約伯倫理 第 35 章 第 1/2 段

Argument.—1. Gregory sends a defender into Spain to be judge of the bishops' causes. The judgment of John the defender.—2. The pope enjoins upon the same man the visitation of the monastery of the island of Capraria. His solicitude for other monasteries.—3. What he decreed concerning a bishop who omits the sacrifice of the Mass on account of infirmity.—4. How solicitous he was for procuring peace among the bishops.—5. St. Gregory's letter and little gifts to Queen Theodelinda.—6. The last labors of St. Gregory for the Church. What he answered to the consulting bishop of Messina.—7. Counsels given by him to friends. His death. His burial. His sacred cult. Translations. (In the years 603 and 604.) 1. From the lofty watchtower of the Church, St.

Gregory, beholding the Churches of Spain thrown into confusion on account of the unjust deposition of a presbyter and of certain bishops, sent thither John the defender, who, by the authority delegated to him from the Supreme Pontiff, sat as judge between the presbyter and the bishops who had suffered violence, and the others who had either unjustly deposed them, or had invaded their sees, or had ordained the invaders, and likewise between them and the glorious Comitiolus, prefect (as it is fair to believe) of Baetica, by whose agency chiefly such great evils were perpetrated in that province.

Occasion for the legation of John the defender was given by the petition, or supplicatory libel, presented to the pope by Januarius, bishop of Malaga, in which he complained that one of his presbyters had been removed from his office and deported into exile. In the same libel Januarius doubtless also complained of a like penalty inflicted upon himself. Another bishop, of uncertain place, named Stephen, deposed together with Januarius and cast into exile, had also appealed to the holy see.

That John might rightly render sentence in these causes of the bishops and presbyters, the pope gave him a twofold capitulary or memorandum, one of which prescribes whatever needed to be done in setting forth and judging these disputes; the other contains the imperial laws concerning the immunity of clerics. In the sentence of John the defender, whom all parties acknowledged as their legitimate judge, no mention is made of Stephen the bishop nor of the presbyter of Malaga, but only of Januarius, the bishop of this city, who by this solemn judgment was restored to his Church: 'I have found,' says John, 'no fault in the aforesaid Januarius that deserved to be punished with exile or deposition, but rather that he was violently cast out of the Church.'

'And although the censure of the laws most strictly smites such rashness, I nevertheless, tempering the rigor of the laws with priestly moderation, in the presence of the most holy Gospels—by which, being set before me, I sat from the beginning as investigator in this judgment—pronounce those things which were decreed against him, although in law they do not hold nor are of any moment, to be nonetheless unjust and invalid; and condemning those and those aforementioned bishops who, setting aside priestly consideration, acted unjustly and against the fear of God to the prejudice and condemnation of their brother, I ordain and decree that they be received into a monastery to do penance for a time.'

'But him who wickedly presumed to invade the place of the aforesaid most holy Januarius against the statutes of the sacred canons, I, condemning him, decree that he be deprived of the priesthood and be removed from every ecclesiastical order, so that he may both lose that which he wrongly obtained, and may not return to the office which he had before unworthily exercised. But the oft-named most holy bishop Januarius, being absolved, I decree, by God's authority, to return to his place in the degree of the episcopate' (Book XIII, Letter 45). 2. To the same defender St. Gregory gave in commission that he should visit the monastery of Capricana, or of the island of Capraria near Majorca, and amend the corrupt morals of the monks (Book XIII, Letter 46).

For they were said to act so perversely that they showed themselves to be soldiers not of God, but rather of the ancient enemy. Thus the most holy father everywhere demonstrated his zeal for preserving or repairing monastic discipline. At the beginning of the fourteenth year of his pontificate, it was his care to provide for the monastery of Saints Laurence and Zeno in the fortress of Cesena, which Concordius, bishop of this place, had thrown into disorder by the unjust deposition of the abbot Fortunatus. By his predecessor Natalis, bishop of Cesena, Fortunatus had been ordained abbot of this monastery; and, no cause existing, the new bishop had removed him from this office and appointed another abbot.

