to ratify his election, and even meditated going into hiding;
but, “while he was preparing for flight and concealment, he was
seized and carried off and dragged to the basilica of St Peter,”
and there consecrated bishop, on the 3rd of September 590.
The fourteen years of Gregory’s pontificate were marked by extraordinary vigour and activity. “He never rested,” writes a biographer, “he was always engaged in providing for the interests of his people, or in writing some composition worthy of the church, or in searching out the secrets of heaven by the grace of contemplation.” His mode of life was simple and ascetic in the extreme. Having banished all lay attendants from his palace, he surrounded himself with clerics and monks, with whom he lived as though he were still in a monastery. To the spiritual needs of his people he ministered with pastoral zeal, frequently appointing “stations” and delivering sermons; nor was he less solicitous in providing for their physical necessities. Deaconries (offices of alms) and guest-houses were liberally endowed, and free distributions of food were made to the poor in the convents and basilicas. The funds for these and similar purposes were supplied from the Patrimony of St Peter—the papal estates in Italy, the adjacent islands, Gaul, Dalmatia and Africa. These extensive domains were usually administered by specially appointed agents,—rectors and defensors,—who resided on the spot; but the general superintendence devolved upon the pope. In this sphere Gregory manifested rare capacity. He was one of the best of the papal landlords. During his pontificate the estates increased in value, while at the same time the real grievances of the tenants were redressed and their general position was materially improved. Gregory’s principal fault as a man of business was that he was inclined to be too lavish of his revenues. It is said that he even impoverished the treasury of the Roman Church by his unlimited charities.
Within the strict bounds of his patriarchate, i.e. the churches of the suburbicarian provinces and the islands, it was Gregory’s policy to watch with particular care over the election and discipline of the bishops. With wise toleration he was willing to recognize local deviations from Roman usage (e.g. in the ritual of baptism and confirmation), yet he was resolute to withstand any unauthorized usurpation of rights and privileges. The following rules he took pains to enforce: that clerics in holy orders should not cohabit with their wives or permit any women, except those allowed by the canons, to live in their houses; that clerics accused on ecclesiastical or lesser criminal charges should be tried only in the ecclesiastical courts; that clerics in holy orders who had lapsed should “utterly forfeit their orders and never again approach the ministry of the altar”; that the revenues of each church should be divided by its bishop into four equal parts, to be assigned to the bishop, the clergy, the poor and the repair of the fabric of the church.
In his relations with the churches which lay outside the strict limits of his patriarchate, in northern Italy, Spain, Gaul, Africa and Illyricum and also in the East, Gregory consistently used his influence to increase the prestige and authority of the Roman See. In his view Rome, as the see of the Prince of the Apostles, was by divine right “the head of all the churches.” The decrees of councils would have no binding force “without the authority and consent of the apostolic see”: appeals might be made to Rome against the decisions even of the patriarch of Constantinople: all bishops, including the patriarchs, if guilty of heresy or uncanonical proceedings, were subject to correction by the pope. “If any fault is discovered in a bishop,” Gregory wrote, “I know of no one who is not subject to the apostolic see.” It is true that Gregory respected the rights of metropolitans and disapproved of unnecessary interference within the sphere of their jurisdiction canonically exercised; also that in his relations with certain churches (e.g. those in Africa) he found it expedient to abstain from any obtrusive assertion of Roman claims. But of his general principle there can be no doubt. His sincere belief in the apostolic authority of the see of St Peter, his outspoken assertion of it, the consistency and firmness with which in practice he maintained it (e.g. in his controversies with the bishops of Ravenna concerning the use of the pallium, with Maximus the “usurping” bishop of Salona, and with the patriarchs of Constantinople in respect of the title “ecumenical bishops”), contributed greatly to build up the system of papal absolutism. Moreover this consolidation of spiritual authority coincided with a remarkable development of the temporal power of the papacy. In Italy Gregory occupied an almost regal position. Taking advantage of the opportunity which circumstances offered, he boldly stepped into the place which the emperors had left vacant and the Lombard kings had not the strength to seize. For the first time in history the pope appeared as a political power, a temporal prince. He appointed governors to cities, issued orders to generals, provided munitions of war, sent his ambassadors to negotiate with the Lombard king and actually dared to conclude a private peace. In this direction Gregory went farther than any of his predecessors: he laid the foundation of a political influence which endured for centuries. “Of the medieval papacy,” says Milman, “the real father is Gregory the Great.”
The first monk to become pope, Gregory was naturally a strong supporter of monasticism. He laid himself out to diffuse the system, and also to carry out a reform of its abuses by enforcing a strict observance of the Rule of St Benedict (of whom, it may be noted, he was the earliest biographer). Two slight innovations were introduced: the minimum age of an abbess was fixed at sixty, and the period of novitiate was prolonged from one year to two. Gregory sought to protect the monks from episcopal oppression by issuing privilegia, or charters in restraint of abuses, in accordance with which the jurisdiction of the bishops over the monasteries was confined to spiritual matters, all illegal aggressions being strictly prohibited. The documents are interesting as marking the beginning of a revolution which eventually emancipated the monks altogether from the control of their diocesans and brought them under the direct authority of the Holy See. Moreover Gregory strictly forbade monks to minister in parish churches, ordaining that any monk who was promoted to such ecclesiastical cure should lose all rights in his monastery and should no longer reside there. “The duties of each office separately are so weighty that no one can rightly discharge them. It is therefore very improper that one man should be considered fit to discharge the duties of both, and that by this means the ecclesiastical order should interfere with the monastic life, and the rule of the monastic life in turn interfere with the interests of the churches.”
Once more, Gregory is remembered as a great organizer of missionary enterprise for the conversion of heathens and heretics. Most important was the two-fold mission to Britain—of St Augustine in 596, of Mellitus, Paulinus and others in 601; but Gregory also made strenuous efforts to uproot paganism in Gaul, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, Arianism in Spain, Donatism in Africa, Manichaeism in Sicily, the heresy of the Three Chapters in Istria and northern Italy. In respect of the methods of conversion which he advocated he was not less intolerant than his contemporaries. Towards the Jews, however, he acted with exceptional lenity, protecting them from persecution and securing them the enjoyment of their legal privileges. The so-called “simoniacal heresy,” particularly prevalent in Gaul, Illyricum and the East, he repeatedly attacked; and against the Gallican abuse of promoting laymen to bishoprics he protested with vigour.
The extent and character of Gregory’s works in connexion with the liturgy and the music of the church is a subject of dispute. If we are to credit a 9th century biographer, Gregory abbreviated and otherwise simplified the Sacramentary of Gelasius, producing a revised edition with which his own name has become associated, and which represents the groundwork of the modern Roman Missal. But though it is certain that he introduced three changes in the liturgy itself (viz. the addition of some words in the prayer Hanc igitur, the recitation of the Pater Noster at the end of the Canon immediately before the fraction of the bread, and the chanting of the Allelulia after the Gradual at other times besides the season of Easter) and two
