Argument. — 1. St. Gregory an eminent teacher in forming morals. What he teaches against excessive security and concerning a twofold compunction. — 2. The piety of Theoctista, the emperor's sister. — 3. St. Gregory denies his friends aid in obtaining secular offices. — 4. What consolations he applied to grieving friends. — 5. He praises laymen who seek the food of the divine word. — 6. A successor is given to the sick bishop of Rimini. — 7. And to the bishop of Cornelium, cast down for a lapse. Bishop Stephen is praised by Gregory. — 8. Certain monastic matters. — 9. The Pope looks after the island of Corsica. — 10. Certain things are observed concerning the marriage of servile persons. (A.D. 596 and 597.) 1. We have just now seen St.
Gregory, the best of theologians, contending most valiantly for the purity and integrity of the faith; now let us marvel at him as an eminent master in forming morals, furnishing the most exquisite counsels of Christian piety and perfection. Gregoria, chamber-attendant of the Augusta, had written to him that she would never cease from her importunate prayers until she knew for certain from him — namely by divine revelation — that her sins had been forgiven. To her he replied thus, at once most modestly and most prudently: 'You have asked a thing both difficult and useless. Difficult indeed, because I am unworthy that a revelation should be made to me.'
'Useless indeed, because you ought not to be made secure about your sins, except when on the last day of your life you shall no longer be able to bewail those same sins. Until that day comes, you ought always, suspect and trembling, to fear your faults, and to wash them away with daily weeping. Surely the apostle Paul had already ascended to the third heaven, had also been led into paradise, had heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2 Cor. 12); and yet, still trembling, he said: I chastise my body, and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps, having preached to others, I myself should become a castaway (1 Cor. 9:27). He who is already being led to heaven still fears; and does he who still dwells on earth already refuse to fear?'
'Consider, sweetest daughter, that security is wont to be the mother of negligence. Therefore you ought not to have in this life a security through which you may be rendered negligent. For it is written: Blessed is the man who is always fearful (Prov. 28:14). And again it is written: Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling (Ps. 2:11). In the little time, then, of this life, it is necessary that trembling hold your mind, so that afterward, through the joy of security, it may rejoice without end' (Book VII, ep. 25). What could be more opportune, in this place, for blowing away the deceits of a certain masked piety, which, under the false name of purer love, shakes off all fear about eternal salvation and all solicitude?
In the letter to the patrician Theoctista (Book VII, ep. 26), which follows immediately, the holy Doctor explains two kinds of compunction: one which fears eternal punishments, the other in which, the long dread and anxiety of grief being consumed, a certain security is born already from the presumption of pardon. But this state does not exclude all care for salvation, for there is not present a full security, but an incipient one, not expelling all fear, but the excessively anxious. In this state, I say, the soul sighs for heavenly rewards. He who before wept lest he be led to punishment, afterward begins to weep most bitterly, because he is delayed from the kingdom. 2.
From this letter we understand that Theoctista, the emperor's sister, was full of the richness of the sacred word, sighed incessantly for eternal joys, and hastened with dry footsteps, amid the waves of the world, toward the fatherland of the promise; namely, by cultivating solitude amid the tumults of men and in the very palace itself — which St. Gregory regards as a miracle, and compares with the passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea. Maurice Augustus had given to his most pious sister the charge of nurturing his children; hence the Pope exhorts her to endeavour to imbue them with the best morals, and to admonish the eunuchs assigned to their custody and service how cautiously they ought to speak in their presence:
For the words of those who nourish, he says, are either milk if they are good, or poison if they are evil. In the same letter Gregory shows himself to be concerned for the salvation of Constantina Augusta and for her progress in virtue; for those whom he loved he strove to draw away from earthly desires and to kindle them with the love of heavenly things; and these were the tokens and proofs of his friendship. Andrew, a most distinguished man, one of his intimates, had asked him to be recommended to the emperor, in order to obtain some office in the state, which struck the most holy father with no small grief. I have known many, he says to his friend, who, placed in the service of the state, are grievously afflicted, because they are not permitted to be at leisure and to bewail their own sins;
and you—why, I know not—do you desire to be entangled? I pass over many things concerning contempt of the world, worthy nevertheless to be read and seriously engraved upon the mind. These words close the letter: But this very thing, to be in the service of the most pious prince—how great is the preoccupation of the mind in the craving for earthly favour, and how great the fear lest this same favour, once obtained, be lost? Weigh therefore what a punishment it is, either to be wearied by the desire of prosperity, or to tremble at the fear of adversity.
