Moralia in Job 1 part 2/3

Then Gregory, groaning bitterly, said: 「Alas! oh grief! how splendid the faces that the prince of darkness now possesses, and how great a beauty of brow bears within it a mind void of the inner grace of God!」 Again he asked what was the name of that people. The merchant answered: 「They are called Angli (Angles).」 And he said: 「Well—Angli, as it were angeli (angels), since they have both angelic faces, and such ought to be fellow-citizens of the angels in heaven.」 Again therefore he asked what name the province itself had. The merchant answered: 「Those provincials are called Deiri.」 And Gregory: 「Well,」 he said, 「Deiri, since they are to be rescued de ira (from wrath), and summoned to the grace of Christ. And the king,」 he said, 「of that province, how is he named?」 The merchant answered:

「He is called Aelle.」 And Gregory, playing upon the name, said: 「Well, since that province's king is called Aelle. For 『Alleluia』 in praise of the Creator ought to be sung in those parts」 (Bede, book ii, ch. 1, History of the English). 22. Soon therefore, going to Benedict, pontiff of the apostolic see, he began earnestly to entreat that he would send some ministers of the word into Britain. And when he perceived that no one was willing to go, he did not hesitate to offer even himself, provided only the pontiff would grant him leave. And although with great hesitation of the whole clergy and people, he permitted Gregory, who of his own will desired to set out, to depart, praying that prosperous things might be ministered to him by God. 23.

Greatly disturbed by his departure, the Romans, after taking deliberate counsel, stationed themselves in threefold manner along the streets adjoining the route by which the pontiff was to set out for the basilica of blessed Peter, and in throngs thus addressed him: 「Thou hast offended Peter, thou hast destroyed Rome, because thou hast let Gregory go.」 Utterly terrified by these declarations, the pope at once sent messengers to recall Gregory, the man of the Lord. And this he himself had foretold would come to pass to those journeying with him. 24. And now, three days' journey having been accomplished, they had by chance turned aside to a certain place to rest; and while each was resting, Gregory was reading.

A locust, coming upon him, compelled him to rest a little from his reading, and from a consideration of its name taught him that he ought to stay (stare) in that same place (loco). [Then he is reported to have said: 「It can be called locusta (locust), as it were loco sta—stay in the place.」] And at once, having exhorted his companions, he strove to go the more hastily; but with the apostolic messengers arriving before him, although he grieved exceedingly, he was nevertheless compelled to return to the care of his own monastery. 25. Finally Benedict, the venerable pontiff, perceiving Gregory to ascend to the heights by the steps of the virtues, forcibly drawing him away from the quiet of his monastery, exalted him with the office of ecclesiastical order, and consecrated him seventh deacon (levite) for his own assistance.

In which office the venerable levite Gregory flourished with such humility, ministered with such diligence, that in the ministry of the ecclesiastical hierarchy he seemed in some manner to be made equal to the divine angels, not only in the brightness of his vesture, but even in the splendour of his praiseworthy manners. 26. And not long after, he was sent for ecclesiastical business to the city of Constantinople by Pelagius the prelate, where, although he lived in an earthly palace, he did not interrupt his purpose of heavenly life. For not a few brethren from his monastery followed him, bound to him by a genuine charity.

This is seen to have been done by divine dispensation, namely that by their example he might, as by an anchor's rope, be held fast to the peaceful shore of prayer, and that, while he was tossed by the continual whirlings of secular affairs, he might flee back to their fellowship as to the bosom of a most safe harbour. And although that ministry, having withdrawn him from the monastery, had also, with the sword of its occupation, cut off the former life of his repose, yet among them the daily breathing of compunction gave him life through the discourse of diligent reading (Bede, book ii, ch. 1, History of the English). 27. By the fellowship of these, therefore, he was not only fortified against earthly assaults, but also more and more kindled to the exercises of the heavenly life.

