Gregory the Great (c.540–604), pope, apostle of the English, one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages. Gregory was the son of a Roman senator and entered the service of the State as a young man. But in 573 he sold his enormous properties, founding six monasteries in Sicily and a seventh in Rome, and giving generously to the poor. The next year he entered his own monastery of St. Andrew's on the Celian Hill as a monk and was distinguished for his austere life, which both filled him with nostalgia in later years and caused some of the ill-health which he suffered so constantly. Pope Benedict I, however, called him out of the monastery to become one of the seven deacons of Rome, and his successor, Pelagius II, made him apocrisiarius (ambassador) in Byzantium. After six years of distinguished service Gregory returned to Rome to become abbot of St. Andrew's, seemingly convinced that the future of Christianity lay with monasticism rather than with the declining Eastern Empire. But his own choice of monastic life was destined to be frustrated. He had hoped to lead some missionaries to bring the Gospel to the Anglo-Saxons—he had been specially impressed by some Anglo-Saxon slaves on sale in the Roman market—but he was elected pope during an outbreak of plague. Reluctantly he accepted and was confirmed by the emperor.

He was at once faced with a state of crisis. Floods, famine, plague, a Lombard invasion, all called for urgent attention, while in the longer term there were the dominance of Byzantium in Church affairs and the need of barbarian peoples to be converted to Christianity. His care for other Western churches was matched by few popes before his time and contributed to the emergence of the medieval papacy.

In 592–3 he concluded a separate peace with the Lombards, virtually ignoring the exarch of Ravenna, who was the emperor's representative in Italy. He also appointed governors to Italian towns, administered the vast estates of the Church with prudence and skill, and in the breakdown of imperial authority assumed many of the roles of a civil ruler.

One of the most notable initiatives of his pontificate was the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. In the whole process Gregory personally took the lead; he had corresponded in advance about it, he had arranged for the liberation of some Anglo-Saxon slaves, and he sent Augustine and his monks on this hazardous but imaginative undertaking. After their initial success Gregory still directed by giving guidance in matters that perplexed Augustine, by sending reinforcements in 601, and by writing to the king and queen of Kent. This policy was continued by Gregory's successors: as a consequence the Church in England was in many ways closer to the papacy than that in Gaul. In England was written the first Life of Gregory: from Bede at Wearmouth, Aldhelm at Malmesbury, and the anonymous biographer from Whitby come eulogies of Gregory as the ‘apostle of the English’, ‘our father and apostle in Christ’, ‘he from whom we have received the Christian faith, he who will present the English people to the Lord on the Day of Judgment as their teacher and apostle’. Later devotion to Augustine and Aidan have obscured this earliest realization of Gregory's personal importance as apostle of the English. By choosing the personnel of the mission and by his direction, encouragement, and support he was both pioneer and continuator in the work. After his death his influence continued by his writings.

These were remarkable for quantity, quality, and their suitability for the readers of his own and future generations. His principal achievement was to pass on to converted barbarians the wisdom of the Fathers of the Graeco-Roman world, such as Origen, Augustine of Hippo, and Ambrose of Milan. This was particularly true of his Homilies on the Gospels and the Moralia on the book of Job, written in Constantinople at the request of Leander. His more original works such as the Pastoral Care (later translated into OE. by King Alfred) and the Dialogues (or Lives of the saints) also enjoyed great popularity: one formed the episcopate of the Middle Ages more deeply than any other book, while the other both reflected and encouraged the preoccupation of contemporaries for the miraculous, before the role of secondary causes in the Christian worldview was properly understood. Both books were standard works in most monastic libraries; their popularity did not cease at the Norman Conquest. Gregory's 854 Letters are perhaps his most interesting work for historians of today. They reveal his wisdom, prudence, and preoccupation with the problems of both Church and State, including monasticism, the missionary role of the Church, the legitimacy of icons, the integrity of catholic doctrine, and the reproof of prelates who gave themselves grandiloquent titles. He preferred to be known as the ‘servant of the servants of God’, a title retained by his successors to the present day.

