The fourth parts of ecclesiastical revenues, both new and old, are to be dispensed according to the canonical distribution, 691. This distribution was made to clerics according to each one's merits, 760. Or labour, 900. The goods of the Church which a bishop had withheld, how they are to be divided, 1117. — The care of ecclesiastical goods was of old, in the East, in the hands of the priests; in the West, in the hands of the archdeacons, 503, 581. The goods of the Church are to be governed by its own clerics, 774. To a widowed church is committed a Visitor, who is chiefly to take care of its temporal affairs, 564. See Visitor. The goods of a deceased bishop are to be reserved for his successor, 564. In holding together and disposing of the goods of the Church let the bishop be diligent, 600.
The estates of the Churches were of old free from paying tribute, 1017. The private property of clerics was of old distinguished from the goods of the Church, 791. Their own property they could give or bequeath, but of things acquired through the Church's episcopate the [Church] succeeds, 1105. Let the Church suffer no loss in its goods, 943. Let him who takes away the goods of the Church be punished, 1041, 1042. To retain legacies left to pious places is sacrilege, 1045. The goods of the Church that have been carried off are to be restored, 696, 931, 982, 1041, 1045. Let such restitutions not be burdensome to those who make them, 951. How the goods of the Church are to be sought back, 121. They are not to be defended by force, 1289. Let the Church receive back the goods carried off from it without increase, 1153. Donations made to the Church, but onerous, are to be returned, 1060.
Things that have passed into the Church's rights, the law does not permit to be alienated, 947. Yet sometimes, for the favour of the poor, that law may be tempered, 948. — What are the lawful causes for unions of Churches to be made, 495, 606, 607, 799. In how many ways such unions are made, 495, 496. To whom it belonged of old to unite, divide, or enlarge churches, 607. The union of benefices is permitted to bishops, but the union of episcopates to the Roman Pontiff alone, 496. The churches of Cumae and Misenum are united, 606. The church of Tres Tabernae is united to that of Velletri, 614. The church of St Anthimus is united to that of Nomentum, 638. That of Minturnae is united to that of Formiae, 493, 496. Those of Fundi and Terracina are committed to one and the same bishop, 634. That of Carina is united to that of Rhegium, 597.
— No churches in Sicily and Italy were dedicated without Gregory's consent, 826. No churches are to be dedicated unless a lawful and secure endowment has been established for them, 571, 577, 897, 995. If there be lawful doubt concerning the dedication of a church, it is to be consecrated, 1279. The faculty of consecrating churches is given to the bishop, 1268. See Dedication. In certain churches public Masses are forbidden, 986, 994. See Oratory. The immunities of the Church. See Asylum. After a crime it was of old forbidden to enter the church, 421. Entrance into the Church is compared with the reception of the Body of the Lord, ibid., 1161. — The wretched state of a church destitute of a pastor, 563. A church ought not to remain vacant beyond three months, 861, 890.
How provision is to be made for a church whose bishop is infirm, 641, 1217 and following, 1219. — The guardianship of ecclesiastical discipline pertains to the bishop, 916, 917. The order of ecclesiastical vigour is thrown into confusion, if either unlawful things are rashly presumed upon, or things not conceded are attempted upon the unwilling, 915. By negligently passing over the things that are wrongly usurped, the way of excess is opened to others, ibid. In ecclesiastical matters order is to be preserved, 1022. If, when a depraved thing has been introduced, it is not shut off before it long lies open, it grows wider by use, 1023. See Discipline. He who forsakes the secular habit and hastens to ecclesiastical offices, wishes to change the world, not to relinquish it, 675. Ecclesiastes, that is, the Preacher, 376. In Ecclesiastes Solomon plays many persons, ibid.
Ecclesius, bishop of Chiusi, 1063. His caution in choosing a bishop is praised, 1075. Winter garments are sent to Ecclesius, who suffered from the cold, 1211. Ecia, a woman, 547. Edancius, master of the soldiers, 544. Ethelbert, king of the Angles, is asked to devote himself to propagating the Christian faith, 1164, 1165 and following. Concerning his name inquiry is made, 1164. Though not yet converted, Gregory calls him his son, 1113. Who are so called among the Greeks, 966. Exaltation. The mind lifting itself up in thought provokes the wrath of the Judge, 5. A hidden thought of exaltation is punished with reprobation, 6. Those who guard against small things are impelled by their very exaltation to the perpetrating of greater ones, 92. The best remedy against exaltation is to weigh well what thou art, 101, 102.
