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I. Of the death of the blessed Pope Gregory. [604 A.D.]
BOOK II
CHAP. I.
AT this time, that is, in the year of our Lord 605, the blessed Pope Gregory,
after having most gloriously governed the Roman Apostolic see thirteen years,
six months, and ten days, died, and was translated to an eternal abode in the
kingdom of Heaven. Of whom, seeing that by his zeal he converted our nation, the
English, from the power of Satan to the faith of Christ, it behoves us to
discourse more at large in our Ecclesiastical History, for we may rightly, nay,
we must, call him our apostle; because, as soon as he began to wield the
pontifical power over all the world, and was placed over the Churches long
before converted to the true faith, he made our nation, till then enslaved to
idols, the Church of Christ, so that concerning him we may use those words of
the Apostle; "if he be not an apostle to others, yet doubtless he is to us; for
the seal of his apostleship are we in the Lord."
He was by nation a Roman, son of Gordianus, tracing his descent from ancestors
that were not only noble, but religious. Moreover Felix, once bishop of the same
Apostolic see, a man of great honour in Christ and in the Church, was his
forefather, Nor did he show his nobility in religion by less strength of
devotion than his parents and kindred. But that nobility of this world which was
seen in him, by the help of the Divine Grace, he used only to gain the glory of
eternal dignity; for soon quitting his secular habit, he entered a monastery,
wherein he began to live with so much grace of perfection that (as he was wont
afterwards with tears to testify) his mind was above all transitory things; that
he rose superior to all that is subject to change; that he used to think of
nothing but what was heavenly; that, whilst detained by the body, he broke
through the bonds of the flesh by contemplation; and that he even loved death,
which is a penalty to almost all men, as the entrance into life, and the reward
of his labours. This he used to say of himself, not to boast of his progress in
virtue, but rather to bewail the falling off which he imagined he had sustained
through his pastoral charge. Indeed, once in a private conversation with his
deacon, Peter, after having enumerated the former virtues of his soul, he added
sorrowfully, "But now, on account of the pastoral charge, it is entangled with
the affairs of laymen, and, after so fair an appearance of inward peace, is
defiled with the dust of earthly action. And having wasted itself on outward
things, by turning aside to the affairs of many men, even when it desires the
inward things, it returns to them undoubtedly impaired. I therefore consider
what I endure, I consider what I have lost, and when I behold what I have thrown
away; that which I bear appears the more grievous."
So spake the holy man constrained by his great humility. But it behoves us to
believe that he lost nothing of his monastic perfection by reason of his
pastoral charge, but rather that he gained greater profit through the labour of
converting many, than by the former calm of his private life, and chiefly
because, whilst holding the pontifical office, he set about organizing his house
like a monastery. And when first drawn from the monastery, ordained to the
ministry of the altar, and sent to Constantinople as representative of the
Apostolic see, though he now took part in the secular affairs of the palace, yet
he did not abandon the fixed course of his heavenly life; for some of the
brethren of his monastery, who had followed him to the royal city in their
brotherly love, he employed for the better observance of monastic rule, to the
end that at all times, by their example, as he writes himself, he might be held
fast to the calm shore of prayer, as it were, with the cable of an anchor,
whilst he should be tossed up and down by the ceaseless waves of worldly
affairs; and daily in the intercourse of studious reading with them, strengthen
his mind shaken with temporal concerns. By their company he was not only guarded
against the assaults of the world, but more and more roused to the exercises of
a heavenly life.
For they persuaded him to interpret by a mystical exposition the book of the
blessed Job, which is involved in great obscurity; nor could he refuse to
undertake that work, which brotherly affection imposed on him for the future
benefit of many; but in a wonderful manner, in five and thirty books of
exposition, he taught how that same book is to be understood literally; how to
be referred to the mysteries of Christ and the Church; and in what sense it is
to be adapted to every one of the faithful. This work he began as papal
representative in the royal city, but finished it at Rome after being made pope.