His role in the development of the Roman Liturgy was considerable, but disputed. He certainly modified various minor features and composed a number of prayers which formed the kernel of the Gregorian Sacramentary, even if this reached its final form after his death. Many prayers in it also were inspired by his thought and terminology if not actually written by him. His name has always been associated with Church music and especially Gregorian Chant: he probably took a prominent part in the gradual codification and adaptation of at least four pre-existing forms of plainsong. Although he wrote the earliest Life of Benedict of Nursia in book II of his Dialogues and showed great appreciation of his Rule, it seems that his own monastery was not formally ‘Benedictine’ but rather basilican in character. Nevertheless, his writings reveal much influence of the Rule, and the traditional image of him as a Benedictine, even if juridically incorrect, still stands as a description of his spirit and outlook. It would be hard to name anyone more influential in forming the spirit of medieval monasticism. Indeed, in the wider sphere of the life of the Church as a whole, Gregory's reign of only thirteen years is rightly seen as decisive in the development of the medieval papacy; he thoroughly deserved the title of ‘the Great’.

During much of his life he suffered from both gout and gastritis, but these afflictions seldom affected his judgement. Even when reduced in health just before his death, he dictated letters and cared for the needs of the churches. He must have been sixty-five or seventy when he died. He was soon acclaimed a saint.

In England thirty-two ancient and many modern churches are dedicated to him and his principal feast was given a high rank from early times and celebrated universally. The earliest pictures of Gregory show him as pope, writing, with the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove dictating what he should write: these survive especially in liturgical books of the early Middle Ages. Later he figures (as on Norfolk screens and pulpits) as one of the Four Latin Doctors (with SS. Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine). Later again the pictures stress his role as teacher of the efficacy of prayer and the sacrifice of the Mass in freeing souls from the pains of Purgatory, either the emperor Trajan, delivered by the prayers of Gregory himself, or the monk unfaithful to poverty who was freed by thirty masses said on successive days (still called a gregorian trental). Luigi Capponi especially developed these themes in the 15th-century sculptures in the church of St. Gregory at Rome. In the 15th and 16th centuries (but not afterwards) the ‘Mass of St. Gregory’ paintings were popular, especially but not exclusively in Germany and Flanders. These depict him saying Mass while the suffering Christ appears above to confirm the faith of the ministers in the Real Presence. This is not based on any incident in Gregory's life, nor does it appear in the account in the Golden Legend. Gregory was also highly esteemed in the East and in ancient Ireland, where he was even provided with an Irish royal genealogy and an apocryphal Liber de Gradibus Coeli attributed to him. Feast: 3 September; ordination, 29 March.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

• Early Lives by the Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne), i. 312; by the Monk of Whitby, ed. B. Colgrave, The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great (1968); by Bede, H.E., ii. 1; by Paul the Deacon (late 8th century), ed. H. Grisar in Z.K.T., xi (1887), 158–73 and in expanded form in P.L., lxxv. 41–60; by John the Deacon (9th century) in P.L., lxxv. 59–242. Modern Lives by F. H. Dudden, Gregory the Great (2 vols., 1905); P. Battifol (1928; Eng. tr. 1929), Abbot Snow (1932). Gregory's works are in P.L., lxxv–lxxviii; critical editions of some of his Scriptural works in C.C., Series Latina, vols. cxliv (1963) and cxlii (1971) and of his Registrum Epistolarum (ed. D. Norberg, S.C.). For his spiritual teaching see C. Butler, Western Mysticism (1922, 1966) and V. Recchia, L'esegesi di Gregorio Magno al Cantico dei Cantici (1967); for his monasticism K. Hallinger, ‘Papst Gregor der Grosse und der hl. Benedikt’ in Studia Anselmiana, xlii (1957), 231–319 and G. Ferrari, Early Roman Monasteries (1957); for other aspects L. Weber, Hauptfragen der Moraltheologie Gregors des Grossen (1947); E. H. Fisher, ‘Gregor der Grosse und Byzanz’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fur Rechtsgeschichte, lxvii (1950), 15–144. See also J. Ryan, ‘The Early Irish Church and the See of Peter’ in Medieval Studies presented to Aubrey Gwynn (1961); J. Richards, Consul of God (1980); W. D. McCready, Signs of Sanctity (1989); R. Godding, Bibliografia di Gregorio Magno (1990); R. A. Markus, From Augustine to Gregory the Great (1984); P. Meyvaert, Benedict, Gregory, Bede and Others (1977); C. Straw, Gregory the Great (1988); E. Duffy, Saints and Sinners (1997), pp. 45–57

Gregory I (ca. 540-604), commonly called St. Gregory the Great, was pope from 590 to 604. He was truly a founder of the Middle Ages, both through his decisive policies as pope and through his widely read writings.