To recall one's own evils to memory, 1030, 1110. All exaltation has nothing other than ruin, 668. The Devil impels to exaltation, 1030. From exaltation many branches of sin proceed, 997. Exaltation punished in Eleutherius, a man of great sanctity, 332. See Pride, Vanity. The exalted. The exalted are signified by Saul, 36. What is the manner of admonishing the exalted, 58. By what art the exalted are usefully rebuked, 59. That they may be impelled to go forward, ibid., 60. Let the exalted not be more free in reproving than is fitting, 59. Over the exalted mind the Devil is master, 101. Under the figure of Jerusalem, the soul proud in virtue is reproved, 100. What befalls the soul which has swelled up from confidence in virtue, 101.
The soul exalted over its own good deeds has confidence in its own beauty, 1030. It commits fornication in its own name, ibid. Whence it is more beautiful, thence it descends, ibid. While the soul is exalted through a hidden swelling, it is deprived of the grace of Him who bestowed the gift, 1030. See Pride. Election to ecclesiastical duties. See Election of bishops. Why the elect sometimes die a hard death, 403, 408. We do not believe that all the elect are snatched away [suddenly], 368. To the elect are promised not joys, but bitternesses and tribulations, 1127. To the elect, lest they be exalted by praises, detractions are useful, 1128. Almsgiving. Which men are to be admonished who bestow alms, 63. Let them not exalt themselves with swollen thought over those to whom they bestow earthly things, ibid.
Let them know that they have been set by the Lord as dispensers of temporal supports. Let not swelling lift them up, but let fear press them down, 64. What caution is to be used in almsgiving, ibid. Against which vices those are to be fortified who bestow their goods in alms, ibid. Let those who have wiped away their sins by alms not repeat them, 65. If some make offering to God, and give themselves to the Devil [it profits nothing]; nor are those to be praised who bestow the goods of others [rather than] their own, 66. These rampage in the common slaughter, ibid. What we receive from the Lord it is just that we use, together and mercifully, with the needy; a poor excuse for withholding alms, 67. The rich glutton was damned, not because he had seized what belonged to others, but because he had used his own without fruit, 67. To God, who gives us all things, something is to be repaid in the person of the poor, 67.
Those who give not what they have received deem themselves innocent in vain, 66. Those who, while seizing the goods of others, give alms, by what admonition they are to be restrained, 67. Alms are not to be made from theft, ibid. He who withdraws from the needy what he bestows on God, as it were sacrifices a son in the sight of the father, 68. Such a one casts his gathered monies into a bag full of holes, ibid. It is one thing to make alms on account of sins, another to commit sins on account of alms, 1008. It is not to be reckoned an alms, if that which is received from unlawful things be dispensed to the poor, 1008. What alms may please the eyes of the Redeemer, 1008. A bishop is censured because he proclaims his own almsgiving, 626. Nothing is more wretched than those for whom avarice is born of bounty, 67.
An exhortation to almsgiving, 1185 and following. What is left over is to be distributed in alms, 1152. Almsgiving is a work of justice, not of mercy, 66. Why whatever is bestowed on a poor man is not a gift but a loan, 1654. — Almsgiving renders fasting acceptable to God, 63. By almsgiving a golden house is built for us in heaven, 433, 436. The builders of this house are the poor, ibid. Almsgiving cries out to the secret ears of God, 874, 1124. Almsgiving is remunerated by God, 248. The fruit of almsgiving, 874. The usefulness of alms on the last day, 433, 1185. Almsgiving here helps its author, and on the day of retribution brings both the thing desired and the reward, 643. — The distribution of alms is to be made wisely, 1117.
It is not to be given equally to all, 1118. Whether alms are to be given to a poor sinner, 65. It is to be made first to the faithful, then to the enemies of the Church, 609. Alms given from a sense of vain honour are not to be refused by those who are in need, 599. Things granted as alms for a certain time are not to be exacted as a debt, 985, 986. The elevation of the wicked is their ruin, 492. St Eleutherius the martyr appears to Probus, bishop of Rieti, as he is dying, 389. Eleutherius, an abbot, 301, 328, 349. He was a man of wondrous simplicity and compunction, 319. By praying he raises a dead man, ibid. He frees a boy from a demon, 332. By whom, on account of Eleutherius's exaltation, [the boy] is again vexed, ibid., and is again freed, ibid.
