Saint Gregory the Great - Notre Dame




With the Bishops of the West

So many-sided were St. Gregory's activities that it is not advisable to keep to the strict order of time when writing his life. In the last chapter we have watched him at work in Rome, a model bishop both in word and deed. In this one our purpose is to show his care for the bishops whom he describes as "belonging to us," and his dealings with the other ecclesiastical provinces in Western Europe.

Benedict XIV, our great authority on Canonization, has a whole treatise on the duties of a Pope's state of life. "The Sovereign Pontiff," he says, "is the Shepherd and Ruler of the whole Church. He is besides, Bishop of Rome, Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Primate of Italy and Patriarch of the 'West."

Like the other patriarchs he has the right to wear and to confer the pallium. It is outside the scope of this book to trace the vicissitudes in the history of this web of white wool embroidered with dark crosses, which from early times was the symbol of the fulness of episcopal power. In the sixth century its use was restricted, in the West, to the Sovereign Pontiff and to those bishops who were immediately dependent on his authority: his own suffragans of the Roman province, for instance, the other Italian metropolitans, the Apostolic Delegates in other lands whom he appointed his vicars to keep him in touch with local bishops. Thus in 595 our saint granted the pallium to the Bishop of Arles, empowering him as "Vicar Apostolic "in Austrasia, Burgundy and Aquitaine, to settle minor questions by his own authority, and questions of greater difficulty in a synod of twelve bishops. Only matters of supreme importance were to be referred to Rome.

In 599 St. Leander of Seville received his pallium, "only to be worn while saying Mass." St. Gregory writes on this occasion, "While sending it I ought also to send you word how you should live. I do not, however, for your virtuous life has anticipated my words."

The Bishop of Cartagena was the Pope's representative in the part of Spain not subject to the Visigoths. He received with his pallium a copy of the book On Pastoral Rule, and studied it to some purpose.

"Necessity compels us to do what you say ought not to be done," he wrote in return. "You say that the uninstructed must not be ordained. But let Your Prudence consider whether it may not be enough to know Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Otherwise we have no one here duly qualified; and unless the unlearned (like myself!) are ordained, there will be no one to say Mass and administer the Sacraments."

The humble primate was indeed no match in legal acumen for the insolent and avaricious governor of Roman Spain, "the glorious Commitiolus" who contrived to have two bishops deposed on a charge of treasonable correspondence with the enemies of the State. St. Gregory sent a special envoy, John the Defensor, with powers to re-open the case and with very definite instructions how to proceed. He was first to satisfy himself that the trial had been conducted in legal form.

"Diligently enquire whether the accusers were distinct from the witnesses, whether the gravity of the case entailed as penalty exile or degradation, whether the witnesses were on oath and gave their testimony in presence of the accused, and whether the accused were allowed to answer in their own defence. Examine thoroughly into the antecedents of accusers and witnesses, whether they were needy men, likely to take bribes, whether they had any grudge against the accused, whether they spoke from their own knowledge, or whether their evidence was mere hearsay. Make certain that the judgment was in writing, and delivered in open court."

Enclosed were extracts from the Justinian Code, which decreed heavy penalties against any magistrate who presumed to try a bishop in the secular courts without an express command from the emperor.

The incident illustrates St. Gregory's care to work in harmony with the civil power. The North of Africa was again under imperial control, and here he was far more hampered by precedent than elsewhere in the West. The African metropolitans were called primates, and save in the province of Carthage the primacy was not attached to any see, but went by seniority in consecration. Hence it often devolved on old men, who had outlived their energy, or on bishops whose dioceses consisted of a handful of unimportant villages.

St. Gregory did not deem it wise to insist on any change of system. But he let it be known that he reposed great confidence in Columbus, a Numidian bishop, "utterly devoted mind and heart and soul to the Apostolic See." He wrote to Adeodatus, Primate of Numidia:

The life and conduct of Columbus have been so approved by us in all things, that we are certain anything you do with his approval will be darkened by no shadow of a fault."

In Africa, moreover, he had Donatists to deal with, and the Donatists were a power in politics by reason of their wealth. And alas! there were bishops to be found who stretched forth to these schismatics the right hand of fellowship. In one diocese priests of this sect obtained leave by bribery to officiate in the churches; and Catholics, who passed for pious, took money for allowing them to re-baptize their children and their slaves. The laws of the Empire forbade expressly such mischievous propaganda; but the prefects and the proctors turned a deaf ear to the Pope's remonstrances. Donatist gold made it worth their while to be lenient.