Born at Rome about 540, Gregory was the son of a prominent senatorial family and the great-great-grandson of Pope Felix III. He began his adult life on a path that would doubtless have led him to the highest offices in the government of the Roman Empire. In 573 he was prefect of Rome, a post which made him the highest civil official of the city. Like many leading spirits of the age, however, he renounced this career and retired into the monastic life of contemplation. His vast property holdings he either sold for the relief of the poor or used for the endowment of monasteries, seven of which he personally founded, six in Sicily and one in Rome. The Roman one, which he himself entered about 574 as one of the brothers, was established in his own family house on a street which may still be visited, the Clivus Scauri.

Papal Envoy

Pelagius II became pope in 579, a year in which the city of Rome was under siege by the invading Lombards from the north. The new pope quickly summoned Gregory from his monastery, ordained him deacon, and dispatched him as his personal envoy to the imperial court at Constantinople. There his chief business was to represent to the Emperor the urgent need of Italy for defense against the barbarian invaders. Though Gregory stayed at the capital for almost 6 years, he was without success in this particular task, the Emperor being too preoccupied with the defense of the eastern frontier to take seriously the situation in the West.

A newly found friend in the person of Leander, bishop of the Spanish city of Seville, who was at the capital on a mission from his native land, pressed Gregory to undertake a literary project which was to become the longest work from his pen, extending to 35 books: the Moralia, a commentary on the biblical book of Job. About 585 Gregory returned home, probably again taking up the life of ascetic discipline, study, and contemplation at his monastery on the Clivus Scauri.

On the death of Pelagius II in 590, the people of Rome demanded that Gregory be made pope. Though he attempted to escape from the city in his efforts to avoid the exalted office in favor of the contemplative life, he finally accepted the voice of his Church as the voice of God and ascended the papal throne in the year of Pelagius's death.

Pope and Patriot

Among the most pressing of Gregory l's concerns from the moment of his becoming pope were the physical well-being of his people and the political situation in Italy. The effects of the overflowing of the river Tiber, plague, and famine made the organization of resources and the alleviation of suffering matters of urgent necessity. On receiving news that the Lombard duke Ariulf was marching on Rome, Gregory stepped into the power vacuum; he directed the defense of the city and appointed military governors to other Italian cities as well. What was left of imperial authority in Italy was vested in an official called the exarch, residing in Ravenna. Gregory was driven to distraction by the unwillingness of the exarch to take steps either toward the defense of the country or toward a truce with the Lombards. In 593, with his city under siege, Gregory himself negotiated a truce between Ariulf and the city of Rome. A change of exarchs in 598 saw the fulfillment of one of Gregory's cherished goals, a formal peace between the Lombards and all of Italy.

The Pope did not allow his administrative duties to extinguish his activity as a writer. Soon after his taking office appeared the Book of Pastoral Rule, written ostensibly in explanation of his initial unwillingness to become pope. It is an extended discussion of the awesome responsibilities of the office of bishop in the Church, in which much that is repetitious and common-place is interwoven with remarks of acute psychological insight into the delicate relations between a ruler of souls and his people.

The Moralia, begun in Constantinople, both exemplifies at length Gregory's allegorical method of interpreting Scripture and portrays his deep sense, nurtured by the uncertainties and crises of the times, of the Church as participating in the sufferings of Christ: Job in his agonies is a figure representing both Christ and the Church united to Christ in his suffering. In the Dialogues Gregory with more than a little credulity records for popular edification the lives and miracles of holy men of Italy; one entire book of this work is in fact the first biography of Benedict of Nursia, known as the father of Western Christian monasticism. In addition to these works there are extant over 60 sermons preached at various times, plus 854 letters, which reveal his engaging personal manner as well as his wide-ranging concerns.

