The utmost discretion is necessary for him, 97. Let him teach by deed before he teaches by voice, 100. The voice more readily penetrates the heart of the hearers which the life of the speaker commends, 509. Let him surpass his subjects by the virtue of his conduct, 509. Preachers must be fortified with humility against pride, 1110. What the preacher's knowledge ought to be, 785. The seed of the word easily germinates when the piety of the preacher waters it in the breast of the hearer, 26. What fruit he obtains for himself who strenuously discharges the office of a preacher, 75. Even if the preacher does not obtain the effect of conversion, yet he does not lack the reward of his preaching, 680.
The virtue of preachers is made manifest where a harvest of souls springs up, 836.—Bad preachers are like an unskilled physician who, not knowing his own wound, wishes to cure another's, 73. Those must be admonished who, rightly understanding sacred Scripture, do not preach humbly, 73. He who seeks his own glory in the word of God usurps the right of the Giver, in the same place. Let preachers beware of serving Satan through pride, 74. Those wishing to preside flatter themselves with a feigned promise of good works, 9. All who preside are the head of their subjects, 25. Let him not dare to preside who has not learned to be a subject, 156. Yet some are exempted from this rule, in the same place. Who was formerly called the cardinal prefect, 501. One holding the place of the prefects, that is, the vicar of the prefects, 460.
The prefect, a magistrate distinct from the exarch, 321. The city prefect exacted the accounts from the prefect of the grain-supply, in the same place. Why the souls pregnant with Gilead are so called, 72. Who the prejacent (foremost-lying) clergy are, 1117. Praejecta, an illustrious woman, 974. Praejectus, bishop of Narni, 569. Prejudice signifies loss, damage, 959, 973, 974, 1077. Let fear temper the desire for prelacy, 2. Let every prelacy be conferred not from age, lots, or chance, but from what is more excellent, 692. Of how great moment to prelacies is election or nomination, 853. The common utility is always to be attended to, not the private, 857. How the prelate should come to the summit of governance, 1, 10. Let him not approach the mastery of humility through elation, 3.
The action of the prelate ought to surpass the action of the people as much as the life of the shepherd differs from the flock, 13. The prelate, occupied with divine matters, should leave earthly affairs to be managed by his subjects, 25. Let him tolerate secular business out of compassion, but never seek it out of love, 26. For the most part in the occupation of governance the practice of good work is lost, which was held in tranquillity, 9. The density of cares devastates the mind of the prelate, 24, 172. As much is filched from him in any one matter, as he is more widely occupied in many, in the same place. Let prelates preside temperately, 37. Let them carry out what they teach, 38. Let those who preside over others consider not the power of order, but the equality of condition, 20. On the summit of dignities humility is imperiled, 21.
Let the prelate know that he is raised up above faults, 21. How much he ought to fear for himself from elation and adulation, 21. In him humility is to be preserved in heart, and discipline in work, 22. What penalty awaits a prelate elated by the governance he has received, 23. Good prelates rejoice to be reproved by their subjects, bad ones hate it, 28. God, having conquered the greater vices in holy prelates, leaves them in the least ones for the sake of humility, 102. Whatever prelates ought to confess themselves liable to error, 172. Let pastoral zeal not obstruct humility, or vice versa, 514. In prelates let neither humility be slack nor authority rigid, 526.—The prelate, taking up the care of the people, approaches as a physician to a sick man, 10. The prelate is said to bear the vessels of the Lord, 13, 508.
Let him rejoice not to preside over men but to be of profit to them, 20. When he ought to instill terror into his subjects, 20, 31. Let freedom of tongue toward prelates be so granted to subjects that the humility of their life is not lost by these, 28. Prelates have gone surety for their subjects, 38. How the prelate is ensnared by the words of his own mouth, in the same place. It does not suffice for the prelate to be vigilant, if he does not sever the subject from the torpor of sin, 38. What it is for the prelate to sleep or to drowse, in the same place. Let him have eyes ever watchful within and round about, 39. Let meek prelates embrace solicitude, let the wrathful condemn their perturbation, 57. Let prelates strive to be loved more than feared, 586. As they are proved fathers in name, so let them be in affection by their work, 613.
