Moralia in Job 19

Argument. 1. Theodelinda, hostile to Constantius, bishop of Milan, on account of the affair of the Three Chapters. — 2. Gregory sends her legates and letters. — 3. With what result. — 4. He devotes himself to the conversion of idolaters. — 5. The sloth of Januarius and of other bishops of Sardinia. — 6. Concerning the license granted to the presbyters of Sardinia of signing with chrism. — 7. Matters done this year by St. Gregory in favour of the monks. — 8. He keeps women from entering the monasteries. — 9. He provides for the honour and tranquillity of nuns. — 10. He decrees concerning the age of abbesses. — 11. His decree concerning clerical abbots is explained. (In the years 593 and 594.) 1. At about the same time St.

Gregory was compelled to write to Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, that she might recall her mind, hostile to Constantius bishop of Milan, to peace and concord (Book iii, Epistles 29, 30, 31). Laurentius, bishop of Milan, having been taken from among the living in the preceding year, Constantius, a deacon of the same Church, had been given as his successor by the unanimous consent of the whole clergy — a man long well known to Gregory, to whom also, while he tarried at Constantinople, he had for a long time closely attached himself. And although in his character he had found nothing that could be reproved;

yet because he had long ago resolved in his mind, in the taking up of the burdens of pastoral care, never to intervene on behalf of any person's cause, he had wholly abstained from promoting his election: content to attend upon him with prayers to God alone; praying assiduously that the supreme Shepherd would grant to the Milanese such a pastor, in whose tongue and character the pastures of divine exhortation might be found: in whose mind humility might shine together with uprightness, and severity together with piety: who might be able to show them the way of life not only by speaking, but also by living; so that by his example they might learn to sigh for the desire of the eternal fatherland.

And so, whenever the most wise pontiff claimed for himself certain elections of bishops, he receded from his former resolve only when compelled by the weightiest reasons. For he was content, that he might preserve the ancient custom, to send some soldier of the Roman Church (by this name he signifies the clergy who serve and minister in the Church) who might be present at the election, and might see to it that the man was consecrated by the provincial bishops, yet with the assent of the supreme pontiff. Constantius, at the very outset of his episcopate, offered his confession of faith to the Pope, as was the custom; in which three bishops spread abroad that the Three Chapters had been condemned, and that the authority of the Council of Chalcedon had been injured and assailed;

deceived by whose evil arts, Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, at once turned away from Constantius as a deserter of the legitimate faith. That the bishop of Brescia was one of those three schismatic prelates, Epistle 39 of the same book indicates not obscurely, from which we learn that he and the citizens of Brescia importunately demanded that Constantius should affirm by oath that he had not condemned the Three Chapters. (See Book iv, Epistles 2 and 4.) 2. Hearing these things, Gregory, that he might bring aid to both — namely to the archbishop who had suffered calumny, and to the queen who was endangered as to her salvation because of her scorn of his communion — sent to Theodelinda Hippolytus the notary and John the abbot, who might recall her from error;

which he also endeavoured to accomplish by his own letters (Book iv, Epistle 4). Constantius indeed judged that Gregory's former letters ought not to be offered to the queen, because in them he had made mention of matters done in the time of the emperor Justinian, and of the Fifth Synod, by which her mind might have been offended. But he sent others in which, complying with Constantius's advice, he was silent about that synod, and praised only the four earlier ones, and above all the Chalcedonian, from whose authority the schismatics alleged that something was being detracted by the condemnation of the Three Chapters. This scruple therefore being removed, the most holy pontiff exhorts the most pious queen that she should by no means believe unlearned and foolish men, and that she should beware of being separated from the communion of the Catholic Church;

lest so many of her tears, and so many good works, should perish, if she were found estranged from the true faith. It becomes therefore, he says, your Glory, to send with all speed to my most reverend brother and fellow-bishop Constantius, whose faith and life have long been well approved by me; and by letters directed to him to make known how kindly you have received his ordination, and that you are in no way separated from the communion of his Church. 3. The most prudent and most Christian queen returned to the unity of the Church, although she could by no means be brought to condemn the Three Chapters; or at least, if this was ever obtained from her, it happened rather late.

