Moralia in Job 34

Argument. — 1. The deposition and slaughter of the emperor Maurice. — 2. Of which he is forewarned from on high. 3. Phocas is chosen emperor by the army. He hastens to Constantinople. He orders Maurice's sons and Maurice himself to be killed. Likewise the empress Constantina and her three daughters. — 4. St Gregory writes to Phocas. His letter is weighed. Of another letter to the same. — 5. Why St Gregory wrote more harshly of Maurice. — 6. He sends an apocrisiarius to the new emperor. — 7. He sets forth the miserable state of Italy. — 8. The embassy of Theoderic, king of the Franks, and of Brunhild to the Pope. They consult the Pope about a demented bishop. The Pope's answer. He bars a bigamous man from sacred orders. — 9.

The queen asks that a legate be sent into Gaul to hold a council. — 10. The Pope's solicitude for ecclesiastical discipline in Italy. — 11. He restores things unjustly taken away by the frauds of the Church's tenants. — 12. His zeal in giving alms. — 13. Abbot Urbicus is chosen bishop of Palermo. Why St Gregory rejected this election. — 14. He writes against errors newly arisen at Rome. (Years 602 and 603.) 1. This year, the thirteenth of St Gregory's pontificate, is notable for the fall of the emperor Maurice and the slaughter of him and his sons, and also for the elevation of Phocas the centurion to the empire.

The emperor had roused against himself the wrath and hatred of the soldiers, being unwilling to ransom for a small price those captured by the Avars, whom the barbarians slew — whether it was done from avarice, as is commonly believed, or whether he wished them to perish by the enemy's sword because they had made a sedition. But he himself, unable to bear any longer the consciousness and weight of so great a crime, prayed to the Lord that in this life He might inflict upon him the punishments due to him, and not reserve him for eternal torments. And he asked of all the patriarchs and monks, especially those of Jerusalem, that they too would earnestly beseech the same from God by their prayers.

God heard the vows made from the heart, as was shown to Theodore of Sykeon and to the Augustus himself, who had been warned to beware of a man whose name began with these two letters 'ph', and to know that he would be slain by him. 2. At once Maurice suspected that ambush and death were being prepared for him by Philippicus, the husband of his sister. But in his sleep he saw himself standing before Christ the Judge, with a crowd of captive soldiers accusing him, as the Greek writers relate, and — without delay — the command was given that he, with his wife and children and whole household, be handed over to Phocas the soldier to be butchered. The emperor, awakened, at once sent men to bring Philippicus to him. He, seeing himself summoned by night, did not doubt that death was imminent for him;

for he knew that he had been brought under suspicion with the emperor. But Maurice, as soon as he saw him, cast himself at his feet and said: 'Forgive me, brother, the calumnies and accusations I laid upon you, an innocent man. But I ask that if you know any soldier in the army named Phocas, you point him out to me.' 'I know,' said he, 'a certain man who, formerly sent away from the army, quarrelled with your Majesty.' Maurice did not doubt that this was the very man he had seen in his sleep. 3. About that time Peter, the emperor's brother, by his order sent letters to the army, by which it was commanded to cross the Ister and to winter there;

and since the soldiers took this ill — because in those winter quarters they would have to fight continually with the barbarians — they began to treat of creating a new emperor, and presently, raising Phocas the centurion, whom they knew to be bold, upon a shield after the custom, they acclaimed and saluted him emperor. Hearing this, Peter, coming at once to Constantinople, informed the emperor of it, who a little later embarked with his wife and children; but, driven back by a storm, he was carried to St Autonomus, and that same night was seized by the pains of gout, which was a grave hindrance to his flight. Meanwhile the new emperor hastens to Byzantium, and when he had already come to the Hebdomon, the patriarch and the senate went out to meet him;

presently, entering the royal city, he took up the imperial insignia. Two days later, borne in an imperial chariot, he came into the palace; and on the fifth day, having placed a crown upon his wife Leontia, he proclaimed her Augusta. To celebrate the coming of Phocas very many spectacles were exhibited. And when there was deliberation about the pomp and solemn array for receiving Leontia, a contention having arisen about the place of station between the Blues and the Greens (there were two factions), the Blues, being badly treated by their rivals, cried out: 'Maurice is still alive!' — whom they knew to be hostile to the Greens. On learning this, Phocas, sending soldiers, ordered Maurice to be brought to the harbour of Eutropius, where before his eyes his sons were first slain, the father meanwhile using these words of David:

