Latin original · 36 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 845:297–845:332 (1012 verses in all)
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A defensor brings aid to a bishop in reforming the state of the Church, 801, 1234. He relieves a needy bishop, 1103. Concerning the correction of bishops, 808, 976, 977, 1047, 1048, 1235, 1236, 1262, 1263. Concerning the cases of bishops, whether to be discussed or judged, 649, 630, 646, 961, 1059. A case between a bishop and a defensor over the goods of the Church is delayed; defensors are appointed to the other party, 961, 980, 1041. How clergy are to be protected by defensors, 980, 981, 1120. Concerning punishing criminous clergy, 759. Concerning presbyters, whether to be judged or kept to their duty, 546, 1044, 1243.
The case of one defensor is committed to another defensor for judgment, 974. Defensors: Boniface in Corsica, called first of the defensors, 905, 1177. Bonitus, 1206. Candidus, 707. Eugenius the notary, 976. Fantinus of Palermo, 723. Felix the subdeacon, 976. Hadrianus the notary, ibid. Hilarius the notary, 1089. John, 1232, 1255, 1236. Optatus, 1243. Pantaleo the notary, 1094. Peter, 1197. Sabinus, 649. Scholasticus, 1101. Sergius, 901. Sisinnius, defensor of the Church of Messina, 897. Symmachus, 545. Vitalis, 926. Vitus, 1120. See all these under their proper title. See also Rectors of the patrimonies, under the word Patrimonium. What it is to 'fix one's hand with a stranger,' 38.
The Deceased. Prayers for the dead occur everywhere among the ancient Fathers, 464. See Sacrificium (Sacrifice). It is safer that each person do for himself while he lives what he hopes to have done for him by others after his death, 472. The pious wishes of the deceased are not to be annulled, 689. Whether the dead are to be mourned. See Mortui (The Dead). To cast down. Who is cast down when he is lifted up, 1027. A subdeacon as a delegated ecclesiastical judge, 647. Who can be delegated as judges, ibid. Lesser cases can be delegated, 630. Candelabra placed in the churches were adorned and supported with dolphins, 535. To Demetianus the orphan, his father's property, though pledged to the Church, is restored, 638, 639. Demetrianus, cleric of the Church of Fermo, 943. Demetrias, a city of Thessaly, 629, 630.
Demetrius, bishop of Epirus, 796. Demetrius, bishop of Naples, 500. Deposed for grave crimes, ibid., 572. Demetrius, deacon of the Church of Thebes, handed over to the proconsul to be tormented with torture, 628, 630. Denarius. Why all the laborers receive only one denarius, 429. Six thousand denarii formerly made one solidus, 648. Forty denarii made two ounces of silver, ibid. To 'send down manna, rain, etc., from heaven,' a manner of speaking familiar to Gregory, 1111, 1112. He who invades another's place must be deposed, 581. A deposit must be returned, 1064. Dertona. See Tortona. Desideria the abbess, 1217. Good desires are not to be deferred, 589. To desire to advance to better things is a gift of God, 885.
He who granted the willing, will bestow the powers of obtaining, ibid. Desiderius, bishop of Vienne, deposed by episcopal judgment at the instigation of Brunhild, is stoned with stones, 831. Gregory commends Candidus to Desiderius, 832. Desiderius asks that the pallium and privileges granted to his predecessors be confirmed, 1019. Desiderius, because he was teaching grammar, is rebuked, 1140 and following. He excuses himself, ibid. See the alphabetical Index of Letters. The effect of sloth of mind, 53, 56. The vain excuses of this vice, 53. When a betrothed woman has entered a monastery, the things taken away must be restored, 857. Formerly, if a betrothed woman wished to enter a monastery, she was bound to return double what she had received, 868. Catalogue, 631, 662, 696, 886, 951, 1047, 1073.
