(This oration is extant after the homily.) 42. Let the litany of the clergy set out from the church of Saint John the Baptist; the litany of the men from the church of the holy martyr Marcellus; the litany of the monks from the church of the holy martyrs John and Paul; the litany of the handmaids of God from the church of the blessed martyrs Cosmas and Damian; the litany of the married women from the church of the blessed first martyr Stephen; the litany of the widows from the church of the martyr Vitalis; the litany of the poor and of the children from the church of the blessed martyr Cecilia. (Gregory of Tours, Book X of the History, chapter 1.) 43.
Therefore, when a great multitude of every age, sex, and station of life had come, according to the injunction of the Levite Gregory, on the appointed day to entreat the Lord, that same plague raged so fiercely by the divine judgment that within the space of a single hour, while the people were sending up their supplication to the Lord, eighty persons, falling to the ground, breathed out their spirit. But the most eloquent orator by no means ceased to preach to the people that they should not desist from prayer until by the divine mercy that pestilence should abate. 44. Indeed, when the future prelate thought that he had wholly turned the emperor aside from consenting to his consecration, he learned at last that his letters had been intercepted by Germanus, prefect of the city.
On this account, forestalling the imperial reply, which he judged to be contrary to his own will, since he could not openly go out through the gates of the city, the crafty man contrived, as it is said, in a disguised habit, to have himself carried out by merchants; he made for the mountain glades and sought out the hiding-places of caves. And while he was sought there by all with the utmost solicitude, he was recognized by the sign of a shining column continually hanging over him from heaven; he was seized, dragged away, and consecrated supreme pontiff at the temple of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles. 45.
But since there are some perfidious Lombards who suppose that Gregory sought the pontificate rather than fled from it, I think it worth the effort to insert a few things out of many, by which I may make it clearer than light that he—so far as he could without the fault of obstinacy—was unwilling to accept the pontificate, nay rather wished utterly to avoid it as an unbearable burden. For he says, almost at the very beginning of his consecration, in his letter to Paul the scholastic: Whatever things pertaining to the honor of the priestly office smile upon me as a stranger, I do not greatly weigh; but concerning you who smile upon me in this matter, I grieve not a little, you who know my desire most fully, and yet believe that I have gained an advancement.
For it would have been the highest advancement for me if I had been able to fulfill what I willed, if I had been able, by attaining the desired quiet, to accomplish my will, which you have long known. But since I am now bound and fettered by the chains of this honor in the Roman city, I have something in which I may rejoice even for your glory, since, with the most excellent lord Leo the ex-consul coming, I do not suspect that you will remain in Sicily; and when you too begin to be fettered by your own honor and detained at Rome, you shall know what grief, what bitterness, I endure.
But when the magnificent lord Maurentius the Chartularius comes, I beg you, hasten to his aid in the necessity of the Roman city, since we are pierced without ceasing by the swords of the enemy from without, yet we are pressed more grievously by an inner peril through the sedition of the soldiers. (Book I, letter 3.) 46. Likewise Gregory to John, patriarch of Constantinople: If the virtue of charity consists in love of one's neighbor, if we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, how is it that your Beatitude does not love me as you love yourself? For I know with what ardor, with what zeal you wished to flee the burdens of the episcopate, and yet you did not resist that these same burdens of the episcopate should be imposed upon me.
It is therefore clear that you do not love me as you love yourself, since you wished me to take up those burdens which you did not wish to have imposed upon yourself. But since I, unworthy and weak, have taken up an old and grievously shattered ship—for the waves enter on every side, and the rotten timbers, battered by the daily and violent storm, sound out shipwreck—I beseech you, through the almighty Lord, that in this my peril you stretch out to me the hand of your prayer, since you are able to intercede the more earnestly, the farther you stand from the confusion of the tribulations which we suffer in this land. (Book I, letter 4.) 47. Likewise Gregory to Theoctista, sister of the emperor: With how great devotion my mind prostrates itself before your reverence I cannot express in words;
nor yet do I strive to betray myself, since even while I am silent you read in your heart what you perceive of my devotion. But I marvel that you have severed the continence long ago conferred upon me from this present continence of the pastoral office, in which, under the guise of the episcopate, I have been brought back to the world, in which I have been subject to as many earthly cares as I remember I never served in the lay life. For I have lost the deep joys of my quiet, and, inwardly falling, I seem outwardly to have ascended; whence I lament that I have been driven far from the face of my Creator.
