Mindful of these things, your Fraternity, in a manner befitting you, both took pains beforehand out of compassion to visit our brother and fellow-bishop Castorius, and afterward, when the trouble of his body increased, to receive him in the city of Ravenna. Whence you have without doubt made not only us a debtor of the charity bestowed, but also God, to whom you are proved to have grieved together in your brother's infirmity, and not only to have visited but also received the sick man in the affliction of His member. Him indeed I was altogether refusing to ordain there, on account of his simplicity; but the importunity of the petitioners brought it about that I could in no way gainsay them. But if it can be done, you consult much both for me and for him if you send him to me by way of Sicily.
(Book II, letter 55.) Likewise to Leontius, bishop of Urbino: We are keeping at Rome our brother and fellow-bishop Castorius on account of the trouble of his body; and because he is now not strong enough to return to his own church, therefore, in his absence, we provide that the care of visiting his church be delegated to your Fraternity. (Book III, letter 24.) Likewise to all the inhabitants of Rimini: If, most beloved sons, you would more attentively consider your fault, you ought to purge yourselves before God by assiduous prayer, because you received your bishop neither with a devout mind nor as sons;
whom the disquiet and tribulation inflicted by you brought to this point, that he incurred a bodily ailment, although in him we have found nothing of those things which have been written to us, but saw only that infirmity was present in him, on account of which we have taken care to keep him here. (Ibid., letter 25.) Likewise to Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria: Before this time the writings of Boniface my chartulary-responsal, who dwells in the royal city, greatly troubled me, for they said that your Holiness, most sweet and most delightful to me, had suffered a failure of the bodily light [of sight].
By which writings I was smitten with grievous sorrow; but suddenly, by the prospering grace of our Creator and Redeemer, I received the letter of your Beatitude, and, learning that you were sound of that bodily ailment which I had heard of, I rejoiced exceedingly, because so great a gladness of heart followed as had before been preceded by the bitterness of sadness. For we know that in the help of Almighty God your life is the salvation of many. (Book XIII, letter 42.) Likewise to Rusticiana the patrician: Whenever anyone comes to us from the royal city, it is our care to inquire about the well-being of your body.
But, my sins bringing it about, I always hear what it wearies me to hear, that in so great a frailty and weakness they still report the pains of gout to be increasing in you. But I pray Almighty God that all the things which are done in your body may be directed to the salvation of the soul, that temporal scourges may prepare for you eternal rest, and that through those pains which have an end He may grant you joys without end. (Ibid., letter 22.) Likewise to Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna: Certain men coming from Ravenna found me stricken with the gravest sorrow, because they reported that your Fraternity was sick with a vomiting of blood.
On which account I anxiously and individually had those physicians whom we know to be learned in reading sought out here, and I have sent to your Holiness in writing what each of them felt and what each prescribed — who nevertheless prescribe rest and silence before all things. Whether your Fraternity can have this in your own church, I am very doubtful:
and therefore it seems to me that, a church having been set in order there — either those who may celebrate the solemnities of the Masses, or one who may take charge of the bishopric's care, exhibit hospitality and reception, or one who may preside over the guarding of the monasteries — your Fraternity ought, before the summer season is upon us, to come to me, so that I may especially, as far as I am able, take care of your sickness and guard your rest; for they say that the summer season is exceedingly perilous to men of slender health with this ailment. And I greatly fear lest, if you take up any cares along with the adversity of the season, you be endangered still further by that same trouble.
For I myself am very weak, and it is altogether useful that, with God's grace, you return sound to your church, or at least, if you must be called [to death], that you be called amid the hands of your own people; and I, who see myself near to death, if Almighty God shall wish to call me first, ought to pass away amid your hands. (Register, book XI, letter 55.) 55. Gregory decreed that on account of the incursions of the barbarians litanies should be held twice in the week. Wherefore, writing to all the bishops of Sicily, he says: Above the afflictions and groanings which we here sustain by the yearly continuation of enemies, a greater fear torments us, because we know that our enemies are hastening with every effort to the invasion of Sicily.