Wherefore I rather counsel that your greatness, in its own resolve, should strive to live for a little time in the delightful lodging of pilgrimage, and to lead a quiet and tranquil life, to be at leisure for the sacred readings, to meditate on the heavenly words, to kindle oneself with the love of eternity, to perform good works according to one's strength regarding earthly matters, and to hope for the everlasting kingdom as their reward. But so to live is already to have a share in the life of eternity. These things, magnificent son, I speak because I love you greatly. And because you are heading into storms and waves, I call you back to the shore with the ropes of my words;
and if you are willing to follow the one who draws you, then, once set upon the very shore of your repose, you will recognize what perils you have escaped and what joys you have found (Book VII, letter 2). Whenever he observed the spirits of his friends growing faint under the weight of hardships, he raised them up with letters of consolation, or by that very greatness of soul by which he seemed to tower above all human things in them. Concerning the children of our friends, or those in some way akin to them, snatched away by an untimely death, we are wont to grieve, and to signify this to those who mourn their loss. But Gregory, savouring nothing of the merely human, writes to Andrew, most closely bound to him in friendship:
That the lady Constantina, a most distinguished maiden, was snatched away from the enticements of this world before she made her marriage, I exceedingly rejoice (Book VII, letter 29). And to Narses: Through your writings you announced to me the passing of the lady Esychia; and I rejoiced with great exultation, because that good soul reached her own homeland, she who was labouring in a foreign land (Ibid., letter 30). Perhaps he knew that this kind of consolation would not be unwelcome to Narses, a religious man (so he is called in the heading of the letter), who, though he was of patrician rank, as is gathered from letter 32 of book IV, seems then to have sent his farewell to the world and to have presided over certain monasteries.
His daughter Dominica, a most learned virgin, who, though she was a Latin, nevertheless wrote in Greek, fleeing the court as well, had entered a monastery, and there was afterwards made prioress. What we have said of Dominica, versed in Greek letters, we ought to marvel at all the more, because St. Gregory, writing to her father, asserts that there were not then at Constantinople interpreters learned enough to translate well from Greek into Latin and from Latin into Greek (Book VII, letter 3). St. Gregory greatly praised it if his friends, even laymen, sought in the divine word solace and food for the soul. This is especially clear from the letter written this year to Dynamius and Aurelia, Gauls (Book VII, letter
36), where he congratulates them because they were seeking the nourishment of sacred reading; and he adds the excellent exposition of this evangelical sentence: Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it shall be opened (Matt. vii, 8). Let us ask, he says, by praying; let us seek by reading; let us knock by working (Luke xi, 12). But enough of these things; let us pass on to others. After a long stay made in the East, let us return to the West, where above all Gregory's pastoral solicitude kept watch over the governance of the Churches. The Church of Rimini had long been without a bishop, on account of Castorius's feeble health.
Since he had been absent for four years and was no better, he petitioned the pope by a written supplication that, since he was in no way able to rise up to the governance of that Church or to the office he had undertaken, on account of the very infirmity by which he was held fast, he should ordain a bishop for that Church itself. The supreme pontiff, granting his wishes, because the enjoined care of solicitude for all the Churches constrained him, having given the customary instructions, exhorted the clergy and people to elect a prelate for themselves, whom he willed to be presented for examination to Marinianus of Ravenna (Book VII, letter 19).