For I strove daily to be outside the world, outside the flesh, to drive away all the phantasms of the body from the eyes of the mind, and to behold the joys of heaven incorporeally; and, panting after the vision of God not only with my voice but with the whole marrow of my heart, I used to say: My heart hath said to thee: I have sought thy face; thy face, O Lord, will I seek (Psalm 26:8). And desiring nothing in this world, dreading nothing, I seemed to myself to stand upon a certain summit of things, so that I almost believed to be fulfilled in me what, by the promise of the Lord, I had learned from the prophet: I will lift thee up above the heights of the earth (Isaiah 58:14).
For he is lifted up above the heights of the earth who tramples underfoot, by contempt of mind, even those very things which seem lofty and glorious in the present age. But suddenly, struck down from the summit of the mind by the whirlwind of this temptation, I have fallen into fears and terrors; for even if I fear nothing for myself, yet I greatly dread for those who have been committed to me. On every side I am shaken by the waves of affairs and pressed down by storms, so that I may rightly say: I am come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest hath overwhelmed me (Psalm 68:3). After my affairs I long to return to my heart, but, shut out from it by the empty tumults of my thoughts, I cannot return. And so this that is within me has become far from me, so that I am unable to obey the prophetic voice by which it is said:
Return, ye transgressors, to the heart (Isaiah 46:8). But, oppressed by foolish thoughts, I am compelled only to cry out: My heart hath forsaken me (Psalm 39:13). I loved the beauty of the contemplative life as Rachel, barren indeed, but clear-sighted and fair; who, though by her quiet she bears less, yet sees the light more subtly. But by what judgment I know not, Leah has been joined to me in the night—that is, the active life, fruitful indeed, but blear-eyed, seeing less, though bringing forth more. I hastened to sit at the feet of the Lord with Mary, to receive the words of His mouth; and behold, with Martha I am compelled to minister in outward things and to be busy about many matters.
Having, as I believed, driven from myself the legion of demons, I wished to forget those whom I had known and to rest at the feet of the Savior; and behold, to me unwilling and constrained it is said: Return to thy own house, and tell how great things the Lord hath done for thee (Mark 5:19). But who, amid so many earthly cares, could preach the miracles of God, when it is now difficult for me even to recall them? For, pressed in this honor by the tumult of secular affairs, I see myself to be among those of whom it is written: Thou hast cast them down while they were being lifted up (Psalm 72:18). For it did not say, Thou hast cast them down after they were lifted up, but while they were being lifted up, because the wicked, while, propped up by temporal honor, they seem outwardly to rise, inwardly fall.
The lifting up, therefore, is itself the ruin, since while they are upheld by false glory, they are emptied of the true glory. Hence again it is said: Failing, they shall fail like smoke (Psalm 36:20). For smoke, in rising, fails, and, dilating itself, vanishes away. So indeed it comes to pass, when present prosperity accompanies the life of a sinner, since whereby he is shown to be exalted, thereby he is brought to be no more. Hence again it is written: My God, make them like a wheel (Psalm 82:14). For a wheel is raised up from the rear part and falls in the fore parts. Now our rear parts are the good things of the present world which we leave behind; but the fore parts are the eternal and abiding things to which we are called, as Paul attests, who says:
Forgetting the things that are behind, stretching forth myself to those things that are before (Philippians 3:13). The sinner therefore, when he has advanced in the present life, is set like a wheel, since, falling in the fore parts, he is raised up from the rear parts. For when he receives in this life the glory which he had relinquished, he falls from that glory which comes after this. And indeed there are many who so know how to govern their outward advancements that through them they by no means inwardly fall. Whence it is written: God doth not cast away the mighty, whereas he himself also is mighty (Job 36:5). And through Solomon it is said: And he that is intelligent shall possess the helm (Proverbs 1:5). But these things are difficult for me, since they are also very burdensome; and what the mind does not willingly receive, it does not fittingly dispose.