But lest, while they are plotting this, the multitude of our sins afford them success, let us with our whole heart betake ourselves to the remedies of our Redeemer, and let us meet with tears those whom we cannot resist by strength. For what you must beware of, and what must be more vehemently dreaded, you ought to gather from the desolation of this province. And so I exhort you, most dear brothers, that every week, on the fourth and sixth day, you inexcusably proclaim a litany, and against these incursions of barbaric cruelty implore the aid of the protection from on high. (Book XI, letter 51.) 51.
At length Gregory foretold that Sicily, defiled with the simoniac heresy and with lust, would perish, as is now seen to be the case, writing to Maximian, bishop of Syracuse: So many evils, which are being done in that province, are reported to us one after another, that, our sins bringing it about — which may Almighty God avert — we believe it will speedily perish. (Ibid.) 55. But he writes also to Maximus, bishop of Salona, with prophetic spirit, that things worse than the former were to come, saying: When our common son the presbyter Veteranus came to the city of Rome, he found me so weakened by the pains of gout that I could in no way answer your Fraternity's letters by my own hand.
And indeed concerning the nation of the Slavs, which greatly threatens you, I am both grievously afflicted and troubled. I am afflicted in those things which I already suffer in you; but I am troubled because through the approach of Istria they have already begun to enter Italy. But what shall I say of Julian the Scribo? When everywhere I see that our own sins answer for us, so that both from without we are troubled by the nations, and from within by perverse judges? But do not by any means be saddened over such things, because those who shall live after us will see worse times, so that in comparison with their own time they will reckon us to have had happy days. But in so far as your Fraternity is able, it ought to set itself in opposition on behalf of the oppressed;
which [effort], even if it should be of no avail to profit, that very devotion of mind which it has given suffices before Almighty God. For it is written: Deliver those who are led to death, and cease not to free those who are dragged to destruction (Prov. xxiv, 11). But if you shall say: My strength does not suffice — He who is the searcher of the heart Himself understands. In everything therefore that you do, seek to have the searcher of the heart appeased. Whatever there is by which you may please Him, do not omit to do it. For human terrors and favors are like smoke, which, snatched by a gentle breeze, vanishes. Know this most certainly, that no one can please God together with wicked men.
Let your Fraternity therefore reckon that it has pleased Almighty God in as great a measure as it shall have known that it has displeased perverse men. Yet let this very defense of the poor be moderate and grave, lest, if you do anything too rigidly, men suppose that out of youth you are growing proud. But your defense on behalf of the oppressed must needs be found such that both the humble may feel protection, and oppressors may not easily find what they may reprehend out of an ill-willing mind. I attend therefore to what is said to Ezekiel: Son of man,... unbelievers and subverters are with you, and you dwell with scorpions (Ezek. ii, 6). And blessed Job says: I was a brother of dragons, and a companion of ostriches (Job xxx, 29). And Paul says to his disciples:
In the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (Phil. ii, 15). So much the more cautiously ought we to walk, as we know that we live among God's enemies. (Register, book X, letter 36.) 56. Conscious of this his caution, Gregory says to Romanus the defensor: It has reached us that certain men, holding altogether too little discretion, desire us to be entangled in their perils, and so wish to be defended by ecclesiastical persons that those ecclesiastical persons themselves may be held liable by their fault.
Therefore by this present injunction I admonish you, and through you our brother and fellow-bishop the lord John, or the others who may be able to be involved, that ecclesiastical patronages — whether you receive my writings, or even though they have not been directed at all — you ought to extend under such great moderation that, if any are entangled in public thefts, they may not seem to be unjustly defended by us, lest we in any way transfer to ourselves the ill repute of evildoers by the presumption of an indiscreet defense; but, as far as is fitting, by admonishing the church and applying a word of intercession, succor those whom you are able, so that you may both bring help to them and not defile the good repute of holy Church. (Book IX, letter 27.) 57.
Likewise to Januarius the bishop, after certain matters: If any of those concerning whom there is some question should perhaps take refuge in the church, it ought to be so arranged that neither may they themselves suffer violence, nor may those who are said to be oppressed suffer harm; therefore let it be your [care] that an oath be sworn to them by those whom it concerns, touching the keeping of law and justice, and that they be admonished in all things to go forth and render account of their own deeds. For these too it befits you to appoint a defensor of your church, by whose solicitude the things which shall have been promised to them may be kept. (Book X, letter 38.) 58.