Eleutherius obtains for the fasting Gregory the power of fasting, ibid. The name of Eleutherius is read in the sacred tablets, 349. From Eleutherius, Gregory had learned many things which he sets forth in his Dialogues, 301, 328, 425. The cult of Elijah is not disapproved, 652. A temple of Elijah was built by the emperor Zeno, 652. In the Latin Church, down to the time of St Bernard, no feast day of St Elijah was decreed, 652. Elisha divided the waters of the Jordan with the mantle of Elijah his master, 160. The spirit of prophecy did not always irradiate the mind of Elisha, 249. What 'Elogium' signifies, 687, 1063. The words of the divine speech are divine feasts, 617. Elpidius, bishop of the East, is reproved because at the ordination of Cyriacus he had cried, 'This is the day which the Lord hath made,' 854.
Elpidius, bishop of Catania, successor of Leo, 1055, 1056. Eminence, a title with which Gregory addresses judges, but not bishops, 1054, 1067. 'Emissarius' is used for 'admissarius' (a stallion), 1207, 1208. The Emeritan Church, 1255. Enfide, the place where St Benedict wrought his first miracle, 209. What it signifies, 495. What it is to place a sword upon the thigh, 90. Ephesus, metropolis of Asia Minor, 857. The chapters of the pseudo-Synod of Ephesus were sent to Gregory by John of Constantinople as genuine, 883, 884. Gregory suspects that the more recent codices of the Ephesine Synod have been falsified, 802, 803. This corruption was made in favour of the Pelagians, 963, 965. Rufinus, bishop of Ephesus, 857. Epidamnus. See Dyrrachium. Epidaurus, a city of Dalmatia, 631.
Florentius, bishop of Epidaurus, 631. The writings of St Epiphanius were not unknown to Gregory, 851. Epiphanius, archpriest of Cagliari, 931, 1260. Gregory orders that the accused priest Epiphanius be sent to him, 650. He is sent back innocent, 706. Epiphanius, bound to the diaconate of the Roman Church, 763, 764, 1218, 1262. Epiphanius, a subdeacon, is sent to inquire concerning the sedition stirred up against Paulus the bishop, 623, 625. Epiphanius, a lector of the church of Cagliari, sought to have a monastery built in his own house, 1107. Epirus is twofold, the old and the new, 796. In what way the episcopate is called a good work, 9. In what way it is praiseworthy to desire the episcopate, 8.
Certain men, in seeking the episcopate, look not for the ministry of good work but for the glory of honour, 9. How great is the weight and how great the peril of the episcopate, 489, 490. More priests perish than are saved, ibid. The burdens of the episcopate are neither to be shamelessly sought after nor obstinately refused, 521, 621. Whom the canons reject from the episcopate, 575. 'Bishopric' is the name of a work, not of an honour, 621. The union of the episcopate is reserved to the Roman Pontiff alone, 496. What distinction there is between it and the honour of the episcopate, 495. What an episcopal see (episcopium) is, 894. The episcopal residence is committed to the judgement of the deacon Anatolius, the vice-steward, to be administered, 498. Formerly a bishop was scarcely permitted to change his see, 894. Bishop.
What the name 'bishop' (episcopus) signifies, 621. What it is to hold the name of bishop as an empty title, 817. A bishop proper and titular is called a cardinal priest, 501, 634, 635. By 'priests' bishops are almost always understood, 613. Formerly those were called bishops who were presbyters, 635. In Gregory a bishop is scarcely ever designated by the name of presbyter, ibid. Bishops are fathers in name, 613. How bishops in the Church are as stars and clouds in heaven, 743. They are called rams, 765. They are members of Christ, 1006. From whom they ought not to be separated, 1007. They are called strong souls, 1133, 1134; the eyes of the Lord, 1276. Bishops were formerly called apostolic, 764. The dignity of a bishop is seen to surpass other dignities, 1020.
