does not cease, because no repentance takes place under the scourge. We see how some are carried
into captivity, others mutilated, others slain. What is it, brethren, that can make us contented with
this life? If we love such a world, we love not our joys, but our wounds. We see what has become
of her who was once the mistress of the world .... Let us then heartily despise the present world
and imitate the works of the pious as well as we can."
Gregory was born about a.d. 540, from an old and wealthy senatorial (the Anician) family
of Rome, and educated for the service of the government. He became acquainted with Latin literature,
and studied Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustin, but was ignorant of Greek. His mother Sylvia, after
the death of Gordianus her husband, entered a convent and so excelled in sanctity that she was
canonized. The Greek emperor Justin appointed him to the highest civil office in Rome, that of
imperial prefect (574). But soon afterwards he broke with the world, changed the palace of his
father near Rome into a convent in honor of St. Andrew, and became himself a monk in it, afterwards
abbot. He founded besides six convents in Sicily, and bestowed his remaining wealth on the poor.
He lived in the strictest abstinence, and undermined his health by ascetic excesses. Nevertheless
he looked back upon this time as the happiest of his life.
Pope Pelagius II. made him one of the seven deacons of the Roman Church, and sent him
as ambassador or nuntius to the court of Constantinople (579).^214 His political training and executive
ability fitted him eminently for this post. He returned in 585, and was appointed abbot of his convent,
but employed also for important public business.
It was during his monastic period (either before or, more probably, after his return from
Constantinople) that his missionary zeal was kindled, by an incident on the slave market, in behalf
of the Anglo-Saxons. The result (as recorded in a previous chapter) was the conversion of England
and the extension of the jurisdiction of the Roman see, during his pontificate. This is the greatest
event of that age, and the brightest jewel in his crown. Like a Christian Caesar, he re-conquered
that fair island by an army of thirty monks, marching under the sign of the cross.^215
In 590 Gregory was elected pope by the unanimous voice of the clergy, the senate, and the
people, notwithstanding his strong remonstrance, and confirmed by his temporal sovereign, the
Byzantine emperor Mauricius. Monasticism, for the first time, ascended the papal throne. Hereafter
till his death he devoted all his energies to the interests of the holy see and the eternal city, in the
firm consciousness of being the successor of St. Peter and the vicar of Christ. He continued the
austere simplicity of monastic life, surrounded himself with monks, made them bishops and legates,
confirmed the rule of St. Benedict at a council of Rome, guaranteed the liberty and property of
convents, and by his example and influence rendered signal services to the monastic order. He was
unbounded in his charities to the poor. Three thousand virgins, impoverished nobles and matrons
received without a blush alms from his hands. He sent food from his table to the hungry before he
sat down for his frugal meal. He interposed continually in favor of injured widows and orphans.
He redeemed slaves and captives, and sanctioned the sale of consecrated vessels for objects of
charity.
(^214) Apocrisiarius (ἀποκρισιάριος,orα γγελος), responsalis. Du Cange defines it: "Nuntius, Legatus ... praesertim qui
a pontifice Romano, vel etiam ab archiepiscopis ad comitatum mittebantur, quo res ecclesiarum suarum peragerent, et de iis
ad principem referrent." The Roman delegates to Constantinople were usually taken from the deacons. Gregory is the fifth
Roman deacon who served in this capacity at Constantinople, according to Du Cange s. v. Apocrisiarius.
(^215) See above § 10.