Caput VI
Gregory's Lament Under Siege
Odo introduces Gregory's anguished words as the Lombard siege of Rome forces him to set aside sacred exposition, his harp turned to mourning amid daily bitterness.
I would also like to bring forward the words of Gregory. —or rather his complaints, laid out for everyone to see. For when he had taken on the last parts of Ezekiel, word reached him that Agistulf, king of the Lombards, was already crossing the Po and pressing hard to besiege Rome. He says: Let no one reproach me if, after this address, I stop—because, as you can all see, our tribulations have grown on every side; we are stabbed through from all around, and we fear the danger hanging over us.1 Some come to us with their hands cut off; others are reported captured; others, killed. And now I am forced to hold back my tongue from exposition, because the soul of my life is weary.2 Let no one look to me now for devotion to sacred eloquence, because my harp has been turned to mourning.✦3 And when I am forced to drink bitter things every day, how can I offer what is sweet?
The Watchman's Burden and Self-Reproach
Odo moves from thanksgiving amid deserved lashes to Gregory's own testimony about the crushing weight of pastoral care, his compunction at falling short of the watchman's height, and a final nod to the Moralia composed in illness.
What is left, then, but that amid the lashes we suffer on account of our own deserts, we should give thanks? To show how much he was hemmed in even among his own people by the burden of caring for them, let us quote what Gregory says in the first homilies on that same prophecy, when he was speaking about the watchman: 'Whoever,' he says, 'is appointed a watchman ought to stand on a height and rise above the deeds of those under his charge, so that the more he lifts his mind above earthly things, the more he can benefit them through his foresight.'✦4 And then he adds: 'O how harsh these things are that I am saying — because in speaking them I strike myself!' But I will speak — I will speak — so that even through me the word of God may resound against me. I am forced now to examine the affairs of churches, now those of monasteries, to weigh the life and deeds of individuals, now to handle certain civic matters, now to fear the swords of barbarians rushing in, now to endure certain plunderers with composure, now to stand up to them with the zeal of a love I have kept alive. Who, then, or what sort of watchman am I, who, weighed down by so many disturbances, still lie in the valley of weakness?✦✦5 Let us be silent about that famous and marvelous book of the Moralia, which he completed while very ill.
Read the original Latin
Libet quoque verba B. Gregorii, vel querimonias ejus ad medium deferre. Nam quando ultimas Ezechielis partes aggressus est, nuntiatum ei fuerat quod Agistulfus rex Langobardorum ad obsidendam Romam jam Padum transiens summopere festinaret. Ait enim: Nemo autem me reprehendat, si post hanc allocutionem cessavero, quia, sicut omnes cernitis, tribulationes nostrae creverunt, undique circonfossi sumus, imminens periculum timemus. Alii detruncatis ad nos manibus veniunt, alii capti, alii interempti nuntiantur. Et jam cogor ab expositione linguam retinere, quia taedet animam vitae meae. Jam in me nullus sacri eloquii studium requirat, quia versa est in luctum cithara mea. Et qui cogor quotidie amara bibere, quomodo possum dulcia propinare?
Quid igitur restat, nisi ut inter flagella, quae ex nostris meritis patimur, gratias agamus? Qui, ut ostendatur quantum etiam inter suos ob domesticam curam angustaretur, dicamus quid in primis ejusdem prophetiae homeliis, cum de speculatore loqueretur, ait: Quisquis, inquit, speculator ponitur, in altum debet stare, et subditorum opera transcendere, quatenus tanto plus eis prodesse per providentiam possit, quanto terrenis rebus animum non supponit. Ac deinde: O quam mihi dura sunt ista quae loquor, quia me ipsum loquendo ferio! sed dicam, dicam ut etiam per me sermo Dei sonet contra me. Cogor namque modo ecclesiarum, modo monasteriorum causas discutere, singulorum vitam actusque pensare, modo quaedam civium negotia sustinere, modo irruentibus barbarorum gladiis timere, modo raptores quosdam aequanimiter perpeti, modo eis sub studio servatae charitatis obviare. Quis ergo aut qualis speculator ego sum, qui adhuc tot rerum perturbationis depressus, in infirmitatis valle jaceo? Tacemus de illo famoso ac mirifico Moralium libro quem valde infirmus patravit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.137.2;Isa.24.7-Isa.24.8 — Upon the willows in our midst we hung up our harps. Isa.24.7 — The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merryhearted groan. Isa.24.8 — The joy of tambourines has ceased; the noise of the exultant has stopped; the joy of the lyre has ceased.
- ↩Ezek.33.1-Ezek.33.9 — The word of the LORD came to me, saying, Ezek.33.2 — Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: If I bring a sword against a land, and the people of that land take one man from among them and appoint him as their watchman, Ezek.33.3 — and he sees the sword coming against the land, and he blows the trumpet and warns the people, Ezek.33.4 — And whoever hears the sound of the trumpet but does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away — his blood shall be on his own head. Ezek.33.5 — He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who took warning has delivered his soul. Ezek.33.6 — But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes someone's life, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand. Ezek.33.7 — And you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel; you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them from me. Ezek.33.8 — When I say to the wicked one, 'You wicked one, you shall surely die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked one to turn from his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. Ezek.33.9 — But if you, you warn the wicked one to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way—he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your life.
- ↩Ps.23.4 — Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff — they comfort me.
- ↩Ps.84.6 — Blessed is the person whose strength is in you, whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
Notes
- 1 ↩cessavero is ambiguous between future perfect indicative ('I shall have ceased') and perfect subjunctive ('I should cease'). The future perfect is preferred here as a statement of fact about what will have happened.
- 2 ↩taedet animam vitae meae: the impersonal taedet with accusative of person is a classical Latin construction ('it wearies the soul of my life'). The sense is that Gregory's own soul is exhausted by the circumstances of his life.
- 3 ↩versa est in luctum cithara mea echoes Psalm 137:2 (Vulgate): 'In salicibus in medio eius suspendimus organa nostra' and more directly Isaiah 24:7–8 or Lamentations traditions about the harp of joy turned to mourning. The exact source anchor is pending Moses resolution.
- 4 ↩The quoted passage on the watchman (speculator) echoes Ezekiel 33:1–9; final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
- 5 ↩Valley of weakness (valle infirmitatis) may echo Psalm 23:4 or Psalm 84:6 (Vulg.); final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
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