180 Turtas
2 The Age of Gregory the Great (590–604) 10
In 523, the exile of the African bishops ended with the succession of Ildericus
(523–530) and, in 533, the Vandal kingdom itself was driven away by Belisarius,
who had been sent by the Emperor Justinian (527–565). For over four centu-
ries Sardinia was part of the Byzantine Empire; initially, beginning in 534, it
was incorporated into the African diocese, which comprised the former Vandal
territories, until Carthage fell to the Arabs in 698. However, there is evidence
of eastern (Byzantine) bishops in the church of Sardinia, only from the mid-
seventh century on, but even afterwards there is no sure proof that it was a part
of the Byzantine patriarchate.
Thirty-nine letters of Gregory the Great’s Registrum are relevant to Sardinia.
They are addressed to the archbishop and bishops, his officials (defensores
notarii), who were his eyes and ears on the island, and agents of the empire
(the Empress Constantina, the exarchus of Africa Gennadius, various duces,
the praeses of Sardinia and Hospiton, the Barbaricinorum dux). These surviv-
ing letters provide almost 70 percent of the knowledge about the Sardinian
church in the first millennium, but they also contain references to many lost
letters. Thus, it becomes clear that Gregory’s Sardinian letters, which covered
even minutiae of the island, must also have considerable gaps. The pope’s let-
ters touch on subjects from the religious and ecclesiastical, to political-military
matters (e.g. the steps the archbishop of Carales was to take to prevent further
10 Primary Sources: Jakob Havry and Gerhard Wirth, eds, Procopii Caesariensis: Opera Omnia
(Leipzig, 1962), pp. 305–552; Dag Norberg, ed., Gregorii Magni registrum epistularum libri
I–VII (Turnhout, 1982); Paul Fridolin Kehr, Italia pontificia, sive, Repertorium privilegio-
rum et litterarum a Romanis pontificibus ante annum MCLXXXXVIII Italiae ecclesiis mon-
asteriis civitatibus singulisque personis concessorum. Vol. 10 Calabria-Insulae, ed. Dieter
Girgensohn (Berlin, 1975), pp. 367–458; Secondary Sources: Robert Gillet, “Grégoire Ier le
Grand,” in Dictionnaire d’Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastique (Paris, 1986), vol. 21, cols
1387–1420; Jacques Fontaine, Robert Gillet, and Stan-Michel Pellistrandi, eds, Grégoire le
Grand. Colloques internationaux du Centre Nationale de la Récherche scientifique, Chantilly,
Centre culturel Les Fontaines, 15–19 septembre 1982 (Paris, 1986); Raimondo Turtas, “L’età di
Gregorio Magno (seconda metà VI-inizi VII secolo),” in Storia della Chiesa in Sardegna
dalle origini al Duemila, ed. Raimondo Turtas (Rome, 1999), pp. 99–139; Giuseppe
Cremascoli and Antonella Degl’Innocenti, Enciclopedia Gregoriana: la vita, l’opera e la for-
tuna di Gregorio Magno (Florence, 2008); Lucio Casula, Giampaolo Mele, Antonio Piras,
and Luciano Armando, eds, Per longa maris intervalla: Gregorio Magno e l’Occidente medi-
terraneo fra tardoantico a altomedioevo (Cagliari, 2006); Luigi Giovanni Giuseppe Ricci,
ed., Gregorio Magno e la Sardegna: atti del convegno internazionale di studio, Sassari, 15–16
aprile 2005 (Florence, 2007).