How great was Gregory's humility may be most manifestly gathered both from many things and from these: that in his letters he named all priests as brothers and fellow-ministers, clerics of diverse order as most beloved sons, but laymen as lord men and women as lady women, and did not with equanimity permit himself to be called by anyone supreme pontiff or universal or lord. For, to pass over those things which have been comprised on this subject, writing to Rusticiana the patrician, he says: I have received your Excellency's writings, which, when I was placed in the gravest sickness, relieved me altogether by their concern for [my] health, by their devotion, and by their sweetness.
But one thing I received with difficulty, because in those same letters it was said to me all too often (whereas it could have been said but once): Your handmaid, your handmaid. For I, who through the burdens of the episcopate have been made the servant of all, by what reasoning do you call yourself my handmaid, whose own [servant] I was before I received the episcopate? And therefore I ask, through Almighty God, that I may never find this word addressed to me in your writings. (Book XI, letter 44.) 59. In the meekness of this humility Gregory did not refuse to give satisfaction not only to Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, concerning the Three Chapters, but also, among others, to Savinus too, his own subdeacon, saying:
Malicious men, going forth, have troubled your souls, understanding neither what they say nor concerning what things they affirm, alleging that something has been diminished from the holy Council of Chalcedon in the times of Justinian of pious memory — which [Council] we venerate with all faith and all devotion; and thus we receive the four synods of the holy universal Church as the four books of the holy Gospel. But concerning the persons about whom something had been done after the conclusion of the synod, it was ventilated in the times of the same Justinian of pious memory; yet in such a way that neither was the faith in anything violated, nor was anything else done concerning those same persons than what had been established at the same holy Council of Chalcedon.
But we anathematize anyone who has presumed to diminish anything from the definition of faith which was set forth in that same synod, or to change its meaning as though correcting it; but just as it was set forth there, so in all things we keep it. It befits you therefore, most dear son, to return to the unity of faith, that you may be able to conclude your end in peace, lest the malignant spirit, who cannot prevail against you through other works, find from this cause whereby he may stand in your way, on the day of your departure, at the entrance of the heavenly kingdom. (Book III, letter 10.) 60. Likewise to Gregoria, chamberlain of the Augusta, after other matters:
As to what your Sweetness added in your letters — that you make yourself importunate with me until I write that it has been revealed to me that your sins are forgiven — you have asked a thing both difficult and useless. Difficult indeed, because I am unworthy that a revelation should be made to me; but useless, because you ought not to be made secure concerning your sins until that last day of your life, when you shall no longer be able to bewail those same sins; and until that day comes, you ought always, ever suspect, ever trembling, to fear your faults, and to wash them away with daily weeping. (Book VII, letter 25.) 61. Likewise to Anastasius, presbyter of Isauria, after certain matters: I know how perfect your Fraternity is in charity;
and he who loves Almighty God much, it behooves that he presume much concerning his neighbor. For it is not places or ranks that make us near to our Creator, but either good merits join us to Him, or evil ones disjoin us. Since therefore it is still uncertain who is inwardly of what sort, why do you not dare to write, when you are ignorant which between me and you is the superior? And indeed I know that you live well, but I know myself to be laden with many sins. But even if you yourself are a sinner, yet you are much better than I, because you carry only your own [sins], but I carry both my own and the sins of those who have been committed to me. In this therefore I regard you as lofty, in this as great, that you have made no progress at all before human eyes in a great and lofty place:
in which [place], often while honor is bestowed outwardly by men, the mind is plunged to the depths, because it is weighed down by rending cares. But for you Almighty God, according to that which is written, has disposed ascents in the heart, in the vale of tears (Ps. lxxxiii, 6). But you could seem to me much loftier, much more sublime, if you had not even taken up the leadership of the monastery which is called Neas. (Book VII, letter 32.) 62. Likewise to Stephen the bishop, among other things: You show me favor in your letters much, and beyond what I, unworthy, ought to hear. And it is written: Praise not a man while he lives (Ecclus. xi, 30).
