The Threatened Series - 29
We have passed, without comment, such figures as St Ambrose, St
Augustine and St Jerome. And we could equally pass by St Gregory, for
he does not impinge very much on the issues we have been discussing.
Perhaps another series, in the new Millennium, on the Latin Doctors.
All the same, we should say a word about Gregory, before we move on to
our next heresy - which will, of course, be Monothelitism.
He is one of two popes known as 'the Great', the other being Leo. In a
discussion on this list, someone maintained that there was a third, but
nobody can remember who it was. Kelly knows of only two. " . . . he
was born of a wealthy patrician family which had already provided two
popes, Felix III and Agapitus I." (ODP P. 65) He founded six
monasteries on family estates in Sicily, and converted his family
mansion on the Caelian Hill into another (I told you his was a wealthy
family) where he entered himself as a monk.
On the death of Pelagius II, Gregory was elected - unanimously - pope.
He is famous for sending Augustine to convert the English (not Angels
but Anglicans, he remarked). He quarrelled with the bishop of
Constantinople for calling himself the Ecumenical Patriarch.
His 'Cura Pastoralis', 'Moralia in Job' and 'Dialogues' were key texts
in the middle ages - the last being our main source of information for
the life of St Benedict (unless, as Francis Clark maintains, it is a
forgery).
"Gregory was a man of immense ability, determination, and energy,
over-deferential to the great, but always realistic and humble-minded;
what gave urgency to his thinking and action was his conviction of the
imminent end of the world." (ODP p. 67)
We can skip briefly over the next several popes: SABINIAN (13 Sept 604
- 22 Feb 606), BONIFACE III (19 Feb - 12 Nov 607), BONIFACE IV (15 Sept
608 - 8 May 615), DEUSDEDIT (19 Oct 615 - 8 Nov 618) and BONIFACE V (23
Dec 619 - 25 Oct 625). They continued to object to the title
'Ecumenical Patriarch'; they continued, too, to promote the conversion
of England, with considerable success. However our story really gets
going again with HONORIUS I, whose career and opinions we shall look at
tomorrow.
Oriens.
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