Fortunatus brought a complaint of his deposition to the supreme pontiff, who, although he had learned from Concordius's own deacon that the abbot had been unjustly despoiled, nevertheless willed that Marinianus, archbishop of Ravenna, should inquire into this matter, because, he says, the proof can be more certain in those parts where the affair was transacted. And if no manifest cause of the deposition should have existed, he ordered that Fortunatus be restored to his former rank, and that the bishop be rebuked who had striven to undo the ordination of his predecessor, though provoked by no excesses (Book XIV, Letter 6). Concerning certain abbots of the monasteries of Sardinia, St. Gregory wrote at nearly the same time

to Vitalis, the defender of this island, saying that those who, while still in the monastic and lower order, had lapsed, ought by no means to have undertaken the office of abbot, unless with a life wholly corrected and a worthy penance going before; but since they had already been made abbots, the most wise Father willed that Vitalis take care concerning their life, morals, and diligence. And if their acts were found not to be against their office, let them persevere in the order and office they had received. Otherwise, he says, let them be removed, and let others be ordained who are able to profit the souls committed to them (Book XIV, Letter 2). 3. In the letter written to Vitalis on this matter, St.

Gregory answers the question that had been proposed concerning Januarius, archbishop of Cagliari, who at the time when he was celebrating the sacrifice often suffered so great a distress that he could scarcely, after long intervals, return to the place of the canon. Hence occasion for offense was given to many, so that they doubted whether they ought to receive communion from his consecration; but they are to be admonished, says the holy Doctor, that they by no means be afraid, but communicate with all faith and confidence, because the sickness of the person neither changes nor pollutes the blessing of the sacred mystery. He willed nonetheless that it be suggested to Januarius by Vitalis, that as often as he should feel any trouble, he should not go forth to celebrate;

lest from this he should both make himself contemptible and generate scandal in the minds of the weak. Januarius's infirm health in advanced age had brought great losses upon the Churches, hospices, and monasteries in Sardinia. The pope ordered the steward and archpresbyter of the Church of Cagliari to have the care of the hospices, threatening that they would pay penalties for any negligence there might henceforth be. 4. Neither advancing age, nor the constant and ever-sharper labors of a daily-worsening disease—which foretold death close at hand—could diminish Gregory's solicitude for the whole Church; especially when it was a matter of restoring peace among the bishops. This he himself signifies in a letter written this year:

'As often,' he says, 'as the discord of those who ought to have been preachers of peace makes us sad, we must strive with great solicitude that, the matter of quarrel being taken away, they may return to concord who disagree with a will divergent from one another' (Book XIV, Letter 8). He says this on the occasion of a dispute between Alcyson, bishop of Corcyra, and John, bishop of Euria in Epirus, who, forced to flee from this city by the Barbarians together with his clergy, and having carried off with him the body of St. Donatus, had deposited those sacred relics in the fortress of Cassiope, and had fixed a see there for himself and his clerics, with the consent of Alcyson, bishop of Corcyra, to whose diocese the fortress belonged.

But contrary to ecclesiastical order, contrary to priestly modesty, contrary to the statutes of the sacred canons, he strove to withdraw the aforesaid fortress from the jurisdiction of Alcyson and to subject it to his own power, so that they became in a manner lords where they had first been received as strangers. Concerning the ungrateful spirit of the bishop and the unjust usurpation of the fortress, Alcyson made complaint both before the emperor and before Andrew, bishop of Nicopolis, the metropolitan of both; who, both by virtue of his office and by the emperor's command, having pronounced sentence, decreed that the fortress of Cassiope ought to remain under the jurisdiction of the Church of Corcyra. The pope approved the sentence of the metropolitan.

And although the fault of this quarrel seemed to require no small severity against him, inasmuch as evil had been rendered for good, 'nevertheless,' says the most clement Father, 'we must strive that benignity be not overcome by excess, nor that what is owed to strangers be denied even to brethren suffering necessity... it behooves, therefore, that the priests or clergy of the city of Euria be by no means driven away from dwelling in the aforesaid fortress of Cassiope; but let them also have leave, with due veneration, to lay away the holy and venerable body of blessed Donatus, which they carried off with them, in one of the churches of the aforesaid place that they shall choose, whether within or without.

Yet in such a way that a securing guarantee be procured for your Charity, in whose parish that fortress is situated, by a bond issued, through which the bishop of Euria shall promise that he will have no power in it, no privilege, no jurisdiction, and shall never henceforth defend any authority over it for himself or for the bishops co-ordinated with him; but that, peace being restored by God's favor, they shall return to their own by every means, having removed—if they so prefer—the venerable body of St. Donatus' (Book XIV, Letter 7). To this judgment the bishop of Euria did not immediately acquiesce, but obtained from the emperor a surreptitious command by which he claimed for himself all power over the fortress of Cassiope. St. Gregory took this ill;