But although I was not worthy to hear such things, I beg through your prayers that I may be made worthy — so that, if you have not spoken well of me because these things are so, they may become so because you have spoken them. (Book VII, Letter 8.) 63. But lest the humility of so great a bishop be thought to be pressed home by words alone, it remains that from the accounts of the Greeks, recently translated for me, the same Father's humility be demonstrated by living deeds, in which indeed it is thus reported. Abbot John, a Persian, being a holy and reverend man, related to us concerning the great Gregory, the most blessed Roman pope, saying: Once I went to Rome to venerate the tombs of the holy apostles Peter and Paul;
and one day, as I was standing in the middle of the city, I saw Pope Gregory about to pass by me, and I resolved to prostrate myself before him. So when the pope had drawn near to me, seeing that I was moving to cast myself down before him, as I speak before God, brethren, he first cast himself down before me upon the ground, and did not rise before I rose first; and having embraced me with much humility, he gave into my hand three coins, and ordered that a cloak and all my necessities be given to me. I therefore glorified God, who had bestowed on him such humility toward all, and such almsgiving and charity. (Spiritual Meadow, ch. 151.) 64.
Hence it is that the most patient shepherd Gregory, having some time before been accused before the emperor Maurice — who was utterly hostile to him — of having so long afflicted in custody Bishop Malchus, the steward of his patrimony, over withheld rents, until he breathed forth his spirit, wrote to his deacon Sabinianus at Constantinople, saying: There is one thing that you should briefly suggest to our most serene lords: that if I, their servant, had wished to involve myself in the death of the Lombards, today the Lombard people would have neither king, nor dukes, nor counts, but would be scattered in utter confusion. But because I fear God, I dread to involve myself in the death of any man whatever.
But this same Malchus, the bishop, was neither in custody nor under any affliction; rather, on the day on which he pleaded his case and was condemned, without my knowledge he was led by the notary Boniface into his own house. There he dined, and was honored by him, and in the night was suddenly found dead. (Book IV, Letter 47.) 65. Therefore in all his words and works Gregory weighed the imminent last day of the future retribution, and pondered all the affairs of all men the more cautiously the more nearly he observed the end of the world to be pressing on, as its ruins grew ever more frequent. Wherefore in his homilies on the Gospels he testifies, saying:
Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be great earthquakes in various places, and pestilences and famines. And after certain things interposed, he added: And there shall be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves. Of all these things, some we now behold already come to pass, others we dread as about to come near at hand. For that nation should rise against nation, and their distress press upon the earth, we now discern more in our own tribulations than we read in books. That earthquakes have overwhelmed countless cities in other parts of the world, you know how often we have heard. Pestilences we suffer without ceasing.
Signs indeed in the sun, and moon, and stars we have not yet openly seen; but that these are not far off, we now gather from the very change of the air. Although, before Italy was given over to be smitten by the heathen sword, we saw fiery ranks of battle in the sky, and that very blood glittering which afterward was poured out from the human race. But the confusion of the sea and of its waves has not yet arisen as something new; yet since many things already foretold have been fulfilled, there is no doubt that the few that remain will also follow, for the certainty of things to come is the manifestation of things past. And a little after: Behold, my brethren, we now perceive what we used to hear. The world is pressed by new and ever-multiplying evils daily.
Out of that countless multitude you behold how few of you remain, and yet still daily the scourges press on, sudden calamities crush us, new and unforeseen disasters afflict us. For just as in youth the body flourishes, the breast remains strong and unimpaired, the neck is brawny, the arms are full; but in the years of old age the stature is bent, the withered neck droops, the breast is oppressed by frequent sighs, strength fails, and gasping shuts off the words of the speaker (for if weakness be lacking, for old men their very health is often a sickness): so also the world in its earlier years flourished as though in youth, was robust for propagating the offspring of the human race, rich in the health of bodies, in strength, in abundance of resources;
but now it is weighed down by its very old age, and, as it were, pressed toward its neighboring death by ever-increasing troubles. (Homily I on the Gospels.) And again: Go, preach, saying that the kingdom of heaven shall draw near (Matt. x, 7). This now, my dearest brethren, even if the Gospel be silent, the world itself proclaims. For its ruins are its voices. For he who, worn down by so many blows, has fallen from his glory, shows us, as it were, another kingdom now near at hand which is to follow; and to those very ones by whom he is loved, he is now bitter. For his own ruins proclaim that he is not to be loved.