For being earnestly begged by these same brethren, and above all urged by Leander, bishop of Seville, who at that time had come to Constantinople as legate on behalf of the affairs of the Visigoths, he was constrained to unfold the book of blessed Job, which is wrapped in many mysteries (Letter in the exposition of blessed Job, ch. 1). Nor could he refuse a work which fraternal love laid upon him as destined to be useful to many; but that same book—how it is to be understood according to the letter, how it is to be referred to the sacraments (mysteries) of Christ and the Church, in what sense it is to be fitted to each of the faithful—he taught most thoroughly by a wondrous method through the threefold species of understanding:

in which, moreover, he so discoursed of the virtues and vices that he seems not only to expound them in words, but in some manner to demonstrate them in visible or even palpable forms. Whence there is no doubt that he himself attained the perfection of those very virtues, whose advances he was able so effectually to point out. 28. Besides, the venerable levite Gregory, being established in that same royal city, ground down—by the help of the grace of catholic truth—a new heresy springing up concerning the state of our resurrection, at the very beginning at which it arose (Moralia, book xiv, no. 72 and following; Bede, book i, ch. 1, History of the English).

For Eutychius, bishop of that same city, having composed a book On the Resurrection of the Dead, taught as a dogma that our body in that glory of the resurrection would be impalpable, more subtle than the winds and the air. Hearing this, Gregory proved, both by the reasoning of truth and by the example of the Lord's resurrection, that this dogma was in every way contrary to orthodox faith. For the catholic faith holds that our body, exalted in that glory of immortality, is indeed subtle through the effect of a spiritual power, but palpable through the truth of its nature, according to the example of the Lord's body, of which, when raised from the dead, He Himself says to His disciples:

「Handle and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have」 (Luke xxiv, 39). And when Gregory had brought forward this testimony of evangelical truth, Eutychius said: 「The Lord did this for this reason, that He might remove the doubt of His resurrection from the hearts of the disciples.」 Gregory said to him: 「A very marvellous thing is that which thou allegest, that from thence doubt should arise for us, whence the hearts of the disciples were healed of doubt. For what worse can be said than that this concerning His true flesh should be made doubtful to us, through which His disciples were restored to faith out of all doubt?

For if it be alleged that He did not have what He showed, whence the faith of His disciples was confirmed, thence ours is destroyed.」 Eutychius said: 「He had a palpable body, which He showed; but after the hearts of those who handled Him were confirmed, all that in the Lord which could be handled was reduced into some subtlety.」 To this Gregory answered: 「It is written: 『Christ rising from the dead now dieth no more, death shall no more have dominion over him』 (Romans vi, 9). If therefore anything in His body could have been changed after the resurrection, against the truthful sentence of Paul, the Lord returned into death after the resurrection. And who but a fool would presume to say this, save one who denies the true resurrection of His flesh?」

Then Eutychius objected, saying: 「Since it is written: 『Flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God』 (1 Cor. xv, 50), by what reasoning is it to be believed that the flesh truly rises?」 To him Gregory answered: 「In sacred speech, flesh is spoken of in one way according to nature, and in another according to fault or corruption. Flesh indeed is spoken of according to nature, as it is written: 『This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh』 (Gen. ii, 23). And: 『The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us』 (John i, 14). But flesh according to fault, as it is written: 『My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh』 (Gen. vi, 3). And as the Psalmist says: 『He remembered that they are flesh:

a wind that goeth and returneth not』 (Psalm lxxvii, 39). Whence also the disciple Paul said: 『But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit』 (Rom. viii, 9); for they were not not in the flesh to whom he sent his epistles; but because they had conquered the passions of carnal desires, being now free through the power of the spirit, they were not in the flesh. What therefore Paul the apostle says—『that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God』 (1 Cor. xv, 50)—he willed to be understood of flesh according to fault, not of flesh according to nature. Whence also soon after, to show that he spoke of flesh according to fault, he added: 『Neither shall corruption possess incorruption.』

In that heavenly glory, therefore, the flesh will be according to nature, but it will not be according to the desires of passion, because, the sting of death being overcome, it shall reign in eternal incorruption.」 Having heard these things, Eutychius answered that he forthwith consented; yet still he denied that a palpable body could rise: he who also, in the little book which he had written on the resurrection, had inserted the testimony of Paul likewise, saying: 「『That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it first die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain』 (1 Cor. xv, 36).」

Hastening indeed to show by this that either the flesh will be palpable, or it will not be itself, since the holy Apostle, treating of the glory of the resurrection, said that not the body which is to be is sown, but bare grain. But to this Gregory answered: 「Paul the apostle, saying: 『Thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain,』 conveys this which we see, namely that the grain is born with stalk and leaves, which is sown without stalk and leaves. He therefore, in speaking of the increase of the glory of the resurrection, did not say that there is lacking to the grain of seed what it was, but that there is present what it was not. But thou, in denying that the true body rises, by no means sayest that there is present what was lacking, but that there is lacking what was.」 29.