but lest he should seem to do anything against the emperor's command or in contempt of him, giving no sentence from the formulas of law to either party, he was content to admonish him, through the labor of his legate Boniface, concerning the iniquity of the command surreptitiously obtained by the bishop, and to ask that he grant a contrary one, by which the judgment of the metropolitan might be confirmed as ratified by the holy see (Book XIV, Letter 8). That the bishop of Euria came to his senses is shown to us by the letter written to Alcyson (ibid., Letter 13). For he presented a capitulary in which he humbly begged of the bishop of Corcyra that leave be given him to lay away the body of blessed Donatus in the Church of St. John, situated within the fortress of Cassiope;

and he asserted himself ready to issue a guarantee by which he would of his own accord acknowledge this place to belong to the diocese of Corcyra, and would promise that he would never claim any right in it for himself. The pope exhorted Alcyson that, the requested surety having been received, he should grant it, and should pledge both to the bishop of Euria and to his clerics that, peace being restored, when it should be permitted them to return to their own Church, they should have the right of carrying off with them the body of St. Donatus. 5. We suspect that the bishop of Euria was forced to abandon his own Church by the Slavs or Avars, and not indeed by the Lombards, with whom we conjecture there was then no war, from the letters and little gifts sent by St. Gregory to Queen Theodelinda this year (Book XIV, Letter

Letter 21). She herself had written to the supreme pontiff, to make him a partaker of her joy over her son Adaloald, brought forth into the light, whom she had taken care to have baptized in the Catholic faith, although King Agilulf, his father, had not yet abjured Arianism. To the royal boy and to his sister the pope sent certain sacred gifts and other little presents, concerning which the letter written to the queen is to be read. He asked her that she would deign, in his name, to give thanks to her husband the king for the peace that had been made, and, as she had been accustomed, to incite his mind to peace for the future.

In the same letter, when he was asked by Theodelinda to reply to the writing of Secundinus the abbot, who was contending for the Three Chapters, he requests to be held excused on account of his infirmity, of which the queen's legates had been witnesses; inasmuch as they had left him, at their departure, in the utmost peril and crisis of life. 6. Nor yet did he cease to bear solicitude for the Church. For at the same time, when the Church of Ancona was vacant of a pastor, he deliberated long concerning the ordaining of a bishop who should be worthy, examining the gifts of soul, the virtues, and the morals of the three who had been chosen (Book XIV, Letter 11); and he answered most amply to the many questions of Felix, bishop of Messina (ibid., Letter

Letter 17), namely concerning the degrees of consanguinity within which he says one may marry, concerning the vexation which the bishops suffered from the laity subject to them, and concerning the churches about whose dedication there was doubt. To the first he says that those things which he indulged to the English neophytes (Book XI, Letter 64), namely that they might contract marriage in prohibited degrees, were not granted by him to all; nay, not even to the English themselves except for a time, that is, until the Christian religion should grow strong among them. To the second question he answers:

'If David, most just of kings, presumed not to lay his hand upon Saul, whom it was clear had already been reprobated by the Lord, how much more must it be guarded against that certain men lay the hand of detraction or of vituperation, or of indiscretion or of dishonoring, upon the anointed of the Lord, or upon the preachers of holy Church? For the vexation or detraction of them pertains to Christ, in whose stead they discharge a legation in the Church. Wherefore it must be most carefully guarded against by all the faithful, lest secretly or publicly they tear their bishop, that is, the anointed of the Lord, with detractions or vituperations.' But to the third question he says:

'Concerning the doubt of the dedications of churches, about which among other things you wished to consult us, this you ought rightly to hold, which we have received as handed down from our predecessors: that is, that whenever a doubt is held, both concerning the baptism of certain persons or their confirmation, and concerning the consecration of churches, and no sure account is had either by writings or by witnesses whether they have been baptized, or confirmed, or the churches consecrated: that such persons be baptized and confirmed, and the churches canonically dedicated, lest such a doubt become a ruin to the faithful; since that is not shown to be repeated, which is not shown by sure indications to have been rightly performed.' 7.

With these responses the most holy Doctor took care to instruct the whole Church, nor did he cease from privately admonishing his friends, where it seemed to be for the good of the Church. He congratulated Paul the Scholastic (Book XIV, Letter 1), both on his solicitude in coercing and punishing evildoers, and on his reconciliation with Leo, bishop of Catania; and he exhorted both to cherish peace and to foster charity: so that they might always be able to exact from one another a reciprocal affection, as it were like moneylenders lending something mutually. Hearing that a handmaid of God had been carried off by a certain soldier, he wrote concerning the punishment of so great a crime to Guduinus, duke of Naples, in these words:

'Whereas, among the many good things that are often reported to us of your Greatness, that is said to exist in you which is the more praiseworthy—namely, that you love chastity and, as is fitting, keep discipline—we have marveled not a little that no most strict punishment has hitherto been executed upon that soldier who, by diabolical instigation, has ruined a handmaid of God. For it would have been very befitting both to your morals and to your goodness that the vengeance should reach us before the wickedness of the perpetrated fault, etc.'

