Caput VII
Gregory's Humility and Monastic Discipline
Gregory the Great, despite his exalted office, embraced humility, rejected grand titles, maintained monastic discipline, and surrounded himself with prudent counselors.
If, then, so great and so remarkable a man had so many scourges awaiting him — he whom even the emperor Mauricius, who had pressed him into ordination against his will, had vehemently urged forward — what wonder is it if the bishops of our own time are afflicted? Truly, since we have made mention of so great a patron, it must be said in a few words how greatly he provided for his own modesty and his reputation. For thus it is written in that Roman biography, which we mentioned above. As soon as he had received the highest pontificate, he rejected the pretentious title of 'universal,' and first of all named himself the servant of the servants of God in his letters, and he used modest garments among his pontifical vestments as a sign of his humility.1 For indeed, perceiving that he had been appointed the highest pontiff by God for this purpose — that, according to that prophetic word, he might uproot the root of vices and plant virtues — he condemned under threat of anathema all the customs which he had recognized as having recently sprouted up against apostolic tradition.✦2 Then indeed, excluding from his household not only young men but all secular persons, he chose as his familiar counselors the most prudent of the clergy or of the monks. With these men he spent his days and nights, and he lost nothing of monastic perfection, nothing of pontifical instruction, even though he had been placed over nations and kingdoms. And so everywhere religious monks were seen attaching themselves to the pontiff alongside the most learned clerics, and in the midst of diverse responsibilities an even honesty was seen; and so great was the discipline with which he cultivated the conduct of his ministers that none of them would presume to display anything coarse or unusual in their speech or dress as regards the religious life, and anyone who happened to lack either holiness or wisdom did not have the confidence to stand before the pontiff.3
The Wantonness of the Undisciplined and Gregory's Service to the Poor
The laxity of certain clergy is rebuked through prophetic lament, while Gregory's personal charity toward the poor and his extraordinary humility are illustrated through vivid anecdotes.
Once this was done, the wantonness of certain men was exposed — men who choose to live alongside such people, and who, with unbridled freedom, whether by speaking carelessly or by their behavior in the presence of those they ought to have revered all the most, indulge themselves to such a degree that they end up softening even those same people from their state of gravity, bending them toward the allurement of their own lightness, so that not even in memory is any talk of discipline kept alive. Against that complaint of the heavenly Inspector, who says: "I attended and listened; no one speaks what is good" — they make such a racket that if a poor person, or rather Christ in the poor person, were to cry out, he could scarcely be heard. Will it not then come to pass what Isaiah laments, saying, "The flute and the lyre are at your feasts, and you do not regard the work of the Lord"?✦ (Isa. 5:12.) The aforementioned Pope Gregory served the poor so diligently that he would personally serve them whatever kinds of food were appropriate at the proper time. Among these poor, when undertakers found a dead body in a certain out-of-the-way spot, Gregory concluded the man had perished from lack of alms, and for several days he stopped celebrating Mass, as though doing penance. He so thoroughly despised the glory of his own apostleship that an angel bore witness about this same Gregory to a certain hermit — a man who kept a single cat with him to relieve the weariness of solitude — saying, "You have greater love in this one cat of yours than Gregory has in the whole Roman Empire." He was of such great humility that when a certain pilgrim, dressed in fine attire, wished to prostrate himself before Gregory as the pope processed in solemn state to give his blessing, Gregory himself dismounted from his horse first and bowed down to that very pilgrim.
Gregory's Zeal for Clerical Discipline
Gregory rigorously investigated crimes and required proven continence before ordination to higher clerical orders.
Once he had heard of crimes, he by no means let them pass unexamined. He forbade a subdeacon to be ordained unless he would profess continence from marriage, and he permitted no one to advance further unless his chastity had been proven in the subdiaconate.
