Text taken from The Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
[Note: pagination of Nicene and
Post Nicene Fathers, Vols XII and XIII, edition, preserved]
Vol XII, p.140
. [protesting a law forbidding soldiers from leaving the
army to become monks.]
Gregory to Mauricius, etc.
He is guilty before Almighty God who is not pure of offence towards our most
serene lords in all he does and says. I, however, unworthy servant of your
Piety, speak in this my representation neither as a bishop, nor as your servant
in fight of the republic, but as of private right, since, most serene lord, you
have been mine since the time when you were not yet lord of all.
On the arrival here of the most illustrious Longinus, the equerry
(stratore), I received the law of my lords, to which, being at the time worn
out by bodily sickness, I was unable to make any reply. In it the piety of my
lords has ordained that it shall not be lawful for any one who is engaged in
any public administration to enter on an ecclesiastical office. And this I
greatly commended, knowing by most evident proof that one who is in haste to
desert a secular condition and enter on an ecclesiastical office is not wishing
to relinquish secular affairs, but to change them. But, at its being said in
the same law that it should not be lawful for him to become a monk, I was
altogether surprised, seeing that his accounts can be rendered through a
monastery, and it can be arranged for his debts also to be recovered from the
place into which he is received. For with whatever devout intention a person
may have wished to become a monk, he should first restore what he has wrongly
gotten, and take thought for his soul all the more truly as he is the more
disencumbered. It is added in the same law that no one who has been marked on
the hand(2) may become a monk. This ordinance, I confess to my lords, has
alarmed me greatly, since by
141
it the way to heaven is dosed against many, and what has been lawful until
now is made unlawful. For there are many who are able to live a religious life
even in a secular condition: but there are very many who cannot in any wise be
saved with God unless they give up all things. But what am I, in speaking thus
to my lords, but dust and a worm? Yet still, feeling that this ordinance makes
against God, who is the Author of all, I cannot keep silence to my lords. For
power over all men has been given from heaven to the piety of my lords to this
end, that they who aspire to what is good may be helped, and that the way to
heaven may be more widely open, so that an earthly kingdom may wait upon the
heavenly kingdom. And lo, it is said in plain words that one who has once been
marked to serve as an earthly soldier may not, unless he has either completed
his service or been rejected for weakness of body, serve as the soldier of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
To this, behold, Christ through me the last of His servants and of yours
will answer, saying; From a notary I made thee a Count of the bodyguard; from
Count of the bodyguard I made thee a Caesar; from a Caesar I made thee Emperor;
and not only so, but also a father of emperors. I have committed my priests into
thy hand; and dost thou withdraw thy soldiers from my service? Answer thy
servant, most pious lord, I beseech thee; what wilt thou answer to thy Lord
when He comes and thus speaks?
But peradventure it is believed that no one among them turns monk with a
pure motive. I, your unworthy servant, know how many soldiers who have become
monks in my own days have done miracles, have wrought signs and mighty deeds.
But by this law it is forbidden that even one of such as these should become a
monk.
Let my lord enquire, I beg, what former emperor ever enacted such a law, and
consider more thoroughly whether it ought to have been enacted. And indeed it
is a very serious consideration, that now at this time any are forbidden to
leave the world; a time when the end of the world is drawing nigh. For lo!
there will be no delay: the heavens on fire, the earth on fire, the elements
blazing, with angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and
powers, the tremendous Judge will appear. Should He remit all sins, and say
only that this law has been promulgate against Himself, what excuse, pray, will
there be? Wherefore by the same tremendous Judge I beseech you, that all those
tears, all those prayers, all those fasts, all those alms of my lord, may not
on any ground lose their lustre before the eyes of Almighty God: but let your
Piety, either by interpretation or alteration, modify the force of this law,
since the army of my lords against their enemies increases the more when the
army of God has been increased for prayer.
I indeed, being subject to your command, have caused this law to be
transmitted through various parts of the world; and, inasmuch as the law itself
is by no means agreeable to Almighty God, lo, I have by this my representation
declared this to my most serene lords. On both sides, then, I have discharged
my duty, having both yielded obedience to the Emperor, and not kept silence as
to what I feel in behalf of God.
trans. J. Barmby in Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great , in
Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, Vol. XII, (New York:
1895) [reprinted since by variety of publishers], p. 140-141
Vol XIII, p 84
.
Gregory to Brunichild, Queen of the Franks[4].
Since it is written, Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin maketh
peoples miserable (Prov. xiv. 34), a kingdom is then believed to be stable
when a fault that is known of is quickly amended. Now it has come to our ears
by the report of many, what we cannot mention without exceeding affliction of
heart, that certain priests in those parts live so immodestly and wickedly that
it is a shame for us to hear of it and lamentable to tell it. Lest, then, now
that the rumour of this iniquity has extended as far as here, the wrong doing
of others should smite either our soul or your kingdom with the dart of its
sin, we ought to arise with ardour to avenge these things, lest the wickedness
of a few should be the perdition of many. For bad priests are the cause of the
ruin of a people. For who may offer himself as an intercessor for a people's
sins, if the priest who ought to have prayed for it commits more grievous
offences? But, since those whose place it is to prosecute these things are
stirred neither by care to enquire into them nor by zeal to punish them, let
letters from you be addressed to us, and let us send over, if you order it, a
person with the assent of your authority, who together with other priests may
search into these things thoroughly, and amend them according to the will of God.