With what mind detractions are to be heard, 860, 1093, 1126 and following. With how great a benefit to the elect God permits detractions, 1128. What detractors gain, 1093. In what manner they ought to make satisfaction, ibid., 1128, 1129. God. What the left and right hand of God signify, 77. The enemies of God on His left prosper, on His right they are broken, 77. What it is to 'stand before the face of God,' 82. God sometimes speaks after a human manner, 1069. What it is to 'see the back parts of God,' 967. To the invisible God they minister invisible services, 580. The divine power fills all things which it has created, 380. Nothing is hidden from God, 789. Why God is said to descend, that He might know what things had been done in Sodom, 860. How God knew that Abraham feared Him, 1069.
In the sight of God innocence is lost when one sins in desire before His eyes, 52. There is one will of the Father and the Son in God, 61. We ought to be subject to God freely, to whom even all adverse things are subjected against their will, 329. God almighty, by breathing upon or filling those things which subsist by reason, both quickens and moves invisible things, 381. Human will must be humbly accommodated to God's providence, 517. God by turns punishes and consoles men, 1239. Who is of God, who is not, 76. No one can please both God and wicked men, 1066. The wondrous mercy of God toward sinners, 82, 969. He instructed man before his sin what he should do and what he should not, 82. After his sin He called him to the recovery of grace, ibid.
How great our hope in God's mercy ought to be, 85. Often God washes away the sins of the heart the more quickly, the more He does not permit them to go out into deeds, 86. How easy pardon is, 86. We ought always to trust in God's mercy and to be afraid of our own weakness, 202. God's mercy shines forth in scourges and blows, 385. God is not to be asserted as so merciful that He is proclaimed deceitful, 419. Who think the justice of God is venal, 65. It belongs to divine justice that he never lack punishment who in this life never wished to lack sin, 449. The merciful God is not fed by the torment of the wretched, but the just God will not cease in eternity from the punishment of sins, 449. Deusdedit, bishop of Milan, 1206, 1258.
He is elected bishop, 1094. St. Gregory's solicitude concerning his ordination, ibid., 1095. Deusdedit, a venerable old man very familiar with Gregory, 420. Deusdedit the cobbler, rewarded by God for his alms, 436. Deusdedit, oppressing a widow, is restrained, 627. What it signifies, 153. The right hand signifies eternal blessedness, 77. The devil is called the prince of the earth, 679. Devils are incorporeal, 417. The devil sinned through envy, 46. What it is for the devil to creep in the serpent, in the breast, and in the belly, 61. Devils are tormented by corporeal fire, 417. The pride of the devil wrought our perdition, 59. The devil has no power over man except that granted by God, 316, 329. The devil sometimes enters into the heart of man, 884.
The Devil assails in secret, 789. Against the watchful and those who resist he fights the more fiercely, 883, 965, 1030, 1099. Under the appearance of piety he strives to trip men up, 1008. He deludes men through dreams, 456. To the Devil nothing is more desirable than the extinction of charity, 71. The greater the things he seeks to inflict, the subtler the snares he devises, 1030. What must then be done, ibid. He deceived Adam through the woman, 744. He stirred up the wife against Job, ibid. His cunning in tempting, 773. He hinders good intentions as far as he can, 589. He seduces the penitent man with the pestilent flatteries of false security, 85. He is ever at hand, ready both for our bodily deeds and for our thoughts, 325. Sometimes he foretells many true things, that in the end he may deceive the soul by falsehood, 457.
Those whom he cannot drive to sin, he tears apart by feigning false opinions of them, 596. He attacks the Shepherds of the Lord's sheep, that he may the more easily seize the flock, 611. The malignant spirit ever presses upon our thought, our speech, and our deed, 323. — The Devil, under the appearance of a blackbird, suggests an impure thought to St Benedict, 213. Under the appearance of a little black boy he calls a monk away from prayer, 21. Under the appearance of a serpent he tried to terrify the monk Martin, 316. Under the figure of a pig he abandons a church newly dedicated to God, 344. The Devil is put to flight from places, 285, 344. He is permitted to enter into a pig, 328. — Sons of the Devil are those who sow strife, 71.