A little afterward he wrote to the same Marinianus, that, the bishop of the Church of Cornelium (Imola) having been deposed after falling into crime, another bishop should be ordained in his place; because no hope could remain for one who had fallen of returning to his former dignity, nor did the sacred canons permit a Church to remain vacant beyond three months (Book VII, letter 41). But while you read above that Gregory ascribed to himself the care of solicitude over all the Churches, do not suspect that he was extending the pontifical power beyond measure, a thing wholly abhorrent to his modesty and lowliness of mind. Certainly Leo the Great, who occupied the See about 150 years before him, writing to the bishop of Thessalonica (letter xii, c.
1), so as to commit his own vicarship to him, says that he had been called into a share of the solicitude, not into the fullness of the power; which nevertheless he did not hesitate to claim for himself. Just as Gregory afflicted with fitting penalties those bishops who were failing in their office, so he took pains to reward the best pastors with due praise and rewards. Wherefore he lavishly praises the bishop Stephen, because by assiduous preaching he had called back Maria the patrician from heresy or schism to the bosom of the Church, and not a few others (Book VII, letter 8). Of this number perhaps was Dominica, a glorious woman, the wife of a certain John who was intimate with Gregory;
to whom he wrote that he had rejoiced not moderately, when he had learned that she was joined to the unity of the Church (Ibid., letter 37). To touch briefly upon monastic affairs: this year the pope endowed with privileges the monastery of St. Cassian at Marseilles, over which Respecta presided. Concerning this monastery, consult the notes to the letter containing these privileges (Book VII, letter 12). In another letter (Book VII, letter
18) we read that a certain Martin, a deacon and abbot, concerning whom certain things had been reported to the pope which would stain the purpose of his office not lightly, yet could not be proved by diligent inquiry made—lest any suspicion concerning them should remain—swore solemn oaths at the most sacred body of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, by which he might assert himself innocent. Wherefore St. Gregory absolved him and restored him to his place. Letter 32 is written to the presbyter Anastasius, whom he depicts as adorned with many and illustrious virtues; yet he censures him for having assumed the leadership in the monastery which was called Neas, because in this coenobium many worldly things were being done under the guise of holiness.
He exhorts him, moreover, to remove and settle the contention which had arisen between the father of that same monastery and Amos, patriarch of Jerusalem. Great was the altercation between Caesarius, abbot of the monastery of St. Peter at Baiae, and John, abbot of St. Lucy, in the city of Syracuse; for the settling of which Gregory wrote to John, bishop of Syracuse (Book VII, letter 39), asking that he himself, together with Fantinus the defender, and with John the land-surveyor called in (for the dispute was about boundaries), should proceed and render a verdict, lest concern over worldly matters should separate the hearts of religious men from mutual charity.
Solicitous for the preservation of monastic discipline in Africa, he asked Dominicus, bishop of Carthage, to restrain monks wandering with impunity, and to take care that they be again subjected to the yoke of obedience which they had shaken off; and to restrain, by every means with threats, those bishops whom he had heard were affording patronage to these wanderers, from their defence of them (Ibid., letter 35). On another occasion he wrote to Gennadius, prefect of Africa, namely that he should commend to him the count Ruferius and his fellow-citizens and the island of Corsica itself (Book VII, letter 3). From this we understand that this island belonged to the prefecture or exarchate of Africa;
perhaps because it lies near Sardinia, which was then reckoned among the provinces of Africa as the seventh and last. Corsica lay open to the incursions of enemies; nor was it enough to send an army thither, unless a most skilled commander presided over it. And therefore Gregory asks that Anastasius the tribune be set over it, who had already discharged the same province vigorously, and, afterward removed from it, had left with all the inhabitants of the island a great esteem of himself and a still greater longing. We shall close this seventh year of the Gregorian pontificate with an observation about dissolving a marriage, if one of the spouses is of servile condition; which was by no means condemned by the most holy pontiff, as is clear from the letter to Fortunatus, bishop of Naples (Book
VII, letter 4). A cleric of that Church had removed his wife from his company, because she had been branded as of servile condition. But the woman who had been cast off contended that she was free; and she approached the supreme pontiff, asking to be restored to her husband. The pious Father lent kindly ears to the supplicant; and when no servile stain was found in her, he commanded that that cleric should take back the wife whom he had unjustly repudiated; but if he refused, he should be subjected to strict punishment. Whence it is clear that that cleric was compelled to take his wife again for no other reason than that she had been falsely branded as of servile condition.