For this reason they correct their subjects, that they may make them better, 669. When sin is not corrected in the subject, the sentence is turned back upon those who preside, 702. To this end are peoples committed to their superiors, that while they serve them in earthly things, they may receive from them the things that are eternal, 703.—The prelate easily esteems himself to be wiser than all, over whom he sees himself to have more power, 21. It behooves the prelate to have dominion over vices, not over men, 22. The worst effects of anger in the prelate, 57. Headlong fury is despised in prelates, 681. The perverse examples of prelates, of how many deaths worthy, 38. In prelates sloth is veiled under the appearance of humility; pride feigns the love of uprightness, 59. The merits of the rulers and of the peoples are bound together, 855.
How great an evil credulity is in prelates, 860. Battle. What it is to stand in battle in the day of the Lord, 17, 510. Praeneste, an episcopal city of Latium, 331, 332, 396. The abbot of Mount Praeneste, of venerable life, 332. He foreknows the day of his death, in the same place. Bishops of Praeneste: Sergius, 1287. Proculus, 1291. The prepositus (provost) is he who holds the second place, whether in spiritual or in temporal things, in a monastery, 153, 625, 732. What is neglected by the abbot's negligence ought to be preserved by the provost's solicitude, 732. The goodness of provosts is the salvation of subjects, 797, 833. What the provost of a monastery should care for, 857. With what virtues he ought to be adorned, in the same place. In ordaining a provost, place is not to be attended to, but utility to be foreseen, in the same place.
Each office is then wholesomely completed when there is one provost to whom recourse may be had, 784. Provosts must flee anger, 1018. What kind of person the provost ought to be toward his subjects, 1237. Those who sin against the provost sin against God, 39. Those who raise themselves against provosts scorn to be servants of God, 599. To foreknow. Those whom God has foreknown are to be gathered together within the bosom of the Church cannot be snatched from His hand, 1000, 1001. Prescription is one of the exceptions which is taken from the lapse of time, 496. Whether centenary prescription is reserved to the Roman Church alone, in the same place. Whether prescription of forty years prevails in a dispute over the boundaries of fields between two abbots, 887. Presumption.
Concerning presumption arising from overconfidence: those who are inordinately secure die unexpectedly through negligence, 99. He who, being assisted, presumes himself strong, when abandoned recognizes his infirmity, 101. What incautious presumption is, 977. A presumptor, that is, an invader and usurper, 793. Praetextatus, bishop of Rouen, 1145. A praetor was called by the ancients any commander of soldiers, 1018. From what a praetor ought to beware in administering a province, and with what integrity he ought to render justice, 487. The various signification of praetorium, 1018. To foresee. Things that are foreseen as future, when they have become present, become of less power, 90. What precarium signifies according to its etymology, 607. It seems to be the same as military pay or money, in the same place, 1054, 1184.
In canon law, what the contract of precaria is, 607. Precariae are to be renewed every five years, in the same place. Prayers. Why God hears prayers in small and lowly matters, 192. Our mouth is the less heard by God in prayer the more it is defiled by foolish speech, 313. Our prayers are the more swiftly raised to the ear of the Lord's mercy, when the ardor of charity, poured out in turn for us, hears them, 807. A presbyter is called a man of the second See, or of the second throne, or a priest of the second Order, 486, 563. In earlier ages bishops were called presbyters, otherwise in Gregory, 635. Why there was formerly so great a scarcity of presbyters in the Church, 500.
Formerly none were ordained presbyters unless assigned to some Church or title, 501, 694. Who were called cardinal presbyters, 501. A presbyter substituted into another's place by necessity, not by fault, is to be removed from that Church and ordained in another that is vacant, 694. The scarcity of presbyters was formerly useful; a throng now harms discipline, 694. In Gregory's time a cardinal presbyter ought not to be appointed to a single title in an oratory, 576, 577. Yet in certain oratories it was permitted to have a cardinal presbyter, 1188. A pilgrim (foreign) presbyter is one who is not cardinal or titular, 697, 698. Who then were to ordain presbyters, 547. Why formerly very few from among presbyters were assumed to the episcopate, 681.