Solicitous for the exarch, since he knew that from an incontinence of tongue he often said things that would provoke all who loved him to enmity against him, he wrote to a certain intimate of his, that he might take care to admonish his friend about this matter (Book XIV, Letter 15). 8. Consumed by these constant labors no less than by continual maladies, Gregory at length passed over to the longed-for rest on the fourth day before the Ides of March, in the second year of the emperor Phocas, in the seventh indiction, in the year of Christ 604, and was buried in the outermost portico of the basilica of blessed Peter the Apostle, before the old sacristy. Concerning these things and concerning his epitaph, John the Deacon is to be read (Book IV, chap.

68), who says that his venerable body was translated by Pope Gregory IV before the new sacristy, apses having been constructed, and placed under an altar bearing his name, where his anniversary solemnity was celebrated by all who eagerly kept vigil through the night (ibid., chap. 80). Sacred honors were decreed to him by the English Church in the council of Cloveshoe in the year 747, canon 17: 'That the birthday of blessed Pope Gregory, and likewise the day of the deposition of St. Augustine the archbishop, be honorably venerated by all, as is fitting; so that both days be kept as festivals by ecclesiastics and by monastics.'

This most holy man merited to be venerated not by the Latins alone, but also by the Greeks, in whose menology his sacred name is inscribed on the eleventh day of March, with a most ample eulogy which Bollandus reports. Concerning the translation of the sacred relics of St. Gregory into the most celebrated monastery of St. Medard, Mabillon and Bollandus are to be read (Benedictine Century IV, part I, p. 383; Bollandus, on the 12th day of March), who treats also of the translation of the head of the same saint to the monastery of St. Peter the Living at Sens, about the year 876, by the gift of Pope John, with the favor of Charles the Bald, king and emperor of the Franks, and at the request of Ansegisus, archbishop of Sens.

The stature of the most holy Pontiff, the lineaments of his countenance, his hair, his beard, and whatever pertains to his form, John the Deacon depicts accurately enough (Book IV, chap. 84). But who could describe the state of his most excellent soul, his most ardent love toward God, his immense charity toward his neighbor, his most lowly humility, his unbroken fortitude in adversities, his modesty, his temperance, his vigilance, his prudence, and the other virtues which vied with one another to adorn our Gregory? For, that I may speak with St. Ildephonsus, 'He surpassed Antony in sanctity, Cyprian in eloquence, Augustine in wisdom' (Book on Illustrious Men, chap. 1). A MARBLE TABLET AFFIXED TO THE WALL AT THE PORTICO OF ST. PETER.

To the holy lords and most blessed Peter and Paul, princes of the Apostles, Gregory, an unworthy servant. Whatever small things we seek out to serve the uses of your praise, we render to you what is your own; we do not lavish what is ours, so that, in doing these things, we may not be puffed up over the gift, but be secure concerning the repayment. For what is ever ours without you, we who cannot repay what we have received, save that through you we have again received this very thing, namely that we might repay it? Wherefore I, your servant, calling to mind that I am much a debtor to you, blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, because from the breasts of my mother, by the grace of divine power protecting me, you nourished me within the bosom of your Church, and unto my increase through the several grades even unto

to bring me forth, though undeserving, to the very summit of the priesthood you have deigned. And therefore I have foreseen meanwhile to offer this little gift of privilege with humble devotion; for I establish, and by an irrefragable ordinance decree that it be preserved by my successors, that the places or estates with the olive-groves which are described below—which, gathering them back from the various persons by whom they were held, I have dedicated to you as your own for the trimming of your lamps—shall remain undiminished: that is, in the patrimony of Appia, the domain of the Victoriolae, olive-groves; in the estate of Rumellianus, one entire olive-grove.

In the estate of Octavianus, one entire; in the domain of Trabatiana, an olive-grove; in the estate of Burreianus, an olive-grove as above; in the estate of Appianus, olive-groves as above; in the estate of Iulianus, an entire olive-grove; in the estate of Vivianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Cattia..., an olive-grove; in the estate of Solificianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Palmis, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Sagaris..., an olive-grove; in the estate of Maranus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Iulianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Saturrianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Canianus and Carbonaria, as above; the domain of Cesariana, an olive-grove; in the estate of Floran, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Priscianus and Grassianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Pascuranus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Varinianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Cesarianus, as above; the domain of...