And so, if she had married as a free woman, and afterward her servile condition had been proved, then on account of the defect of condition the marriage would have been null. Summary.—1. The conversion of the idolatrous Corsicans. 2. And of the Jews of Agrigentum. 3. St. Gregory forbids other Jews to be unjustly harassed. 4. He consoles Anastasius of Antioch, oppressed by various persecutions. 5. Anastasius dies. His successor writes to St. Gregory. The holy Doctor judges that the fraud of the heretics, who thrust forward the false synod of Ephesus as the true one, is to be detected from the ancient codices. 6. He congratulates Eulogius of Alexandria. 7. On the antiquity of the Roman Martyrology. The opinion of Henri de Valois is weighed. 8.
The suspicion injected concerning the interpolation of the Vatican codices is blown away. 9. The holy Pontiff protects a bishop of Numidia who had suffered injury. 10. The African Church draws its origin from the Roman. 11. What St. Gregory thought about a price given for burial. 12. What he decreed about the division of ecclesiastical revenues. 13. And about the Campagi (shoes). 14. He made seven regionary defenders. 15. The monastic affairs of this year are touched upon. (Years 597 and 598.) 1. St. Gregory began the eighth year of his pontificate with great joy, on account of the conversion of the Corsicans, of which Peter, bishop of Aleria, had very recently written.
Having, as was his custom, given thanks to God for the joyful news, he exhorted this same Peter to carry through happily the work he had begun, and to go on gathering the rest who were not yet baptized, or who after receiving baptism had, whether through negligence or necessity, returned to the worship of idols, and to lead them to the faith. For what work, he says, will you do more useful and more sublime, than to think about the vivifying and gathering of souls, and to bring back immortal gain to your Lord, who gave you a place for preaching? (Book VII, letter 1.) To the exhortation he joined, as he was wont, his generosity; for he sent to this bishop fifty solidi, to procure garments for those who were to be baptized (Book VI, letter 22);
and to the presbyter, helper of the bishop, who governed the Church—not long before, by the pope's command, built upon a possession of the Roman Church together with a baptistery—he assigned and granted some estate as a stipend. He praised besides the counsel of Peter the bishop about ordaining another bishop in the same island, not far from a mountain which very many worshippers of idols still inhabited. Idolatry was in exile and lurking not only in Corsica; for from letter 18, written this year to Agnellus, bishop of Terracina, we learn that certain people in this district still worshipped trees at that time. And two years later he exhorted queen Brunhild (Book IX, letter 11) to restrain the peoples subject to her from the worship of idols;
Because, he says, it has reached us that many of the Christians both run to the churches, and—what is unspeakable to say—do not withdraw from the worship of demons. What kind of idolatry it was he explains in these words: Let there be no worshippers of trees, let them not offer sacrifices from the heads of animals. Which things we have expounded in the notes to this passage. In another letter he joins to the worshippers of idols the soothsayers and casters of lots (Ibid., letter 65). 2. The gladness over the converted idolaters was succeeded by joy over the Jews of Agrigentum hastening to come to the Christian faith (Book VIII, letter 22). But lest their desire should cool through longer delay (for from the month of June, in which the letter of St.
Gregory was written concerning that matter, up to the next Passover, at least nine months were reckoned), the pope granted that before the paschal solemnity—outside of which, and the feast of Pentecost, baptism was not wont to be given in the Latin Church—they should be washed in the lustral waters, a forty-day abstinence and penance having first been enjoined. And since very many of them were poor, so that, on account of the straits of their domestic affairs, they seemed unequal to buying for themselves the white garment customarily worn by the newly baptized, he ordered Fantinus the defender that these garments should be procured at the Church's expense, which he should take care to distribute to those labouring in want.
