He asked for a small knife, and after the manner of the most holy Pope Leo, pricked the consecrated cloth, from whose prickings blood forthwith flowed. At which miracle the envoys were as confounded as all who were present were struck with trembling, and at Gregory's command they prostrated themselves with him upon the ground, nor did they cease from prayer before all the punctures of the consecrated cloths were divinely closed up. 43. Moreover, a certain one of the wealthy Romans, having forsaken his wife, had been deprived of communion by the Roman pontiff. Bearing this most grievously, and unable to make void the authority of so great a pontiff, he sought the assistance of magicians.
They, persuaded by great gifts, confidently promised that they could, by their incantations, so contrive that, a demon being sent in, the pontiff's horse should be tormented until it, together with its rider, should be brought into peril. Delighted by this promise, the unchaste judge suffered the magicians to stand on high beside the road along which the pontiff was to proceed to the station, so that they might see those passing by, and not be seen by those passing. And when the magicians, from the processions of the standard-bearers and the napkin-bearers, had recognized the great pontiff, a demon being sent in, they made his horse to be tormented so violently that it seemed it could by no means be held by its rider or by the grooms.
Then Gregory, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit recognizing the demonic assault, by the holy sign of the cross both delivered the horse from its present frenzy, and, commanding that the sorcerers be taken down from their hidden height, punished them with perpetual blindness. When they confessed their guilt at the suggestion of the unchaste judge, and after much time came to the grace of holy baptism, he was unwilling indeed to restore to them their sight, lest they should read magic again, yet he ordered that they be nourished by the ecclesiastical dole. 44. It is also read among those same Churches of the Angles that Gregory, proceeding through the Forum of Trajan, which Trajan had once adorned with most beautiful buildings, recalled and marveled at that judgment of his by which he had consoled a widow:
which judgment, as is handed down from those of old, was of this sort. At a certain time, when Trajan was hastening most vehemently to the array of an imminent war, a certain widow came forth, tearfully saying: My innocent son, in thy reign, has been slain; I beseech that, since thou canst not restore him to me, thou wouldest deign lawfully to avenge his blood. And when Trajan replied that he would avenge this in every respect, if he returned sound from the battle, the widow said: If thou shalt be slain in the battle, who will render it to me? Trajan said: He who shall reign after me. The widow said: And what will it profit thee, if another does me justice? Trajan replied: Nothing whatever. And the widow:
Is it not, she said, better for thee that thou thyself do me justice, and receive thy reward for this, than that thou transmit it to another? Then Trajan, moved alike by reason and by piety, dismounted from his horse, and did not depart before he had, by a single act, discharged the judgment pressing upon the widow. This gentleness of the judge, then, they assert that Gregory recalled, and came to the basilica of the holy Apostle Peter; and there wept so long over the error of so most-clement a prince, until on the following night he received an answer that he had been heard on Trajan's behalf—only that he should henceforth pour out no prayers for any pagan.
But whereas concerning the foregoing miracles there is no Roman who doubts, concerning this which is read among the Saxons—that at his prayers the soul of Trajan was delivered from the torments of hell—it seems to be doubted for this reason above all: that so great a teacher would by no means presume to pray outright for a pagan; he who in the fourth book of his Dialogues taught that the same cause exists why the saints do not pray at the future judgment for sinners condemned to eternal fire, which is now also the cause that holy men do not pray for unbelieving and impious departed; they not observing that it is not read that Gregory prayed for Trajan, but only that he wept.
For thus, when Gregory did not pray, he could yet by lamenting be heard, even as Moses, when he was silent with grief, could be seen to have cried out—to whom, though silent in lips, the Lord said: Why criest thou to me? (Exod. 14:15). Doubtless Almighty God searches hearts and reins, and often, having compassion, grants those things which a man, though as carnal he desires them, yet does not presume to ask. Whence the Psalmist: The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor, and thine ear hath heard the longing of their heart (Ps. 10:17). And it is to be noted that it is not read that by Gregory's prayers the soul of Trajan was delivered from hell and placed in paradise, which seems altogether incredible on account of that which is written:
Unless one be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5); but it is simply said to have been delivered from the torments of hell only. Which indeed can seem credible, since a soul can so exist in hell and, through God's mercy, not feel the torments of hell, just as one fire of Gehenna avails to hold all sinners alike, yet by God's justice does not avail to burn all equally. For according as each one's fault has deserved, by the just judgment of God so much will both the torment and the penalty be felt. 45.