Whilst he was still in the royal city, by the help of the grace of Catholic
truth, he crushed in its first rise a new heresy which sprang up there,
concerning the state of our resurrection. For Eutychius, bishop of that city,
taught, that our body, in the glory of resurrection, would be impalpable, and
more subtle than wind and air. The blessed Gregory hearing this, proved by force
of truth, and by the instance of the Resurrection of our Lord, that this
doctrine was every way opposed to the orthodox faith. For the Catholic faith
holds that our body, raised by the glory of immortality, is indeed rendered
subtile by the effect of spiritual power, but is palpable by the reality of
nature; according to the example of our Lord's Body, concerning which, when
risen from the dead, He Himself says to His disciples, "Handle Me and see, for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have. In maintaining this faith,
the venerable Father Gregory so earnestly strove against the rising heresy, and
with the help of the most pious emperor, Tiberius Constantine, so fully
suppressed it, that none has been since found to revive it.
He likewise composed another notable book, the "Liber Pastoralis," wherein he
clearly showed what sort of persons ought to be preferred to rule the Church;
how such rulers ought to live; with how much discrimination they ought to
instruct the different classes of their hearers, and how seriously to reflect
every day on their own frailty. He also wrote forty homilies on the Gospel,
which he divided equally into two volumes; and composed four books of Dialogues,
in which, at the request of his deacon, Peter, he recounted the virtues of the
more renowned saints of Italy, whom he had either known or heard of, as a
pattern of life for posterity; to the end that, as he taught in his books of
Expositions what virtues men ought to strive after, so by describing the
miracles of saints, he might make known the glory of those' virtues. Further, in
twenty-two homilies, he showed how much light is latent in the first and last
parts of the prophet Ezekiel, which seemed the most obscure. Besides which, he
wrote the "Book of Answers," to the questions of the holy Augustine, the first
bishop of the English nation, as we have shown above, inserting the same book
entire in this history; and the useful little "Synodical Book," which he
composed with the bishops of Italy on necessary matters of the Church; as well
as private letters to certain persons. And it is the more wonderful that he
could write so many lengthy works, seeing that almost all the time of his youth,
to use his own words, he was frequently tormented with internal pain, constantly
enfeebled by the weakness of his digestion, and oppressed by a low but
persistent fever. But in all these troubles, forasmuch as he carefully reflected
that, as the Scripture testifies, "He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth,"
the more severely he suffered under those present evils, the more he assured
himself of his eternal hope.
Thus much may be said of his immortal genius, which could not be crushed by such
severe bodily pains. Other popes applied themselves to building churches or
adorning them with gold and silver, but Gregory was wholly intent upon gaining
souls. Whatsoever money he had, he took care to distribute diligently and give
to the poor, that his righteousness, might endure for ever, and his horn be
exalted with honour; so that the words of the blessed Job might be truly said of
him, "When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it
gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless,
and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish
came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for, joy. I put on
righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgement was as a robe and a diadem. I was
eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor; and
the cause which I knew not, I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked,
and plucked the spoil out of his teeth." And a little after: "If I have
withheld," says he, "the poor from their desire; or have caused the eyes of the
widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not
eaten thereof: (for from my youth compassion grew up with me, and from my
mother's womb it came forth with me.")
To his works of piety and righteousness this also may be added, that he saved
our nation, by the preachers he sent hither, from the teeth of the old enemy,
and made it partaker of eternal liberty. Rejoicing in the faith and salvation of
our race, and worthily commending it with praise, he says, in his exposition of
the blessed Job, "Behold, the tongue of Britain, which only knew how to utter
barbarous cries, has long since begun to raise the Hebrew Hallelujah to the
praise of God! Behold, the once swelling ocean now serves prostrate at the feet
of the saints; and its wild upheavals, which earthly princes could not subdue
with the sword, are now, through the fear of God, bound by the lips of priests
with words alone; and the heathen that stood not in awe of troops of warriors,
now believes and fears the tongues of the humble! For he has received a message
from on high and mighty works are revealed; the strength of the knowledge of God
is given him, and restrained by the fear of the Lord, he dreads to do evil, and
with all his heart desires to attain to everlasting grace." In which words the
blessed Gregory shows us this also, that St.Augustine and his companions brought
the English to receive the truth, not only by the preaching of words, but also
by showing forth heavenly signs.