Meanwhile he willed that the bishop of Agrigentum be admonished to make those candidates of the Christian religion into catechumens, and to be solicitous to instruct them in good time in the faith which they were to receive, and moreover to imbue them with the precepts of the evangelical law. 3. That the most wise pontiff might the more easily draw other Jews to the faith by clemency and gentleness, he forbade that they be driven out from the places conceded to them according to the laws, or be afflicted with other injuries. This is clear from the letter to Victor, bishop of Palermo, written on behalf of the Jews dwelling in this city, directed a little after the earlier one concerning the Jews inhabiting Agrigentum to Fantinus (Book VIII, letter 25).
If, however, any of the Jews grew insolent against the Christians, he took pains to break and restrain their audacity as quickly as possible; and he exhorted the bishops to resist their wicked designs (Ibid., letter 21). 4. The joyful news of so many unbelievers converted to the faith was disturbed by the letters of Anastasius, bishop of Antioch, which shed tears in place of words (Book VIII, letter 2). Gregory strove to soothe his friend's grief, and to raise up his spirit almost failing under the weight of adversities. By whom this patriarch was then being harassed is not explained in the consoling letter of the supreme pontiff.
Yet we scarcely doubt that the heretics, who were then rampaging in the East in great numbers, under the various names of Acephali, Severians, and Theodosians, stood forth as the standard-bearers of his adversaries. Besides the heterodox mentioned, the most vigilant pope complains that other monsters had recently arisen; namely new wandering errorists, who were striving to empty out the Prophets, the Gospels, and the sayings of the Fathers. But, says Gregory to Anastasius, while the life of your holiness endures, in the grace of our protector we hope that the mouths of those which have been opened against the solidity of the truth may be more quickly silenced; because, however sharp the swords that are hurled, when they strike a rock, they rebound broken.
An excellent reason indeed, why so many darts of the heretics, hurled against the most firm rock of the Church, at last, blunted, fell back upon their own authors. From another quarter the hope of a victory to be won over these enemies of the Church shone forth, namely from their own division: Because, says the holy Doctor, among those very ones who are divided from the doctrine of the holy Church, there is no unity. Among those who were hostile to holy Anastasius, St. Gregory seems to designate the patriarch of Constantinople, whom he says added burdens when he ought to have lightened them; under the clothing of a sheep to have been within a ravenous wolf; and to have desired alone above others to hold that of which he was not worthy to hold even with his brethren, namely on account of the usurped title of ecumenical patriarch. 5.
A little after receiving Gregory's letter, Anastasius passed to a more tranquil and better life, and had as successor another Anastasius called the younger; who, when he had written to the pope about his elevation and had sent the profession of faith as was the custom, received from him a reply most welcome and seasoned with the honey of charity. As he was successor of the see of the elder Anastasius, so also of his troubles and persecutions: for after nine years of episcopate, he is said to have fallen a martyr in a sedition. In the letter of St. Gregory (Book IX, letter
49) by which he replies to Anastasius newly assumed to the see of Antioch, this is above all else worthy of observation: that the pseudo-Ephesine synod held by the Nestorians, in which the impious dogmas of Coelestius and Pelagius were approved, had then often been thrust forward, in place of the ecumenical synod of Ephesus itself, by the fraud of the crafty heretics. That this error may be met, the most learned father counsels that in the archives of the principal Churches—the Roman, Alexandrian, and Antiochene—the genuine acts of the Ephesine synod be sought out; where you see the trustworthiness and authority of the ancient codices asserted. 6. We saw just now the heretics rioting against Anastasius in the East.
But Egypt and the Alexandrian Church were more peaceful under the patriarch Eulogius, who had reconciled many heretics to the Church and had strengthened concord among the faithful. When St. Gregory received this news, seizing his pen he at once congratulated his friend, and in turn informed him about the recently converted English. But of these things we have already spoken. Between the two there was a most holy intimacy, confirmed by mutual benefits and services. Eulogius had asked the supreme pontiff to transmit to him the deeds of all the martyrs, which were collected in the times of Constantine of pious memory by Eusebius of Caesarea. But he replied that he had never heard anything about this Eusebian collection before receiving Eulogius's letter.