Whether formerly in monasteries there was no presbyter, or only one, and he an adventitious (externally admitted) one, 697, 698. The wives of presbyters were called conversae, 388. Many councils of Gaul forbid presbyters ordained after marriage to cohabit with their wives, 546. Yet in Gregory's time this was not wholly prohibited in Italy, in the same place. Let presbyters after ordination love their wives as sisters, let them beware of them as enemies, 388. Sardinian presbyters are forbidden to chrismate on the forehead, 649. Which afterward they are permitted to do, 705. Presbyters who are accusers, if they fail in the proof, are to be excommunicated, 706, 707. It is provided that they should not absolve monks from excommunication, 955. Presbyters formerly sat in synods, 1288, 1297.
Presbyters sat as judges in the Council of Chalcedon, 1288. Presbyters are called sons by Gregory, 1297. A presbyter taking a wife, and a woman taking a presbyter, are excommunicated, 1293. Cases of presbyters. See Clergy. Presbyters ought to reside. See Residence. A certain presbyter in the province of Valeria sets a thief at his own tomb, 329. How a certain presbyter of Nursia lived with his wife after his ordination, 388. In the moment of his death he bids her to withdraw from him, in the same place. Whence, refreshed by the vision and colloquy of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, he dies, 389. Presbytera is the term for the wife of a presbyter, 388, 931. She was also called conversa, 388. And elder widows, in the same place, and 932.
With what garments they were clothed is not clear, 931. Presbyterium sometimes signifies a clerical office, 593. Often for a body of clergy, sometimes for the dignity of a presbyter, in the same place. To contract the presbyterium is to convene a synod, in the same place. Sometimes presbyterium signifies a part of the governance, honor, office, and care of the Church, 593. By presbyterium Gregory understands the accustomed stipend of the clergy, 593, 760. It also signifies a donative or money which a newly created pontiff bestowed on each of the clergy and senate, 593. It also signifies that distribution of money which was made on certain solemnities through the year, in the same place. The dignity granted to the defensores in the presbyterium, 593. Pretiosus, provost of the monastery of which St.
Gregory was abbot, 465. At Gregory's bidding he celebrates a Thirty-Days' series of Masses for the soul of the monk Justus, 468. Pretiosus, a servant of God, 594. The primate or metropolitan in Africa was, by ancient custom, the senior bishop of the province, 559. Whence often a less suitable bishop or place for the dignity, in the same place. Gregory attempts to abolish this custom, in the same place. Which afterward he allows to be retained, 561. He who was a Donatist cannot attain to the primacy, in the same place. What the primate's duties are concerning those to be ordained, 660. Without the primate's letters bishops could neither proceed to the court nor hold assemblies, 975. A primate is to be judged by the Roman pontiff according to the canons, 976. Or by a provincial council, 1203. See Metropolitan.
Primarius, bishop of Nuceria, 947. Primarius, bishop of Nursia, 1288. The primicerius is the first of any order noted on a waxed tablet, or inscribed in the catalogue, 639, 640. The firstborn notary, 1188. He leaves the Roman Church his heir, in the same place. First. He is foolish who esteems himself first in this, that he disdains to learn the good things he has seen, 941. Prince. Formerly there were princes called cardinals, 501. For what end was power given from heaven to princes over all men, 676. Principalis jussio and jussio principis (the prince's command), 540, 1266. Principia are taken for the tabernacle (headquarters) of the prince, 1048. Priscilla, a pseudo-prophetess, 1168. Priscus, a patrician of the East, that is, commander of the Eastern army, 661, 663.
He performed distinguished exploits in the Persian war, 663. He was not the son-in-law of Phocas, but Phocas was the groom (aide) of Priscus, in the same place. Privilege. The Roman pontiffs profess to preserve inviolate the privileges of all Churches, 561, 614. Which privileges are equitable, and which are unjust, 611. What privilege is suspect, 666. St. Gregory grants privileges to the monasteries of Autun, 1219, 1221, 1223, 1225. He orders this grant to be inserted in the public records, 1220. Whether those privileges are spurious, 1221, 1223. Penalties against those who come against the privileges, 1223, 1225. Why St. Gregory threatens such grave penalties, 1222. Examples of the gravest denunciations against violators of privileges, in the same place, and 1225. Privilege to the monastery of St.