None the less, from the book which by the Greeks is called Leimon, but by the Latins is understood as 'field' or 'meadow,' my preceptor, among other miracles now noised abroad throughout the whole world, interpreted this one, writing to me: A priest, named Peter, related to us concerning the holy Gregory, the Roman pope (for this most reverend priest was from there): He, said he (Spiritual Meadow, ch. 192), being made pope, built a great monastery of men, and gave the mandate that no one of the monks should have anything of his own, even to a single obol. A brother, then, of the monastery had a brother in the world, and asked him, saying: I have no cloak, but do this act of charity, buy me one. The secular brother says to him:
Lo, take three coins and purchase such as pleases thee. And so the monk, having received the three coins, keeps them by him. But another brother, seeing him having three coins, went and reported it to the abbot. And the abbot, hearing it, related it to the most blessed pope. And the most blessed Gregory, learning this from the abbot, separated him from communion, as one who had broken the rule of the monastery. Therefore, after a little time, the separated brother dies, the pope not knowing it. After two or three days, then, the abbot went and reported to him that the brother had gone to his rest. Whereat he was grieved not a little, because, before he departed from this life, he had not loosed him from the penalty of excommunication;
and writing a prayer on a tablet, he gave it to one of his deacons, bidding him go and read it over the brother. Now the prayer was one loosing the deceased from excommunication. So the deacon goes, as had been commanded him, and reads over the brother's tomb the tablet containing the prayer. And that very night the abbot saw that departed brother, and said to him: Art thou not dead, brother? He answered: Yea. And again the abbot asked him: Where wast thou until today? The brother answered: Truly, lord, in custody, and until yesterday I was not absolved.
And so it became known to all that at the very hour in which the deacon said the prayer over the tomb, at that same hour he was absolved from excommunication, and his soul was set free from that domination. 46. Therefore Gregory not only consecrated to Christ the Lord the Saxons dwelling in their own homelands, but also, purchasing at his own cost year by year their children scattered abroad through foreign regions, he led them to the knowledge of the faith. Whence he admonishes the priest Candidus, saying:
With the help of our Lord God Jesus Christ, as you set out to administer the patrimony which is in Gaul, we wish that your Charity should, from the solidi you receive, purchase clothing for the poor, or English boys of about seventeen or eighteen years of age, so that, being given to God, they may make progress in the monasteries; to the end that the solidi of Gaul, which cannot be spent in our land, may be usefully spent in their own place. But if you are able to recover anything from the moneys of the revenues which are said to have been carried off, from these too we wish you to purchase clothing for the poor; or, as we said before, boys who may make progress in the service of Almighty God.
But since those who may be found there are pagans, I wish that a priest be sent with them, lest any sickness befall on the way, so that he may baptize any whom he sees about to die. (Book VI, letter 7.) 47. The most gentle ruler Gregory grieved likewise that the peasants of Sardinia should remain so long in the error of ancient time, that, rebuking Januarius, bishop of Cagliari, for his negligences, he writes among other things: Another thing has happened greatly to be lamented, namely that the very peasants whom the Church possesses have been permitted by the negligence of your Fraternity to remain until now in unbelief. And why do I urge you to bring strangers to the Lord, when you neglect to correct your own from unbelief?
Wherefore it is necessary that you watch in all things over their conversion. For if I find in Sardinia a pagan peasant belonging to any bishop, I will punish that bishop severely. But if now a peasant be found of such perfidy and obstinacy that he in no way consents to come to the Lord, he is to be burdened with so heavy a weight of tribute that by the very penalty of his exaction he may be compelled to hasten to uprightness. (Book IV, letter 26.) 48. And when Gregory recognized that this had proceeded fruitfully and at the same time wholesomely among the peasants of Sardinia, he endeavoured to extend it in like manner even to the Jews who were peasants of his patrimonies. Whence he writes to the deacon Cyprian, saying:
It has come to me that there are Hebrews on our estates who in no wise wish to be converted to God. But it seems good to me that you should send letters throughout all the estates in which these same Hebrews are known to dwell, promising them specially on my behalf that whoever among them shall be converted to the true Lord our God Jesus Christ, the burden of his holding shall be diminished in some part. And I wish this to be done in such a way that if any of them be converted, if he owes a solidus in tribute, a third of a solidus (a tremissis) shall be remitted to him; if he owes three or four, one solidus shall be remitted;
if anything more, the remission is to be made according to the same proportion, or certainly according to what your Charity foresees, so that both the burden may be lightened for him who is converted, and the profit of the Church may not be pressed by grievous loss. Nor do we do this unprofitably, if for the sake of lightening the burdens of tribute we lead them to the grace of Christ; because even if they themselves come with less faith, yet those who are born of them will thereafter be baptized more faithfully. We gain therefore either themselves or their children, and so whatever we remit of the tribute for Christ's sake is no grievous thing. (Book V, letter 8.) 49.