He adds: Besides those things which are contained in the books of the same Eusebius concerning the deeds of the holy martyrs, I know of none to be in the archive of this our Church, or in the libraries of the city of Rome, except a certain few collected in the volume of a single codex. But we have the names of almost all the martyrs, collected in one codex with their passions distinguished for each single day, and on daily days we perform the solemnities of masses in their veneration. Yet in that same volume it is not indicated who suffered in what manner, but only the name, the place, and the day of the passion are set down. Whence it comes about that many, from various lands and provinces, are known—through the single days, as I said before—to have been crowned with martyrdom (Book VIII, letter 30). 7.
Here we have, as it were, the first rudiments of the Roman Martyrology. The synod of Clovesho, held in the year 747, makes mention of it, in which it was decreed that throughout the cycle of the whole year the birthdays of the saints should be venerated on one and the same day according to the Martyrology of the Roman Church, with its own suitable psalmody and chant. The origin of the martyrologies seems to us to be traced back to the registers of the Churches. For individual Churches had a catalogue of their own martyrs and other saints, in memory of whom the feast days were celebrated. Hence Cyprian: Finally, he says, note also the days on which they depart, that we may be able to celebrate their commemorations among the memorials of the martyrs (Letter 12, Patrologia vol. IV).
On this subject let the studious reader consult Henri de Valois, who published a singular dissertation on the Roman Martyrology and appended it to his annotations on Eusebius of Caesarea; and let him weigh the reasons by which that most learned man strives to establish that there was never any proper and peculiar Martyrology of the Roman Church before that which was published by command of Pope Sixtus V under this title, and illustrated by the annotations of Baronius. His chief argument is drawn from the silence of the ancient writers, which nevertheless collapses once the testimony of the synod of Clovesho, adduced above, has been read.
De Valois does not indeed deny that the Roman Church and others, at least the more notable, had their own calendars and their own registers, in which were inscribed the contained names of their own martyrs and holy bishops, but by no means martyrologies, which, he says, were not proper to a single place, but common to the whole Church, inasmuch as they contained generally the martyrs and confessors of the whole world. Certainly, if we settle the controversy from the definition adduced, De Valois seems likely to lose the suit. For St. Gregory makes mention not of some calendar, in which were contained the names only of the martyrs who suffered at Rome, but of a codex in which were collected the names of almost all the martyrs with their passions distinguished for each single day.
And that it may be shown that the discussion is about martyrs who suffered everywhere throughout the earth, he adds: In the same volume … the name, the place, and the day of the passion are set down. Whence it comes about that many, from various lands and provinces, through the single days … are known to have been crowned with martyrdom. Here we have judged it worth the labour to disclose what we think about De Valois's opinion, lest anyone perhaps should believe that a certain note which favours De Valois, subjoined to the aforesaid letter from Goussainville, had been adopted by us. For far be it that all the things which the learned man observed on the Gregorian letters should be approved by us. 8. Certainly in this place he injects a suspicion about the interpolation of the hand-written codices, even the Vatican ones, which it is our duty to wash away. For he says:
That at Rome there were then no or few deeds of the martyrs, no narrations concerning the passions of the martyrs—that indeed is marvellous, and awkward for the new authors who everywhere thrust forward the Vatican codices. But, in the first place, St. Gregory by no means says that the codex which Eulogius had asked to be communicated to him did not exist in the archive of the Roman Church, but only that it was not found; whence he adds: Seeking, indeed, we have not found, but still, not finding, we seek; and if it can be found, we will transmit it. Secondly, even if the deeds of all the martyrs, which … had been collected in the times of Constantine by Eusebius of Caesarea, had then obtained no place in the Roman archives and libraries, it is rashly concluded from this that there were then at Rome
there were no or few deeds of the martyrs, no narrations concerning the passions of the martyrs. Gregory perhaps admits that in his time the Roman libraries lacked collectanea in which all or most of the acts of the martyrs might be found, as though reduced into one corpus; but they were nonetheless enriched with individual acts of the martyrs, especially of those crowned with martyrdom in Italy, and above all at Rome. I say nothing of the ancient codices pertaining to matters other than the histories of the martyrs, of which there could be a very great supply at Rome: for about these the holy Doctor is silent.