Granted to Medardus, 1284 and following. Another privilege granted to all monasteries, 1294 and following. Probabilis, that is, approved, good, praiseworthy, 633. Proof. Who become bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the proof (assay), 52. Proof is more certain in those parts where the matter was transacted, 1264. Probinus, presbyter of Seville, 777, 1209. Probus, bishop of Rieti, deemed worthy of a visitation by the holy martyrs Juvenal and Eleutherius at the moment of death, 389. His name is read in the Martyrology, in the same place. Probus, an abbot from whom Gregory had learned many of the things he relates in his Dialogues, 389, 400, 401, 440. The same Probus, 938, 1237. Why the faculty of making a will was granted to him, 539, 1297 and following. What 'to proceed' signifies among the holy
Fathers and ecclesiastical authors, 193, 421, 669, 882, 1262. A procession is a concourse of the people, an assembly of peoples, 577. Sometimes it signifies advancement and promotion in Gregory, 503. Solemn processions of clergy and people are often called litanies by authors, 736. Prochisus, 596. Gregory commends the cases of the island of Prochyta to Maurentius, 986. Proculus, bishop of Nicotera, 962, 1234. Proculus, bishop of the city of Praeneste, 1291. Proculus, deacon of the Church of Ascoli, 1229. Who is called a prodigal returned to himself, 217. To advance. Not to advance in the way of virtue is to fall back, 94. To advance is to be promoted to a higher grade, 1260, 1261. Profligari, that is, to be arranged, 562. Or to be propagated, 993.
Companion for the marriage torches (bridal escort), 324. A prophet sent against Samaria is slain by a lion for disobedience, 408. His disobedience is purged by death, in the same place. The lion killed the sinner's life, but guarded the just man's corpse, in the same place. Why prophets are sometimes called teachers in sacred Scripture, 17, 510. The gift of prophecy is asserted of the Church, 115. Why the spirit of prophecy does not always irradiate the minds of the prophets, 248, 249. In this world he is darkened who prophesies anything concerning God, 617. Those having the spirit of prophecy, 233, 236, 237, 240, 245, 297, 304, 305, 337, 420, 425, 428. Proprius is used of one taken up as, or the client of, another, 1123, 1124. With what penalty the vice of private property was punished in a monk, 465. See Peculiarity.
What property and momentum are, 959, 960. Prosper, the responsalis (representative) of Dominicus, bishop of Carthage, 731. The losses of prosperity are compared with the fruits of adversity, 5. Who are to be admonished that use prosperous things, 77. Let these beware lest they love the pilgrimage instead of the fatherland, in the same place. Those who have given themselves wholly to prosperity are rebuked, in the same place. Prosperous things are to be used, not enjoyed (as ends), in the same place. Prosperity is signified by the left hand of God, 77. Let favorable circumstances summon us to a better life, in the same place. They strengthen the hope of a greater good, 78. Those who abuse them are the more justly condemned, in the same place. Whence they advance outwardly, thence they fall from inward things, in the same place. Temporal prosperity is subject to many perils, in the same place.
We ought neither to be elated by prosperity nor broken by adversity, 662. How great a penalty it is to be wearied by the desire of prosperity, or to tremble with the fear of adversity, 875. What prosperity teaches us, 662. However great prosperity may be, it has as its end the terminus of death, 998. Protasius, from being vicedominus of the Church of Arles, was made the tenth bishop of Aix, 832. His love toward the Roman Church is praised, in the same place. Who the insolent are that must be admonished, 41. Confusion is useful to the insolent, in the same place. What the manners of the insolent are, in the same place. Advancements are the promotions of clergy, 588. Others understand by advancements the stipends of the clergy, in the same place. Providentius, bishop of Istria, 778. How many cities an ecclesiastical province ought to have, 1163, 1164.
One must labor for the procuring of a neighbor's salvation, 7. He who beholds a neighbor's evil and neglects it becomes the author of his death, 54. Let us relieve a neighbor's straits, if not by all, at least by some supports, 541. He who comes to the aid of a neighbor's necessities finds the Lord merciful in his own necessities, 549, 554. Why Christ willed His servants to be prudent and simple, 766. Prudentius, bishop of Troyes, in his book on predestination adduces many testimonies from the Gregorian Dialogues, 107. Psalms. In certain places none was formerly advanced to the episcopate, or to any other grade, who did not hold the psalter by memory, 777.
