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The Shadow of a Doubt?A Note on the Dialogues and Registrum Epistolarum of Pope Gregory the Great (590–604)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2009

MATTHEW DAL SANTO
MATTHEW DAL SANTO
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ; mjd79@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

Since the 1980s the British scholar Francis Clark has challenged the traditional attribution of the Dialogues on the miracles of the Italian Fathers to Pope Gregory the Great (590–604). While Clark's thesis has generally been rejected by experts, it retains considerable persuasive force for those new to the field. This paper focuses on the misplaced intuitive foundation of Clark's thesis and points to the enthusiasm exhibited by Gregory the Great for the miracles of the saints in several understudied letters from his Registrum epistolarum. It particularly highlights Gregory's discussion of four miracles performed by St Andrew the Apostle at Rome in ep. 11.xxvi written to the patrician Rusticiana at Constantinople in 601. It concludes that there is no discrepancy in mentalité between Gregory as author of the Dialogues and his other recognised works.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 3 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 C. Geertz, ‘Thick description: towards an interpretative theory of culture’, in his The interpretation of cultures: selected essays, London 1993, 3–30.

2 F. Clark, ‘The authenticity of the Gregorian Dialogues: a re-opening of the question’, in J. Fontaine, R. Gillet and S. Pellistrandi (eds), Grégoire le Grand: actes du colloque de Chantilly 15–19 sept. 1982, Paris 1986, 429–43; The Pseudo-Gregorian Dialogues, Leiden 1987; and The ‘Gregorian’ Dialogues and the origins of Benedictine monasticism, Leiden 2003.

3 Meyvaert, P., ‘The enigma of Gregory the Great's Dialogues: a reply to Francis Clark’, this Journal xxxix (1988), 335–81Google Scholar; Godding, R., ‘Les Dialogues de Grégoire le Grand: à propos d'un livre récent’, Analecta Bollandiana cvi (1988), 201–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; de Vogüé, A., ‘Grégoire le Grand et ses Dialogues d'après deux ouvrages récents’, Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique lxxxiii (1988) 281–348Google Scholar, and ‘Les Dialogues: œuvre authentique et publiée par Grégoire lui-même’, Gregorio magno e il suo tempo, ii, Rome 1991, 27–40.

4 Clark, ‘Gregorian’ Dialogues, 199.

5 Ibid. 149.

6 Moorhead, J., ‘Taking Gregory the Great's Dialogues seriously’, Downside Review cxxi (2003), 197–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 They are listed in Clark, ‘Gregorian’ Dialogues, 411–51.

8 M. Dunn, The emergence of monasticism: from the desert Fathers to the early Middle Ages, Oxford 2000, and ‘Gregory the Great, the vision of Fursey and the origins of purgatory’, Peritia xiv (2000), 238–54.

9 R. A. Markus, Gregory the Great and his world, Cambridge 1997, 15–16; S. Boesch-Gajano, Gregorio Magno: alle origini del medioevo, Rome 2004, 84–6, 151–7ff.

10 Clark, ‘Gregorian’ Dialogues, 198–9. The emphasis is mine.

11 Meyvaert, ‘The enigma’, 369 n. 124.

12 Clark, ‘Gregorian’ Dialogues, 144.

13 Ep. 3.l.

14 Rule of Benedict 42.3, in Regula sancti Benedicti, ed. A. de Vogüé and J. Neufville, SC clxxxi–vi, Paris 1971–2 at clxxxi. 584–5. This is not intended to imply that the Rule of Benedict was observed at St Andrews, only that readings from the Lives of the saints were an established feature of monastic life at this time.

15 See especially Gregory's letter to Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria, one of Gregory's intimates, where the pope describes the effect produced upon his household by the information shared by an Alexandrian doctor: ‘Quadam die, cum inter me atque familiares meos de consuetudinibus ecclesiarum sermo fuisset exortus, quidam, qui in magna ciuitate Alexandria medicinam legerat, collectorem se apud sophistam suum perhibuit summae prauitatis puerum; repente diaconem esse ordinatum’: ep. 13.xlii.

16 See Clark, ‘Gregorian’ Dialogues, ch. xxiii, ‘The profile of the dialogist in his historical setting’, 365–80.

17 W. Ullmann, The growth of papal government, London 1955, 36ff, and A short history of the papacy, London 1972, 52–9, repr. London–New York 2003.