What those intend who profess themselves bishops by the grace of the Apostolic See, 526. — The election of a bishop. How election differs from postulation, 602. To be elected, sought, postulated, desired are taken for the same thing, 634. Yet to postulate is a greater matter than to petition, ibid. The election of a bishop pertains to the clergy, the nobles, the order (of rank), and the people, 572, 631, 635, 639, 642, 644, 741, 753, 755, 865, 866, 1064, 1086, 1087, 1094. Whence princes have a right in the promotion of bishops, 700. In the elections of bishops the consent of the emperor was sometimes applied and required, 585, 586, 699. The consent of the Supreme Pontiff also was applied, 583, 586. The Roman Pontiff was formerly confirmed by the emperor, ibid.
Whether bishops subject to the Roman Pontiff ought to be confirmed by the emperor, 700. In the election and ordination of bishops the people acclaimed, 853, 854. It is neither new nor blameworthy that in electing a bishop the votes of the people should be divided into two parts, 1086. The one to be elected should, as far as possible, be chosen from the bosom of the very Church that is widowed, 588, 601, 863, 989, 995, 1052, 1229. If no suitable man is at hand, what is to be done, 1229. It is a grave reproach to the clergy when a bishop is not taken from their bosom, 1087. Gregory commands that bishops be taken from the clergy or from monasteries, 503. Concerning the life and morals of those to be elected as bishops, inquiry must be made, 1095, 1186, 1228, 1229, 1268, 1269.
The examination of elected bishops was sometimes committed to other bishops before they were ordained, 865, 866, 889, 1064. Sometimes it was committed to a subdeacon, the rector of the ecclesiastical patrimony, together with a bishop, 1053. Gregory requests that two or three of the Neapolitan clergy be sent to him, who on behalf of all should elect a bishop, 649. He asks of the Syracusans two who have been elected to the episcopate, that he may ordain whichever he judges the more useful, 588, 753. The clergy of Lilybaeum receive permission to elect a bishop, whom they afterwards petitioned to be consecrated by Gregory, 801. The election of a bishop ought to be done at the Church's expense, 639. A mind bound by cupidity does not examine with free judgement the person it prefers to itself, 644.
Gregory exhorts to penance the citizens who are about to elect a bishop, 645. By what revelation the election of a bishop ought to be made, 755. Why the patronage of anyone whatsoever is to be excluded from the election, 639. Gregory excludes from the episcopate Donatus, who had been recommended by a patrician, 777. What ought to be the disposition of the electors, 644, 645. In them a unanimous consent is required, 565, 572, 573, 585, 586, 639, 642, 646, 690, 1094. In the election, the beauty of life and morals is to be attended to, 539, 642, 644. According to the merit of peoples, shepherds are wont to be provided for them by the divine judgement, 645. Gregory does not dare to solicit the election of a man very well known to himself, 644. Let the electors not look to their own advantage, 644, 755. Let the electors in their actions please God, 645.
In the election let no bribes intervene, 639, 786; nor venality, 753; nor respect of persons, 643. He who is elected for a price is made unworthy of the priesthood, 786. A bishop is not to be elected but postulated to another vacant Church, 602. — Who is to be elected bishop, or who is not to be elected: just as the place of governance is to be denied to those who desire it, so it is to be offered to those who flee it, 848, 1007. No bishop is to be given to the unwilling, 573, 700. Who are rejected from the episcopate by the canons, 753. Laymen, of whatever merit they be, are to be kept from the episcopate, 601, 602, 722, 782, 786, 808, 863, 989, 995, 996; and neophytes. See Orders. Let one be elected who is not lavish with bribes but worthy by merits, 753.
He who does not have long-standing continence of his body ought not to be elected, 1086; nor he who practises usury, ibid.; nor one who is simple, ibid.; nor he whose life is reprehensible, 1064; nor one liable to crimes, 889. Let him hold the psalms by memory, 777, 1064, 1269, 1270. Whether there be in him the knowledge of divine Scripture, 785, 786, 1228. Ignorance of the canons in a bishop is culpable, 585. Let him be free for psalmody and prayer, 1188. Now access to the episcopate seems closed to the poor, 649. Whether formerly it was prescribed to ascend to the episcopate through the individual grades of the orders, 1065. — The ordination of a bishop. Whether a bishop can be ordained by one bishop only, 1155. How many bishops ought to be present as witnesses in the ordination of a bishop, ibid., 1156.