The old custom of chanting the psalms by memory in the Church long flourished, and still flourishes in certain Churches, in the same place. Gregory advises that commentaries on the Psalms be read at the vigils, 1196. The psalms in the Church are to be chanted by subdeacons and the minor orders, 1289. Zeal for psalmody is praised in a bishop, 1188. What a psiathium is, 233. A house destined for the feeding of the poor, 1107. Publicani, or public men, whence so called, 1097, 1098. Pudentiana, an episcopal city of Numidia, 611. The bishop of this city, Maximianus, was to be deposed for simony in the provincial synod of Numidia, 612. A certain boy driven headlong from a mountain is saved by a miracle, 316.
In the three Hebrew boys the flame had its power unto consolation, but not unto torment, 324. In royal children mutual charity is to be inspired, and gentleness toward subjects, 871. The words of nurturers are either milk, if they are good, or poison, if evil, in the same place. The fist pertains to anger, 62. Pulcheria Augusta is praised, 1245. Into whose hand beauty is delivered that it may perish, 101. When the soul is lifted up by confidence in its own beauty, 100. What it is to have confidence in one's own beauty, 1030. To sew cushions under every elbow of the hand, what it is, 27. What the pupil bearing a white spot (albugo) signifies, 12. To purge oneself at the third, at the fifth, or at the seventh hand, what it is, 864. What canonical purgation is, and of how many kinds, 597, 864.
The Holy Eucharist was formerly employed for purgation (the clearing of oneself from a charge), 598. Examples of canonical purgation, 597, 991, 1219. A presbyter was formerly bound to clear himself by taking an oath, with the Gospels touched, 864. See 'Oath.' Purgatory is affirmed by testimonies and by reasonings, 115, 441. Paschasius the deacon was freed from the pains of purgatory by Germanus, bishop of Capua, 445. The holy sacrifice offered for the dead frees them from the pains of purgatory, 464, 468. Which souls suffering in purgatory that sacrifice profits, 472. It is safer to do good works while we are alive than those we hope will be done for us by others after death, ibid. It is more blessed to depart from here free than to seek liberty after chains, ibid.
Only the least sins are expiated by the fire of purgatory, 444, 445. That those least sins may be purged is obtained by nothing but good deeds, 444. What the purple mingled with gold and hyacinth in the priest's vestment signifies, 16, 509. Which faint-hearted persons are to be admonished, 41. Of what disposition the faint-hearted are, ibid. Sometimes they must be lifted up with praises, 42. Puteoli, a city of Campania once well cultivated, 1085. A 'quadra' is a piece of bread, 201. How Lent is to be observed, 1303. From Quinquagesima the clergy are to take up the resolve of fasting, 1301. Gregory disapproves of the laity gorging themselves with heaps of flesh-meat on the Lord's Day, 1302, 1303. Quadragesimus, subdeacon of the Church of Buxentum, was pasturing his flock, 320. 'Quanti' for 'quot' (how many), 1169. Quertinus, a former prefect, 1297.
Rest (quiet) is to be sought, but sometimes to be set aside for the profit of many, 848. Monastic rest and the pastoral care of the laity do not agree together, 727. Quintianus the bishop, 693. Quiricus, bishop of Toledo, 106. He is called a bishop of Iberia (Spain), 1166, 1167. Quodvultdeus, an African bishop, 609. Formerly one said 'quotiens,' not 'quoties,' 564. Whence the change was made, ibid. What 'racana' or 'rachana' are, 1092, 1179, 1180. Rachel signifies the contemplative life, 491. Why priests were forbidden to shave the head, 27, 514. Plunderers are those who come to the summit of rule not called by God, but inflamed by their own desire, 3. What admonitions are to be given to plunderers of others' goods, 65.
