth and sobriety. Accordingly, while the early Fathers manifest a most remarkable agreement in the principles and the substance of their interpretation, they have at the same time a distinctive spirit and manner, by which each may be known from the rest. About the vith or viith century this originality disappears; the oral or traditionary teaching, which allowed scope to the individual teacher, became hardened into a written tradition, and henceforward there is a uniform invariable character as well as substance of Scripture interpretation. Perhaps we should not err in putting Gregory the Great as the last of the original Commentators; for though very numerous commentaries on every book of Scripture continued to be written by the most eminent doctors in their own names, probably not one interpretation of any importance would be found in them which could not be traced to some older source. So that all later comments are in fact Catenas or selections from the earlier Fathers, whether they present themselves expressly in the form of citations from their volumes, or are lections upon the Lesson or Gospel for the day, extempore indeed in form, but as to their materials drawn from the previous studies and stores of the expositor. The latter would be better adapted for the general reader, the former for the purposes of the theologian.SERMONS ON OUR LADY · The Visitation 1621 2:15Francis de SalesAnd here is another story: St. Gregory the Great relates it in his Dialogues as having happened in his time. I do not know if I have told it in this place; I do not have a good memory of it, but even though I may have already done so I will not fail to repeat it, because I am not in the presence of persons so particular that they cannot hear the same thing twice, for those with a good appetite enjoy the same dish a second time. But I must add this word also since it can be good and useful; There are some who are ready to banter and jest over the writings of this glorious saint, and indeed wrongfully, for St. Gregory was one of the greatest Popes that ever sat in the chair of Peter; a few years after his elevation to the papacy he withdrew into solitude and wrote the book of his Dialogues.The Essay 26:15An Essay on the Development of Christian DoctrineThis appellation had two meanings; one, which will readily suggest itself, is its use in contrast to the word "barbarian," as denoting the faith of the Empire, as "Greek" occurs in St. Paul's Epistles. In this sense it would more naturally be used by the Romans themselves than by others. Thus Salvian says, that "nearly all the Romans are greater sinners than the barbarians;"[280:1] and he speaks of "Roman heretics, of which there is an innumerable multitude,"[280:2] meaning heretics within the Empire. And so St. Gregory the Great complains, that he "had become Bishop of the Lombards rather than of the Romans."[280:3] And Evagrius, speaking even of the East, contrasts "Romans and barbarians"[280:4] in his account of St. Simeon; and at a later date, and even to this day, Thrace and portions of Dacia and of Asia Minor derive their name from Rome. In like manner, we find Syrian writers sometimes speaking of the religion of the Romans, sometimes of the Greeks,[280:5] as synonymes.The Essay 27:98An Essay on the Development of Christian DoctrineOn this point I will but remark as follows. It cannot be doubted that the horror of heresy, the law of absolute obedience to ecclesiastical authority, and the doctrine of the mystical virtue of unity, were as strong and active in the Church of St. Ignatius and St. Cyprian as in that of St. Carlo and St. Pius the Fifth, whatever be thought of the theology respectively taught in the one and in the other. Now we have before our eyes the effect of these principles in the instance of the later Church; they have entirely succeeded in preventing departure from the doctrine of Trent for three hundred years. Have we any reason for doubting, that from the same strictness the same fidelity would follow, in the first three, or any three, centuries of the Ante-tridentine period? Where then was the opportunity of corruption in the three hundred years between St. Ignatius and St. Augustine? or between St. Augustine and St. Bede? or between St. Bede and St. Peter Damiani? or again, between St. Irenaeus and St. Leo, St. Cyprian and St. Gregory the Great, St. Athanasius and St. John Damascene? Thus the tradition of eighteen centuries becomes a collection of indefinitely many catenae, each commencing from its own point, and each crossing the other; and each year, as