Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/867

 OREOORT

781

GREGORY

second to none in all Rome, and it seems certain also that he must have gone through a course of legal studies. Not least among the educating influoneos was the religious atmosphere of his home, lie loved to meditate on the Scriptures and to listen attcutivoly to the conversation of his elders, so that he was "de- voted to God from his youth up". His rank and prospects pointed him out naturally for a public career, and he doubtless held some of the subordinate offices wherein a young patrician embarked on public life. That he acquitted himself well in these appears certain, since we find him, about the year 573, wlieu little more than thirty years old, filling the important office of prefect of the city of Rome. At that date the brilliant post was shorn of much of its old magnificence, and its responsibilities were reduced ; still it remained the highest civil dignity in the city, and it was only after long prayer and inward struggle that Gregory decided to abandon everything and become a monk. This event took place most probably in 574. His decision once taken, he devoted himself to the work and aus- terities of his new life with all the natural energy of his character. His Sicilian estates were given up to found si.x monasteries there, and his home on the C'a'lian Hill was converted into another under the patronage of St. Andrew. Here he himself took the cowl, so that "he who had been wont to go about the city clad in the trabea and aglow with silk and jewels, now clad in a worthless garment served the altar of the Lord" (Greg. Tur., X, i).

II. As Monk and Abbot, c. 574-590. — There has been much discussion as to whether Gregory and his fellow-monks at St. Andrew's followed the Rule of St. Benedict. Baronius and others on his authority have denied this, while it has been asserted as strongly by Mabillon and the Bollandists, who, in the preface to the life of St. Augustine (26 Ma}'), retract the opinion expressed earlier in the preface to St. Gregory's life (12 March). The controversy is important only in vjew of the question as to the form of monasticism introduced by St. Augustine into England, and it may be said that Baronius's view is now practically aban- doned. For about three years Gregory lived in retirement in the monaster}' of St. Andrew, a period to which he often refers as the happiest portion of his life. His great austerities during this time are re- corded by the biographers, and probably caused the weak health from which he constantly suffered in later life. However, he was soon drawn out of his .seclusion, when, in 578, the pope ordained him, much against his will, as one of the seven deacons {regionarii) of Rome. The period was one of acute crisis. The Lombards were advancing rapidly towards the city, and the only chance of safety seemed to be in obtaining help from the Emperor Tiberius at Byzantium. Pope Pelagius II accordingly dispatched a special embassy to Tiber- ius, and sent Gregory along with it as his apocrisiarius, or permanent ambassador to the Court of Byzantium. The date of this new appointment seems to have been the spring of 579, and it lasted apparently for about six years. Nothing could have been more uncon- genial to Gregory than the worldly atmosphere of the brilliant Byzantine Court, and to coimteract its dan- gerous influence he followed the monastic life so far as circumstances permitted. This was made easier by the fact that several of his brethren from St. An- drew's accompanied him to Constantinople. With them he prayed and studied the Scriptures, one result of which remains in his " Morals", or series of lectures on the Book of Job, composed during this period at the recjuest of St. Leander of Seville, whose acquaintance Gregory made during his stay in Constantinople. Much attention was attracted to Gregory by his con- troversy with Eutychius. Patriarch of Constantinople, concerning the Resurrection. Eutychius had pub- lished a treatise on this subject maintaining that the risen bodies of the elect would be " impalpable, more

light than air". To this view Gregory objected the palpability of Christ's risen body. The dispute be- came prolonged and bitter, till at length the emperor intervened, both combatants being summoned to a private audience, where they stated their views. The emperor decided that Gregory was in the right, and ordered Eutychius's book to be burned. The strain of the struggle had been so great that both fell ill. Gregory recovered, but the patriarch succumbed, recanting his error on his death-bed. Mention should be made of the curious fact that, although Gregory's sojourn at Constantinople lasted for six years, he seems never to have mastered even the rudiments of Greek. Possibly he found that the use of an inter- preter has its advantages, but he often complains of the incapacity of those employed for this purpose. It must be owned that, so far as obtaining help for Rome was concerned, Gregory's stay at Constantinople was a failure. However, his period as ambassador taught him very plainly a lesson which was to bear great fruit later on when he ruled in Rome as pope. This was the important fact that no help was any longer to be looked for from Byzantium, with the corollary that, if Rome and Italy were to be saved at all, it could only be by vigorous independent action of the powers on the spot. Humanly speaking, it is to the fact that Gregory had acquired this conviction that his later line of action with all its momentous consequences is due.

In the year 5S6, or possibly 585, he was recalled to Rome, and with the greatest joy returned to St. Andrew's, of which he became abbot soon afterwards. The monastery grew famous under his energetic rule, producing many monks who won renown later, and many vivid pictures of this period may be found in the " Dialogues". Gregory gave much of his time to lecturing on the Holy Scriptures and is recorded to have expounded to his monks the Heptateuch, Books of Kings, the Prophets, the Book of Proverbs, and the Canticle of Canticles. Notes of these lectures were taken at the time by a young student named Claudius, but when transcribed were foimd by Gregory to con- tain so many errors that he insisted on their being given to him for correction and revision. Apparently this was never done, for the existing fragments of such works attributed to Gregory are almost certainly spurious. At this period, however, one important literary enterprise was certainly completed. This was the revision and publication of the "Magna Mor- alia", or lectures on the Book of Job, undertaken in Constantinople at the request of St. Leander. In one of his letters (Ep., V. liii) Gregory gives an interesting accoimt of the origin of this work. To this period most probably should be assigned the famous incident of Gregory's meeting with the English youths in the Formn. The first mention of the event is in the Whit- by life (c. ix), and the whole story seems to be an English tradition. It is worth notice, therefore, that in the St. Gall manuscript the Angles do not appear as slave boys exposed for sale, but as men visiting Rome of their own free will, whom Gregory expressed a desire to see. It is Venerable Bede (Hist. Eccl., II, i) who first makes them slaves. In consequence of this meeting Gregory was so fired with desire to convert the Angles that he obtained permission from Pelagius II to go in person to Britain with some of his fellow- monks as missionaries. The Romans, however, were greatly incensed at the pope's act. ^\'ith angry words they demanded Gregory's recall, and messengers were at once dispatched to bring him back to Rome, if necessary by force. These men caught up with the little band of missionaries on the third day after their departure, and at once returned with them, Gregory offering no opposition, since he had received what appeared to him as a sign from heaven that his enter- prise should be abandoned. The strong feeling of the Roman populace that Gregory must not be allowed to