Argument. — 1. St Gregory opposes the man whom Agilulf had chosen from becoming bishop of Milan. Deusdedit is ordained. The dream of a certain heterodox man concerning the equality of the Church of Milan with that of Rome. — 2. On the death of Amos, patriarch of Jerusalem, Isacius succeeds him. — 3. The manifold and most grievous illness of St Gregory. — 4. He is more anxious for the welfare of his friends than for his own. — 5. He exhorts his sick friends to penance, especially Venantius. On his death he takes thought for his daughters. — 6. Enemies threaten Sicily. The faith is spread in Sardinia. — 7. St Gregory consoles Theoctista, who had been defamed for heresy. — 8. We ought to remove scandal whenever we can. — 9.
The heads of the heresy charged against Theoctista are refuted. — 10. St Gregory subjects slanderers to grave penalties. — 11. He punishes a forger. — 12. On ecclesiastical matters. — 13. And on monastic matters. — 14. The death of King Recared and his successors. (Years 600 and 601.) 1. Upon the death of Constantius, bishop of Milan, the danger of a schism was threatening the Church of Milan. For the clergy and people had with one accord chosen the deacon Deusdedit as his successor. But King Agilulf, in whose dominion Milan lay, demanded that another be ordained; and he had written to the Milanese concerning this matter.
When Gregory learned of this, he judged that he must write to them as soon as possible, to strengthen them in their earlier resolve, lest perhaps they should yield to the king's threatening letters. He begins his letter with praise of Constantius. He commemorates above all his solicitude in preserving ecclesiastical discipline, and his vigilance in guarding the city. He then praises the Milanese for having chosen Deusdedit by unanimous consent, and by his own authority he confirms the election that had been made. Concerning the man chosen by the Lombards and by the king himself he speaks thus with firmness: But let not that which you have informed us was written to you by Agilulf trouble your charity. For we give in no way our consent to a man who is chosen not by Catholics, and above all by Lombards.
Nor, if it should be done by the usurpation of some presumption, do we receive such a man into the place or order of that priesthood; for he is plainly shown to be an unworthy vicar of St Ambrose, if being chosen by such men he is ordained (Book 11, letter 4). He also wrote to the notary Pantaleon (ibid., letter 3), that going to the city of Genoa he should have bishop Deusdedit solemnly ordained. That Agilulf had not yet then embraced the Catholic faith is clear even from this letter. Yet he was unwilling to contend with Gregory, perhaps at the persuasion of Theodelinda, who cherished intensely both the Catholic faith and the most holy Pontiff; and Deusdedit, chosen by the Milanese, was ordained with none resisting.
That this was done in this instance, and previously in the ordination of Constantius, as we read, is beyond doubt sufficient to refute the dream of Jacobus Gothofredus in his second dissertation on the suburbicarian regions and churches, in which he contends for a supreme and equal power of the bishops of Milan and of Rome. 2. In this year also the Church of Jerusalem mourned its patriarch Amos, whose see Isacius received, and a little later he sent a synodal letter to Gregory. The Pope approved the faith which Isacius professed in it, and gave thanks to God, who, even when the shepherds of His flock are changed, keeps unchangeable, even after them, the faith which He once handed down to the holy Fathers.
To his thanksgivings he added prayers for the emperor, in whose times, he says, the mouths of heretics are silenced; for although their hearts boil over into the madness of a perverse mind, yet in the time of an orthodox emperor they do not presume to utter the depraved things they feel (Book 11, letter 46). But because he had heard that in the Churches of the East no one attained to sacred orders except by the giving of bribes, he exhorts the new patriarch to root out so wicked a simony. He also admonishes him about restraining quarrels, correcting some things gently, and bearing with equanimity those things that cannot be corrected. 3. In this year too it very nearly came to pass that the whole Christian world lost its most excellent pontiff.
In these words he describes how ill he was. It is now a long time that I am unable to rise from my bed. For now the pain of gout tortures me, now I know not what fire spreads itself with pain throughout my whole body; and it very often happens that at one and the same time in me the burning contends with the pain, and my body and my spirit fail within me. But with what other troubles, besides these which I have related, I am afflicted from infirmity, I am unable to enumerate. But briefly I say, that the infection of a harmful humour has so soaked me through, that living is a punishment to me, and I long for death, which alone I believe can be a remedy for my groanings.
