Gregory the Great (Dvoeslov), Pope of Rome

Alexey Arsentievich Mitropolsky, candidate of theology, priest of the Znamenskaya Church in St. Petersburg. Gregory the Great or Dvoeslov, Pope (Sept. 3, 590 – March 12, 604) came from a famous senatorial family, probably Anician, and was born in Rome, between 540 and 550. Brought up in accordance with his social position, he was initiated into dialectic and rhetoric, studied law, entered the civil service, gained the confidence of Emperor Justin, and received (c. 574) the dignity of praetor urbis. But he also studied the Western Church Fathers, St. Augustine, Jerome and St. Ambrose. His family was distinguished by great religiosity: his mother Sylvia and two of his and his father's aunts were canonized. His deeply religious nature was indignant at the luxury and ambition associated with his position: he decided to retire from the world and take monastic orders. He used all his enormous wealth left to him by his father to build six Benedictine monasteries in Sicily, and founded the seventh in his own house in Rome. Subsequently, he himself became a monk, and indulged in such severe ascetic asceticism that his health deteriorated significantly, and even his life was in danger. At this point, Pope Pelagius II came to the attention of him, took him from the monastery, ordained him to the rank of deacon (579) and sent him to Constantinople as an apocrisiary. “He fulfilled the assignment entrusted to him with great success, and, while in Constantinople, he began his famous work: “Interpretation of Job or the XXXV books on morality.” After his return to Rome (585), he continued to take an active part in all the affairs of the Curia; and, after the death of Pelagius II, unanimously elected by the clergy, the Senate and the people to the papal throne, he was forced to accept this position. The position of the Bishop of Rome at that time was by no means easy. Pressed, on the one hand, by Arian semi-barbarian pawnshops, he was not free on the other, since in many respects he had to submit to the authority of the Byzantine emperor and his representative in Italy, the Exarch of Ravenna. Nevertheless, the situation was not without its advantages, and Gregory was able to take advantage of them. The Pope was the largest land owner in Italy. From his numerous possessions, not only in Campania, Apulia, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia, but also in Gaul, Dalmatia and North Africa, huge sums flowed into his treasury, and Gregory turned out to be an excellent administrator, strict and not losing sight of even the most insignificant details. This wealth was accompanied by a certain prestige in secular affairs. Due to the weakness and incapacity of the exarchs, the pope became the actual ruler of Rome, and this role was especially suitable for Gregory, who before becoming pope was praetor urbis. Thus, he occupied an almost completely independent position, serving as an intermediary between the pawnshops and Byzantium. Through Theodolinda, an Orthodox Bavarian princess and the wife of King Agilulf, he exercised some influence over the pawnbrokers; although one day (593), just at the time when he was delivering a discourse on the prophet Ezekiel, he had to pay off with a large sum of gold and silver from Agilulf, who approached the gates of Rome. His voice was also important in Constantinople, although his relations with the Emperor Mauritius, especially after the dispute with John the Faster, became more and more darkened. – John IV, Patriarch of Constantinople, liked to call himself “ecumenical patriarch.” But he was not the first to accept this title, nor was it attached to him alone: ​​his predecessor Mina accepted it in 536, and it was also granted to Pope Leo I by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, to Hormizda by the Syrian monks in 517, and to Boniface II by the Metropolitan of Larissa in 531. Gregory, however, who preferred to call himself servus servorum Dei (not as a reproach to the Patriarch of Constantinople, but simply in imitation of Blessed Augustine), disapproved of this title, complained about this to Mauritius (595), and attacked John IV himself with extraordinary harshness. John died that same year. But his successor, Cyriacus, continued to bear this title, and Gregory became more and more irritated, especially when Mauritius avoided intervening in this matter. In November 602, Mauritius was dethroned by Phocas, and not only was he beheaded, but also his wife, five sons and three daughters. The new emperor, usurper and murderer, however, was greeted by the pope in letters of congratulations, the servility and caresses of which can only be explained by the assumption that Gregory, when he wrote these letters, was not aware of the blatant cruelty that accompanied the usurpation (which, in view of the turbulence of those times, is by no means incredible). His relationship with Brunehilde can also be explained. Brunehilde was simply a monster. The crimes she committed during the reigns of her son, Childebert II (575–596) and her two grandsons, Theudebert II and Theudeberic II, earned her the nickname "the Frankish fury", the "new Jezebel". Meanwhile, Gregory wrote letters to this woman, full of praise and flattery. But he obviously judged her simply by her own letters. And in these last ones, with feigned piety, she turned to him, either for some