GREGORY
1000
GREGORY
In the year 590, Gregory sent Augustine, abbot of his own monastery of St. Andrew at Home, to convert those of the English who j'et remained heathens, and under liis auspices Christianity was established in the northern parts of the island. See Augustine; and England, Church of.
In several contests with the emperor Maurice, Greg- ory avowed his obligation to submit in temporal ques- tions to the imperial commands. There was a long step to take between Gregory I and Gregory VII. See Papacy, in the year GUI the centurion Phocas rebelled against Maurice, slew him and his family atrociously, and usurped the throne. "Never," says Maimbourg, ' ' was there a more infamous tyrant than this wicked man" {Hist, du Pontif. de St. Greyoire, p. 179, 181). The greatest stain upon the pontificate of Gregorv is that, instead of hurling his papal anathemas against I'hocas, he flattered the murderer, and praised God for his accession to the throne. "The Almightj' has chosen you and put j'ou on the throne to banish by your merciful disposition all our griefs. . . . Let the heavens rejoice ; let the earth leap for joy. . . ." It is poor excuse given by some of the Roman writers in Gregory's behalf that Maurice had sided against the pope in liis disputes with the patriarch of Constantino- ple. Phocas, in return, established the supremacy of the see of Rome over all other sees.
The last j'ears of Gregorjf's life were passed in great suffering from gout and other diseases, hut he retained his vigor of mind and will to the end. He died March 12, A.U. G04. Gregory's career presents many con- tradictions. He was a man of great natural kindness, of indomitable energy, and determined will. His life was entirel}' devoted to the interests of the papal see, wliieli, in his mind, were identical with the interests of the kingdom of Christ. If he did not, as has been charged, burn the Palatine librarj', he despised and discountenanced classical learning. His special at- tention was given to the Roman liturgy : he reformed the Sacramentary of Gelasius, and ])ut the order of the mass (Canon missce) very nearh' into the shape in which it now exists. See jNIass. Besides other less important cei'emonies, added to the public forms of prayer, lie made it his chief care to rcibrm the psalmo- dy, being excessively fond of sacred music. He ar- ranged and improved the chants in use, and composed others for the psalms, the h3'mns, the prayers, the verses, the canticles, the lessons, the epistles, the gos- pels, the prefaces, and the Lord's praver. He like- wise instituted an acadeni}^ for chanters, for all the clerks, as far as the deacons exclusively ; he gave them lessons himself; and the bed in which he contin- ued to chant in the midst of his last illness was pre- served with great veneration in the palace of St. John Lateran for a long time, together with the whip with which he used to threaten the young clerks and sing- ing-l)oys w hen they sang out of tune. See Grego- rian Chant.
In iludloiji) Gregory was a moderate Augustinian : he lield to predestination, but not an unconditional jiredestination. He held also to the value of good works and penance as restoratives ; and, in fact, he fur- nished a basis for the later system of works of super- erogation, etc. He may be called the inventor of tiie doctrine of Purgatory, and of tlie modern Romish doc- trines of Masses and Transubstantiation. The better side of liis life and character is set forth strikingly by Neander in his D(nkici'irdi(ikeiten. The following ex- tract will show how far later bishops of Rome have wandered from the spirit of the earlier ones as to the use of the Scriptures: "It was (iregorv's strenuous endeavor to extend the study of the Scriptures among the clergy and the laity. He says in a sermon, 'As we see the face of strangers, and know not their hearts until these are opened to us bj^ confidential intercourse, so, if onh'- the history be regarded in the divine word, nothing else appears to us but the outward coun-
tenance. But when, b}^ continual intercourse, we let it pass into our being, the conlidence engendered by such communion enables us to penetrate into its spirit.' "Often,' he observes elsewliere, 'when we do some- thing, we believe it to be meritorious. But if we re- turn to the word of God, and understand its sublime teaching, we perceive how far behind perfection we stand.' A bishop whom Gregory advised to study the Scriptures had excused himself on the plea that fhe troubles of the times would not permit him to read. Gregory showed him the barrenness of this excuse, referring him to Rom. xv, 4. 'If,' he replied, 'the holy Scripture is written for our consolation, we should read it more the more we feel ojipressed hy the burden of the times' " (Neander, Lifjht in Dm-k Places, N. Y. p. 127).