[He is to be resisted] by all who have zeal in pursuing him, whereas those who become helpers of the malignant spirit [do otherwise], 679. Diaconate. By this word is signified the Archdeaconate, which belongs to a deacon alone, 504. Which men were called Cardinal Deacons, 501. Many deacons promoted to the episcopate, 644, 643, 646, 653, 657, 1064. Why in former times deacons were for the most part taken up to the episcopal office, 691. The authority and arrogance of deacons, ibid. Let deacons give themselves to preaching and to almsgiving, 1288. Deacons forbidden to chant in church, 1288. When deacons began to sing the Gospel amid the solemnities of the Mass, 1289. A deacon of the church of the Marsi, falling by the sword of the Lombards, is handed over to a demon by the very man who had struck him, 405.
A captive deacon is to be ransomed at the expense of his own church, 654. A deacon ordained at Rome has no leave to depart elsewhere, 763. There were seven Regionary Deacons at Rome, 937. They were subject to the Archdeacon, ibid. Diaconiae were places in which, through the regionary deacons, the poor, widows, orphans, etc. were fed, 756, 937. Diaconiae are also taken for the alms itself, 1109, 1111. They are taken also for the collection made for the cause of the poor, 1111. The name Diaconia is given to the chapels and oratories of the houses of hospice-keepers, 756. Those set over the Diaconiae were called Cardinal Deacons, ibid. Diaconiae existed not only at Rome, but also in other cities, 756, 1054. Gregory orders that the grain-supply withheld from the Neapolitan Diaconia be restored, ibid.
What the Diaconicum is, 504. Diatyposes are called by the Greeks definitions of the faith, 720. Diatyposis also signifies a mandate, a constitution, 1054, 1055. Why Didymus of Alexandria was called Chalcenterus (Brazen-bowelled), 1036. Day: when the day will be perfect, 1026. Why a day is called joyful, 1070. On the Lord's Day the body may be washed for reason of necessity, 1214. Concerning the keeping of the day free from works, Constantine first passed a law, ibid., 1215. See Antichrist. Dignities are to be fled from with all the heart, though they may be undertaken against one's will, 7, 875. What is to be done, that a man may not give himself over to the seeking of a dignity, 9. Humility is in peril upon the summit of dignities, 21. Let those who stand on high fear a fall, 83.
Humility is to be held in the heart, and the dignity of one's order to be preserved in honour, 771. Why the dignities of the world are to be despised, 875. It is not rank or orders that make us near to our Creator, but good merits, 879. See Honour. Love, the mother and guardian of the virtues, 610. Love has its own authority, 868. The proof of love is the care of feeding [the flock], 6. See Charity. 'Beloved' (Dilectio), a title given by Gregory to priests and deacons, 644, 657, 710, 746, and elsewhere. To abbots, 1136, 1137, 1177, and elsewhere frequently. And to bishops themselves, 1265, 1271, 1272. No one can love those whom he is unwilling to see, 911. What things are to be loved, 1077. Letters dimissory were not formerly in use, 501, 600.
Formerly, without letters dimissory, laymen could be ordained by any bishop whatsoever, 566. Clerics seem to have been promoted to holy orders without dimissory letters, 723. The bishops of Constantinople and of Carthage, by privilege, admitted clerics of another's jurisdiction without letters dimissory, 566. By present-day usage, letters dimissory are required only of the bishop of one's birthplace, ibid. To dismiss: If we do not dismiss (forgive) from the heart, even that which had been remitted is required of us again, 473. Dinah, a type of the sluggish soul, snatched away by the wiles of the Devil, 85. The allegorical and tropological explanation of the ravishing of Dinah, 679. Diocese is sometimes taken for that ecclesiastical province of which Rome was the metropolis, 1020.
The diptychs, or twin tablets: one was of the living, the other of the dead, 719. From the diptychs names were recited as a sign of communion, ibid. The rights of discipline are so to be exercised that piety be not forsaken, 23. The use of canonical discipline is called the medicine of correction, 657. It is the property of discipline to prohibit unlawful things, and wholesomely to cut off the faults of excesses, 954. Discipline is not to be neglected, ibid., 937. In preserving discipline against heretics let bishops not dissent among themselves, 732. The ancient discipline of the Church, with the stewards in the Church now extinct, is well-nigh abolished, 610. Whom divine discipline crushes, upon him to add human scourges is superfluous, 597. Discord. By what reasonings those who keep not concord are to be assailed, 68, 69.