They are worthy of eternal punishment who do not bestow their own goods; how much more those who seize others' goods, ibid. These are to be urged with the testimonies of Holy Scripture, ibid. By what admonition those are to be restrained who bestow their own and seize others', 67. The occasion of plundering is taken away if the right of possessing is first well ordered, ibid. How the greed of plunderers is corrected, 66. The ravisher of another's wife is to be strictly punished, 693. One who ravishes a virgin, and those favoring him, are excommunicated, 1293. A reason, however evident, is wont to be an obstacle before an unwilling mind, 723. What the breastplate (rationale) of Aaron signifies, 13, 14, 508, 840. What the names of the twelve Patriarchs inscribed on it signify, 14, 508. Why it is called the breastplate of judgment, 14. Ravenna was the seat of the exarchs of Italy, 521.
The pride of the bishop of Ravenna concerning the use of the pallium is rebuked, 666. The privilege granted to the Church of Ravenna by Pope John, 669. Formerly the bishops of Ravenna did not use the pallium outside the church, except in translations of relics, 739. Gregory orders inquiry into how many solemn litanies there anciently were, in which the bishop of Ravenna used the pallium, 819. What was formerly observed by the bishops of Ravenna in the use of the pallium, Gregory wishes to be sworn to by faithful and grave men, and that thereafter to be kept, 837, 838. The form of that oath, 838. The use of the maniples (mappulae) is granted to the first deacons only of the Church of Ravenna, 668.
But the bishop of Ravenna contends that all the presbyters and deacons of his church have used them in those solemnities, 669, 670. Gregory desires to honor the Church of Ravenna, 739. He confirms the privileges of that same church, 787. The visitation of the Church of Ravenna is committed to Severus, bishop of Ficulum, 754, 755. It is to be examined and concluded there, 810. In the election of the bishop of Ravenna, Gregory orders five of the senior presbyters and five of the foremost, together with certain clerics, to be sent to him, 753. A case between the bishop of Ravenna and an abbot is lawfully summoned to Rome, ibid. To be examined and concluded, 810. The patrimony of the Church of Ravenna in Sicily, 1097. Bishops of Ravenna: John, see the alphabetical index of the Letters.
Marinianus, 1230. See his heading and the same index. Reate, a city of Umbria in Italy, 943. Bishops of Reate: Albinus, 168; Probus, 389. Reccared, following the example not of his father, but of his brother Hermenegild the martyr, having abjured the Arian faithlessness, was converted to the faith, 348. He led the Visigoths to the same faith, suffering none of his subjects to be an enemy of God, ibid., 1028. Reccared's conversion was the fruit of Hermenegild's martyrdom, 348. Gregory rejoices at his conversion, 532. Reccared sends abbots to Gregory, 978. And a golden chalice, ibid., 1029. The excellence of Gregory's letters to Reccared, 1028. Reccared spurned the money offered to him by the Jews for annulling a law, 1029.
How he ought to flee the snares of the ancient enemy, 1030 and following. Gregory sends him relics, 1031. Why Reccared did not obtain the charters of the treaties which he sought from the emperor's archive, 1031. 'Rector' (governor) is taken among the jurists for one who governs a province by whatever title, 595. The rector of souls should be pure in thought, 13, 508. Let him strive for the advantages of others, not his own, 14. Let him suffer nothing of human infirmity, 14. Let him not rule his subjects without fear, ibid., 15. Let him be preeminent in action, 15, 508. Let him beware of loquacity, 18. Let him be near to each one in compassion, ibid. Let him, through humility, be a companion to those doing well, 20, 513. Against the vices of offenders let him be upright through zeal, 20, 31, 513.
The rector, though assailed by hearing others' temptations, is not defiled, 20, 513. Let piety show the rector a mother to his subjects, and discipline a father, 23, 513. The rector, while outwardly surrounded by immense favor, is inwardly emptied of truth, 21. Let him not seek to be loved by his subjects more than the truth, 27, 28. He who seeks to please the bride of Christ, not Christ, is guilty of adultery, 27. Self-love in a rector is pernicious, ibid. Carnal rectors are fawning to the powerful, harsh to the weak sheep, 28. How good rectors ought to please men, 28. Let the rector discern virtues and vices with vigilant care, 29. Let him daily meditate on the precepts of the sacred word, 33. What it is for a rector to doze or to sleep, 38.