316 Gregory of Nyssa, Saint
menical COUNCILin 381, when he opposed the followers
of Eunomios (ca. 325–ca. 395). He was bishop of Nazian-
zos from 382 to 384, before his death about 390. His
writings included sermons (Orationes) and polemics
against HERESY. His chief historical role was that of
defender of orthodoxy on the one nature of GOD,the
three persons of the Trinity, and the humanity and divin-
ity of Christ. He died November 27, 389/390.
See alsoBASIL THEGREAT,SAINT;GREGORY OFNYSSA,
SAINT.
Further reading: Georges A. Barrois, trans., The
Fathers Speak, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of
Nazianzus, St. Gregory of Nyssa (Crestwood, N.Y.: St.
Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986); Leslie Brubaker, Vision
and Meaning in Ninth-Century Byzantium: Image as Exege-
sis in the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999); Rosemary Radford
Ruether, Gregory of Nazianzus, Rhetor and Philosopher
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969).
Gregory of Nyssa, Saint(ca. 335–ca. 394)theologian
Born about 335 and a brother of BASILof Caesarea, Gre-
gory of Nyssa was appointed bishop of Nyssa in 371 but
was removed for two years in 376–378 on false charges of
mismanagement of diocesean business. He returned to
the position only after the death of the emperor Valens (r.
364–378). He defended Orthodoxy against ARIANISMat
the Council of Constantinople in 381. He was remem-
bered chiefly as a spiritual guide and speculative theolo-
gian of great originality who wrote treaties on VIRGINITY,
TRINITARIAN DOCTRINE, the Resurrection, in addition to
polemics against heretics such as those who followed
Eunomios (ca. 325–ca. 395). He died about 394.
See alsoPLATO,PLATONISM, ANDNEO-PLATONISM.
Further reading:Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Gregory of
Nyssa: Ascetical Works, trans. Virginia Woods Callahan
(Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1967);
Georges A. Barrois, trans., The Fathers Speak, St. Basil the
Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Gregory of Nyssa(Crest-
wood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986); Hans Urs
von Balthasar, Presence and Thought: Essay on the Religious
Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa,trans. Mark Sebanc (San
Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1995); Anthony Meredith, Gre-
gory of Nyssa(London: Routledge, 1999).
Gregory of Tours, Saint(Georgius Florentius Grego-
rius)(538/539–594) Frankish bishop, historian
The son of a prominent family in Avergne in south-cen-
tral FRANCE, Gregory was born on November 30, 538/9.
His father was a Roman senator, and relatives of his
mother held high offices in the church. He studied at
Lyon not only the BIBLEand the lives of the Christian
martyrs but also the secular literature. At age 25 he
became a deacon in the church in 563. In 573, while he
was in Tours to seek a cure at the tomb of Saint MARTIN
for a mysterious sickness he had contracted, Gregory was
asked by the people to stay and become their bishop as
had many of his ancestors had done.
Two years later the city of Tours fell under the con-
trol of Chilperic (r. 561–584), a cruel and callous king of
the FRANKS at Soissons, who enforced his orders by
blinding those who disobeyed him. For nine years Gre-
gory battled Chilperic to protect people from the king’s
brutality. Chilperic did not dare attack the bishop openly
since Gregory had strong support. Over the years they
learned to live together in compromise in an uneasy
peace. He worked as a counsellor to the successors of
Chilperic. In his last 10 years as bishop, after Chilperic
had died in 584, Gregory was involved with only some
success in political and diplomatic activity to protect his
province. He kept peace and order in the church of
Tours, disciplining with firmness those monks and NUNS
who were troublesome.WRITING
Gregory also found time to write in a rather rustic Latin.
He produced a history of the Frankish people between
573 and 591; despite its excessive length and crude style,
it is the main source of knowledge about the history, lan-
guage, religion, and social customs of the Merovingian
Franks. Gregory wrote from an ecclesiastical point of
view, excusing the crimes of the Frankish kings who
favored the church and pointing out the defects in those
who did not. Gregory also wrote about MIRACLESand on
the lives of the saints, frequently revealing a gullible per-
sonal belief that bordered on superstition. His liturgical
manual, in which he described a technique to calculate
the various prayers from the arrangement of the stars,
was another valuable treatise. Gregory died in Tours on
November 17, 594, and was quickly accepted by the peo-
ple of Tours as a saint.
See alsoCLOVIS; MEROVINGIAN DYNASTY.
Further reading:Gregory of Tours, The History of the
Franks,2 vols. trans. O. M. Dalton (Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1927); Gregory of Tours, The History of the
Franks,trans. Lewis Thorpe (New York: Penguin Books,
1974); Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers,trans. and ed.
Edward James (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985);
Walter A. Goffart, The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D.
550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the
Deacon (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1988); J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Long-Haired Kings and
Other Studies in Frankish History (London: Methuen,
1962).Groote, Gerard (Geert, Gerhard, Grote)(1340–1384)
Dutch preacher, mystic, founder of the Brethren of the Com-
mon Life and of the Devotio Moderna
Born of wealthy parents at Deventer in October 1340,
Gerard Groote received extensive education in law,