Then accordingly Gregory the Roman deacon and Eutychius the Constantinopolitan bishop, being led into a long contention over this matter, began to draw back from one another with a most grievous estrangement. Then the emperor Tiberius Constantine, of pious memory, receiving each of them privately, learned what discord was at issue between them, and, subtly weighing the allegation of each party, overturning by his own allegations that same book which Eutychius had composed on the resurrection, decreed that it ought to be consumed by flames. And as soon as they had together departed from that most pious emperor, after the conflict of a very long disputation, both alike falling sick, they took to their beds. 30.

When therefore Gregory was burning with the most violent fevers, Eutychius, wrestling with death, held the skin of his own hand before all, saying: 「I confess that we shall all rise in this flesh.」 After which confession of the catholic faith he died; and when he was dead, since there was scarcely anyone who would follow his sayings, Gregory forbore to pursue what he had begun, lest he should seem to hurl words into ashes. 31.

But with what great authority he fulfilled the ministry of his apocrisiarius' office (his legateship), in what great reverence he stood among the Augusti (emperors), and with what great solicitude he often caused succour to be brought to afflicted Italy—if anyone desires to know this more fully, let him run through the letters of his predecessor pope Pelagius, addressed to him concerning the manifold necessities of the Church of God, which are to this day most carefully preserved in the archive of the holy apostolic see; out of the multitude of which I here insert one, so that both the character of that ministry and the tenor of the rest may be known. It is as follows: 32. 「Pelagius the bishop, to his beloved son Gregory, the venerable deacon.

All the things indeed that were necessary we have taken care to make known to thee through the notary Honoratus; whom, together with our brother and fellow-bishop Sebastian, we have directed to thy affection, so that, since he was in those parts until now at Ravenna with the glorious lord Decius the patrician, he himself may endeavour by his report to inform thee about all things; or, if you judge anything necessary, he may be able to suggest it to the lord emperor. For such great calamities and tribulations have been brought upon us by the perfidy of the Lombards, against their own oath, that no one can suffice to relate them.

But how we have received the aforesaid brother Sebastian, and in how great affection he has been with us at thy suggestion, thou wilt be able to know by his own report. He also promised us that he would suggest the necessities and perils of all Italy to the most pious lord emperor. Speak therefore and treat together, in what manner you may be able speedily to succour our perils: for the commonwealth is here so straitened, that unless God shall inspire in the heart of the most pious prince to bestow upon his servants the mercy implanted in him, and above

deign to grant that reinforcement (diacoposis), or one master of the soldiers (magister militum) and one duke (dux), we shall be left destitute in every distress, since especially the regions of Rome appear emptied of every garrison, and the exarch writes that he can furnish us no remedy, inasmuch as he testifies that he cannot even suffice to guard those parts. May God therefore command him swiftly to come to the aid of our perils, before the army of that most impious nation—God being contrary to it, which may He avert—should prevail to occupy the places which are still held by the commonwealth. But make haste, with God's help, to send back the presbyter to us, since he is recognized to be altogether necessary both in thy monastery and in the work over which we have set him.

Given on the fourth of the Nones of October, in the third indiction」 (Councils, vol. V, letter 3). 33. Over this monastery of his, which pope Pelagius here mentions, there presided at that same time Maximianus the Sicilian, who afterward became bishop of Syracuse. He came with the brethren, for the sake of a visit, to the venerable levite Gregory, who was toiling for ecclesiastical business in the palace of that royal city (book iii, Dialogues, ch. 36); and while he was returning to Rome to the monastery likewise committed to him, being caught in the Adriatic sea by an exceeding great storm, he came to know, in an unestimable and unaccustomed manner, both the wrath and the grace of almighty God toward himself and all who were with him.

For when, in their peril, the waves, raised up by the excesses of the winds, were raging, the rudder-pins were lost from the ship, the mast was cut away, the sails were flung into the waves, and the whole vessel of the ship, shaken by the excessive waves, had been loosed from all its framework. And so, with the seams gaping open, the sea entered and filled it up to the upper planks; so that the ship no longer seemed to be among the waves so much as the waves now within the ship. Then those sitting in that same ship, troubled now not by the nearness of death, but by its very present sight, all gave peace to one another, received the body and blood of the Redeemer, each commending himself to God, that He would kindly receive their souls, whose bodies He had thus delivered over to a dreadful death.