Indeed, by both the lightening of imposts and the promises of the kingdom of heaven, the Jews in divers places began to come to Christ, whom their fathers had denied. And upon these, together with the salvation of their souls, he also bestowed clothing suitable for those to be baptized. Whence to Fantinus the defensor: The lady abbess, he says, of the monastery of Saint Stephen, which is situated in the territory of Agrigentum, informing us, we have learned that many of the Jews, by the inspiration of divine grace, wish to be converted to the Christian faith, but that it is necessary that someone should go thither by our order.
Therefore by the tenor of this our authority we charge you that, all excuse set aside, you hasten to proceed to the aforesaid place, and, God being favourable, to aid their desire by your exhortations. Yet if it seem to them long or grievous to await the Paschal solemnity, and you recognize that they are now hastening to baptism, then—lest, which God forbid, a long delay be able to call their minds back—speak with the bishop of that place, that, a penance and abstinence of forty days being enjoined, he may baptize them either on the Lord's Day, or if perchance some most celebrated festival should occur, the mercy of Almighty God protecting them;
because the character of the times, on account of the calamity which threatens, urges that their desires ought to be put off by no delay. But whomsoever of them you shall recognize to be poor, and unable to suffice to buy clothing for themselves, we wish you to purchase and provide for them the garment which they may have for baptism, and in these things you shall know that the price which you have given is to be reckoned to your accounts. But if they choose to await holy Easter, speak again with the bishop that they may indeed become catechumens for the time being, and that he may come to them frequently, and take care and kindle their minds by the admonition of his exhortation;
so that the more the awaited festival is prolonged, the more they ought to prepare themselves and to await it with fervent desire. (Book VIII, letter 23.) Likewise to Peter, bishop of Corsica, among other things: We have transmitted, he says, to your Fraternity fifty solidi for the purchasing of clothing for those who are to be baptized. (Book VIII, letter 1.) 50. Nonetheless, for the joining of the little children of the Arians to the catholic faith, Gregory extended the solicitude of his pastoral care to the utmost. Wherefore, writing to all the bishops of Italy, he says:
Since that most impious Autharith, at this Paschal festival lately concluded, forbade the children of the Lombards to be baptized in the catholic faith—for which fault the divine Majesty so extinguished him that he did not see the solemnity of the next Easter—it befits your Fraternity to admonish all the Lombards throughout your regions that, since a grievous mortality everywhere threatens, they should bring back to the catholic faith those very children of theirs who were baptized in the Arian heresy, that so they may appease the wrath of Almighty God over them. Likewise to Praejectus, bishop of Narni: It has come to us, our sins pressing upon us, that a mortality is altogether raging in your city, which thing has grieved us exceedingly.
Wherefore, greeting your Fraternity, we most urgently persuade you that by no reasoning you cease from the admonition of the Lombards, or of the Romans, who dwell in that same place, and above all of the heathen and the heretics, that they may be converted to the true and right catholic faith. For thus either the divine mercy, on account of their conversion perhaps, will succour them even in this life; or, if it should befall them to depart, they pass, absolved from their crimes—which is even more to be desired. (Book II, letter 2.) 51.
Therefore Gregory, the most prudent steward of Christ's household, appointed suitable men to the several deaconries and hospices, and decreed that these too, so that they might labour more securely, nay more sagaciously, in the work of piety and mercy, should be fortified with privileges of this kind: Although the devotion of those who with pious intent of solicitude bestow care upon the weak and needy may avail to protect them before all men, yet it is better if, for their own quiet, they be safeguarded concerning what they have done, lest thence should arise for them an occasion of disquiet whence rather they are to be praised.
Since therefore, provoked by the zeal of your intention, we have chosen you, a religious man, to be set over the deaconry which is to furnish the tables of the poor, lest any doubt should arise to you from this administration, we have provided that you be supported by this safeguard, establishing that concerning what you have received to be dispensed for the tables of the poor or the furnishing of the deaconry, or shall hereafter receive, you shall never be compelled by any man, in any manner or by any device, to render account, nor ought you to undergo any molestation.