Behold, our most serene lord the emperor has commanded that an ape be made a lion. And indeed, by his command it can be called a lion, but it cannot be made a lion. Whence it is necessary that he impute all my faults and negligences not to me, but to his own piety, who has committed the ministry of virtue to a weak man. (Book I, letter 5.) 48. Likewise Gregory to Narses the patrician: Since you have described the sweetness of contemplation in lofty terms, you have renewed for me the groaning of my ruin, since I have heard what I have lost within, while I unworthily ascended without to the summit of rule. Know that I am struck with so great a sorrow that I am scarcely able to speak; for the darkness of grief besets the eyes of my mind, whatever is looked upon is sad;
whatever is believed to be delightful appears lamentable to my heart. For I ponder that, falling from the high summit of my quiet, to how dejected a summit of outward advancement I have ascended, and, for my faults sent into the exile of occupation from the face of Him who rules, I say with the prophet, as with the voices of ruined Judaea: He that should comfort me is gone far from me (Lamentations 1:16). But as to the fact that, drawing a likeness of cause and name through Scripture, you frame your clausulae and declamations—surely, dearest brother, you call an ape a lion. This you do in the same manner as we often call mangy pups leopards or tigers. For I, good sir, have lost my sons, as it were, since through earthly cares I have lost my upright works.
Do not therefore call me Naomi (Ruth 1:20), that is, beautiful, but call me Mara, since I am full of bitterness. (Book I, letter 6.) 49. Likewise Gregory to Anastasius, patriarch of Antioch: The writings of your Beatitude I found as a weary man finds rest, as a sick man finds health, as one thirsting finds a fountain, as one sweltering finds shade. For those words did not seem expressed through the tongue of the flesh, since you so opened the spiritual love which you bore toward me, as though the mind were speaking through itself. But what followed was very hard, since your love commanded me to bear earthly burdens, and, loving me thereafter, as I judge, temporally—you whom before loved me spiritually—you have pressed me down to the ground with a burden laid upon me.
so that, utterly losing all rectitude of mind and losing the keen edge of contemplation, I say—not through the spirit of prophecy, but through experience: I am bowed down and humbled exceedingly (Psalm 118:107). For such great burdens of occupations press me down that the mind is in no way raised to heavenly things. I am shaken by many waves of affairs; and after that leisure of quiet, I am afflicted by the tempests of a tumultuous life, so that I may rightly say: I am come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest hath overwhelmed me (Psalm 68:3). Therefore, to me in peril, stretch out the hand of your prayer, you who stand upon the shore of the virtues.
But as to the fact that you call me the mouth of the Lord, that you call me a lamp, that you declare that by speaking I profit many and can give light to many—I confess that you have brought my estimation of myself into the greatest doubt. For I consider who I am, and I detect in myself nothing of the mark of this good. But I consider who you are, and I do not think that you can lie. When therefore I wish to believe what you say, my own infirmity contradicts me; when I wish to dispute what is said in my praise, your sanctity contradicts me. But I beseech you, holy man, let us agree upon something concerning this our contest, so that, even if what you say is not so, it may be so because you say it. (Book I, letter 7.) 50. Likewise Gregory to the illustrious Andrew:
May almighty God show to your most sweet heart that, though absent in body, I have not departed in mind from your charity. For your good deeds, even if I willed it, I am not able to forget. But as to the fact that you know I have arrived at the order of the episcopate—if you love me, bewail it, since the occupations of this world here are so great that through the order of the episcopate I see myself to be almost separated from the love of God, which I unceasingly lament; and I beg that you entreat the Lord for me. (Book I, letter 30.) 54. Likewise Gregory to John, ex-consul and quaestor and patrician: Having experienced the good deeds of your Excellency, I am so bound by love toward you that the memory of you can in no way be effaced from my breast.