18 Ep. 8.xxii. Gregory even attempts to persuade the noblewoman to return to Rome.

19 F. H. Dudden, Gregory the Great: his place in history and thought, London 1905, i. 321–56; E. Caspar, Geschichte des Papsttums: von der Anfängen bis zur Höhe der Weltherrschaft, Tübingen 1930, ii. 394–8; E. Auerbach, Literary language and its public in late Latin antiquity and the Middle Ages, trans. R. Manheim, London 1965, 103; C. Dagens, Grégoire le Grand: culture et expérience chrétiennes, Paris 1977, 228–33; Markus, Gregory the Great, 67. A ‘multi-brow’ audience has also been proposed: L. Cracco-Ruggini, ‘Il miracolo nella cultura del tardo impero: concetto e funzione’, Hagiographie, cultures et sociétés, IV-XIIe siècles, Paris 1981, 161–204 at p. 172; W. D. McCready, Signs of sanctity: miracles in the thought of Gregory the Great, Toronto 1989, 47–51; Boesch-Gajano, Gregorio Magno, 262–4 and p. 84: ‘Le storie si rivelano allora non concessioni a una presunta e mal individuabile “mentalità popolare”, ma come momenti di una realtà religiosa, vissuta in ambienti diversi sul piano sociale e culturale.’

20 P. Brown, Cult of the saints: its rise and function in Latin Christianity, Chicago 1981; Cameron, Averil, ‘Images of authority: elites and icons in late sixth-century Byzantium’, Past and Present lxxxiv (1979), 3–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 P. Sarris, Economy and society in the age of Justinian, Cambridge 2006, 21; Averil Cameron also discusses the relationship between Gregory and Rusticiana: ‘A nativity poem from the sixth century ad’, Classical Philology lxxix (1979), 222–32 at pp. 225–7.

22 Epp. 11.xxvi; 13.xxiv. Gregory first learns of Rusticiana's gout in ep. 11.xxvi, the primary letter under consideration in the present article. The opening lines of ep. 13.xxiv, where Gregory speaks of his own sufferings, display the extent of their friendship: ‘Quotiens de urba regia ad nos aliquis uenit, curae nobis est de corporis uestri sospitate requirere … Ego autem in tanto gemitu et occupationibus uiuo’. Gregory's sorrows are best expressed in the opening paragraphs of the Dialogues: Dialogue 1, prol. 1–5.

23 Epp. 2.xxiv; 13.xxiv.

24 Epp. 2.xxiv; 4.xliv. Gregory later writes to a priest and an abbot at Mt Sinai (epp. 11.i; 11.ii) and to a bishop in Arabia concerning a request for relics apparently unrelated to the contents of his correspondence with the inhabitants of Mt Sinai (ep. 11.xx). Ep. 4.xliv also reveals that Rusticiana's daughter, Eusebia, through her husband, Strategius, had married into the Appians, the great landowning family of Egypt. Gregory writes to Eusebia in ep. 13.xxxiii; she was apparently heavily involved in the affairs of the capital.

25 Epp. 8.xxii (prisoners); 11.xxvi (St Andrew's). Rusticiana apparently also possessed estates in Sicily: ep. 1.xlii.

26 ‘acsi specialiter abbas monasterii ispe sit’: ep. 11.xxvi.44.

27 Dialogue i.18.

28 Dialogue ii 9.

29 Eustratius Presbyter, Eustratii Presbyteri Constantinopolitani De statu animarum post mortem, ed. P. van Deun, CCSG lx, Leuven 2006; Refutatio eorum qui dicunt humanas animas statim atque propriis corporibus solutae sunt non operari, neque Deo pro iis precibus effuses et sacrificiis oblatis utilitatem consequi: L. Allatius, De utriusque ecclesiae occidentalis atque orientalis perpetua in dogmate consesu, Rome 1655, 336–580. The Latin is reprinted in J.-P. Migne, Theologia cursus completus, Paris 1841, xviii. 465–514. For commentary see N. Constas, ‘An apology for the cult of saints in late antiquity: Eustratius Presbyter of Constantinople, On the state of souls after death’, JECS x (2002), 267–80; D. Krausmüller, ‘God or angels as impersonators of saints: a belief in its context in the Refutation of Eustratius of Constantinople and the writings of Anastasius of Sinai’, Golden Horn ii (1998/99).

30 ‘Tu uero ipse inquies quia uita animae in corpore manentis ex motibus corporis agnoscis. Et ecce hii qui animas in morte posuerunt atque animarum uitam post mortem carnis esse crediderunt, cotidianis miraculis coruscant. Ad extincta namque eorum corpora uiuentes aegri ueniunt et sanantur, periuri ueniunt et liberantur, leprosi ueniunt et mundantur, deferuntur mortui et suscitantur. Pensa itaque eorum animae qualiter uiuunt illic ubi uiuunt, quorum hic et mortua corpora in tot miraculis uiuunt’: Dialogue iv.6.1(b)–2(a).