But since we wish you to be thus absolved from all human accounts, in such wise that you may know you will render to our God an account of those things which we have committed to you, we exhort that sincerity of faith may flourish in you, that your mind may be more intent upon the matters, your care more inclined, your zeal more watchful, your devotion more clear, your dispensing more effectual; to the end that, when, aided by divine help, you shall have skilfully fulfilled this work, both those for whom you bear solicitude may be usefully comforted by the solace of your diligence, and you yourself may receive the good of your reward in eternal life, the grace of our Redeemer recompensing you. (Book XI, letter 27.) 52. These things indeed Gregory practised within and without the city with zeal for piety.
Moreover he sent the religious abbot Probus with much money to Jerusalem, by whose diligence he established a venerable hospice; and, for the servants of God set both there and on Mount Sinai near Arabia under the governance of Palladius, he took care to send yearly, as long as he was able to live, an abundance of daily food and clothing. 53. Nonetheless, throughout divers provinces, for the safeguarding of holy religion and for the vigorous administering of the affairs of the poor, he enrolled industrious men, rectors of the patrimonies, for his Church.
Among these were: Cyprian the deacon of the Sicilian patrimony, Pantaleon the notary of the Syracusan, Fantinus the defensor of the Panormitan, Sergius the defensor of the Calabrian, Romanus the notary of the Apulian, Benenatus the defensor of the Samnite, Anthemius the subdeacon of the Neapolitan, Peter the subdeacon of the Campanian, Candidus the defensor of the Tuscan, Urbicus the defensor of the Sabine, Optatus the defensor of the Nursine, Benedictus the notary-defensor of the Carseolan, Felix the subdeacon of the Appian, Castorius the chartulary of Ravenna, Castorius the notary of Istria, Antonius the subdeacon of Dalmatia, John the notary of Illyricum, Symmachus the defensor of Sardinia, Bonifacius the notary of Corsica, Pantaleon the notary of Liguria, Hieronymus the defensor of the Cottian Alps, Hilarius the notary of the Germanician, and Candidus the priest of the Gallican.
But this most prudent Father Gregory judged should be perpetually observed not only in the Roman Church, but throughout divers Churches. Whence he writes to Januarius, bishop of Cagliari, among other things, saying: It has been indicated to us that, having committed the care of your patrimony to certain laymen, these were afterwards caught in plunderings of your peasants and, through this, in exhausting them; and that they postpone to render back the property which they unbecomingly retain—holding it as though of their own dominion, being of course not subject to your care—and disdain to render you an account of their doings.
But if this is so, it behoves that the matter be strictly examined by you, and that the case between them and the peasants of your Church be more subtly investigated, so that whatever fraud shall be found in them, they may be compelled to render it back with the penalty appointed by the laws. But for the future, your Fraternity must beware lest the goods of the Church of any kind be committed to secular men, and to men not living under our rule, but to approved clerics of your own office; among whom, if anything of depravity can be found, that you may be able to amend in your subjects what has been unlawfully done—men, that is, whom the character of their office among you should rather befit than excuse. (Book X, letter 65.)
He commanded that the several offices of ecclesiastical jurisdiction ought to be committed one by one to several particular persons, asserting that just as in one body we have many members, yet all the members have not the same function (Romans 12), so in the body of the Church, according to the truthful sentence of Paul, in one and the same Spirit, to one this office is to be conferred, to another that is to be committed; nor are the offices of two things to be committed at one time to a single person, however practised, because if the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?
For just as the variety of the members through their divers functions both preserves the strength of the body and displays its beauty, so the variety of persons, distributed likewise through divers offices, manifests both the fortitude and the comeliness of the holy Church of God. And just as it is unseemly that in the human body one member should discharge the function of another, so it is assuredly hurtful and at the same time most base, if the several ministries of things be not distributed to as many persons. Hence it is that upon certain ambitious men—as may be found in his letters, which for the sake of brevity I have omitted—he frequently imposed the reins of moderation.