God spurns the offerings of those at variance, 69, 473. The evil of discord, 71. Discord is hostile to God, 504. It generates scandals, 572. That discord is the more to be guarded against, to which outward peace lends its escort, 671. The sacrifices of prayers are stained by dissension, 880. Discretion is expressed by the nose, 11, 90. Discretion is exceedingly necessary to physicians both of bodies and of souls, 97, 98. How great a discretion is necessary in examining dreams, that illusions may be distinguished from revelations, 457. Discretion is necessary to a priest for preaching, 514. Discretion is to be preserved in the virtues, 514. The wondrous discretion of prelates in punishing, 669. Discretion is to be preserved in correcting evils, 1177. See Correction.
Losses of profits, that is, the losses of advantages or of temporal goods, 551. By too frequent dispensations canonical discipline is weakened, 657. The canons are wounded and grow cheap, 1265. Dispensation is sometimes the same as administration, 992, 993. 'Strict' (Districtus) signifies the same as 'severe', 739. The Rich. Which rich men are to be admonished, 36. The proud rich man is often to be exhorted gently, ibid. The rich man is skilfully to be smitten by the Shepherd with his own sentence, ibid. By the example of Nathan reproving David, 37. It often happens that a rich man is humble, and a poor man proud, 36. The horrible end of the proud rich man given over to pleasures, 440. Why riches and glory are placed on the left hand, 77. The lover of riches gathers no fruit from them, 65.
Doclea, a city, 1201, 1202. The Docleatine bishop, Paulus, 1201. Why teachers in Scripture are called Prophets, 17, 510. How they are reproved for seeing false things, 17, 510. What it is for teachers to take to themselves a brick, 31. Why they are bidden to portray Jerusalem upon the brick set before them, ibid. According to the quality of the hearers must the discourse of teachers be shaped, 33, 34. Teachers are signified by the poles of the ark, 34. Teachers of souls are called keepers of the vessels, 213. Let the life commend the teaching, 15. Doctrine is the nurse of virtue, 43. The learned man. Why the discourse of a learned man is useful, 91. A man is the less learned, the less he is patient, 43. The bite of grief is signified by wine, 23.
Sorrows in this life impel to the love of heavenly things, 770. There were many kinds of household servants, 1081. Dometius, Abbot and Priest, 949. Domination is forbidden to Shepherds, 23. See Shepherds. The highest place is well governed, when he who presides lords it over vices rather than over men, 22, 513. Dominica, 493, 714. It is called the provostry of a certain monastery, 877. Dominica, the wife of a certain John, returned to the unity of the Church, 886. Dominicus, bishop of Carthage, sends Gregory a letter of congratulation on his ordination by two bishops, a deacon, and a notary, 609. Dominicus, a friend of Gregory, 1181. His zeal against the Donatists, 731.
He carried in the African Council a rather severe sentence against bishops who neglected the heretics, 731, 732. The charity and pastoral solicitude of Dominicus are praised, 806, 807. His reverence toward the Apostolic See, 921. Gregory asks the prayers of Dominicus, and promises him his own, 806, 807. See the alphabetical Index of the Letters. Dominicus, bishop of Centumcellae, 499. Dominicus, a priest, is sent to preside over a certain church of the diocese of Atella, 577, 578. Dominicus, a cleric of the Roman Church, 816. Dominicus, a magnificent man, 1057. Dominicus, a secretary, 537. Dominicus takes refuge with Gregory on behalf of his four brothers, who, though redeemed from captivity, were still detained, 868. The Lord.
Which masters are to be admonished, 40. Christian masters who drive their sick servants out of the house are censured, 624. Masters are bound to procure the aids of salvation for their servants, 703. The lord of a thing differs from the possessor and from the tenant or lessee, 969. A lord does not consent to the founding of a monastery upon his own land, lest he be deprived of the revenues of the taxable estate, 693. Domitian, bishop of Melitene, metropolitan of the Church of Armenia, kinsman of the emperor Maurice, 678. He is praised, ibid. Designated guardian of the sons of Maurice, 678. Though occupied with secular affairs, he meditates on the Scriptures, 680. He preached the Christian faith to the king of the Persians, 680. Whether he is the same who elsewhere is called Datianus, 740.