Therefore, most holy brother, beseech the mercy of the divine loving-kindness on my behalf, that He may graciously mitigate the scourges of His chastisement toward me, and grant patience to endure them; lest by excessive weariness — which God forbid — my heart break forth into impatience, and lest what could have been well cured through the stroke should grow into fault through murmuring (Book 11, letter 32). 4. Yet, placed amid so many and so great pains, this man of the highest patience, scarcely able to think of what he himself was enduring, bore solicitude for the health of his friends. This Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna, experienced; when the most pious Father had heard that he was suffering from a vomiting of blood, he summoned him to himself that he might take care of him. And meanwhile he commanded that he should refrain from fastings and vigils.
Yet in calling Marinianus to himself he had at the same time another thing in mind. For, perceiving himself near to death, he desired to breathe out his soul amid the hands of a friend (Book 10, letter 33). Castorius, bishop of Rimini, had once experienced the same fatherly charity, whom on account of his infirmity he had long kept with him, being anxious and solicitous for the restoring of his health (Book 3, letters 24 and 25). His tender heart toward his ailing friends is most clearly shown by the letter written this year to the patrician lady Rusticiana, in which, although he asserts that his body is so dried up as though in the grave, yet, that he may suffer along with the grief of a pious woman, he seems to forget his own (ibid., letter 44). 5.
But his chief care was for the infirmities of his friends, that, worn down by such scourges, he might rouse them to penance. Thus he urges Venantius, who was suffering from gout, and of whose fall we have already spoken: Amid these pains, what else ought we to do but ever to recall our sins to memory, and to give thanks to almighty God? For we who by the enticement of the flesh have sinned much, are purged by the affliction of the flesh. This also we ought to know, that a present punishment, if it converts the mind of the afflicted, is the end of a preceding fault. But if it in no way converts him to the fear of the Lord, it is the beginning of a punishment to follow.
We must therefore take care, and above all be vigilant amid tears with the whole conversion of the mind, lest we pass from torment to torments. We must also consider with how great a dispensation of loving-kindness our Creator deals with us, in that He assiduously strikes those worthy of death, and yet as yet by no means slays them (Book 11, letter 30). In this letter St Gregory is silent.
Gregory says nothing of Venantius's apostasy, nor does he exhort him to return to the monastic state which he had deserted; for he preferred that this be suggested to the sick man by his own bishop, namely John of Syracuse, to whom he writes that his first care ought to be, by exhorting, entreating, setting before him the terrible judgment of God, and promising His ineffable mercy, to persuade Venantius that he should return to his habit at least at the very last, lest the guilt of so great a fault stand against him in the eternal judgment (Book 11, letter 36). To the same John he commended Venantius's daughters Barbara and Antonina, to whom he also wrote letters of consolation, and promised his protection against the counsels of wicked men, which he fulfilled (ibid., letter 78).
That Venantius did not rise from this illness, but died, other letters of St Gregory sufficiently prove; whether penance was first performed is a matter to be left to the divine judgment. His wife Italica had already died; for had she survived while her husband lay gravely ill and was afterward taken from the living, Gregory would have written to her rather than to her daughters, or at least in those letters some mention would have been made of the mother. Hence it was easier for Venantius to return to the monk's state, the bonds of marriage being dissolved. 6. Gregory desired that noble virgins should migrate from Sicily to Rome, perhaps because he had learned that enemies were hastening to the invasion of this island, to say nothing meanwhile of other reasons.
Concerning the hostile onslaught now imminent, the most vigilant Pontiff admonished all the bishops of Sicily, and exhorted them to appoint litanies every week on the fourth and sixth days, and thus to implore the aid of heavenly protection against the incursions of barbaric cruelty (Book 11, letter 51). But he bids them add good works to prayers; for, he says, prayer is made void where the deed is depraved. That the same danger threatened from enemies the island of Sardinia, not far distant, we have said above. But we suppose that peace and tranquillity were restored to it, from the happy propagation of the Christian religion among the Sardinians, whether newcomers and Barbarians or Barbaricini, or natives. For this cause St
Gregory asked the governor of the island to bring help to bishop Victor, who was labouring in the conversion of the heathen. For he was present to all who needed his work and commendation (ibid., letter 22). 7. Most present of all this year did Theoctista, kinswoman of the emperor Maurice Augustus, experience him — a pious woman of whom we have already treated elsewhere, rashly defamed of heresy by certain men. We have already said (Book 1, chapter 5, number 9) that, while Gregory was staying in the royal city, a rumour was spread about a new heresy, with the mark of which the sycophants did not fear to brand a most noble and most holy matron; whence among the people, prone enough by their own levity to believe more atrocious things especially against princes, a great tumult arose.