St. Gregory would never promote to a primacy any bishop who had once been a Donatist. "It is not seemly," he wrote, "that such men should take rank above other bishops who have been trained from infancy in the Catholic Faith." He appealed to the emperor "to cleanse the Church in Africa from the venom of diabolic fraud," since "the bribes of the heretics so prevail in the province that the Catholic Faith is publicly put up for sale."

By the emperor's command a Council met at Carthage in 594. Here it was ruled that bishops who neglected to seek out and punish heretics should be deprived of their sees. St. Gregory considered the decree unjust.

"It is best, dearest Brother," he wrote to Dominic, Primate of Carthage, "and more becoming to your position, if you condescend sometimes to the opinion of those of inferior dignity. You will unite the Churches more easily to resist error, when in a priestly manner you strive to preserve ecclesiastical concord.

Just as we defend our own rights, so do we preserve those of the other Churches. I do not, through partiality, grant to any Church more than it deserves; nor do I, through ambition, refuse to any one of them what belongs to it of right. Rather do I desire to honour my brother bishops in every way, and study that each may be advanced in dignity, so long as there can be no just opposition to it on the part of another."

We shall see how his conduct tallied with his teaching, if we watch him at work in Italy, where the Pope himself acted as metropolitan over the central and southern sees. The bishops were expected to visit Rome once a year to confer with him personally on the affairs of their dioceses. Custom, however, allowed three years to elapse between the visits ad limina Apostolorum  of the Sicilian bishops; and St. Gregory saw fit to lengthen this interval to five years, because the Government officials in the island made difficulties about the journey, and because there were risks from marauders on the road.

But he kept himself accurately informed of everything affecting the thirteen Sicilian dioceses. Of these Syracuse was the most important, for that city was the headquarters of the imperial governor. At the head of this See St. Gregory placed Maximianus, who had been at one time his own religious superior, at another a monk under his obedience. He named Maximianus his Vicar in the island, a personal mark of esteem, he notes, and not in virtue of his official position. The Church of Syracuse was not, on this account, to claim any superiority over the rest of the Sicilian Churches.

Maximianus was useful to the Pope in many ways, especially in his dealings with the Church in Africa. But, like other monk-bishops in this pontificate, he had sometimes to receive firm letters from the Pope, who had been a monk himself. For instance:

"I have often rebuked you for over-hasty judgments. Yet now I learn that in a fit of anger you have excommunicated the most reverend abbot Eusebius. It surprises me that his high character, his great age, his long sickness could not stay your anger. When God scourges a man with ill-health there is no need for men to lay on stripes. Let this excess make you more cautious in trivial cases, so that you may weigh matters well before passing judgment. As for Eusebius, console him by your gentle kindness for the irritation your anger has aroused."

Maximianus obeyed, but Eusebius refused to forgive. St. Gregory wrote to the old man, expressing sorrow for the harsh treatment meted out to him, and greater sorrow because he now put himself in the wrong.

"Those who stand up against superiors show that they despise being servants of God. He ought, by no means, to have done what he did; but you ought to have borne it humbly. And when he offered you goodwill and communion, you should have been reconciled in all thankfulness."

When he needed a Syracusan priest elsewhere, the Pope did not hesitate to appeal to Maximianus.

"Felix, a man of consular rank and bearer of this letter, says there is in your district a priest worthy to be made a bishop. Your Fraternity will call him before you and diligently examine him, at the peril of your own soul. Send him to us if you find him worthy, so that by God's help we may ordain him bishop for a place which we have provided."

In the sixth century bishops were elected by the clergy, the nobles and the people of their flock. St. Leo's rule still held good: "He that is to preside over all ought to be chosen by all." Only very urgent reasons could induce St. Gregory to interfere, even indirectly, with their choice. He usually sent a neighbouring bishop as visitor to the bereaved church. On one such occasion he wrote:

"We require Your Fraternity zealously to charge the clergy and the people to lay aside all party spirit, and to choose as bishop some one worthy of the office, and eligible according to Canon Law. And when he is elected let him come to us for consecration, bringing with him his papers, made out in due form and signed by the electors, and an attesting letter from Your Charity. . . . Take care that no layman presume to aspire to the rank of bishop, whatever be the virtue of his life. Otherwise you yourself will run the risk of being degraded from your office. The which God forbid."

