SAINT GREGORY, surnamed the Great (c. 540--604), the first pope of that name, and the last of the four doctors of the Latin Church, was born in Rome, the son of a wealthy patrician. His mother was Silvia, who is commemorated as a saint on Nov. 3. About 573, Gregory held the office of prefect of the city of Rome; but about 574, feeling irresistibly attracted to the religious life, he resigned his post, founded six monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome, and in the last—the famous monastery of St. Andrew- became a monk. In 579 Pope Pelagius II. appointed him "apocrisi arius," or resident ambassador, at the imperial court in Constanti nople. Some seven years later he was made abbot of his old monastery at Rome where he completed his well-known exposition of Job, and delivered lectures on the Heptateuch, the books of Kings, the Prophets, the book of Proverbs and the Song of Songs.
To this period Bede's incident of the English slave-boys (if indeed it be accepted as historical) ought to be assigned. Pass ing one day through the Forum, Gregory saw some handsome slaves offered for sale, and enquired their nation. "Angles," was the reply. "Good," said the abbot, "they have the faces of angels, and should be coheirs with the angels in heaven. From what province do they come?" "From Deira." "Deira. Yea, verily, they shall be saved from God's ire (de ira) and called to the mercy of Christ. How is the king of that country named?" "Aella." "Then must Alleluia be sung in Aella's land." Gregory determined personally to undertake the conversion of Britain, and with the pope's consent actually set out upon the mission, but on the third day of his journey he was overtaken by messengers recalling him to Rome. In 590 Pelagius II. died of the plague, and the clergy and people unanimously chose Gregory as his suc cessor. The abbot tried to avoid the dignity and petitioned the emperor Maurice not to ratify his election, but he was consecrated on Sept. 3, As pope, Gregory surrounded himself with clerics and monks, with whom he lived as though he were still in a monastery, and in spite of constant ill-health, ministered unceasingly to the physi cal and spiritual needs of his people. During his pontificate the papal estates increased in value, while at the same time the griev ances of the tenants were redressed and their general position materially improved. Gregory's principal fault as a man of business was that he was too lavish of his revenues.
Within the strict bounds of his patriarchate, he wisely tolerated local deviations from Roman usage (e.g., in the ritual of baptism and confirmation), and took pains to enforce the celibacy of the clergy, the trial of clerics only in ecclesiastical courts, the de privation of clerics who had lapsed into scandalous offences, and the division of the revenues of each church into equal parts, to be assigned to the bishop, the clergy, the poor and the repair of the church.
Regarding the churches which lay outside the strict limits of his patriarchate, in northern Italy, Spain, Gaul, Africa and Illyricum and also in the East, Gregory tried to increase the au thority of the Roman See. Rome, as the see of the Prince of the Apostles, was by divine right "the head of all the churches." The decrees of councils would have no binding force "without the authority and consent of the apostolic see" : appeals might be made to Rome against the decisions even of the patriarch of Con stantinople : all bishops, including the patriarchs, if guilty of heresy or uncanonical proceedings, were subject to correction by the pope. On the other hand he respected the rights of metropolitans and disapproved of unnecessary interference within the sphere of their jurisdiction canonically exercised. In Italy Gregory occu pied an almost regal position. He boldly stepped into the place which the emperors had left vacant and the Lombard kings had not the strength to seize. For the first time in history the pope ap peared as a political power, a temporal prince. He appointed governors to cities, issued orders to generals, provided munitions of war, sent his ambassadors to negotiate with the Lombard king and concluded a private peace.
A strong supporter of monasticism, Gregory tried to enforce a strict observance of the Rule of St. Benedict (of whom, it may be noted, he was the earliest biographer), and to protect the monks from episcopal oppression by issuing privilegia, or charters in restraint of abuses, in accordance with which the jurisdiction of the bishops over the monasteries was confined to spiritual matters. He forbade monks to minister in parish churches, ordaining that any monk who was promoted to such ecclesiastical cure should lose all rights in his monastery and should no longer reside there. Of his missionary enterprises, the most important was the two-fold mission to Britain—of St. Augustine in 596, of Mellitus, Paulinus and others in 601. Gregory also made strenuous efforts to uproot paganism in Gaul, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, Arianism in Spain, Donatism in Africa, Manichaeism in Sicily, the heresy of the Three Chapters in Istria and northern Italy. Towards the Jews he acted with lenity, protecting them from persecution and securing them the enjoyment of their legal privileges. The so called "simoniacal heresy," particularly prevalent in Gaul, Illyri- cum and the East, he repeatedly attacked, and also the Gallican abuse of promoting laymen to bishoprics.
Gregory's work in connection with the liturgy and church music is a subject of dispute. If we are to credit a 9th century biog rapher, Gregory abbreviated and otherwise simplified the Sacra mentary of Gelasius, producing a revised edition with which his own name has become associated, and which represents the ground work of the modern Roman Missal. But though it is certain that he introduced three changes in the liturgy (viz., the addition of some words in the prayer Hanc igitur, the recitation of the Pater Noster immediately before the fraction of the Host, and the chanting of the Alleluia after the Gradual besides at paschal time) and two others in the ceremonial (forbidding deacons to perform any musical portion of the service except the chanting of the gospel, and subdeacons to wear chasubles), no evidence warrants belief that the Gregorian Sacramentary is his work. A doubtful tradition ascribes to Gregory the compilation of an Antiphonary, the revision and rearrangement of the system of church music, and the foundation of the Roman schola cantorum.
Finally, as Fourth Doctor of the Latin Church, Gregory is the last of the great Latin Fathers and the first representative of mediaeval Catholicism. The importance of his teaching lies mainly in its simple summarization of the doctrine of Augustine and in its detailed exposition of contemporary religious conceptions which had not hitherto been defined (e.g., the views on angelology and demonology, on purgatory, the Eucharist and the efficacy of relics). From his time to that of Anselm no teacher of equal eminence arose in the church.
Gregory died on March 12, 604, and was buried in the portico of the basilica of St. Peter, in front of the sacristy. Translations took place in the 9th, 15th and 17th centuries, and the remains now rest beneath the altar in the chapel of Clement VIII.