Gregory begs this man to have compassion on him in his affliction, ibid. See the alphabetical Index of the Letters. Domitian, a bishop in the East, is reproved because at the ordination of Cyriacus he had cried out, 'This is the day which the Lord hath made,' 854. Domnitius, priest and abbot of the monastery of Lucusianum, 1136. Domitius, a magnificent man, 1197. Domna, abbess of the monastery of St Stephen, in the territory of Agrigentum, 912. Domnelius, an almoner, most dear to Gregory, 988. Gregory consoles this man when sick, 1032. See the alphabetical Index of the Letters. 'Domnus' and 'Domna' for 'Dominus' and 'Domina', 489, 493, 494. 'House' (Domus), a title of honour granted by Gregory himself to an aged abbot, 594. Donadeus, a deacon, if he be guilty of a crime, is to be thrust into penance, 1186.
Let a gift be direct, between the living, 1211. The Donatists rage against the Catholic priests, and re-baptize the baptized, 612, 714, 715, 716. The faction of the Donatists grew virulent again for three hundred years, down to the age of Gregory, 715. The Catholic bishops offered their own chairs and Sees to the Donatist bishops, that they might return to the unity of the Church, 972. Gregory stirs up the zeal of Pantaleon and of the bishops of Africa against the Donatists, 715, 716. He orders a Council to be convened against them, ibid. He wishes to know their crimes more fully, that he may the more safely suppress them, ibid. Gregory complains that the laws passed against the Donatists are neglected, 841.
Let bishops not suffer the children of Catholics, or their bondmen, to be baptized by the Donatists, 822. Maximian, bishop of Pudentiana, is to be deposed because he permitted another, a Donatist, to be ordained bishop in his own city, 611. St Donatus, bishop of Arezzo in Etruria, is venerated as a Martyr, 180. In the fort of Cassiope the body of St Donatus is permitted to be laid to rest by the bishop of Euria, 1265, 1272. On what condition, ibid. St Donatus, an abbot, disciple of Facundus of Hermiane, goes to the Spains, 614. Donatus, an African bishop, 609. Donatus, a priest of Catania, 900. Donatus, an archdeacon, judged unworthy of the episcopate on account of his faults, 776, 777. Donatus, an official of Theodore, Duke of Sardinia, 513.
Gregory seeks this man to be judge when the abbess Juliana sues for possession of a monastery, ibid. A certain Donatus is commended by St Gregory, 1104. Gift. God's gifts bestowed upon us, 73. The work is from the gift, not the gift from the work, 168. In God's judgment, not what is given, but by whom it is given, is regarded, 1020. Concerning heavenly gifts we must both rejoice with fear and, while rejoicing, be greatly afraid, 1110. We ought not so to delight in God's gifts as to prefer the things given to the Giver, 1113. Donus, bishop of Messina. The Pallium is granted to him, 798. He is admonished to restore to his church those things which he was unjustly retaining, 896, 877. See the alphabetical Index of the Letters. To sleep and to slumber, how they differ, 38. What it is to sleep in the midst of the sea, 90.
For prelates to sleep and to slumber, what it is, 38. The Back. Who are called the backs in the body of the Church, 3. Whose back is bent, ibid. Which sinners build upon the back of the Shepherd, 29, 1135. A dragon strives to devour a monk at death, but is put to flight by the prayers of the monks, 440. Another is devoured by a dragon, 441. Droculf, or Droctulf, a Lombard, deserting to the side of the Romans, is commended, 568. 'Dromones' are the swiftest ships; whence they are so called, 1067, 1068. Who are called 'Dromonarii', ibid. To be led. In two ways we are led outside ourselves, 217. Dulcidius, a deacon, 971. Dulcinus, bishop of Locri, 1063. Dulcitius, bishop of St Anchimus, called bishop of Sabina, subscribed to three Roman Synods, 638.