But almighty God, who marvellously terrified their minds, also, through the merit of Gregory His servant—for whose special love they had come—more marvellously preserved their life. For during eight days that same ship, full of water up to the upper planks, accomplishing its own voyage, kept afloat. And on the ninth day it was brought to the harbour of the fortress of Crotona. From it came forth all unharmed who were sailing with the aforesaid venerable man Maximianus. And when after them he himself also had gone forth, straightway the ship was sunk into the depth of that same harbour, as though, upon their going forth, it had lost its buoyancy on account of the weight;

and the waters which, full of men, it had carried and swum through on the open sea, once Maximianus with the brethren had withdrawn, that water, without men, in the harbour it could neither carry nor swim over; so that hereby almighty God might show that, through the merit of Gregory, whom the brethren had visited, He had held up this laden ship with His own hand, which, emptied of men, could not remain afloat upon the waters. 34.

Therefore, after Gregory the venerable levite had returned to Rome, some little time being interposed, the river Tiber went out of its channel with so great an inundation, and swelled so much, that its flood flowed over the walls of the city, and occupied in it the largest districts, and cast down very many monuments of ancient buildings, and violently overthrew the ecclesiastical granaries also, in which not a few thousand measures (modii) of wheat perished. 35. Then indeed, at the city of Verona, the river Athesis (Adige), as the same Gregory relates (book iii, Dialogues, ch. 19), overflowing, came up to the church of blessed Zeno, martyr and pontiff. And while the doors of that church were open, the water in no way entered into it.

Which, growing a little, came up to the windows of the church, which were near the roof: and thus the standing water closed the door of the church, as if that liquid element had been changed into the solidity of a wall. And when many were found within, but, surrounded on every side by the greatness of the waters, they had no way by which they might go out, and there feared to fail from hunger and thirst, they came to the door of the church, and to drink drew the water which had risen up to the windows, and yet within the church it in no way flowed in. Standing before the door, to show to all the merit of the martyr, the water was both a help, and the water was not there to occupy the place.

Which miracle indeed can be reckoned not unlike that miracle of the Babylonian fire, which both touched not the garments of the three children, and burned their bonds (Daniel iii). 36. Then also an innumerable multitude of serpents, with a great dragon, in the manner of a stout beam, descended through the channel of the river Tiber into the sea; but the beasts, suffocated among the salt waves of the most turbid sea, without delay fell upon the shore, and by their putrefaction corrupted all the air (Gregory of Tours, book x, History, ch. 1). 37. There followed forthwith a plague of the groin (bubonic plague), which so tore the city of Rome with a violent pestilence, that even to the bodily sight arrows seemed to come from heaven and to strike each and every one.

Which, coming in the eleventh month, first of all—according to that which is read in the prophet Ezekiel: 『Begin at my sanctuary』 (Ezek. ix, 6)—smote pope Pelagius, and without delay extinguished him. And when he was dead, it so raged upon the remaining common people, that, the inhabitants being carried off, it left very many houses in the city entirely empty. 38. At the same time, in the monastery of the venerable levite Gregory, there was a very restless boy, Theodore by name, who dwelt with a religious brother more from necessity than from will, to whom it was exceedingly grievous if anyone said anything to him for his own salvation. And he could not only not do good, but not even hear it.

He testified, by swearing, by raging, and by mocking, that he would never come to the habit of holy conversation (monastic life): who nevertheless, being smitten by the calamity of that same plague in the groin, was brought to death. And when he was drawing his last breath, the brethren gathered together with Gregory, that by praying they might protect his departure. Already his body had been fore-dead from its extreme part; in the breast alone did the vital warmth still pant. But all the brethren who were present began to pray for him the more earnestly, the more they saw him now departing in haste, when suddenly he began, while those same brethren stood by, to cry out, and with great voices to interrupt their prayers, saying:

「Depart! behold, I am given over to a dragon to be devoured, who because of your presence cannot devour me. He has already swallowed my head into his mouth; give place, that he may torment me no longer, but do what he is about to do. If I have been given to him to be devoured, why do I suffer delays because of you?」 Then the brethren with Gregory began to say to him: 「What is this that thou speakest, brother? Imprint upon thyself the sign of the holy cross.」 He answered with great cries, saying: 「I wish to sign myself, but I cannot, because I am pressed by the scales of this dragon.」 And when the brethren heard this, together with Gregory the levite of God, prostrated upon the ground, with tears they began the more vehemently to beseech the Lord for his deliverance.