The metropolitan had the right of veto. In cases where electors were culpably negligent St. Gregory did not hesitate to appoint, on his own responsibility, such a bishop as he knew would be acceptable and efficient.

"We do not approve of Occleatinus," he wrote to the Church of Rimini," and the people must not think of him any more. If they cannot find any one in this Church who is fit for the office, the bearer of this letter will suggest a candidate. He has my instructions."

No fault in any of his suffragans escaped his watchful eye. He wrote to the Bishop of Reggio:

"Visitors to Rome, my brother, have told me that you are very earnest in your works of mercy, and I thank God for it. But it troubles me not a little to hear that you yourself have mentioned your good deeds to so many people. My dear brother, when your actions are so good, you should guard with jealous care the goodness of your heart, lest the desire of pleasing men creep in and all your labour in well-doing avail you nought."

A bishop in Apulia is blamed for the vagaries of an "escaped nun."

"To your great disgrace, the daughter of Tullianus, of honoured memory, has thrown off her monastic habit and written us a perverse letter. If you knew how to act as a bishop, we should have heard of that wicked woman's punishment before we heard of her crime. But you are so slothful, that unless you yourself suffer canonical correction you know not how to maintain discipline. We will, please God, instruct you effectively on some fitting occasion."

Negligence in almsgiving is dealt with no less severely. The Bishop of Naples received an order to distribute four hundred gold pieces among priests, beggars and deserving poor, in the presence of the Pope's delegate, Anthemius. A little later, Anthemius has to rebuke the bishop, in front of the clergy and the notables of his diocese, and if this strong measure does not restrain him from his customary faults, he is to be sent, under escort, to Rome, "to learn there what a bishop ought to do and how to do it."

For strange tales reached the Pope about Bishop Paschasius. "He bestows no love nor care on his church or on the monks in his diocese, or on the poor. He gives no help to the oppressed who seek redress at his hands. Worse still, he utterly refuses to take advice from prudent men. All his time goes in ship-building, which has already cost him over four hundred pounds. He goes daily down to the shore with two or three clerics, in so mean a guise that he has become a laughing-stock to his own people, and strangers despise him as lacking in the dignity which befits a bishop. This state of things, you know, is not without your fault, for you have delayed to rebuke and restrain him, as it was your duty to do."

Picenius of Amalfi was fond of gadding abroad. His people followed the bad example set by their chief, and left their homes at the mercy of the Lombards.

"See that he resides in his diocese as becomes a bishop," wrote Gregory to Anthemius. "If, when you have threatened him, he does not amend, send him at once to a monastery, and write to us for further orders."

Bishops might not leave their flock for any length of time without the consent of their immediate superior. Picenius was not the only one to ignore this rule. And thus we find St. Gregory writing to Syagrius, Bishop of Autun:

"Menas, a bishop of the Roman Church, has fled from our jurisdiction to your city. He has shown such lightness in his conduct that the name of bishop is to him not an honour but a burden. We count it shame to hear things of him which we severely reprehend in priests of other provinces. Your Fraternity will compel him to return to us as soon as possible. Moreover, report reaches us that one Theodore, a suffragan of our most reverend brother Constantius, of the Church of Milan, has settled in your city, so as to avoid his correction. We request Your Fraternity diligently to seek him out and send him back to his diocese."

Very intimate indeed was the connection between the Pope and the other metropolitans of Italy: the Archbishops of Ravenna, of Milan, of Aquileia, of Cagliari and of Salona. The term archbishop was not then used in the West, but we risk the anachronism for the sake of clearness.

St. Gregory begs John of Ravenna to help him to administer his own province in places where the Lombards made travelling difficult and dangerous.

"Your Fraternity will take charge of any bishops of ours who are hindered from coming here. But I would not have them harassed or fatigued unduly, so they must not be summoned to Ravenna for their causes. Admonish them by letter, if you find them blameworthy. Serious faults among them we wish you to report accurately to us, so that your testimony may strengthen our decision when, after due deliberation, we pass judgment, with the help of God, and in conformity with Canon Law."

In another letter he takes John himself to task. "It grieves me that Your Fraternity writes to me in flattering terms, and you speak quite otherwise about me. It grieves me too to learn that my brother John has often on his lips those jokes which the sons of notaries delight in, that he speaks stinging words as if he enjoyed their wit. I execrate his masterful tone to his clergy, and the humiliating services he exacts from those of his household."