That ordination is legitimate which has been examined by the suffrage of all, 573. Why in the consecration of bishops the book of the Gospels is placed upon the head of the one being consecrated, 1228. The penalty for bishops ordained against the canons, 1250, 1251. The penalties for those who ordain bishops against the canons, 1250, 1251. Let the elected be ordained if there be found in him none of those things which in the Heptateuch are punished with death, 865. Newly ordained bishops used to send letters of communion to other bishops, 541, 542. The anniversary day of a bishop's ordination was formerly celebrated with solemn rite, 737. Bishops driven from their see by the barbarians were incardinated into vacant Churches, 563, 600. What was to be done concerning them should they recover their original see, ibid. St.
In the times of Gregory the bishops of Sicily and of the other provinces of Italy were consecrated by the Roman Pontiff, 486, 587, 607, 639. Gregory forbids the bishop of Salona to be ordained without his consent, 690. — The rights, privileges, and dignity of bishops. Obedience is owed to bishops, 615. What sort, 1100, 1102, 1278. All bishops, according to the measure of humility, are equal, unless fault demands otherwise, 976. Let bishops in councils sit and subscribe according to the time of their ordination, 1113. Gregory takes care not to injure the rights of bishops, 529. For a just reason of a dispute he sends a presbyter into another's diocese, 577, 578. Gregory so defends his own rights that he wishes the rights of the Churches to remain unharmed, 611. He desires to honour bishops in all things, ibid.
He considers that to injure himself is to disturb the rights of his brethren, 619. Other pontiffs defend the rights of bishops, 619. No bishop remains in the Church, if one man obtains the name of universal bishop, 773. If to each bishop his own jurisdiction is not preserved, the ecclesiastical order is thrown into confusion, 1120. With what mind Gregory wished the privileges of bishops to remain unharmed, 800. Whether it be less fitting that bishops be judged by a simple cleric, 647. A bishop consecrates a monastery at the command of the metropolitan, 1229, 1268. A bishop consecrating an oratory in another's diocese is disapproved, 1230. — The morals of a bishop. What the irreproachableness of a bishop is, 8.
That bishop who knows not how to obey the sacred canons, is not worthy either to administer at the sacred altars or to receive communion, 631. Of what sort a bishop's table ought to be, 580. The differing opinions of St. Martin and St. Ambrose concerning banquets, ibid. Let reading not be lacking at a bishop's table, 856. A bishop who advertises his own almsgiving is reproved, 626. It is far from a priest's office to gape after money in the zeal of accumulating, 760, 774, 775. Bishops must greatly fear their own household members, 743, 744. How harmful is excessive credulity to bishops, 860, 1249. Let them beware of duplicity, 739. The sins of bishops are the cause of the evils of many, 747, 1020. A bishop ought to remove any scandal given, 1100. Let a bishop live as an example to the rest, 610, 1020.
Depraved men are to be removed from the society and companionship of a bishop, 1101. — The virtues and duties of a bishop, 610, 840. Let bishops attend to God in everything they do, 586. Let a bishop show canonical obedience to his primate, 735. Nothing is more splendid on an episcopal neck than humility, 666. To this end is someone constituted in the grade of the episcopate, that he may lead back the souls of others to humility, 742, 744. A bishop advances in so far as he strives not to arrogate to himself by derogating from his brethren, 742. By the humility of the bishop the concord of all the brethren and the unity of the universal Church is guarded, 742. Let him hold humility in mind, and preserve the dignity of his order in honour, 771. Humility is the elevation of the priestly office, 665.
Let not injury break the constancy of a bishop, nor turn him aside from the way of truth, 625. Let him most patiently tolerate even unjust correction, 665. Let him be moved in his inmost bowels (of compassion), 840. Let him be strong in wisdom, 509. Let him have a twofold charity, of God and of neighbour, ibid. Let all his virtues be adorned with charity, ibid. Let him flee human favours, 509. Of what sort a bishop's modesty ought to be, 739. Let him be at once innocent and learned, 621. — The duties of a bishop, 586, 634, 644, 677, 708, 798, 840. Admonitions useful to bishops, 739, 785, 788, 797, 902, 1012, 1014. A bishop takes up the name of shepherd not for rest but for labour, 586, 587. Let bishops, as they are fathers in name, be proved so in affection by their work, 586, 613.
