Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/214

 196 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. authoritative in suppressing sins ; he must lord it, not over the brethren, but over their vices.^ Gregory's Pastoral Eule is an authoritative work of episcopal — inchoate papal — precept. Its purpose was to supply the bishop with rules for his conduct, just as Benedict's regula monachorum sets the rules for monks. Both writings are regulae authoritatively pre- scribed. They are thus typical of the later transition centuries and the Middle Ages; the former yearned for such regulae as these to obey, and created them ; the latter accepted the same, modifying them according to the further development and needs of mankind. As pope and head of Western Christendom, Gregory assumed a title expressive of his humility, and pro- phetic of the nature of the papacy's future dominion : servus servorum Dei} It was as a servant of servants that the pope was to command the world, in obedience to God and in exaction of obedience to authority given and enjoined by God. Gregory is a man of the late transition centuries, a man far more mediaeval than Augustine. Augustine had summed up Christian doctrine and feeling for the West; Gregory accepts the work of Augustine, but reexpresses Augustinian feelings and conclusions in conformity to his own character, which is more defi- nitely touched by the spirit and the new ignorance of the Middle Ages. His mind is occupied with topics which were to occupy coming centuries ; he is filled with allegorism ; he discusses the affairs and details 1 See, e.g., Pastoralis Regulae Liber, II, 7; also cf. ib., I, 10 and 11. 2 Thus he begins Ep. 1, 1.