And behold, suddenly the sick man began to cry out with great voices, saying: 「Thanks be to God! behold, the dragon which had taken me to devour has fled, driven out by your prayers he could not stand. Now intercede for my sins, since I am prepared to be converted and to forsake the secular life utterly.」 The man therefore who, as has already been said, had been fore-dead from his extreme part, both was spared bodily death by Gregory's prayers, and acquired the salvation of his soul (book iv, Dialogues, ch. 38). 39. But the pestilence raging beyond measure, since the Church of God could not be without a ruler, the clergy, senate, and Roman people harmoniously chose Gregory as their pontiff, though he resisted with all his strength.

He, determining to avoid that summit (dignity) with all his strength, kept crying out that he was altogether unworthy of such an honour; fearing, namely, lest the glory of the world, which he had previously cast away, might in some manner steal back upon him under the colour of ecclesiastical governance. 40. But when he could not escape the decree of the general body, he pretended that he would at length at some time consent, and secretly sent letters to the emperor Maurice, whose son he had received from the holy font (as godfather), adjuring him, and with much entreaty demanding, that he should never give his assent to the peoples that he might be exalted with the glory of this honour. But the prefect of the city, Germanus by name, anticipated his messenger, and having seized him and torn up the letters, directed to the emperor the consent which the people had made.

But he, giving thanks to God for the deacon's friendship, in that he had found a place to confer upon him the honour, as he had desired, giving order, commanded that he himself should be ordained. 41. Meanwhile, while the imperial assent was awaited from the royal city, and the plague itself was more violently devastating the people, the venerable levite Gregory began his address to the populace, saying: 「It behoves us, dearest brethren, that the scourges of God, which we ought to have feared as coming, we should at least fear now that they are present and experienced. Let sorrow open to us the entrance of conversion, and let the very punishment which we now suffer dissolve the hardness of our heart. For as it is foretold by the prophet's witness: 『The sword hath reached even unto the soul』 (Jeremiah iv, 10).

For behold, all the common people are smitten with the sword of heavenly wrath, and each one is laid waste by sudden slaughter; nor does sickness go before death, but, as you see, death itself outruns the delays of sickness. Each one, when smitten, is snatched away before he can be converted to the laments of penitence. Weigh therefore what manner of man comes before the sight of the strict Judge, to whom it is not permitted to weep for what he has done. And the inhabitants indeed are not withdrawn in part, but fall together. Houses are left empty, parents behold the funerals of their children, and their heirs go before them to destruction. Let each one of us therefore flee to the laments of penitence, while there is leisure to weep before the stroke.

Let us recall before the eyes of the mind whatever we have committed by erring, and what we have wickedly done, let us punish by weeping. Let us come before His face in confession (Psalm xciv, 2), and, as the prophet admonishes, let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God (Lamentations iii, 41). To lift up hearts with hands to God is indeed to raise up the zeal of our prayer together with the merit of good working. He assuredly gives, He gives confidence to our trembling, who cries through the prophet: 『I will not the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live』 (Ezek. xxxiii, 11). But let no one despair of the enormity of his iniquities.」

For a three-day penance wiped away the inveterate sins of the Ninevites (Jonah 3:10), and the converted thief earned the rewards of life even in the very sentence of his death (Luke 23). Let us therefore change our hearts, and let us presume that we have already received what we ask. The Judge is more quickly bent toward our prayer if the petitioner corrects himself from his own wickedness; therefore, while the sword of so great a chastisement hangs over us, let us press on with importunate prayers. For that importunity which is wont to be displeasing to men is pleasing to the Judge of truth, since the God who is loving and merciful wills that pardon be exacted of Him by prayers, because He does not wish to be angry to the measure that we deserve. Hence indeed He said through the Psalmist: Call upon me in the day of thy tribulation;

I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me (Psalm 49:15). He therefore is His own witness that He desires to have mercy on those who call upon Him, since He admonishes that He be called upon. Wherefore, dearest brethren, with contrite heart and amended works, on the morrow, at the first dawn, let us come with devout mind and with tears to the sevenfold litany, according to the distribution designated below. Let none of you go out to earthly labors in the fields; let none presume to transact any business whatsoever, so that, gathering together at the church of the holy Mother of God, we who all alike have sinned may all alike bewail the evils we have done, that the strict Judge, while He considers that we have punished our own faults, may Himself spare us from the sentence of the condemnation He had appointed.