But the schism that had arisen on the occasion of the condemnation of those Chapters did not consist in this, that men abstained from condemning them, but in this, that a secession was made from the communion of those who condemned them. For Gregory always held as true sons of the Church those who, while they shrank from rejecting those Three Chapters, nevertheless remained in the unity of the Church; and he always dealt more kindly with them, among whom, besides Theodelinda, was Secundinus, a monk of outstanding holiness, most acceptable to the queen. When the queen returned to Constantius's communion, the three bishops of whom we have already spoken, as is likely, kept quiet;

nor that he was any longer harassed by the citizens of Brescia to swear an oath concerning the Three Chapters which he had never condemned, can be gathered from this, that in very many letters afterward written to him the holy pontiff is entirely silent about that matter. 4. With no less labour and zeal did he toil in calling the unbelieving to the Church than in recalling the schismatics. A part of Sardinia was inhabited by certain peoples, called Barbaricini, who up to these very times had retained the worship of idols. That they, driven by the Vandals out of Africa, had migrated into Sardinia, is held rather by conjecture than by certain grounds of reasoning. Gregory expresses the character of those barbarians in these words:

They live like senseless animals, they know not the true God, but adore wood and stones (Book iv, Epistles 23 and 24). It was therefore an arduous task to draw them to the true faith; which nevertheless the most holy Pope undertook, to whose charity nothing was difficult; and for this work he chose a certain Felix, a bishop, and Cyriacus, a servant of God, abbot of St. Andrew. From these he afterward learned that not the Barbaricini alone, but almost all the country folk in Sardinia, were given to idolatry (ibid., Epistle 25). Wherefore he wrote at once to the nobles and to the other landholders in Sardinia, that they should keep watch over turning and drawing back the country folk from the worship of idols;

signifying that nothing could be announced to him more pleasing or more delightful than how many idolaters each one had led to Christ. Zabarda, duke of Sardinia, applied strenuous effort to this, concerning whom Felix and Cyriacus had written to Gregory that he was arranging to make peace with the Barbaricini on this condition, that they should embrace the faith and service of Christ (ibid., Epistle 24). For this cause the most holy pontiff gave thanks to the most pious duke, and commended the preachers sent by himself. That Hospito, duke of the Barbaricini, had already become a Christian is clear from the letter written to him (ibid., Epistle 23), in which Gregory praised him for the right faith he had received;

and he admonished him that the true faith must be proved by good works, and moreover that it was his duty to lead to Christ as many of his subjects as he could, and to cherish with necessary comforts the preachers who were toiling for their conversion. What benefit they then rendered him is not sufficiently clear. From another letter written a long time afterward (Book xi, Epistle 22) it is established that many barbarians in Sardinia had by no means then cast off idolatry, whom nevertheless he writes to the governor of the island to hasten to embrace the Christian faith. At the same time he ordered (Book ix, Epistle 23) that Vitalis, defensor in Sardinia, should purchase Barbaricine slaves; whether that he might take care to have them instructed in the faith, and afterward use them to imbue their own countrymen with the Christian faith?

Indeed with the very same design we read that English boys, of seventeen or eighteen years, were bought by his care and munificence, and placed in monasteries, that they might be instructed in the Christian religion (Book vi, Epistle 7); of whose ministry he afterward made use for the conversion of the whole English nation, of which below. 5. Therefore Gregory imposed upon Felix and Cyriacus the task of announcing the Gospel to the barbarians and country folk in Sardinia, because the bishops of this island seemed but little solicitous for their salvation. In these words he rebukes the sloth and sluggishness of Januarius, bishop of Cagliari, and metropolitan of the whole island: There has happened, he says, another thing much to be lamented:

that the very country folk whom your Church has, the negligence of your Fraternity has allowed to remain in unbelief up to now. And why do I admonish you to lead strangers to God, you who neglect to correct your own people from unbelief? Wherefore it is necessary that you keep watch in all things for their conversion. For if I can find a pagan country dweller belonging to any bishop whatsoever in the island of Sardinia, I will take strong vengeance upon that same bishop (Book iv, Epistle 26). 6. Januarius was despised by his ministers and clergy, because he was of excessive simplicity; whence arose neglect and slackness of ecclesiastical discipline.

