RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Greenwood Gregory I.
GREGORY: The name of sixteen popes.
Gregory I., the Great: Pope Sept. 3, 590-Mar. 11, 604. He was born in Rome about 540. His father, Gordianus, was an ecclesiastical Regionarius (q.v.). After her husband's Life Before death his mother devoted herself to his Conse- the cloistral life. Brought up "as a cration as saint in the midst of saints," Gregory Pope. was thoroughly instructed in grammar and rhetoric, and read the Latin Fathers zealously, especially Augustine, Jerome, and Ambrose. He so distinguished himself, moreover, in his legal studies that Emperor Justin II. advanced him to the rank of prefect of the city (before 573). Nevertheless, his religious devotion ultimately led him to renounce the life of the world; and after his father's death he devoted his wealth to good works. He built six cloisters in Sicily and endowed them with landed estates, as well as a seventh in his own house at Rome. The latter— St. Andrew's — he himself entered about 575. It is uncertain under what rule he lived as monk; but he extolled the Benedictine rule in his Dialogus (ii. 26) and sooner or later he introduced it into the cloisters of his foundation. To the end of his life Gregory evinced a special predilection for monasticism, desiring to promote the purely contemplative life as the most perfect, and to secure it from perturbations.
Pope Benedict I. constrained Gregory to return to the world, and ordained him one of the seven Roman deacons (577). When Benedict's successor, Pelagius II., had been consecrated before imperial confirmation of his election had been received, he sent Gregory as his delegate to Constantinople in 579, to justify this irregular procedure, and at the same time to entreat aid against the Lombards, then menacing Rome. The first object succeeded, but not the second. It is probable that Gregory was allowed to return to Rome and his cloister in 585. In 590 he was unanimously elected pope by senate, clergy, and people. He hesitated to accept this high dignity, owing not only to his predilection for the contemplative life, but also to his conviction that the office should be conferred only on one who fled from it in humility; but he was consecrated on Sept. 3.
His first care was the security of Rome against
the Lombards. Efforts to this end, however, were
obstructed by the factional struggle in Ravenna,
the imperial capital of Italy, for the independence
of its Church from Rome, which cre-
Struggle ated difficulties for the Roman bishop Against the in the political sphere and sought to
Lombards, influence the imperial exarch against him (see Ravenna). In 591 Gregory despatched soldiers to support the imperial commander against the Lombard duke, Ariulf of Spoleto; and likewise sent a reenforcement to the imperiled border-post of Nepi, and a tribune to Naples, so that that city was able to hold out. Nevertheless the exarch sent no help and refused his consent to a peace. Gregory, therefore, of his own accord concluded peace with Ariulf in 592. Next, however, the Lombard King Agilulf moved against Rome, to chastise the pope as his most zealous an-
tagonist. He invested the city in June. The stress of famine that shortly set in compelled Gregory to send a liberal ransom and bind himself to an annual tribute. He then again zealously endeavored to bring about a general peace between the Lombards and the imperial party. But the emperor, Mauritius, sided with his exarch, whereupon, Gregory's efforts for peace remaining fruitless, the Spoletans and Beneventans again broke forth in 596, devastating Campania and the southwest of the peninsula. With a view to mitigate the misery thus occasioned, Gregory sent funds for the ransom of the captives, and even authorized the bishop of Naples to apply the sacred utentils to this object. He then sought to defend Corsica and Sardinia from the threatening danger. Finally, in the spring of 599, it was practicable to conclude peace.
The means for so sweeping a political activity were secured to the pope by the patrimonium Petri — the rich possessions of the Roman Church in all Italy, Dalmatia, Gaul, and North Africa. Gregory now strove to consolidate this property into an organized whole, and to enhance its productiveness. To this end, he sought to make prac- Administra- tical application of the principle that tion of the Church must not farm out her es- Church tates, but administer them herself, as Property, far as possible through the clergy ex- Benevolent clusively. At the same time, he ex- Activity, ercised a careful personal supervision over these officials, requiring of them the most scrupulous accountability in receipts and expenditures, and supplying them with minute instructions as to the best management of the estates. The revenues which accrued were applied not only to strictly ecclesiastical purposes, but also toward provision for the sick, the infirm, and orphans; to the maintenance of almshouses and pilgrims' hostelries; to the support of other benevolent institutions at home and abroad; to the ransoming of captives and slaves; toward fighting or conciliating the Lombards. This political and social activity which the conditions of the time forced Gregory to undertake on so large a scale obtained for him in the sight of all Italy, which looked in vain for protection and help from the emperor, so high a regard that _±i Central Italy he was honored like a sovereign prince. In a word, the temporal sovereignty of the papacy then had its beginning (see Papal States).
Gregory entertained a noble conception of his
position as Roman bishop, yet, while he regarded
every office in the Church as a service, in another
light Peter must have been charged
Gregory's — and likewise his successors — with
Conception the duty of strengthening his breth-
of the Pa- ren; and every bishop should be will-
pacy. ing freely to receive service from
Relations Peter's successor. It was Gregory's
with Con- indefatigable endeavor gradually to
stantinople. gain ground for this theory, though
in every concrete instance he brought
only so much pressure to bear as would secure the
recognition of his tenets. His views were destined to
encounter opposition, especially in Constantinople.
When the patriarch at that see, Johannes IV.,
G-reg-ory I.