Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/869

 OREGORT

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GREGORY

almost more difficult point of his relation to the plain jurisdiction over and above their universal primacy song or chant of the Church, for Gregory's connexion as successors of St. Peter; and, among Western with which matters the earliest authority seems to be John the Deacon (Vita, 11, vi, xvii), see (iiiKGoiUAN Chant; Sacramentar y. There is no lack of evidence, however, to illustrate Gregory's activity as manager of the patrimony of St. Peter. By his day the estates of the Church had reached vast dimensions. Vary- ing estimates place their total area at from 1800 to

churches, this jurisdiction extends in a most intimate manner over the churches of Italy and the isles adjacent. On the mainland much of this territory was now in the hands of the Lombards, with whose Arian clergy Gregory was, of course, not in com- munion. Whenever opportunitj' offered, however, he was careful to provide for the needs of the faithful

1800 square miles, and there seems no reason for in these parts, frequently uniting them to some neigh-

supposing this to be an exaggeration, while the income arising therefrom was probably not le.ss than .$1,.500,- 000 a year. The land lay in many places — Campania, Africa, Sicily, and elsewhere — and, as their landlord, Gregory displayed a skill in finance and estate manage

bouring diocese, when they were too few to occupy the energies of a bishop. On the islands, of which Sicily was by far the most important, the pre-existing church system was maintained. Gregory appointed a vicar, usually the metropolitan of the province, who

ment which e.xcites our admiration no less than it did exercised a general supervision over the wliolc church the surprise of his tenants and agents, who suddenly He also insisted strongly on tlic holding of liiral synod;

found that they had a new master who was not to !>■' deceived or cheated. Tin management of each patTi mony was carried out by :i number of agents of varying grades and duties under an official called the rector or dejenxor of the patrimony. Previously the rectors had usually been laymen, but Gregory established the cus- tom of appointing ecclesias- tics to the post. In doing this he probably had in view the many extra duties of an ecclesiastical nature which he called upon them to under- take. Thus examples may be found of such rectors being commissioned to undertake the filling up of vacant sees, holding of local synods, tak- ing action against heretics, providing for the maintenance of churches and monasteries, rectifying abuses in the churches of their district, with the enforcing of ecclesiastical discipline and even the re- proof and correction of local bishops. Still Gregory never allowed the rectors to inter- fere in such matters on their own responsibility. In the minutia? of estate manage- ment nothing was too small for Gregory's personal notice, from the exact number of scdarii in a modius of corn, or how many solidi went to one golden pound, to the use of false weights by cer- tain minor agents. He finds time to write instructions on every detail and leaves no complaint vmattended to, even from the humblest of his multitude of tenants. Throughout the large number of letters which deal with the management of the patrimony, the pope's determination to secure a scrupulously righteous ad- ministration is evident. As bishop, he is the trustee of God and St. Peter, and his agents must show that they realize this by their conduct. Consequently, under his able management the estates of the Church increased steadily in value, the tenants were eon- tented, and the revenues paid in with imprecedented regularity. The only fault ever laid at his door in this matter is that, by his boundless charities, he emptied his treasury. But this, if a fault at all,

Gregory

tury, preserved i

as ordered by the Council of Nica-a, and letters of his ex- ist addressed to bishops in Sicily, Sardinia, and Gaul, reminding them of their duties in this respect. The supreme instance of Greg- ory's intervention in the af- fairs of these dioceses occurs in the case of Sardinia, where the behaviour of Januarius, the half-witted, aged Metro- politan of Cagliari, had re- duced the church to a state of semi-chaos. A large number of letters relate to the reforms instituted by the pope (Epp., II, .xlvii; III, xxxvi; IV, ix, xxiii-xxvii, xxix; V, ii; IX, i, xi, ccii-cciv; XIV, ii). His care over the election of a new liishop whenever a vacancy occurs is shown in many cases, and if, after his exami- nation of the elect, which is always a searching one, he finds him unfitted for the post, he has no hesitation in rejecting him and com- manding another to be chosen (Epp., I, Iv, Ivi; VII, xxxviii; X, vii). With regard to discipline the pope was specially strict in enforcing the Church's laws as to the celibacy of the clergy (Epp., I, xlii,l;

IV, V, xxvi, xxxiv; VII, i; IX, ex, ccxviii; X, xix ; XI, Ivi a; XIII, xxxviii, xxxix); the exemption of clerics from lay tribunals (Epp., I, xxxix a; VI, xi; IX, liii, Ixxvi, lxxi.x; X, iv; XI, xxxii; XIII, I); and the dep- rivation of all ecclesiastics guilty of criminal or scan- dalous offences (Epp., I, xviii. xlii; III, xlix; IV, xxvi;

V, V, xvii, xviii; VII, xxxLx; VIII, xxiv; IX, xxv; XII, iii, X, xi; XIV, ii). He was also inflexible with regard to the proper application of chvirch revenues, insisting that others should be as strict as he was in disposing of these funds for their proper ends (Epp., I. X, Ixiv; II, xx-xxii; III,xxii; IV, xi; V, xii, xlviii; VIII. vii; XI, xxii, hi a; XIII, xh-i; XIV, ii).

(.3) lielnlioiis irith Other CInirches. — With regard to the other Western Churches limits of space prohibit any detailed account of Gregory's dealings, but the following quotation, all the more valuable as coming from a Protestant authority, indicates very clearly the line he followed herein: "In his dealings with the

IE Great Semis Mis.sioxar TO England lo-Saxon manuJscript of the tenth the British Museum

was a natural consequence of his view that he was

the administrator of the property of the poor, for Churches of the West, Gregory acted invariably on

whom he could never do enough. the assumption that all were subject to the juris-

(2) Relations with the Suburbicarian Churches. — As diction of the Roman See. Of the rights claimed

patriarchs of the West the popes exercise a special or exercised by his predecessors he would not abate