Thirdly, what prevents that even after the death of the most holy Pontiff many codices were brought to Rome from elsewhere, which now we should not be ashamed to praise, even if they were not older than Gregory? For with what veneration are membranes of more than eleven hundred years worthy? Now let us recall our step to the sequence of the Gregorian history. 9. St. Gregory intimates that war broke out this year in Italy, while he laments the evils which he was compelled to endure from the swords of the barbarians (Book VIII, letter 2). That they made a descent into Sardinia is gathered from a letter written in the following indiction (Book IX, letters 1 and following). For this reason perhaps St.
Gregory willed that not even a cleric should be excused from the vigils and watches necessary for the guarding of the cities: and by the same law the monks were bound (Book IX, letter 73). No less does the holy man grieve over the perversity and iniquity of judges and magistrates than over the ferocity of the enemies. For amid arms, with the laws silent, they thought that all things were permitted to them. Gennadius, patrician of Africa, had for many years harassed Paul, a bishop in Numidia. And when he had appealed to the apostolic see, the prelate, assailed by various calumnies, had been prevented from coming to Rome by the patrician, in whose hands lay the supreme authority in the administration of this province (Book VI, letter 63).
The pope consented that the bishop should proceed to the imperial court and bring his complaints to the emperor (Book VII, letter 2). At length Paul was ordered to return to Numidia, that he might be judged by the bishops of this province; and Gregory, recognizing his innocence, commended his cause to the bishops Adeodatus, who then held the primacy, Maurentius, and above all Columbus (Book VIII, letters 12 and 13); for he knew this last to be most devoted to the Church founded by blessed Peter, and most tenacious of the right. Nonetheless he takes care to fortify him still against the solicitations and pressures of the magnates, by which his virtue could have been undermined: Let no consideration, he says, suspend you from the zeal of equity, no power of persons.
But leaning upon the Lord's precepts, despise all things that are adverse to rectitude. Stand constantly in defending the parts of justice. Do not refuse to bear hatreds for the truth's sake, if there be any: that you may find so much the greater fruit of reward at the coming of our Redeemer, the more, not neglecting His commands, you shall have spent yourself in favour of justice and in defence of it. 10. Besides the common solicitude which the supreme pontiff had to bear concerning the whole Church, he was held bound to provide for the African Church with singular zeal and care, because it drew its origin from the Roman, as St. Gregory teaches, writing to Dominicus, bishop of Carthage.
Knowing whence the ordination of priests took its beginning in the African regions, you act praiseworthily in that, by loving the Apostolic See, you return with a prudent remembrance to the origin of your office (Book VIII, Letter 33). Hence he shows that the bishops of both Churches are bound to the fostering of mutual charity; and on this occasion he breaks forth into praises of charity, in these plainly golden words: Great, beloved brother, is the power of charity, which by the bond of its sincerity binds hearts together in a mutual and reciprocal affection, and does not permit them to be loosed from the framework of grace; it joins the sundered, guards the united, and by love makes those known to one another who were unknown.
Whoever therefore fixes his mind upon this hinge, no assault of any adversity tears him away from the dwelling of the heavenly fatherland: for wherever he turns himself, he does not step beyond the threshold of the commandments (Ibid.). Thus that most wise master of Christian piety scattered through all his letters choice sentences concerning charity, concerning contempt of the world, concerning the patient bearing of adversities, concerning the study of the sacred writings, and concerning the other virtues pertaining to the heavenly life; and he took care to season whatever he wrote, as it were, with this salt. That most holy Pontiff strove above all, by word and example, to turn bishops and others devoted to the sacred ministries away from base gain and avarice.
Hence he took it ill that Donus, bishop of Messina, had accepted so great a price for a burial that the heirs of the man who had purchased the right of sepulture seemed reduced to want. He therefore persuades the bishop to restore what he had received, especially since it was proved by the testimony of Palumbus, bishop of Cosenza, to belong to another's right (Book VIII, Letter 3). And although he does not forbid the taking of anything for a burial, and admits that it was done by ancient custom, yet he says that in his own Church it had been forbidden by himself, and that he would give his assent to no one that places for burying a body might be obtained for a price. We, he says, who are called bishops, what ought we to make our concern in the burying of the bodies of the faithful?