In Scripture they are called not so much rulers as shepherds, 963. A bishop is called not to principality but to the service of the whole Church, 1123, 1124. He who loves to preside and not to profit (others) is not a bishop, 621. The field of the Lord is entrusted to bishops, 840. How they may do business for the Lord, 610. Bishops are shepherds from whom the Lord expects the fruit of a multiplied flock, 562. The Lord approved bishops not from the prerogative of a loftier grade, but from the merits of their works, 562. Let them procure for the Judge to come the imperishable gifts of souls, 587. Let them aim at the gains of souls, not at the advantages of the present life, 600. They diligently discharge the care of their order if they take care to draw others to their Author, 618.
Let them recall not only heretics to the Church, but also those who are within the Church to rectitude of life, 618. As honour increases, let solicitude, vigilance, and the merits of life increase, 781, 787. The prerogative of the priesthood will be in honour to the solicitous, but in burden to the negligent, 586. It is an insult to priests to be admonished about the divine services, 684. Let a bishop dispense the ministry of the word with assiduity, 575, 576, 610. Let him provoke his subjects to love of him rather than to fear, 586, 587. Let him bestow priestly affection upon his people, 825. Let him rescue those fallen into fault, 902. Let him show to the erring the way of returning, ibid. — Let a bishop strive for the unity and concord of the peoples, 1005, 1073. He does not easily believe evil, 1249.
How he should conduct himself in quarrels and contentions, 1135. Let him come to the aid of the afflicted, 527. He owes love and compassion to his neighbour in his infirmities, 598. Let him succour the necessities of the people with pious compassion, 681. Let a bishop know himself to be a father, not a lord, 587. Pride in a bishop is culpable, 735. Episcopal consolation ought to be present to the converted, 950. What the honour and dignity of bishops demands, 1236. — The duties of a bishop toward the needy, widows, orphans, and the oppressed. It belongs to bishops to console desolate widows and to succour them with priestly protection, 527, 821. To orphans and widows, 551, 638. It has been granted to bishops by emperors and kings to defend the causes of the oppressed poor and widows, 627.
The administration of pious affairs was formerly committed to the care of bishops, 706. A bishop sparing toward the needy holds the name of bishop empty, 817. He has to dispense not his own goods, but the goods of the poor, 1232. Pontifical assistance is fitting to be present to those suffering necessity, 707, 760. A bishop ought to bring aid to the harassed and oppressed, 910, 950, 1034, 1035, 1066, 1068, 1076, 1082, 1084, 1085. How bishops ought to defend the goods of the poor, 1059, 1232. By what means they ought to console those who are struck with scourges, 1087, 1088. They ought to intervene for the accused, 949; yet not by bestowing ecclesiastical patronage indiscriminately on all, 948. It is execrable that what has been preserved by the kings of the nations should be said to be taken away by bishops, 831.
Bishops driven from their see by enemies are to be received by other bishops for the sustenance of life, 540. The care of guests formerly fell to bishops, 1059, 1116, 1151, 1269. — The duties of a bishop toward the Church. A bishop is chosen as intercessor with the Lord for the sins of the people, 507, 813. Let him govern the Church according to the canons, 563, 585. How he should conduct himself toward the good and the bad, 672. Let him not lack solicitude, 787, 902, 903. Let him be diligent in maintaining and administering the affairs of the Church, 600, 1235. Let him defend the jurisdiction of the Church, 825; and also the sons and business of the same Church, 946. A bishop summoned to a synod is bound to come, or if hindered by illness let him send a presbyter and deacon, 784. What bishops ought to do in synods, 985.
Let them recall to the Church those straying from the truth of faith, 675. The African canons urge bishops to have care concerning heretics, 731, 732. When concord is preserved among bishops, heretics are more conveniently overcome, 732. How a bishop should conduct himself toward the erring, 1073; toward idolaters, soothsayers, and the sacrilegious, 982. A bishop negligent in rooting out idolatry is said to be guilty of sacrilege, 909. — The mutual duties of a bishop and the clergy, 1263. Let a bishop keep his clergy in their office, 981, 982. Let him hold to discipline, 704, 707, 739, 1151. Let him not burden his subject clergy beyond measure, 1231. The correction of the clergy pertains to the bishop, 668; and their causes, 667, 1071, 1120 and following, 1178.