Pontiana, an olive-grove; in the estate of Pontianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Casaromaniana, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Tattianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Casaflorana, as above; the domain of Steiana, an olive-grove; in the estate of Berranus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Caclanus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Pontian, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Aquilianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Steianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Cassis, as above; the domain of Tertiana, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Cammelianus and the estate of Tortillianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Casacuculi, as above; the domain of Neviana, an olive-grove; in the estate of Arcipianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Corellianus, as above, an olive-grove; in the estate of Ursanus, as above. In the patrimony of Labicanum, the domain of...

Algisia, an olive-grove which is at Tufu near Anagnia, in its entirety; an olive-grove which is at Sibula, and the small cuttings Catagemmulum near the military road, an olive-grove; at Aplineae, in its entirety, an olive-grove which is at Clavinianus; an olive-grove which Franculus the tenant-farmer holds, in the estate of Ordinianus, in its entirety. Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Felix, subdeacon and rector of the patrimony of Appia. Although all the things which this Apostolic Church of the blessed Peter and Paul possesses—by whose honor and benefits they were acquired—are, with God as their author, held in common; yet in the administration of affairs there ought to be a diversity of persons, so that in the things assigned to each, more diligent care may be applied.

Since, therefore, due solicitude admonishes us jointly on behalf of the church of the blessed Apostle Paul, lest there be seen to be fewer lamps there for that same herald of the faith who filled the whole world with the light of his preaching, and since it would seem exceedingly unfitting and most harsh that that possession should not specially serve him, in which, receiving the palm of martyrdom, he was beheaded that he might live: we have judged it useful to assign the same domain which is called Aquae Salviae, with all its estates—that is: Cella Vinaria, Antonianus, Villa Pertusa, Bifurcus, Priminianus, Cassianus, Silonis, Cornelii Tessellata,

and Cornelianus, with every right, equipped with its furnishing and all its appurtenances, and with everything generally pertaining to it, by the grace of Christ to be allotted for the lamps; adding also to this same cession two gardens situated between the Tiber and the porticoes of that same church, for those going out from the city gate on the right-hand side, which the river Almo divides, among the neighbors of the garden of the monastery of St. Stephen—which belongs to the handmaids of God and is situated toward St. Paul—and up to the boundaries of the possession of Pisinian; likewise also the little plots of land which are called Fossa Latronis, situated in the same way near that same portico, for those going out likewise from the gate on the left-hand side, where vineyards have now been made, which little plots adjoin on the one side the possession of Eugenitis, which belongs to the scholastic, and on the other side the possession of the monastery of St.

of St. Aristus. All which things, with God helping, we will to be administered through the provosts of the aforesaid church who shall be in office from time to time, beginning from the present seventh indiction, and whatever shall accrue therefrom to be expended upon its lamps, and they themselves thereafter to render the accounts. Therefore we enjoin your Diligence that you ought to strike out and remove from its registers the above-written domain of Aquae Salviae, with all the aforenamed estates, as well as the garden and the little plots of land which are contained above, and to convey them all to the name of the aforesaid church of the blessed Apostle Paul; to the end that the provosts serving it, henceforth deprived of all excuse, may so strive to take thought for its lamps without our solicitude, that no negligence therein may ever be able to arise. And when the conveyance of all the above-written things has been made, we will that your Diligence restore this precept to the archive of our church. Fare thou well. Given...

On the eighth day before the Kalends of February (the 25th of January), in the second year of the reign of our lord Phocas, perpetual Augustus, and the first year of his consulate, in the seventh indiction. At Rome, dedicated by blessed Gregory the Great to the holy apostles Peter and Paul. 330. The marble Donation Tablets, dedicated to the holy apostles Peter and Paul by blessed Gregory the Great for arranging the lamps, as he himself says, and affixed in the portico of St. Peter, I have judged should be placed here, so that the things I said about the ancient mode of writing in the scholia, and especially in that scholion 241, 242 (below, in the fourth tome of St. Gregory's Works, and indeed in volume 78 of the Patrologia), might be corroborated. But since I found another donation dedicated to blessed Paul by the same holy Gregory, likewise for arranging the lamps, engraved upon stone;

and formerly affixed in the portico of St. Paul to the wall of the church, but now, a few days ago, translated before the greater altar and placed on the right-hand side near one of the two columns which support the principal arch, and moreover recorded in the twelfth book, nineteenth epistle, of the Register of the same blessed Gregory: I have judged that it too should be printed in this place, in order splendidly to represent and perpetually to preserve the Christian and Apostolic piety of that Saint. For the monuments of deeds done, as reason itself persuades and experience teaches, can more easily be rescued from destruction by the typographic than by the sculptor's art.