Afterwards, writing to Januarius, he only allowed that for the lights whatever each one wished to offer might be accepted. But that anything be asked or exacted, he says, we altogether forbid; which is exceedingly irreligious, lest either the Church perhaps be called venal—which God forbid—or you seem to rejoice over human deaths, if from their corpses you seek to gain profit in any way whatsoever (Book IX, Letter 3). 12. Leo, bishop of Catania, was reported to divide the fourth part of the ecclesiastical revenues among his clergy not in full, but with some diminution, which was a mark of covetousness. Hence the complaints of the acolytes and others of the clergy reached the pope.
Of the three other portions of the Church's goods, one fell to the bishop and his household, on account of hospitality and the receiving of guests; another to the poor; and the last was reserved for the repairing of churches (Book VIII, Letter 7). And in order that every occasion of complaints and calumnies against the bishop might be removed, that most wise and most just judge decreed as follows: We will that whatever shall perhaps have accrued to your Church from revenue or from any other title, you ought thence to set apart a fourth portion without any diminution, and that you divide it, according to the fear of God, among the priests, deacons, and clergy, as shall seem good to you, with discretion:
in such wise indeed that, according as the merit of each one's labour shall require, you should have free licence to bestow, according to what you shall foresee; so that both those who deserve it may feel themselves consoled even by this temporal advantage, and others, with the Lord's help, may strive to advance by imitation of them toward better things (Book IX, Letter 64). 13.
He who, moved by the just complaints of the clergy of Catania, delivered this sentence against their bishop, shortly afterward also repressed the pride and empty vainglory of those same men, on account of their usurpation of the campagi—which is a kind of footwear used by prelates when they solemnly celebrate Mass. Although the use of these had once been granted by the Roman pontiffs to the deacons of the Church of Messina alone in all Sicily, the deacons of Catania had nevertheless presumed to walk about shod with campagi. Detesting this rash presumption, the pope wrote to John of Syracuse to inquire into the matter, and to investigate whether they had presumed this of themselves or by anyone's authority; and afterward himself to decide what needed to be done.
For if, he says, we negligently allow those things which are wrongly usurped to pass by, we open the way of excess to others (Book VIII, Letter 27). 14. Just as he restrained those who acted proudly and insolently, so also he was zealous to render the due rewards of honour to those who served usefully on behalf of the Church. And this the defensores experienced in this year; for he appointed seven from their college as regionarii, on account of the strenuous labour they had bestowed in the causes of the Church and in the service of the pontiffs (Book VIII, Letter 14). Formerly the regionarii were taken only from among the deacons; afterward, by the concession of certain pontiffs, some were appointed from the school of notaries and subdeacons; at length this honour came to the defensores by the benefaction of St. Gregory. 15. And in this year especially, St.
Gregory made plain in very many letters how much monastic affairs were a care to him, yet we shall taste but a few of these. Distinguished above the rest is the privilege granted to the monastery of Saints John and Stephen, established in the city of Classe, concerning which he wrote to Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna (Book VIII, Letter 15). What was provided in this privilege for the favour of the monks is to be sought there. From Letters 31 and 34 it is clear that the monastery of Castellium, once founded by the great Cassiodorus, not only persevered at that time, but even flourished, and had obtained other monasteries united to itself.
For in the former letter Secundinus, bishop of Taormina in Sicily, is admonished not to allow a monastery of his diocese belonging to the monks of Castellium to come into the power of a layman. In another letter St. Gregory appears to rebuke John, bishop of Squillace, in whose city that monastery of Castellium was situated, because he was attempting to undermine the privileges granted to it and confirmed by long usage. From this letter it is established that the very fortress of Squillace was founded upon the soil belonging by right to the monastery, whose inhabitants were bound to pay a rent to the monks of Castellium.