relics for the church, or for a pallium for St. Syagrius of Autun, either for some privilege for some monastery, or with a request to send a papal legate to the Frankish Council; Moreover, she promised to support the English mission, build churches and monasteries, abolish simony, introduce celibacy, refrain from distributing church positions and benefits to the laity, etc. In view of all this, Brunehilda could seem to him as he described her - a very pious woman. Gregory Dvoeslov worked hard for the Christian education of foreign countries, especially Spain and England. Thanks to the influence of Bishop Leander of Seville, a close friend of Grig., who met him in Constantinople, Reccared, king of the Visigoths, agreed to leave Arianism and join the Orthodox Church. In a letter dated 599, the king informed the pope of his conversion, and at the same time sent a golden cup as his gift to St. Petru. Gregory answered him extremely kindly, and sent Abbot Cyriacus to Spain with a pallium for Leander. The Council of Barcelona, ​​held in the same year under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Asiaticus of Tarragona and discussing issues of simony and investiture of the laity by church benefices, was probably in connection with the embassy of Cyriacus. – As for England, it attracted Gregory’s attention when he was still a monk. Having seen Anglo-Saxon boys put up for sale as slaves in Rome, he felt deep pity for them, and decided to go to England as a missionary. He had indeed already set off, but was returned by the pope. Having become pope himself, he sent (596) Augustine and forty other monks to King Ethelbert of Kent, and the matter went so successfully that the very next year Augustine informed him of the baptism of the king and 10,000 of his subjects. The great interest with which Gregory took the English mission can be seen from his letters to Augustine, in which he was given the most detailed instructions. No matter how great were the successes of Gregory the Great (Dvoeslov) in spreading the influence and power of the Roman See in Western countries, he did even more for the internal organization and strengthening of the church. He resolved the delicate question of the dependence of the Western metropolitan sees on the Roman see with great candor. In northern Africa, where the clergy especially jealously defended their independence, he acted with great caution and in strict accordance with the canons of the Council of Sardica (347). Gennadius the Exarch and the two most prominent bishops of the province, Dominic of Carthage and Columbus of Numidia, were his close friends, and many appeals were made to the Roman see. But the disputing parties were never summoned to Rome: the matter was decided on the spot, by papal legates. He acted differently with the diocese of Ravenna: he forbade Archbishop John, and quite sharply, from wearing the pallium except when celebrating the liturgy, and when a dispute arose between John's successor, Marinian, and the famous abbot Claudius, he demanded them both to Rome to hear their case in person. He wanted to do the same in Illyria regarding the controversial episcopal election in Salona (593); but in this case the Emperor Mauritius intervened in the matter, and, to his great chagrin and humiliation, Gregory was forced to enter into a compromise. Gregory Dvoeslov's ideas about papal power were rather vague; but in general he was strict and clearly strived for supremacy. Very characteristic in this regard were his efforts to separate the monks from the lay clergy. He himself was a monk and knew what temptations and illusions human nature is exposed to as a result of monastic life: therefore, he established the period of novitiate at two years, and for warriors at three years. He forbade young men under eighteen years of age to enter the monastery, and allowed married people only with the consent of their wives. He ordered the church authorities to arrest those monks who often wandered around the country in large crowds and in reality were nothing more than vagabonds of the most annoying and impudent nature, and to hand them over to the nearest monasteries for punishment. In this way he did a lot to transform the monasteries, but even more to strengthen their independence. He freed one monastery after another from episcopal power, and at one Roman Council (601) the bishop's power over abbeys was generally limited to only the right to appoint abbots. Obviously, he had the idea of ​​​​making the monks a powerful tool that the pope could have at his disposal independently of the clergy. On the other hand, he transferred some of the features of monastic life to the clergy, such as celibacy, the introduction of which he was especially zealous about. For the clergy, soon after his accession to the papal throne, he wrote his famous book: “The Pastoral Rule” (Regula Pastoralis), which for centuries was considered the moral code of the clergy. Emperor Mauritius ordered it to be translated into Greek, and Alfred the Great himself translated it into English. According to Ginkmar of Reims from 870, all Frankish bishops henceforth took an oath on it at their ordination. He considered preaching to be the main duty of priests, and in this regard he himself set a brilliant example. In addition to the above-mentioned Conversations on the Prophet Ezekiel, forty Conversations on the Gospels have come