The last of John's transgressions he considers "first indeed by the gravity of its pride. . . . None of his predecessors ever presumed to wear the pallium outside the Church. Our legates tell me that he himself never presumed to do so in the time of our predecessors. But now he does it frequently to show his contempt for me. . . . I give thanks to God that, when I heard of this, the Lombards were between me and the city of Ravenna. Otherwise I might have shown to men how severe I know I can be."

The letter ends in gentler strain. "Believe me, when I was exalted to my present position I was full of good will for Your Fraternity and held you in high esteem. Had you wished it, you would have found in me a brother eager to forestall you in marks of affection. But knowing how you talked and how you acted I had to hold back. Now I beseech you to amend all the things I have mentioned. Especially do I implore you, to be wholly sincere with your brethren, say not one thing and have another in your heart. Allow me to be your friend. You will find my brotherly affection useful for you, both in this life and in the life to come."

The archbishops of Ravenna attended the Roman synods every year, and it was one of their privileges to receive consecration at the hands of the Pope himself. On the death of John in 595, St. Gregory wrote:

"We were anxious to comply with, the wishes of His Excellency the Patrician in favour of Donatus the Archdeacon. But since it is very perilous to the soul to ordain without careful consideration, we made it our business to investigate thoroughly his life and character. And as we found much which disqualifies him, we had to notify the Patrician that we could not consent to his consecration. Nor did we venture to ordain the priest John. He did not know the psalms: this shows that he is wanting in zeal to improve himself. The delegates from Ravenna confessed they could find in their own Church no one fit for the office, whereat they and I were greatly grieved. At last, with united voices, they petitioned me earnestly for my venerable brother, the priest Marinianus, who lived for long years with me in my monastery. He tried various means to escape the dignity, but in the end they prevailed upon him to accept. As we know him well and have found him zealous for winning souls, we ordained him without delay."

At first Marinianus bade fair to be the square man in the round hole. A twelvemonth after his consecration, St. Gregory wrote to the Abbot Secundus:

"Talk to my brother and fellow-bishop, Marinianus, and stir him up, for I suspect he has gone to sleep. I was speaking the other day with some poor pilgrims, questioning them on their journey and on alms which had helped them on their way. I anxiously inquired how much they had received from Marinianus, and they made answer, 'He told us "I have nothing for you!" 'I am indeed surprised that a man who has clothes, who has silver, who has food, finds nothing to give the poor! Now that he is a bishop he must alter his ideas. He has other duties besides study and prayer. He must not fancy that he is free to sit by himself all day, with his hands joined. He must help those in want, he must feel for the distress of others, if he does not, he is no true bishop. I have written to him for the good of his soul; but I suppose he has not troubled even to read my letter, for he has answered me never a word. So now, when I write to him, it is merely on matters of business: I refrain from advice, I am not bound to weary myself dictating a letter to a man who will not read it. So I beg Your Affection to talk with him privately and admonish him how to act, lest (which God forbid!) he lose by his negligence the life he once possessed."

Secundus must have talked to some purpose, for soon the monks of the district lodged a complaint at Rome that they were over-burdened with parish work, and blamed unfairly when things went wrong. This time the monk-Pope wrote himself directly to the monk-bishop and in terms of sharp rebuke:

"Do not delay to correct these abuses, now that you are warned for the second time. If we find you still negligent (we do not think it will be the case), we shall be compelled to provide for the peace of the monasteries in another way. We will not allow God's servants to be thus oppressed."

When a vacancy occurred at Milan, St. Gregory wrote to the clergy: "Long ago I resolved never to interfere in the interests of any candidate. But I shall follow your election with my prayers, that God may grant you a pastor who by word and example will guide you on the road which leads to life."

But however sure he is that "The Divine Shepherd provides such shepherds as the flock deserves," he would have the electors weigh well the qualifications of their future bishop, "For when he is once set over you, he can no longer be judged by you; therefore you should examine him thoroughly now. Once your pastor is consecrated, give yourselves to him heart and soul, and in his person serve Almighty God."

The Milanese clergy elected Constantius, a personal friend of St. Gregory, who at once issued orders "to have him consecrated by his suffragans, as ancient use demands, with the assent of our authority and with the help of God. Thus will the Apostolic See uphold its own rights and preserve intact the rights which it has conceded to others."

It fell to his duty, as primate of Italy, to rebuke Natalis, Archbishop of Salona, which was the metropolitan See for the eastern shores of the Adriatic.