Read the original Latin
Si ergo tantum ac talem virum tot flagella manebant, quippe quem etiam ipse Mauricius imperator, qui eum invitum ordinari fecerat, vehementer urgebat, quid mirum si pontifices nostri temporis affliguntur? Sane quia mentionem tanti patroni fecimus, dicendum paucis quantopere suo pudori suaeque famae consuluerit. Sic namque in illa Romana vita, cujus supra meminimus, scriptum habetur. Mox ut summum pontificium sortitus est, superstitiosum universalis vocabulum refutavit, primumque se servum servorum Dei in suis epistolis nominavit, et mediocribus indumentis ad suae humilitatis indicium in pontificalibus utebatur. Etenim advertens se ideo summum pontificem a Deo constitutum, ut, juxta illud propheticum, radicem vitiorum evelleret, virtutesque plantaret, omnes consuetudines quas contra apostolicam traditionem noviter pullulasse cognoverat, sub anathematis interminatione damnavit. Tum vero a suo cubiculo non solum juvenculos, sed et omnes saeculares excludens, clericorum quosque vel monachorum prudentissimos sibi familiares consiliariosque delegit. Cum quibus die nocteque versatus, nihil monasticae perfectionis, nihil pontificalis institutionis, licet super gentes et regna constitutus, amisit. Videbantur itaque passim cum eruditissimis clericis religiosi monachi adhaerere pontifici, et in diversis professionibus uniformis videbatur honestas, tantaque censura mores ministrorum excolebat, ut eorum nullus barbarum vel quid inconsuetum religioni sermone vel habitu preferre praesumeret, et qui forte sanctimonia vel sapientia caruisset, subsistendi coram pontifice fiduciam non haberet.
Quo facto redarguitur illa quorumdam lascivia, qui talibus cohabitare malunt, qui tam effrenata libertate vel loquendo leviter, vel agendo coram eis, quos magis vereri debuerant, potiuntur: ut ipsos etiam ab statu gravitatis emollitos ad suae levitatis lenocinium incurvent, ita ut nec in memoria quidem sermo disciplinae habeatur, contra illam superni inspectoris querimoniam, qua dicit: Attendi et auscultavi, nemo quod bonum est loquitur: ita perstrepunt, ut si pauper, imo Christus in paupere clamaverit, vix audiri possit. Nonne tunc videbitur illud fieri quod Isaias illacrymat, dicens: Tibia et lyra in conviviis vestris, et opus Domini non respicitis? (Isa. V, 12.) Praedictus vero papa Gregorius ita pauperibus serviebat, ut quaslibet ciborum species eis suo tempore ministraret. E quibus pauperibus dum unum in quodam recessu vespillones mortuum reperissent, Gregorius aestimans eum stipis inopia perisse, per aliquot dies a missarum celebratione quasi poenitendo cessavit. Qui sui apostolatus gloriam ita omnino vilipendebat, ut angelus ad quemdam eremitam, qui unum catum pro relevando secum habebat, taedio de eodem Gregorio testaretur, dicens: Majorem dilectionem habes tu in hoc tuo cato, quam Gregorius in omni imperio Romano. Tantae autem humilitatis fuit, ut cum ei quidam peregrinus in solemni apparatu procedenti ad benedicendum prosternere vellet, ipse eidem peregrino prior de equo metaneam faceret.
Crimina semel audita nullatenus indiscussa praeteribat. Subdiaconum ordinari vetuit, nisi continentiam a conjugio profiteretur, nullumque altius progredi permisit, nisi cujus castitas in subdiaconatu probata fuisset.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩superstitiosum vocabulum rendered 'pretentious title' — the Latin carries a stronger pejorative force ('superstitious/superstitious-sounding'), but the context is Gregory's rejection of the title 'universal' as an act of humility, not a theological condemnation of superstition per se.
- 2 ↩juxta illud propheticum — the author alludes to a prophetic text (possibly Isaiah 11:1 or a similar 'root' image), but the exact source is not identified here. Candidate scripture allusion.
- 3 ↩religioni rendered 'as regards the religious life' — the Latin dative of reference ties 'barbarum vel quid inconsuetum' to the standard of the religious life, not to 'religion' in the modern abstract sense.
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