The double and duplicity. How great is the labour of duplicity, 47. The duplicity of a man craftily defending himself is signified by the hedgehog, ibid. What the special evil of the double-minded may be, 48. How great evils threaten the double-minded, ibid. Double hearts are expressed by high corners, ibid. Durandus, abbot of Troarn, in what year he flourished, 107. He cites Gregory's Dialogues in his book on the Body and Blood of Christ, ibid. Duke. In the age of St Gregory, dukes were wont to be set over a whole province, 847. Dynamius, patrician of the Gauls, rector of the province of Marseilles, 493, 647. He governed the Gallican patrimony of the Roman Church, 647, 648. He ceased to have care of it, 795. He intruded no bishop at Marseilles, but two at Uzès, 647.
Whether, having lost his wife, he led a religious life with his brother, ibid. He spent the remaining time of his life in pious deeds, 793. Dynamius and Aureliana, his sister, gave their house for the building or repairing of a monastery at Marseilles, 858. Gregory exhorts Dynamius to perseverance, 885. And he sends him a cross filled with relics, 648. Dynamius, moved from all ministry of care, 795. Dynamius, 720. Dyrrachium, or Epidamnus, a city of Macedonia, 898. The Dyrrachian bishop, Urbicius, 898, 983. Let the city of York not be subject to that of London, 1164. The Church of York long contended over the primacy, ibid. The Church is shadowed forth by the Ark, 33, 34, 1133 and following, 772, 850. It is signified by Gilead, 72.
The woman who poured out the alabaster holds the type of the Holy Church, 921. In what sense the Church is said to dwell in gardens, 75. What it is for the friends to hearken to the voice of the Church, ibid. The Church is the body of Christ, 68. Christ is the essential Head of the Church, but the Pope its ministerial head, 773. In the first age of the Church many preachers are read of as sent into the provinces by St Peter, that is, by the Apostolic See, 526. The state of the Church in the waning fifth century, and throughout the sixth as it ran on, 114. Outside the Church there is no unity, 893. The unity of the Church is called a place with God, 967. Provision is made for the unity of the Church, 577, 784.
The unity of the universal Church is [that] of the one great body of Christ, 610, 772. With what great gentleness one must deal with those returning to the unity of the Church, 500. Pagans returning to the Church are received in one way, heretics in another, 503. In one faith nothing is amiss, 532. The Church is governed by the canons, 1263. What it is to enter the Church by the door, 1133, 1134. In what way divine dispensation has established the diverse orders in the Church, 783, 784. In the body of the Church, who are the eyes, who the backs, 3. What the nose of the Church is, and why it is like the tower which is in Lebanon, 90. The connexion of the members of the body of the Church, 610. Whether the Church consists of the strong alone, 1133, 1134. The saints before the Law, under the Law, and under grace all make up the body of Christ, 743.
All the Apostles under one head are members of the Church, ibid. The Church under a bishop consists of clerics and laymen, 686. The soldiers of the Church are called clerics, 661. See Clerics. The sons of the Church are called laymen, 666. See Laymen. — The Church is one, which coalesces out of the particular [churches], 577. The mother-church, or matrix, is called the senior and cathedral church, whose baptismal daughters are in the direct line, the rest in the collateral, 572. On the chief feasts the clerics and laity flowed together to the mother-church from the whole diocese, 579. From the sessions and subscriptions of Synods nothing can be established regarding the dignity of Churches and Sees, 1014. — The goods of the Church. The Church ought not to be enriched with base gains, 536. Let it not covet the goods of others, 553.
Nor let it seize them, 655. Nor let it retain them, 593, 656, 941, 942. He who subsists on the stipends of the Church should not pant after his own gains, 539. The goods of the Church are the property of the poor, 638, 610, 834, 835, 1059, 1232. Those who serve the Church ought to be sustained from the goods of the Church, 760. The goods of the Church are to be spent either on the repair of churches or on the sustenance of the clergy, 987. Or on the redemption of captive clerics, 654, 696, 943. Of old they were spent on the receiving of guests, 1059. The squandering of these goods for the favour of kinsfolk is forbidden, 582. Ecclesiastical revenues are to be divided into four parts, 691, 737, 900, 1150, 1131. Sometimes they were divided into five parts, 774.