Servant of the Servants of God

Gregory entertained no mean estimate of the significance of the papal office. To the successor of the apostle Peter as bishop of Rome is entrusted a primacy over the whole Church. Gregory interpreted this primacy as a primacy of service and was the first to style himself "servant of the servants of God." His service was one of upholding the canonical procedures of the Church and of admonishing bishops and secular rulers when such procedures were ignored. It was a service of eradicating corruption and vice among the clergy and of mobilizing the resources of the Church for the benefit of the poor.

The vast and far-flung estates of the papacy, the Patrimony of Peter, played an important role in the achievement of these ends. Just as Pope Pelagius had called the monk Gregory to active service in the Church, so did Gregory summon trusted monks from their cells to be overseers of the Patrimony and in this capacity both to be local protectors and benefactors of the poor and to act as agents of the Pope, reporting ecclesiastical irregularities to him and acting as his local representatives.

Gregory, the first monk-pope, did not as pope forsake the outlook of a monk; he regarded the lust for power as one of the severest threats to the health of the Church. Thus, from his point of view, he could do nothing but offer the most stringent opposition against the claim of the bishop of Constantinople to the title "universal bishop," asserting that such a vainglorious title did not belong even to himself.

Though Gregory on the one hand saw himself as a loyal citizen of the Roman Republic and thus a subject of the Roman emperor at Constantinople, he on the other hand saw clearly that the "barbarian" kingdoms of western Europe had seriously to be reckoned with as a permanent political fact. Thus, for example, did he enter into direct relations with the Merovingian rulers of Gaul in regard to the regulation of Church affairs there.

Probably Gregory's single most significant act as pope was the sending in 596 of 40 monks under the leadership of Augustine, monks from his own monastery on the Clivus Scauri, to accomplish the conversion of the heathen English. In England his monks were to establish the two archbishoprics of Canterbury and York, directly under papal control, and it was from England in the 8th century that monks thoroughly loyal to the papacy were to set out as missionaries to the Germans. Through his employment of monks as papal agents and missionaries he translated the inherited theory of papal supremacy over the Church into a program for actual papal governance of the Catholic Church in the West. Thus the pattern of medieval Catholicism was laid.

After some years of contending with prolonged attacks of gout and gastritis, Gregory died on March 12, 604.

Further Reading

The classic biography of Gregory I is F. Homes Dudden, Gregory the Great: His place in History and Thought (2 vols., 1905), which provides a detailed account of his life and teachings and valuable information on the period. A shorter and quite valuable biography, with important excerpts from Gregory's writings, is Pierre Batiffol, Saint Gregory the Great (trans. 1929). For general historical background the following are recommended: The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 2: The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundations of the Western Empire, edited by H. M. Gwatkin (1913); Margaret Deanesly, A History of Early Medieval Europe, 476 to 911 (1956); and R. H. C. Davis, A History of Medieval Europe (1957).

1330–78, pope (1370–78), a Frenchman named Pierre Roger de Beaufort. He was the successor of Urban V, who had made an unsuccessful attempt to remove the papacy from Avignon to Rome (1367–70). From the time of his election Gregory heard prophetic admonitions to go to Rome, first from St. Bridget of Sweden and then from St. Catherine of Siena, who visited him (1376). But the Avignon court was opposed, and Italy had again become inhospitable. The pope's absence and the death of Cardinal de Albornoz had plunged the entire Italian peninsula into anarchy and violence. Florence, Milan, and Perugia revolted against papal authority. With Gregory's sanction, Robert of Geneva led a marauding army into Italy, returning violence for violence. Gregory finally heeded St. Catherine's pleas and returned to Rome (Jan., 1377), thus ending the Babylonian Captivity of the popes on French soil. All his efforts to bring about peace failed. He was the last of the French popes and was succeeded by Urban VI. The elections after his death began the Great Schism. Gregory issued the first condemnation of the teachings of John Wyclif.

Quotes:

"The universe is not rich enough to buy the vote of an honest man."

"Whatsoever one would understand what he hears must hasten to put into practice what he has heard."

"There are nine orders of angels, to wit, angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim."

"Anger is an expensive luxury in which only men of a certain income can indulge."

"When a girl ceases to blush, she has lost the most powerful charm of her beauty."

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