For indeed what we speak of is not a thing to be winked at, since one who can
amend a fault and neglects to do so without doubt makes himself partaker in it.
See therefore to your own soul, see to your grandsons, whom you wish to reign
happily, see to the provinces; and, before our Creator stretches out His hand
to smite, take most earnest thought for the correction of this wickedness, lest
He afterwards smite by so much the more sharply as He now waits longer and more
mercifully. Know moreover that you will offer a great sacrifice of expiation to
our God, if you cut off speedily from your territories the infection of so
great a sin.
trans. J. Barmby in Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great , in
Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, Vol. XIII, (New York:
1895) [reprinted since by variety of publishers], p. 84
Vol XIII, p 84
[A famous letter in which Gregory;s understanding of the
methods and psychology of conversion to Christianity is demonstrated]
Gregory to Mellitus, Abbot in France.
Since the departure of our congregation,
85
which, is with thee, we have been in a state of great suspense from having
heard nothing of the success of your journey. But when Almighty God shall have
brought you to our most reverend brother the bishop Augustine, tell him that I
have long been considering with myself about the case of the Angli; to wit,
that the temples of idols in that nation should not be destroyed, but that the
idols themselves that are in them should be. Let blessed water be prepared, and
sprinkled in these temples, and altars constructed, and relics deposited,
since, if these same temples are well built, it is needful that they should be
transferred from the worship of idols to the service of the true God; that,
when the people themselves see that these temples are not destroyed, they may
put away error from their heart, and, knowing and adoring the true God, may
have recourse with the more familiarity to the places they have been accustomed
to. And, since they are wont to kill many oxen in sacrifice to demons, they
should have also some solemnity of this kind in a changed form, so that on the
day of dedication, or on the anniversaries of the holy martyrs whose relics are
deposited there, they may make for themselves tents of the branches of trees
around these temples that have been changed into churches, and celebrate the
solemnity with religious feasts. Nor let them any longer sacrifice animals to
the devil, but slay animals to the praise of God for their own eating, and
return thanks to the Giver of all for their fulness, so that, while some joys
are reserved to them outwardly, they may be able the more easily to incline
their minds to inward joys. For it is undoubtedly impossible to cut away
everything at once from hard hearts, since one who strives to ascend to the
highest place must needs rise by steps or paces, and not by leaps. Thus to the
people of Israel in Egypt the Lord did indeed make Himself known; but still He
reserved to them in His own worship the use of the sacrifices which they were
accustomed to offer to the devil, enjoining them to immolate animals in
sacrifice to Himself; to the end that, their hearts being changed, they should
omit some things in the sacrifice and retain others, so that, though the
animals were the same as what they had been accustomed to offer, nevertheless,
as they immolated them to God and not to idols, they should be no longer the
same sacrifices. This then it is necessary for thy Love to say to our aforesaid
brother, that he, being now in that country, may consider well how he should
arrange all things. God keep thee safe, most beloved son. Given this 15th day
of the Kalends of July, the 19th year of the empire of our most pious lord
Mauricius Tiberius Augustus, the 18th year after the consulship of the same our
lord, Indiction 4.
trans. J. Barmby in Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great , in
Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, Vol. XIII, (New York:
1895) [reprinted since by variety of publishers], p. 84-85
Vol XIII: p. 81
Gregory to Augustine, &c.
Though it is certain that for those who labour for Almighty God ineffable rewards
of an eternal kingdom are reserved, yet we must needs bestow honours upon them,
that by reason of remuneration they may apply themselves the more manifoldly in
devotion to spiritual work. And, since the new Church of the Angli has been
brought to the grace of Almighty God through the bountifulness of the same Lord
and thy labours, we grant to thee the use of the pallium therein for the
solemnization of mass only, so that thou mayest ordain; bishops in twelve
several places, to be subject to thy jurisdiction, with the view of a bishop of
the city of London being always consecrated in future by his own synod, and
receiving the dignity of the pallium from this holy and Apostolical See which
by the grace of God I serve. Further, to the city of York we desire thee to
send a bishop whom thou mayest judge fit to be ordained; so that, if this same
city with the neighbouring places should receive the word of God, he also may
ordain twelve bishops, so as to enjoy the dignity of a metropolitan: for to him
also, if our life is continued, we propose, with the favour of God, to send a
pallium but yet we desire to subject him to the control of thy Fraternity. But
after thy death let him be over the bishops whom he shall have ordained, so as
to be in no wise subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop of London. Further,
between the bishops of London and York in the future let there be this
distinction of dignity, that he be accounted first who has been first ordained.
But let them arrange by council in common, and with concordant action, whatever
things may have to be done in zeal for Christ; let them be of one mind in what
is right, and accomplish what they are minded to do without disagreement with
each other.
But let thy Fraternity have subject to thyself under our God not only those
bishops whom thou shalt ordain, and those whom the bishop of York may ordain,
but also all the priests of Britain, to the end that they may learn the form of
right belief and good living from the tongue and life of thy Holiness, and, executing
their office well in their faith and manners, may attain to heavenly kingdoms
when it may please the Lord. God keep thee safe, most reverend brother. Given
on the tenth day of the Kalends of July, in the 19th year of the empire of our
lord Mauricius Tiberius, the 18th year after the consulship of the same lord,
Indiction and.
trans. J. Barmby in Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great , in
Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, Vol. XIII, (New York:
1895) [reprinted since by variety of publishers], p. 81