'Thou art just, O Lord, and Thy judgment is right' (Psalm 118:137). Moreover, when in the place of the youngest, who was still a suckling, the nurse offered her own son, Maurice betrayed the infant. With the same steadfastness he met death; and thus he turned the cup of God's wrath into a cup of medicine, which profited him for the purging of his sins and for the attainment of the perfect salvation of his soul. The empress Constantina with her three daughters the tyrant shut up in a private house called that of Leo, as Simocatta relates (Book VIII, ch. 15), whom, however, other writers report to have been ordered killed after a few months had elapsed. That Peter, Maurice's brother, and some of the nobles were slain at the same time, the fragment about the crowning of Phocas teaches;

whence we also have the names of the emperor's five sons, and the time at which these things happened, namely in the sixth indiction, on the 23rd day of November. From the same writing we are taught that images of Phocas and Leontia the Augusti came to Rome on the Kalends of May, and that they were acclaimed in the Lateran, in the basilica of Julius, by all the clergy and senate; and that afterwards St Gregory ordered those images to be placed in the oratory of St Caesarius the martyr within the palace. 4. It was not open to the Pope to abstain from writing letters to Phocas, by which he might congratulate him on having attained the empire. To those who charge Gregory with having spoken more unjustly of Maurice, but flatteringly of Phocas, we have already replied.

Truly, what are called flatteries and fawnings are rather vows for the emperor, by whom the supreme pontiff wishes the commonwealth to be governed most excellently, as will become plain to the reader: 'Let the heavens rejoice,' he says, 'and let the earth exult, and let the whole people of the commonwealth, hitherto vehemently afflicted, grow cheerful at your kindly deeds. Let the proud minds of the enemies be pressed down under the yoke of your dominion. Let the crushed and downtrodden souls of your subjects be relieved by your mercy. Let the virtue of heavenly grace make you terrible to your enemies, and your piety kindly to your subjects. Let the whole commonwealth rest in your most happy times, the spoil of peace being brought forth under the appearance of lawsuits.'

'Let the snares of wills cease, and the graces of donations violently exacted. Let secure possession return to all in their own goods, that they may rejoice to hold without fear the things that have not been acquired for them by frauds. Let each man's own liberty now be restored under the yoke of the pious empire. For this is the difference between the kings of the nations and the emperors of the commonwealth, that the kings of the nations are lords of slaves, but the emperors of the commonwealth are lords of free men. But we say these things better by praying than by suggesting' (Book XIII, Letter 31). What follows to the end of the letter are prayers by which the holy man asks of God the help of grace necessary for the Augustus.

In another letter to the same Phocas no praises occur that smack of flattering speech (Book XIII, Letter 38). In the one by which he greeted Leontia, he likewise pronounces vows, and does not cajole with words, as anyone can observe by reading (ibid., Letter 30). 5. As regards certain things written more harshly against the Augustus Maurice by St Gregory in those letters, it is established that this emperor showed himself almost always more unjust to the most holy pontiff, to Rome, and to all Italy, as is clear from so many Gregorian letters. When therefore he complains of his harsh yoke (his name, however, being concealed), writing to Phocas or to Leontia, he does not by unjust complaints seek to darken the fame of the deceased emperor.

Rather, it seems nearer the truth that the holy man's purpose was to bend the mind of the new emperor toward mercy and clemency toward his subjects. He does indeed censure Maurice's avarice covertly, and the other evils that are wont to arise from this vice. But Simocatta himself (Book VIII, ch. 6), though more indulgent toward this emperor, does not deny that he laboured under avarice, when he says that for this reason Maurice wished the army, having crossed the Ister, to winter there, so that it might overrun the region of the barbarians and thence, having procured provisions, live off them, lest he be compelled to furnish grain to the soldiery; whence occasion was given for rebelling and for choosing another emperor.

Although Maurice's warlike valour is praised, yet he waged scarcely any war after assuming the empire, except through his generals. And although as long as he reigned there was almost always warfare for him, especially against the Avars or Abari, yet that it was fought with varying and often unhappy outcome is established from the same Theophylact Simocatta. Meanwhile the Lombards and other barbarians were laying waste Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Dalmatia, the emperor scarcely caring. This St Gregory took ill, whence occasion was given for remonstrating against Maurice in the letters to Phocas and Leontia. 6. To return the discourse to the new emperor: when he had found no apocrisiarius of the Roman Church in the palace, he by no means took it kindly.

Anatolius was discharging this office as late as the fourth indiction, in the year 601, as is evident from the letter written to him (Book XI, Letter 47): but at what time he left the royal city, or on what occasion, we cannot divine. Gregory, about to excuse himself before Phocas, wrote: 'That your Serenity did not find a deacon of the apostolic See remaining in the palace according to ancient custom, was not owing to my negligence, but to the gravest necessity: because while all the ministers of this our Church, with dread, were shunning and fleeing such crushed and harsh times, none of them could be laid under obligation to go to the royal city to remain in the palace.'

