The allegorical part is an exegetical curiosity he reads between or beneath the lines of that
wonderful poem the history of Christ and a whole system of theology natural and revealed. The
names of persons and things, the numbers, and even the syllables, are filled with mystic meaning.
Job represents Christ; his wife the carnal nature; his seven sons (seven being the number of
perfection) represent the apostles, and hence the clergy; his three daughters the three classes of the
faithful laity who are to worship the Trinity; his friends the heretics; the seven thousand sheep the
perfect Christians; the three thousand camels the heathen and Samaritans; the five hundred yoke
of oxen and five hundred she-asses again the heathen, because the prophet Isaiah says: "The ox
knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not
consider."
The moral sense, which Gregory explains last, is an edifying homiletical expansion and
application, and a sort of compend of Christian ethics.
- Twenty-two Homilies on Ezekiel, delivered in Rome during the siege by Agilulph, and
afterwards revised. - Forty Homilies on the Gospels for the day, preached by Gregory at various times, and
afterwards edited. - Liber Regulae Pastoralis, in four parts. It is a pastoral theology, treating of the duties and
responsibilities of the ministerial office, in justification of his reluctance to undertake the burden
of the papal dignity. It is more practical than Chrysostom’s "Priesthood." It was held in the highest
esteem in the Middle Ages, translated into Greek by order of the emperor Maurice, and into
Anglo-Saxon by King Alfred, and given to the bishops in France at their ordination, together with
the book of canons, as a guide in the discharge of their duties. Gregory, according to the spirit of
his age, enjoins strict celibacy even upon sub-deacons. But otherwise he gives most excellent advice
suitable to all times. He makes preaching one of the chief duties of pastors, in the discharge of
which he himself set a good example. He warns them to guard against the besetting sin of pride at
the very outset; for they will not easily learn humility in a high position. They should preach by
their lives as well as their words. "He who, by the necessity of his position, is required to speak the
highest things, is compelled by the same necessity to exemplify the highest. For that voice best
penetrates the hearts of hearers which the life of the speaker commends, because what he commends
in his speech he helps to practice by his example." He advises to combine meditation and action.
"Our Lord," he says, "continued in prayer on the mountain, but wrought miracles in the cities;
showing to pastors that while aspiring to the highest, they should mingle in sympathy with the
necessities of the infirm. The more kindly charity descends to the lowest, the more vigorously it
recurs to the highest." The spiritual ruler should never be so absorbed in external cares as to forget
the inner life of the soul, nor neglect external things in the care for his inner life. "The word of
doctrine fails to penetrate the mind of the needy, unless commended by the hand of compassion." - Four books of Dialogues on the lives and miracles of St. Benedict of Nursia and other
Italian saints, and on the immortality of the soul (593). These dialogues between Gregory and the
Roman archdeacon Peter abound in incredible marvels and visions of the state of departed souls.
He acknowledges, however, that he knew these stories only from hearsay, and defends his recording
them by the example of Mark and Luke, who reported the gospel from what they heard of the
eye-witnesses. His veracity, therefore, is not at stake; but it is strange that a man of his intelligence
and good sense should believe such grotesque and childish marvels. The Dialogues are the chief