down to us from him. As a theologian, Gregory was not distinguished by his originality; nevertheless, in this respect he had a beneficial influence, arousing interest in the works of St. Augustine. He is sometimes called the "inventor of purgatory"; but although his teaching about the intermediate state between death and condemnation is rather vague, in general it does not go further than the teaching of bl. Augustine. He outlined his dogmatic views in his “Dialogues on the Life and Miracles of the Italian Fathers and on the Eternity of Souls.” On the other hand, by his influence on the ritual side of Christianity, in some respects he produced an almost complete revolution. He is credited with compiling the Liturgy of the “Presanctified Gifts,” about which see under the word “Liturgy,” and he also made a complete revolution in church singing when, instead of Ambrosian chant (cantus figuratus), he introduced his famous Cantus planus or so-called “Gregorian chant.” To the four main voices of St. Ambrose. Gregory added four more voices, assigning them the meaning of secondary ones, namely from A, from B, from Do and from D - and thus created an entire church musical system, consisting of eight diatonic scales. In its entirety, the musical system of St. Gregory is closely related to the Eastern system of osmoglas, which in turn was based on the Greek musical system, built on tetrachords or four-tones. Each tetrachord was a system of four sounds, the sum of which was equal to 2 1/2 intervals. By their nature, tetrachords were of three types: diatonic with a characteristic interval of 1/2 tone, chromatic with a distinctive interval of 1 1/2 tone, and enharmonic - with an interval of 1/4 tone. Diatonic tetrachords, in turn, depending on the location of their distinctive interval, were of three types: Dorian (with a semitone in the middle), Phrygian (with a semitone below) and Lydian (with a semitone above). Over time, a fifth sound was added to the tetrachord and the pentachord system was created. Finally, the tetrachords began to be combined with each other and with the pentachord system into one octochord system. In this last system of octochords of eight sounds, all the Greek modes were written, each of which was nothing more than a musical ladder of eight steps. It was on these frets that the church voices were built, of which, according to the system of that time, only eight could be built. St. Ambrose and Gregory in their musical works took advantage of those vocal scales that were already in use in the Christian Church, and elevated them into a church musical system. St. Gregory compiled a musical book “antiphonary”, otherwise called “senton”, i.e. a collection. The singing contained in it was based on Greek musical modes: Phrygian, Dorian, Lydian, etc. Thus, the first Gregorian voice - the Dorian mode extended, as in Greek singing, from D to D, representing two Dorian tetrachords; the second voice is the Phrygian mode, from E to E there are two Phrygian tetrachords, etc., accurately repeating the Greek modes. The whole difference between Gregorian chant and the previous one was that it lost the former recitative character of Ambrosian chant and was no longer as rhythmic as Ambrosian chant - it turned into one continuous melody in which the music moves above the text and dominates it. Gregorian chant, unlike Ambrosian chant, did not depend on the length and brevity of the syllables of the text and consisted primarily of tones of the same rhythmic duration, which is why it received the name equal (cantus planus). The system of Gregorian chant still serves as the basis for the liturgical chant of the Roman Catholic Church. The main source of the life and teachings of Saint Gregory are, of course, his own creations, especially in his letters, reaching up to 850. The best editions were made by Dionysius Sammartan (Paris, 1705, in 4 volumes) and Gallicioli (Venice, 1768–1776, in 17 volumes). Next in importance come the ancient biographies: 1) in the liber Pontificalis of Muratori: Scrip. Her. Jtal. III; 2) in Cannisius: Thes., Antwerp., 1725, II; 3) by Paul the Deacon (8th century); and 4) by John the Deacon (IX century), both in Opp. Greg. Some remarks can also be found in Paul the Deacon: De gestis Longobardorum, III, 24-25, IV and V; in Gregory of Tours: Annales Francorum. X. I-2; Troubles: Hist. Eccl. Angl., I, 23–27, 33. II, 1–3. Among the newest studies of this subject, mention can be made of the works of Bianchi - Giovini. Milan, 1844. Lau. Leipzig, 1845; Ifalera, Frankfurt, 1852; Bariabi London, 1879. On particular subjects may be cited: Herbert, De canta et musica sacra, Bamberg, 1744; Guetteë La papaute moderne Greg, le grand, Paris, 1861. Of his works in Russian there are: “Conversations on the Prophet Ezekiel” in two books, translated from Latin by Archimandrite. Clement (Kazan, 1863). From studies about him, see the beginning. dissertation by prof. A. Ponomareva, “Conversations of St. Gregory the Great about the afterlife in their ecclesiastical and historical-literary significance.” St. Petersburg. 1896. All relevant literature is also listed there. Pr. D. Razumovsky, Church singing in Russia. Vol. I. pp. 17–19. Priest V. Metallov, Essay on the history of Orthodox church singing in Russia, pp. 17–19. Art. A. S-va, “Liturgical music of the Western Church” in Reading. in General Loves. spirit. enlightenment 1 book. 1889