'But after they learned that your Clemency, by the disposing grace of Almighty God, had attained the summit of empire, they too, urged on by joy, hasten to come to your footsteps, who before had greatly feared to approach thither' (Book XIII, Letter 38). Afterwards he signifies that for this office was chosen Boniface, foremost of the defensores, whom he says was known to him by long assiduity, approved in life, faith, and morals, and therefore made a Deacon, that he might undertake this legation and charge. This is that Boniface, sufficiently known from very many Gregorian letters, who was afterwards elected supreme pontiff and called Boniface the Third; but he ruled the Church for a short time.

How acceptable he was to Phocas we gather from this, that when created pontiff he obtained that the patriarch of Constantinople should cease to call himself 'ecumenical.' 7. In the letter to Phocas, of which the new apocrisiarius was the bearer, he deplores the miserable state of Italy: 'In what manner,' he says, 'and with how great daily swords and incursions of the Lombards we are pressed — behold, now through the length of thirty-five years — we are unable to express by any words of representation' (Book XIII, Letter 33). Indeed, from the letter written to the exarch Smaragdus this year, we have it ascertained that there was still war with the Lombards, even though it was sometimes interrupted by truces of a few days.

The same letter almost persuades us that the Pisans were even then their own masters, and could at their own discretion enter into treaties of peace or declare war. St Gregory there makes mention of their galleys, already prepared for setting out: whence we learn that they were very powerful at sea. The supreme pontiff had exhorted them to enter into peace with the Romans, a legate having been sent; but he was able to obtain nothing, which he thought should be announced to the exarch. 8. A little before, Theoderic, king of the Franks in Burgundy, had sent as legates to the Pope the illustrious men Burgoald and Warmaricarius, that with him as helper he might be able to make and stabilize peace with the emperor and the Roman commonwealth.

The most wise father praised his counsel, and promised his own effort toward accomplishing it (Book XIII, Letter 7). Perhaps already the two brothers were at variance — Theodebert, king of the Austrasians, and Theoderic, who prudently courted the friendship of the Romans. Favouring the latter was his grandmother Brunhild, hostile to her grandson Theodebert, who at length, routed and put to flight in a twofold battle, was slain by his own men, who wished to purchase the favour of the victor with his head. The aforesaid legates had been ordered by Brunhild to consult the Pope about a certain bishop whom an infirmity of the head did not allow to administer his office.

That this bishop had become deranged in mind, the letter written on this matter to Etherius of Lyons teaches us, in which he answers thus to the question proposed: 'Since, while a bishop is living whom the necessity of infirmity — not a crime — withdraws from his office, no reason permits another to be ordained in his place unless he himself refuses, if he is accustomed to have intervals of the sickness, let him, a petition having been given, declare that he is no longer able to rise to this ministry (infirmity, that is, subverting the intellectual functions), and let him request another to be ordained in his place. This having been done, by the solemn election of all, let another who is worthy be consecrated bishop:'

Yet in such a way that, for as long as life keeps that same bishop in this present world, the provisions due to him should be furnished to him from that same Church. But if at no time he returns to the exercise of a sound mind, a person faithful and of approved life must be chosen, one who is fit to hold the governance of the Church, able to take thought for the welfare of souls, to bind the restless under the bond of discipline, to bear the care of ecclesiastical affairs, and to show himself mature and effective in all things. And if he should survive the bishop who is now sick, he ought to be consecrated in his place.

But the ordinations of presbyters or deacons, or of any other order, if occasion should require them to be performed in that same Church, you shall know to be reserved to your Fraternity: so that, if the man belongs to your diocese, you may inquire diligently into the life, morals, and conduct of him who is chosen for this. And if it be pleasing, and there be nothing in him that the judgment of canonical strictness may censure, let him attain the appointed order in no other way except with you ordaining him (Book XIII, Letter 5). When St. Gregory was consulted by the same queen whether a man twice married might be admitted to sacred orders, he answered that, according to the canonical rule, this ought by no means to be done. And when she asked that he would deign to fortify with privileges the monastery of St.

Martin's in the suburb of Autun, another monastery of the handmaids of God, and a hospice which she had undertaken to build in that same city, the devout Pontiff readily granted her request. 9. The queen thought she would do a welcome thing for the most vigilant shepherd of the whole Church by asking him to send a legate into Gaul who, once a synod had been held, might be able to correct all the things that were being perpetrated against the most sacred canons. For this above all was in his own desire, as is clear from the many letters which he had written on that matter in previous years to that same queen, and to very many of the kings and bishops of Gaul.

And so Gregory, having given thanks to the queen, replies that at a fitting time he would send someone to convene a synod, and he promised that he would fulfil her pious desires. Nevertheless no synod was convened in Gaul to remedy the corruptions of the clergy until nearly thirty years later, the civil wars hindering this good work. 10. The most holy father bore an even greater solicitude for repairing the discipline of the Church in Italy. Concerning the removal of strange women from the fellowship of priests and other clerics, he wrote to Chrysanthus, bishop of Spoleto, and to very many others (Book XIII, Letters 36 and 35); and for this purpose he employed the service of Optatus the defender.