For if a shaken house threatened its own ruin, whoever dwelt in it would flee, and he who had loved it while standing would hasten to withdraw from it as fast as possible as it fell. If therefore the world falls, and we by loving it embrace it, we choose to be crushed rather than to dwell safely, for no reason separates us from its ruin whom love binds fast in its sufferings. It is therefore easy now, when we behold all things destroyed, to detach our mind from its love. But this was most difficult in that time when the apostles were sent to preach the invisible heavenly kingdom, when far and wide they beheld all the kingdoms of the earth flourishing. (Homily IV on the Gospels.) 66.
But what Gregory has described concerning the calamity of this city, I will point out, so that those who, now dwelling in its ruins, do not suppose it to have been more orderly and thereby more powerful, may tremble. For he speaks thus in his eighteenth homily on the exposition of Ezekiel: What is there now, I ask, that pleases in this world? Everywhere we behold mourning, everywhere we hear groaning. Cities are destroyed, camps are overthrown, the fields are laid waste, the land is reduced to solitude. No farmer remains in the fields, scarcely any inhabitant in the cities;
and yet these small remnants of the human race are still daily and without ceasing smitten, and the scourges of heavenly justice have no end, because not even amid the scourges have the faults of our conduct been corrected. We see some led into captivity, some mutilated, some slain. What is there, then, that pleases in this life, my brethren? If we still love such a world, we love not joys but wounds. And she who once seemed to be mistress of the world — such as she now remains, we behold Rome, worn down in manifold ways by immense sorrows, by the desolation of her citizens, by the assault of enemies, by the frequency of ruins:
so that in her we see fulfilled what was foretold against the city of Samaria through the prophet Ezekiel: Set on the pot, set it on, I say, and put water into it, and gather its pieces into it; and a little after: Its cooking has boiled up, and its bones are boiled away in the midst of it; and again: Heap together the bones, which I will kindle with fire; the flesh shall be consumed, and the whole mixture shall be cooked, and the bones shall waste away. Set it also empty upon the coals, that it may grow hot, and its bronze may melt (Ezek. xxiv, 10 and following). For then the pot was set for us, when this city was established.
For then water was put into it, and its pieces were gathered together, when peoples flowed to it from every side, who, like heated water, boiled with the deeds of the world, and, as it were, like pieces of flesh, were melted in their own very fervor. Of which it is well said: Its cooking has boiled up, and its bones are boiled away in the midst of it: because first indeed within it the activity of worldly glory grew violently hot, but afterward that very glory with its followers failed. For by the bones are signified the powerful ones of the world, and by the flesh the peoples: because as flesh is borne by the bones, so through the powerful ones of the world the weakness of the peoples is governed. But behold, now all the powerful ones of this world have been taken away from her: therefore the bones have been boiled away.
Behold, the peoples have failed: her flesh has been melted away. Let it therefore be said: Heap together the bones, which I will kindle with fire; the flesh shall be consumed, and the whole mixture shall be cooked, and the bones shall waste away. For where is the senate? where now is the people? The bones have wasted away, the flesh is consumed, every rank of worldly dignities within her is extinguished. Her whole mixture has been boiled away, and yet even us few who remain, still daily the swords, still daily countless tribulations press upon. Let it therefore be said: For since the senate is gone, the people has perished; and yet among the few who remain, sorrows and groans are daily multiplied: now empty Rome burns.
But why do we say these things about men, when, with ruins ever multiplying, we see her very buildings also being destroyed? Whence it is fittingly added concerning the now-empty city: Let it grow hot, and let its bronze melt. For now the very pot too is consumed, in which formerly the flesh and bones were consumed: because after the men failed, the walls also fall. For where are those who once rejoiced in her glory? Where is their pomp? where their pride? where the frequent and unrestrained rejoicing? There has been fulfilled in her what is said against destroyed Nineveh through the prophet: Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the pastures of the young lions (Nahum ii, 11)?
Were not her leaders and princes lions, who, ranging through the various provinces of the world, seized their prey by raging and slaying? Hence the young lions found their pastures: because boys, adolescents, worldly youths and the sons of worldly men flocked hither from every side, when they wished to advance in this world. But behold, now she is made desolate, behold, she is worn down, behold, she is oppressed by groans. Now no one runs to her to advance in this world. Now no powerful and violent one remains, who by oppressing might snatch away plunder. Let us therefore say: Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the pastures of the young lions? There befalls her what we know was said of Judea through the prophet: Widen your baldness like the eagle (Micah i, 16).