But contrary to that love I am not a little saddened, since you knew that I was seeking quiet, and you have led me into disquiet. To you indeed may almighty God, because you did this with good intention, repay eternal goods; but from so great a peril of this place may He absolve me in whatever way He shall will, since, as my sins deserved, I have been made bishop not of the Romans but of the Lombards, whose covenants are swords and whose favor is punishment. Behold to what your patronages have led me. I groan daily, pressed by occupations, and I am unable to catch my breath. But you who are still able, flee the occupations of this world, since the more anyone advances in it, the more, as I see, he decreases from the love of God. 52.
Gregory to Leander, bishop of Seville. I would have wished with all my intention to reply to your letters, had not the labor of pastoral care so worn me down that it pleases me rather to weep than to say anything. Which your reverence too vigilantly perceives in the very text of my letters, when I speak negligently to him whom I vehemently love. For I am shaken by such great waves in this place of this world, that I am in no way able to steer to port the old and rotting ship which, by the hidden dispensation of God, I have undertaken to govern. Now the waves rush in from the front, now the foaming masses of the sea swell up from the side, now from behind the tempest pursues;
and amid all these things, troubled, I am now compelled to direct the very helm against the adversity, now, with the ship's side bent over, to escape obliquely the threats of the waves. I groan, since I feel that, through my negligence, the bilge of vices grows, and, with the tempest strongly opposing, the rotten timbers already sound out shipwreck. Weeping, I remember that I have lost the calm shore of my quiet; and, sighing, I gaze upon the land which, with the winds of affairs opposing, I nevertheless cannot reach. If therefore you love me, dearest brother, stretch out to me the hand of your prayer amid these waves, that, whereby you aid me in my labor, you may by that very exchange of reward become stronger also in your own labors. (Book I, letter 31.) 53.
But since it has been sufficiently proved, as I think, that Gregory not only wished to decline the supreme priesthood, but even took it up with great anguish of soul, it seems that it should be briefly indicated with what discretion he did this, lest indeed so great a man should be thought to have succumbed, even slightly, to the fault either of obstinacy or of pusillanimity. 54. For he says in his letter to Anastasius, bishop of Corinth: The judgments of God, as they are unsearchable, so ought they to be feared by human senses: so that, because mortal reason is not able to comprehend them, it is necessary that it prostrate itself before them with humble neck of heart, so that wherever the will of Him who governs shall have led it, thither it may follow with the steps of an obedient mind.
But I, considering my own infirmity, that I could not attain to the summit of the apostolic see, chose rather to decline this burden, lest in the pastoral government I should succumb through the action of an unequal administration. But since to go contrary is not in the choice of the Lord who disposes, I obediently followed what the merciful hand of Him who rules me willed to work concerning me. For it was necessary to indicate to your Fraternity, even if the present occasion had not arisen, that, though unworthy, the Lord has deigned that I should preside over the apostolic see. (Book I, letter 27.) Likewise concerning the same matter to Philip, count of the excubitores.
Inasmuch as man is not sufficient to discuss and investigate the heavenly judgments, so far ought he to bend the neck of his heart beneath them, so that, because he is ignorant by what judgment that which is bestowed upon him is disposed, he ought neither to insist forwardly upon seeking a position, nor to be found stubborn in refusing it. Whence I, unworthy to take up the burdens of the episcopate, have submitted myself to the command of almighty God and to your will, who wished me to preside over you rather by the largess of grace than by the estimation of judgment. For God, on account of whom you love me though unworthy, is able to recompense this reward to you in perpetuity, so that the grace which you bestow upon His unworthy servants you may be able to find multiplied with Him. (Book I, letter
32.) But here I take a little breath from the work of excerpting, so that the things which are to be said specifically concerning the pontificate may, by the Lord's aid, be related in another little book.