"Many people who have come from your city, my dearest brother, say that you neglect your pastoral charge, that you give yourself up to feasting and do not preserve your self-respect."

Natalis in his reply quoted the case of Abraham, who entertained angels unawares.

"We should not blame Your Holiness for the feast," wrote Gregory in return, "if we thought you had always angels for your guests. Your Holiness does well to praise banquets where charity abounds. Those feasts truly proceed from charity when the life of the absent is not picked to pieces, where no one is mocked, where there is no idle gossip on frivolous topics, where a holy book is read aloud, where no more is eaten or drunk than is needed to refresh the body and keep it in health for the practice of virtue."

Before and after he became Pope, St. Gregory had intervened to compel Natalis to stay proceedings against Honoratus, his archdeacon.

"I believe you were angered against him, only because he hindered you from giving away to your kinsfolk the sacred vessels and ornaments of the sanctuary. And now I hear you strive speciously to degrade Honoratus while seeming to promote him to higher dignity. Thus you are able to put in his place as archdeacon one who would connive at your malpractices. . . . Let Your Fraternity come to a right frame of mind and restore Honoratus to his former position as soon as you receive this letter. If you delay, we take from you the pallium, a privilege depending on the Apostolic See. If, after losing the pallium, you still persist in your pertinacity, we deprive you of participation in the Body and Blood of Our Lord. After this we shall have to scrutinize minutely whether you ought to be degraded from your rank as bishop. . . . Do not, dearest brother, provoke us any further, lest you feel our severity very hard to endure."

Later he was able to write to John of Ravenna. "I was much grieved about our brother and fellow-bishop, Natalis, because I saw much pride in him. But since he has reformed his conduct, he has comforted my sorrow and won back my love."

Great delicacy was needed in dealing with the Church in Sardinia. St. Gregory sent a circular to the bishops there:

"Follow the ancient custom of your Churches in seeking permission from your metropolitan, according to our fixed rule, whenever necessity compels any one of you to leave your diocese. Do not presume to slight him by ignoring his authority, unless (which we do not expect) you have a cause against him to be judged by the Apostolic See."

The metropolitan in the island was Januarius, Archbishop of Cagliari, a very old man whose eccentricities gave great scandal. In 592 the appeals against him had grown so numerous that a commissioner came from Rome to investigate his disregard of justice. And St. Gregory wrote privately to caution Januarius: "If you find that you have taken anything, or hold anything unjustly, restore it before the trial begins."

A few years later he has to administer a sharp rebuke: "Such wickedness has been reported to us that unless we took a merciful view of it, we should smite you with a public anathema. We have heard that on the Lord's Day, before saying Mass, you went and ploughed your neighbour's corn-field, and that after Mass you dared to remove his boundary stones. We did not believe you could have been so wicked, until we questioned our son, Abbot Cyriacus, who was at Cagliari at the time this happened. Since we still wish to spare your grey hairs, be wise at last, old man, and restrain your scandalous levity and wickedness. The nearer you are to death, the more circumspect and afraid of sin you ought to be. Your punishment is already decreed, but we know your simplicity in your old age, and so, for the time being, we keep it back. But we excommunicate for the space of two months all those who have counselled you amiss, permitting them, however, to receive Holy Viaticum, should any mortal chance befall them during that space of time. But do you henceforth be wary and hold aloof from their advice. And look well to yourself, for if you learn evil from those to whom you ought to teach good, we shall spare you no longer."

"I chide and rebuke you," he wrote a month later, "not out of harshness but out of brotherly love, because I wish Almighty God to see in you a bishop, not in name only which brings punishment, but in merit which brings reward."

A long series of letters deals in detail with the Churches of Sardinia, for the Pope had practically to act as their metropolitan. In the course of nature the archbishop's death. seemed always near at hand, yet apparently he outlived St. Gregory, for one of our saint's last letters refers to him again.

"You tell us that our brother and fellow-bishop, Januarius, has often to interrupt his Mass and can scarcely, after long intervals, resume it again at the place where he broke off; and you say that many are in doubt whether they ought to receive Communion, when he has consecrated. Tell them to have no fear. The sickness of the celebrant does not affect the blessing of the sacred mystery. Still our brother ought certainly to be advised, in private, not to say Mass when he feels one of his attacks coming on, lest he expose himself to contempt, and cause offence in weak minds."