But as soon as this was made known to the Pope, he wrote to Theoctista (Book 11, letter 45), to whom by manifold reasoning he showed that her mind ought by no means to be troubled by detractions: For if, he says, we rejoice in praises and are broken by disparagements, we have placed the glory of our own selves not in ourselves, but in the mouth of others... But in everything that is said of us from without, we ought to have recourse to the secret places of the mind. Even if all revile, he is free whom conscience does not accuse. Long after these things he adds another reason. There are, he says, very many who praise the life of the good perhaps more than they ought; and lest any exaltation from praise creep in, almighty God permits the wicked to burst forth into disparagement and reviling:
so that if any fault is born in the heart from the mouth of those who praise, it may be stifled by the mouth of those who revile. He treats of a similar argument in writing to Palladius, a presbyter of Mount Sinai (Book 11, letter 2), who also was goaded by the tongues of gainsayers; where among other things he says these words worthy of note: Amid the words of those who praise or blame, one must ever have recourse to the mind; and if in it is not found the good that is said of us, great sadness ought to be engendered. And again, if in it is not found the evil that men speak of us, we ought to leap forth into great gladness. For what does it profit if men praise, and conscience accuses?
Or what sadness ought there to be, if all accuse, and conscience alone shows us free? And a little below: What else do detractors do, but blow into dust, and stir up earth into their own eyes, so that from that whence they accomplish more of detraction, thence they may the more see nothing of the truth? 8. Yet in both letters he teaches by what means the scandal can be removed, which we cannot neglect without sin. And he sets before her the example of St Peter, the prince of the apostles, who, to the complaint of the faithful reproaching him that he had entered in to the Gentiles and eaten with them, and had received them to baptism, answered not from power but from reason, and set forth the cause in order:
For if, he says, when he was blamed by the faithful, he had regarded the authority which he had received in the holy Church, he could have replied that they should not dare to reprove their shepherd, as sheep... But if in the complaint of the faithful he had said anything of his own power, assuredly he would not have been a teacher of meekness. He therefore appeased them by a humble reason... If then the shepherd of the Church, the prince of the apostles, working signs and miracles in a singular manner, did not disdain in the matter of his own reproach to render a reason humbly, how much more ought we sinners, when we are reproved concerning any matter, to appease our reprovers by humble reasoning? 9. The most holy Doctor could not by a more effective example persuade humility to the illustrious woman.
Afterward he reviews all the heads of the heresy imputed to her, and refutes and crushes them. First he shows that marriages ought not to be dissolved for the sake of religion. Secondly, that all sins are utterly washed away and remitted in baptism. Thirdly, that after penance performed for three years, licence to sin is by no means granted. Fourthly, that even that man is held in the bond of anathema who, though compelled by necessity, has anathematized that for which he is reproved. Lastly, he testifies that very many have been falsely accused of those four points by an ignorant zeal; yet those accusers are to be appeased both by reason and by meekness. 10.
But although that supreme master of morals taught that calumnies are to be patiently borne, yet he commanded that calumniators be restrained by grave penalties. Hence, when he had learned that Hilarus, a subdeacon who had brought a charge against the deacon John, had been punished by the judges with no penalty, he ordered that he be publicly beaten with rods and deported into exile (Book 9, letter 62). We have already observed above that this penalty of exile was decreed by ecclesiastical judgment against a defensor who did not obey his bishop. 11. No less against forgers, who are akin to calumniators, was Gregory, that most zealous cultivator of truth, indignant. Hence he was gravely inflamed against Andrew the monk (Book 11, letter
74), a Greek, as it is permitted to conjecture, who not only had corrupted and infected with heresies the letter of Eusebius, bishop of Thessalonica, which had been entrusted to him because of his fidelity, that he might make it into Latin, but had also published in Greek certain discourses to which he had prefixed the Pope's name. These Gregory ordered to be most diligently sought out and abolished. Moreover he held a council in which it might be deliberated what penalty should be inflicted on the forger, otherwise most flagitious; but what was in fact decreed is hidden from us. The letter from which we have these things is a proof of Gregory's humility and modesty. For in it he simply professes himself ignorant of Greek letters. 12.
That we may conclude the matters pertaining to this year, we must note summarily those things which can contribute to illustrating ecclesiastical discipline or history, and which have not yet been touched on by us. When the emperor desired to remove John, bishop of the First Justiniana, from his episcopate on account of an illness of the head, the most equitable father was unwilling to consent, unless the sick man himself should request this by presenting a written petition. But he advised that a steward be sought, who might be able to discharge the episcopal office (Book 11, letter 47). Quiricus and other bishops of Iberia had consulted the supreme pontiff concerning the baptism and ordinations of divers heretics.