He commanded Anthemius the subdeacon to convene the bishops of Campania and to admonish them of their duty, of which they seemed to be forgetful (ibid., Letters 27 and 26). But if anyone, having once been admonished, should afterward prove negligent and slothful, he wills that he be sent to Rome to be punished more severely. Paschasius the bishop was reported to be sunk in idleness beyond the rest; wherefore he orders Anthemius to rebuke him for his negligence before chosen witnesses. But if he should not shake off his sloth, he directs that he be sent to Rome to be more severely chastised. 11. Among the agents and lessees of the Roman Church he not only punished all frauds, but also made good the losses inflicted upon the tenant-farmers by their frauds.

Hence he praised Pantaleon, the rector of the patrimony of Syracuse, because he had broken the measure by which the tenant-farmers were compelled to give grain, since it exceeded the due measure; and he ordered that the money received through the unjust measure be secretly distributed to the poorer tenants (Book XIII, Letter 34). 12. Certainly how far he was from seizing upon the goods of the poor is proved by his incredible zeal in giving alms. Thus he remonstrates with Julian, an illustrious man, for having concealed his want out of shame: 'It is certain,' he says, 'that he is less loved who is still blushed for. And I have been altogether saddened, because I have learned that I am loved by you less than I had reckoned.'

But in this you greatly hold me back, if you diligently require that occasions for meriting a reward be continually provided for me. Nor ought it to be a matter of shame to you to say something, even importunately, about alms to one who, it is agreed, holds not his own goods, but the goods of the poor to be dispensed. Concerning matters of reward, therefore, you ought to have dealt freely with the bishop, even if you did not know what my mind was in its love for you. For since we altogether cherish your Glory, and hold the place of a steward in the goods, as you know, of the poor, your shame, I confess, was greatly to be blamed. And I pursue it with rebuke in so many words for this reason, that I may drive it out utterly from your heart (Book XIII, Letter 19).

From the letter to Pantaleon we learn that the rectors of the patrimonies had formerly taken an oath at the most sacred body of blessed Peter. Since he could not by his own authority coerce the emperor's ministers who, under the name of public interest, were plotting against the goods of private persons, he took care to inform the Augustus concerning their evil practices and rapines. In this year he warned the patrician lady Rusticiana that a certain Beator had come to Rome, who called himself count of the privy purse, and was doing many unjust things, especially against her and her granddaughters, namely Antonina and Barbara, the daughters of Venantius, of whom elsewhere. 13.

In this year, upon the death of Victor, bishop of Palermo, Venantius, a patrician of Palermo—other than the ex-monk of Syracuse, of whose death we have already spoken—took care that Urbicus, abbot of the monastery of St. Hermes, should be chosen bishop of this city. St. Gregory praised this election, because he knew Urbicus to be watchful, careful, and instructed in the knowledge of divine Scripture, which is above all to be looked for in priests. Nevertheless the pope was unwilling to disturb the repose of this abbot, lest, by advancing him to higher things, he should force one who had been set in the waves to become less than himself. Urbicus was, as it were, the prefect or general superior of all the monasteries in Sicily, as we have already noted;

which perhaps was the reason why Gregory did not permit him to be removed from such a prefecture in order to become bishop. The see of Palermo was obtained by John, whom St. Gregory admonished to grant to his own clergy a full fourth portion of the revenues of the Church, and to appoint a treasurer who should distribute to each of the clerics what was due according to the register or roll (Book XIII, Letter 44). To the same man he gives excellent precepts for the best governance of the Church. To John the pallium had already been sent a little before. In the letter by which the most holy pontiff granted to the newly ordained bishop the right of using the pallium, he says that he had undertaken the office of watchman of the Church of Palermo; interpreting rightly the name of bishop (ibid., Letter 37). 14.

Certainly Gregory himself proved to be an untiring and most vigilant watchman, keeping constant guard, though he lay stricken with the gravest maladies, so as to ward off from his flock whatever evil might threaten. Hence, when he had understood that certain men of a perverse spirit in the very city of Rome were forbidding any work to be done on the Sabbath day, he wrote to the citizens of Rome, exploding this Judaic error, whose authors he calls the preachers of Antichrist, who, coming (he says), will cause the Sabbath day and the Lord's day to be kept from all labor. These same men, or other perverse men, were preaching that no one ought to bathe on the Lord's day.

'And indeed,' he says, 'if anyone desires to bathe for the luxury of the mind and for pleasure, we do not allow this to be done even on any other day. But if for the necessity of the body, we do not forbid this even on the Lord's day.'