The blessed Pope Gregory, among other things, caused Masses to be celebrated in
the churches of the holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, over their bodies. And in the
celebration of Masses, he added three petitions of the utmost perfection: "And
dispose our days in thy peace, and bid us to be preserved from eternal
damnation, and to be numbered in the flock of thine elect."
He governed the Church in the days of the Emperors Mauritius and Phocas, and
passing out of this life in the second year of the same Phocas, departed to the
true life which is in Heaven. His body was buried in the church of the blessed
Apostle Peter before the sacristy, on the 12th day of March, to rise one day in
the same body in glory with the rest of the holy pastors of the Church. On his
tomb was written this epitaph:
Receive, 0 Earth, his body taken from thine own; thou canst restore it, when God
calls to life. His spirit rises to the stars; the claims of death shall not
avail against him, for death itself is but the way to new life. In this tomb are
laid the limbs of a great pontiff, who yet lives for ever in all places in
countless deeds of mercy. Hunger and cold he overcame with food and raiment, and
shielded souls from the enemy by his holy teaching. And whatsoever he taught in
word, that he fulfilled in deed, that he might be a pattern, even as he spake
words of mystic meaning. By his guiding love he brought the Angles to Christ,
gaining armies for the Faith from a new people. This was thy toil, thy task, thy
care, thy aim as shepherd, to offer to thy Lord abundant increase of the flock.
So, Consul of God, rejoice in this thy triumph, for now thou hast the reward of
thy works for evermore.
Nor must we pass by in silence the story of the blessed Gregory, handed down to
us by the tradition of our ancestors, which explains his earnest care for the
salvation of our nation. It is said that one day, when some merchants had lately
arrived at Rome, many things were exposed for sale in the market place, and much
people resorted thither to buy: Gregory himself went with the rest, and saw
among other wares some boys put up for sale, of fair complexion, with pleasing
countenances, and very beautiful hair. When he beheld them, he asked, it is
said, from what region or country they were brought? and was told, from the
island of Britain, and that the inhabitants were like that in appearance. He
again inquired whether those islanders were Christians, or still involved in the
errors of paganism, and was informed that they were pagans. Then fetching a deep
sigh from the bottom of his heart, "Alas! what pity," said he, "that the author
of darkness should own men of such fair countenances; and that with such grace
of outward form, their minds should be void of inward grace. He therefore again
asked, what was the name of that nation? and was answered, that they were called
Angles. "Right," said he, "for they have an angelic face, and it is meet that
such should be co-heirs with the Angels in heaven. What is the name of the
province from which they are brought?" It was replied, that the natives of that
province were called Deiri. (Note: Southern Northumbria) "Truly are they Deira,"
said he, "saved from wrath, and called to the mercy of Christ. How is the king
of that called?" They told him his name was Aelli;' and he, playing upon the
name, said, "Allelujah, the praise of God the Creator must be sung in those
parts."
Then he went to the bishop of the Roman Apostolic see (for he was not himself
then made pope), and entreated him to send some ministers of the Word into
Britain to the nation of the English, that it might be converted to Christ by
them; declaring himself ready to carry out that work with the help of God, if
the Apostolic Pope should think fit to have it done. But not being then able to
perform this task, because, though the Pope was willing to grant his request,
yet the citizens of Rome could not be brought to consent that he should depart
so far from the city, as soon as he was himself made Pope, he carried out the
long-desired work, sending, indeed, other preachers, but himself by his
exhortations and prayers helping the preaching to bear fruit. This account,
which we have received from a past generation, we have thought fit to insert in
our Ecclesiastical History.