To them he replied that those baptized in heresy with the invocation of the Trinity are not to be baptized again when they return to the Church, but are to be reconciled either by the imposition of hands, or by the anointing of chrism, or by the profession of faith. But returning Nestorians are to be instructed concerning the incarnation; and if they have anathematized Nestorius, and profess that they receive the synods received by the Church, they are to be admitted in their own orders (Book 11, letter 67). When he had heard that Desiderius, bishop of Vienne, was expounding grammar and the humaner letters to certain persons, he took it most gravely, because, he says, in one and the same mouth the praises of Christ have no place together with the praises of Jove (Book 11, letter 54).
Afterward, however, the presbyter Candidus, returning from Gaul, excused Desiderius before the Pope, and denied that he was wasting time on these trifles. He often teaches that the causes of clerics are to be referred to the bishops, lest episcopal jurisdiction be ruined. A Roman defensor had, by his own authority, without consulting and without the knowledge of the bishop, expelled from the place where they had been handed over for penance certain clerics sent to penance by the bishop as their fault demanded. But the Pope ordered that the clerics be restored to the bishop without delay, and, the Roman having first been rebuked, he threatened grave measures if he should commit such things thereafter (Book 11, letters 77 and 37).
What conditions were required for obtaining the office of defensor, what their duties would be, and by what formula they would be constituted, we have in the letter to Vitus (Book 11, letter 38). The greatest Doctor testifies that he had long sought the deeds or writings of St Irenaeus, but was unable to find anything from among them. Now a few things concerning monastic matters must be touched upon (Book 11, letter 56). 13. When Agathosa had complained that her husband had been made a monk against her will — a thing which pertained to the fault and envy of Urbicus the abbot, in whose monastery he had been converted — the Pope decreed that he be restored to her who sought him, though already tonsured, unless it were established that she herself had first consented to her husband's conversion and had promised her own, or that she herself was guilty of adultery (Book
11, letter 50). In the same council in which Andrew, the artificer of false writings, was condemned, permission was granted to Probus, a monk and abbot, to make a testament concerning the goods belonging to him before he received the monastic habit. For it was of such great moment to grant this permission, that the most wise Pontiff judged that the consent of the whole synod must be sought. Nor indeed would the licence of making a testament have been granted to Probus, unless it had been clearly established that he himself had been ordered and as it were compelled by St Gregory to enter the monastery suddenly, no space having been given him for deliberating or delaying. Whence it had not been in his power to dispose of his own affairs.
But there was a danger lest, if his goods passed to the monastery, his son should labour under the utmost destitution. He praised Januarius of Cagliari for having been unwilling that a monastery of men be constructed in a house adjoining the monastery of the handmaids of God; yet he wished that another place be sought where it might be established (Book 11, letter 25). I pass over the benefits which this best father conferred this year upon monasteries, even the most remote, especially upon the monastery of Mount Sinai (Book 11, letter 1); but more excellent than any gifts and benefits whatsoever seem to me the admonitions given to Conon, abbot of Lérins, by which he teaches him with how great care, with what diligence he ought to rule the monastery committed to him, especially on account of the incautious laxity of his predecessor:
Let the vigilance of thy charity, he says, ever kindle itself with more ardent care; and so let it fortify all things beforehand, God helping, that the raging wolf, running hither and thither, may have no place of entering in among the Lord's sheep. And after some things: Therefore let the good feel thee sweet, the depraved feel thee a corrector. In which correction, thou shalt know, this order is to be observed: that thou love the persons and prosecute the vices; lest, if perchance thou wilt act otherwise, the correction pass into cruelty, and thou destroy those whom thou desirest to amend. For thou oughtest so to cut away the wound, that thou mayest not be able to ulcerate what is sound: lest, if thou hast pressed the iron more than the matter requires, thou harm him whom thou hastenest to benefit. Let thy very sweetness in thee be cautious, not remiss:
but let the correction be diligent, not severe. But let the one be so seasoned by the other, that both the good may have in loving something to beware of, and the depraved in fearing something to love (ibid., letter 12). 14. In this year, the writers of Spanish affairs relate that the pious King Recared, restorer of the Catholic faith in Spain, departed from the living. Because of the zeal with which he burned for the orthodox religion, he ever found the Arians most hostile, but above all Gosuintha, widow of King Leuvigild, by whose authority... they once conspired against the king. Certain bishops... were of the heresy. Of these, two were cast into exile, though they were worthy of graver penalties.