Hence perhaps occasion was given to the presbyters of presuming to sign the little ones on the forehead with sacred chrism, which Gregory forbade should be done any further (Book iv, Epistle 9). But because he afterward learned that certain persons were greatly offended on account of this prohibition, he promulgated another decree in these words: It has also come to our knowledge that certain persons were scandalized because we forbade presbyters to touch with chrism those who are to be baptized. And we indeed acted according to the ancient usage of our Church; but if some are altogether saddened over this matter, where bishops are lacking, we grant that presbyters may also touch the baptized with chrism upon the foreheads (ibid., Epistle 26).

Concerning the sense of this decree the theologians fight it out, some contending that it is permitted to presbyters to administer the sacrament of confirmation, others denying it. We have sufficiently disclosed our mind concerning this question and controversy in the notes on the cited epistles, which let the diligent reader not be loath to consult. 7. That we may now touch upon monastic matters, which were always dear to Gregory's heart, it seems to pertain to the fourth year of his pontificate what is read concerning his munificence toward the monastery of Subiaco, once founded by St. Benedict, and its abbot Honoratus: namely that he, together with his mother Silvia, bestowed upon this monastery the fortress of Apollonium and many other goods (Mabillon, Annals of the Benedictines, Book viii, num. 44, pag.

251). Nor is that to be passed over which happened this year, the admission of monks into the church of St. Pancratius, which even now stands at Rome on the Aurelian Way. In it secular clergy and presbyters had previously ministered and cared for the sacred office, but so negligently that even on the Lord's Day there was no presbyter present who might celebrate the solemnities of the Mass. When the peoples murmured over this matter, who flocked thither for the sake of devotion, Gregory, after mature deliberation, judged that those slothful clergy should be removed from there, and that in the monastery adjoining this church a congregation of monks should be established, over which he set Maurus as abbot (Book iv, Epistle 18).

There is to be read on this matter the letter to the same Maurus, by which he grants him the supreme administration of the lands, revenues, and offerings of that church, whether for the sustenance of the monks or for the repair of the roofs. Here Mabillon observes that it is sometimes conducive to the edification of the faithful that monks be established in frequented places. (Cf. Mabillon, in the cited place, at the year 594.) 8. Yet on the other hand the most vigilant father carefully took heed lest, through the company of women, the regular discipline among the monks should be undermined. Whence he rebukes Valentinus the abbot for allowing women to go up into his monastery, and to become co-mothers of the monks; and lest this should happen any further, he forbids it with the threat of the severest punishment (Book iv, Epistle

42). Whether Gregory judged that women should be kept from the entrance of the churches where the monks kept observance and rendered the sacred praises, and sanctioned this to Valentinus by precept, is not ascertained. Indeed in Epistle 41 of the second book he seems only to forbid the too-frequent access of women to the churches of the monasteries. Moreover the basilica of St. Pancratius the martyr was frequented by both sexes indiscriminately, in whose favour he decreed that on each Lord's Day the solemnities of the Mass should be celebrated there; in which, however, he preferred that monks should serve rather than clergy. 9.

Toward the nuns, deeming that on account of their frailer sex a greater solicitude and a stricter guardianship must be applied, he wrote these things to Januarius of Cagliari at about the beginning of this year: It has come to our notice that you bestow too little protection upon the monasteries of the handmaids of God situated in Sardinia: and whereas it had been prudently arranged by your predecessors that certain approved men of the clergy, taking charge, should attend to their necessities, now it is so utterly neglected that women dedicated to God are chiefly by their own persons compelled, through public officials, to go for tributes and other duties, and have the necessity of running about through villas and estates to make up the fiscal dues, and to mingle unbecomingly in manly affairs.

Let your Fraternity remove this evil by an easy correction, so as to appoint carefully one approved man in life and character, whose age and position may raise no suspicion of any depravity concerning himself, who may thus be able to assist those very monasteries with the fear of God: so that henceforth it may not be lawful for them, for any private or public causes, to wander outside the venerable places against the rule, but whatever must be done concerning these matters may be reasonably carried out through him whom you shall appoint. But let them, rendering praises to God and restraining themselves within their monasteries, cast no occasion of depraved suspicion upon the minds of the faithful (Book iv, Epistle 9). 10.

To the same solicitude of the most holy Pope toward the nuns pertains also what he ordained in writing to Maximianus, bishop of Syracuse: We most vehemently forbid that young girls be made abbesses (Book iv, Epistle 11). He adds that none are to be veiled and blessed by bishops as abbesses except virgins of sixty years, whose age and character shall have demanded this. It will perhaps seem strange that Gregory required such maturity of age in abbesses. But elsewhere he teaches that those who still endure the contests of assailing vices — which often happens in youth and in the prime of manhood — ought not to undertake the care of others.