it comes, is guaranteed with various degrees of cogency by every year which has gone before it.Book 5 24:681Bede's Ecclesiastical History of EnglandDudden, F. Homes, his "Gregory the Great," editorial references to, 75 n., 81 n., 133 n.Book 5 24:953Bede's Ecclesiastical History of EnglandGregory the Great, St., Pope, xxiv, xxv, xxxviii, 2, 3, 45, 93, 122 n., 126, 213 n., 218; account of, 42 n., 75-83; his genealogy, 75, 76; his character, 75; his pontificate, 75, 81; sent to Constantinople, 77, 83 n.; confutes the heresy of Eutychius, 78; his learning and literary works, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81; his connection with Church music, 133 n.; his meeting with the Anglian slaves, 82; sends Augustine on a mission to Britain to convert the English, 42, 43, 45, 49, 75, 80, 83, 131, 383; letter recommending Augustine and Candidus to Aetherius, 44; letters to Augustine and the English mission, 43, 64, 65, 68, 69, 290; letter to Vergilius, 63, 64; letter to Mellitus, 66, 67, 68; sends the pall to Augustine, 64, 65, 383; letter to Ethelbert, 69-72; his gifts to Ethelbert, 69, 71; his answers to Augustine's questions on discipline, xxiv, 49-63, 79, 84 n., 85 n.; private letters, 79; sends Paulinus to Britain, 64, 383; his weak health, 79; death, 75, 81, 384; burial, 81; epitaph, 81, 82; altar dedicated to him at SS. Peter and Paul's, Canterbury, 90; quoted, 333, 334; his disciples, 348, 358; lives of, 75 n., 83 n.; and see Dudden, Whitby.Book 5 24:2070Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England104 Gregory the Great. Cf. Preface. Bede places the date of his accession a year too late as well as that of his death (v., II, 1, ad init., but in the same chapter he rightly places his death in the second year of Phocas, i.e., 604).Book 5 24:2109Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England143 For a detailed study of St. Gregory, v. "Gregory the Great, his place in History and Thought," by F. Homes Dudden, B.D. (1905). The oldest biographies are: (1) a Life of Gregory, written by a monk of Whitby, probably about 713 A.D., recently discovered in a MS. belonging to the Monastery of St. Gallen; (2) the Life by Paul the Deacon, written towards the end of the eighth century; (3) the Life by John the Deacon, written about the end of the ninth century.Book 5 24:2249Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England281 The "Cantus Romanus," brought to England by the Roman mission; i.e., the style of Church music according to the use of Rome. The theory that Gregory the Great was the founder of Gregorian music, which superseded the old "Cantus Ambrosianus" everywhere in the West except at Milan, must in all probability be abandoned. It seems to be established that no change of any importance was made till nearly a hundred years after Gregory's time, and "the terms 'Gregorianus,' 'Ambrosianus Cantus,' probably mean nothing more than the style of singing according to the respective uses of Rome and Milan." (F. Homes Dudden, "Gregory the Great," I, p. 274.)Book 5 24:2410Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England442 The ancient life of Gregory the Great, by a monk of Whitby, tells how Edwin's body was translated thither from the place where he fell. For the fate of his head, cf. II, 20.January 5:8The Roman MartyrologyAt Rome, the holy virgin Emiliana, father's sister to holy Gregory the Great. Her sister Tharsilla, who had gone to God before her, came and called her, and upon the same day she passed hence to be for ever with the Lord (sixth century).February 25:5The Roman MartyrologyAt Rome, [in the year 492,] the holy Pope Felix III, who was the great-grandfather of holy Gregory the Great, who saith of him that he appeared unto his holy niece Tharsilla, and called her unto the kingdom of heaven.May 23:11The Roman MartyrologyAt Nursia, the holy monks Eutychius and Florence, of whom mention is made by blessed Pope Gregory the Great.June 9:5The Roman MartyrologyAt Syracuse, [in the year 594,] holy Maximian, Bishop [of that see,] of whom holy Pope Gregory the Great doth oftentimes make mention.September 20:10The Roman MartyrologyUpon the same day, (in the sixth century,) the holy Confessor Pope Agapitus, whose holiness is recorded by blessed Gregory the Great.September 3:10The Roman MartyrologyAt Rome is commemorated the Ordination as Supreme Pontiff of that excellent man holy Gregory the Great; the compulsion which forced that burden upon him caused the rays of his holiness to shine through all the world, all the clearer in that they shone from an higher spot.