Whence to Anthemius the subdeacon, concerning bishop Paschasius, who remained by himself his own major-domo and vicedominus, he charged among other things, saying: But we wish that our brother Paschasius should both ordain for himself a vicedominus and a major-domo, so that he may be able to be fit and ready either for guests arriving or for cases which occur. But if you perceive him negligent, or delaying to fulfil the things we say, all his clergy ought to be employed, so that by common counsel they themselves may choose those whose persons may be fit to be ordained to the offices we have aforesaid. (Book
XI, letter 71.) Likewise he resisted the clerics of Ravenna, who were importunately aiming at the governance of monasteries, writing to John, bishop of Ravenna: It has come to me that in the Churches of your Fraternity certain places long ago consecrated to monasteries have now been made dwellings of clerics, or even of laymen; and while those who are in the Churches feign that they live religiously, they seek to be set over the monasteries, and through their manner of life the monasteries are destroyed. For no one is able both to serve the ecclesiastical offices, and to persist in orderly fashion in the monastic rule, so that he should hold the strictness of the monastery who is daily compelled to remain in the ecclesiastical ministry.
Therefore let your Fraternity hasten to amend this, in whatever place it has been done, because I in no way endure that holy places be destroyed through the ambition of clerics. (Book V, letter 1.) Likewise to Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna: Some time ago it had come to us by the report of many that monasteries established in the parts of Ravenna are altogether oppressed by the lordship of your clerics, so that on the occasion, as it were, of governance, they possess them—grievous it is to say—as though in ownership. Condoling with these not a little, we sent a letter to your predecessor, that he should have amended this in all things. But since he was too soon overtaken by the term of life, lest this burden should remain upon the monasteries, we recall that we wrote the same things to your Fraternity.
And because, as we have learned, in the correction of this matter there has hitherto been a ceasing, we have foreseen to direct these writings to you again. We exhort therefore that, all delay and all excuse set aside, you strive so to relieve those monasteries from oppression of this kind, that henceforth neither clerics nor those who are constituted in holy orders may have, on any other account, licence of access into them, except only for the sake of praying, or if perchance they should be invited to perform the sacred mysteries of the Masses.
But lest, on the occasion of the promotion of any monk or abbot, they should perchance bear any burden, we must take care that if any of the abbots or monks from any monastery whatsoever should proceed to the office of the clericate or to a sacred order, he may not there have any further power, as we have said, lest the monasteries, under the veil of this occasion, be compelled to endure the burdens which we forbid. Let your Holiness therefore not delay, now admonished a second time, to amend all these things with vigilant care, lest, if after this we should perceive you to be negligent—which we do not believe—we be compelled otherwise to provide for the quiet of the monasteries.
For be it known to you that we do not suffer the congregation of the servants of God to be subjected any longer to so great a necessity. (Book VII, letter 45.) Likewise to Maximianus, bishop of Syracuse, after some other things: Presbyters, deacons, and the other clerics of whatsoever order, who in any way serve in the Churches, you shall not permit to be made abbots over the monasteries; but either, the warfare of the clericate being laid aside, let them be promoted to the monastic orders; or if they shall have determined to remain in the place of abbot, let them in no wise be permitted to hold the warfare of the clericate.
For it is quite incongruous that, when one cannot diligently fulfil one of these on account of its greatness, one should be judged fit for both; and thus in turn both the ecclesiastical order be impeded by the monastic life, and the rule of monkhood be impeded by the ecclesiastical business. (Book IV, letter 11.) 55. In what manner indeed Gregory, through the procurators of the ecclesiastical patrimonies, like a certain most luminous Argus, carried round the eyes of his pastoral solicitude through the whole breadth of the world, I have thought perhaps not out of place to touch upon briefly. For he says in a letter to Anthemius the subdeacon:
When you were departing, we gave you a command, and afterwards, I remember, I enjoined it upon you by precepts sent in succession, that you should take care of the poor, and that if you recognized any there to be in want, you should indicate it by writings sent back; and scarcely concerning a few have you cared to do this. But I wish that to the lady Pateria, my aunt, as soon as you receive the present order, you offer forty solidi for the footwear of her servants and four hundred measures of wheat; to the lady Palatina, widow of Urbicus, twenty solidi and three hundred measures of wheat;
to the lady Viviana, widow of Felix, twenty solidi and three hundred measures of wheat—all which together, eighty solidi, are to be reckoned to your accounts. But bring in the whole sum of the tribute with haste, and, the Lord aiding, present yourself on the Paschal day. (Book I, letter 39.) Likewise to the same: It has been intimated to us that certain handmaids of the Lord of the city of Nola, dwelling in the house of Aboridana, endure too great a scarcity of food and clothing. It behoves us, by the precept of God, to succour these, and, as much as we can, the Lord granting, to relieve their want.