But as soon as the vices are subdued, even young persons may blamelessly be constituted masters of morals by the judgment of bishops and prelates, and be set over others to be governed. Whence St. Gregory by no means disapproved that blessed Benedict, in his youthful age, after the temptation of the flesh had been overcome and every sense of pleasure extinguished by the pricks of thorns, presided over many disciples in the mastery of the virtues. (See Morals, Book xxiii, num. 21, and Book ii of the Dialogues, ch. 2.) 11. In the same letter where Gregory decreed these things concerning abbesses, he prescribes certain matters concerning abbots worthy of observation:

Presbyters, he says, deacons, and other clergy of whatsoever order, who serve the churches, you shall not permit to be abbots over monasteries; but either, laying aside the service of the clerical state, let them be advanced to the monastic orders, or, if they shall have resolved to remain in the office of abbot, let them by no means be permitted to hold the service of the clerical state. For it is quite incongruous, if, when one of these cannot on account of its greatness be diligently fulfilled by anyone, he should be judged fit for both: and thus in turn the ecclesiastical order should hinder the monastic life, and the rule of monastic profession should hinder the ecclesiastical duties. From this passage certain persons endeavour to prove that St. Gregory wished to deter and prohibit clergy from embracing the monastic profession;

But this is against his own mind, since elsewhere he exhorts Bishop Desiderius not to be an obstacle in any way to Pancratius, a deacon of his church who was seeking the grace of the monastic life, but rather to kindle him by pastoral admonition, lest the fervour of this desire grow lukewarm in him (Book XII, ep. 39). Moreover, the most holy Doctor warmly praises and commends the Rule of blessed Benedict, in whose chapter 60 priests who ask to be received into a monastery are ordered to be admitted on this condition, that they promise to observe the whole discipline of the Rule. Hence the Fathers of the Fourth Council of Toledo, in canon...

...50 decree that bishops should grant free entrance into monasteries to clerics who seek the monastic way of life, because they desire to follow a better life. The most wise Pope therefore, in the epistle already praised, takes care that presbyters, deacons, or other clerics should not become and be ordained abbots in monasteries, except after lawful probation and long exercise in the monastic life, and after first laying aside the service of the clerical state (Book I, ep. 42), that is, after relinquishing that title of the Church to which by their ordination they were bound and, as Gregory sometimes says, incardinated. For the same reason he elsewhere forbids those who have exchanged clerical service for the monastic to return again to their own Church at will.

Here it must be noted in passing that the holy Pope grants clerics the liberty of embracing the monastic life in these words: 'But if any, on whatever occasion, happen to come from the clerical state into the monastic conversion,' etc. Some also wrongly think that monks and abbots are forbidden by the Gregorian words cited above (from ep. 11, Book IV) to be ordained presbyters or enrolled in clerical service, on the ground that the ecclesiastical order is a hindrance to the monastic life, and in turn the monastic Rule to ecclesiastical concerns. But Gregory himself intervenes to prevent us from so interpreting him, since he very often judged and ordered that monks should be honoured with the presbyterate.

See epistle 42 of Book VI, in which he exhorts Victor, Bishop of Palermo, to ordain one of the monks of Saint Hermas a presbyter without delay, at the request of Abbot Urbicus, whom we read was likewise honoured with the priesthood. On this matter surely no scruple will remain for one who reads the note on the epistle from which the occasion for such cavilling was taken (cf. Mabillon, at the year 594, p. 233). The aim, therefore, of the most vigilant shepherd in that passage is to keep away from monastic prelacies those clerics who, as they are now called, are secular, and who were already bound to the titles of other churches according to the custom of those times;

partly because the clerical and monastic service could not thus be joined together in different churches, and chiefly because he foresaw that, through the ambition and the more relaxed life (to say nothing worse) of those clerics who gaped after monastic dignities, monasteries would be destroyed—which indeed afterwards came to pass. 'And while these men,' says the holy man, as though prophesying, 'pretend that they live religiously, they seek to be set over monasteries, and through their life the monasteries are destroyed' (Book V, ep. 1); by which words he also signifies that he had already learned this by experience.