31 ‘Sicut enim hi qui adhuc uiuentes sunt mortuorum animae quo loco habeantur ignorant, ita mortui uita in carne uiuentium post eos qualiter disponatur nesciunt, quia et uita spiritus longe est a uita carnis. Et sicut corporea atque incorporea diuersa sunt genere, ita etiam distincta cognitione. Quod tamen de animabus sanctis sentiendum non est, quia quae intus omnipotentis Dei claritatem uident nullo modo credendum est quia sit foris aliquid quod ignorent’: Moralia in Iob 12.26.1–10, in Sancti Gregorii Magni Moralia in Iob, ed. M. Adriaen, CCSL cxliiiA, Turnholt 1979, 644–5.

32 Dialogue iv.59.

33 On this see M. Dal Santo, ‘Gregory the Great and Eustratius of Constantinople: understanding the miracles of the saints at the end of the sixth century’, JECS xvii (2009), 421–57.

34 In the late seventh century Anastasius of Sinai considered that the souls of the saints could not intervene in the world of the living precisely because of the separation of their soul from the body: Anastasii Sinaitae Quaestiones et responsiones 19, ed. M. Richard and J. A. Munitiz, CCSG lix, Leuven 2006, 33. At the caliphs' court in Baghdad at the beginning of the ninth century, the East Syrian Catholicos Timothy i condemned the post-mortem activity of the souls of the saints as heterodox: O. Braun, ‘Zwei Synoden des Katholikos Timothy i’, Oriens Christianus ii (1902), 283–311 at p. 309.

35 A demon is also seen in the shape of a black dog in the seventh-century Greek-language Life of Theodore of Sykeon 106, in Vie de Théodre de Sykéôn, ed. A.-J. Festugière, Brussels 1970; abridged English translation in Three Byzantine saints, ed. E. Dawes and N. H. Baynes, Oxford 1948. Gregory's story also shares some similarities with a tale narrated by John Moschos where a monk is repeatedly prevented by two black birds from entering the shrine of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. The birds represent his inner struggle concerning how frequently to make his devotions: Pratum spirituale 105, PG lxxxvii. 2852–3112; Spiritual meadow, trans. J. Wortley, Kalamazoo 1992.

36 Dialogue ii.25.

37 This makes him like another monk from St Andrew's, whom the brothers' prayers succeeded in delivering from a dragon; it distinguishes him, however, from the Isaurian monk whose vision of the dragon was followed so quickly by death that he had time only to confess, and not to repent: Dialogue iv.40.2–5; iv.40.10–12. Gregory was also in correspondence with the abbot of monastery in Isauria: epp. 5.xxxv; 6.lxv.

38 Dialogue iii.24–5.

39 Dialogue i.2.1–3.

40 Dialogue iii.22.

41 The list is not exhaustive. For commentary see McCulloh, J., ‘The cult of relics in the letters and Dialogues of Gregory the Great’, Traditio xxxii (1976), 145–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 Epp. 4.xxx (Constantina); 13.xliii (Eulogius).

43 ‘Deus autem omnipotens cordis uestri deuotionem intuens miraculorum signis admonentibus a uestra uos intentione fraudari non pertulit. Sed ideo desiderium uestrum modica uolouit dilatione differri, ut docentibus miraculis et amor uobis cresceret in ueneratione sanctorum et maior fieret exsultatio gaudiorum. Quia ergo in effectu postulate rei gloriae uestrae uota completa sunt, hortamur ut, cuius praedicatores colitis, eius sollicite mandata seruetis et, sicut religiosa deuotione terrena sanctorum honoribus loca construitis, sic quoque cum eis mansionem uobis procurare in caelestibus festinetis, quatenus et hic illos in omnibus adiutores et in futura mereamini habere uita consortes’: ep. 11.v.

44 ‘Vnde necesse est ut de eodem dono caelesti et timendo gaudeas et gaudendo pertimescas: gaudeas videlicet, quia Anglorum animae per exteriora miracula ad interiorem gratiam pertrahuntur, pertimescas uero, ne inter signa quae fiunt infirmus animus in sui praesumptione se eleuet et, unde foras in honorem tollitur, inde per inanem gloriam intus cadat’: ep. 11.xxxvi.

45 As suggested by Clark, Pseudo-Gregorian Dialogues, 641–2.

46 Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks iv.34, London 1974.

47 Brown, P., ‘The rise and function of the holy man in late antiquity’, Journal of Roman Studies lxi (1971), 80–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar, repr. in his Society and the holy in late antiquity, London 1982.

48 M. van Uytfanghe, ‘Scepticisme doctrinal au seuil du moyen âge? Les objections du diacre Pierre dans les Dialogues de Grégoire le Grand’, in Fontaine, Gillet and Pellistrandi, Grégoire le Grand, 315–26.

49 Dialogue i, prol.7; 3.38; Boesch-Gajano, Gregorio Magno, 209.

50 Dal Santo, ‘Gregory the Great and Eustratius of Constantinople’, 425–7.

51 For Vigilantius see Hunter, D. G., ‘Vigilantius of Calagurris and Victricius of Rouen: ascetics, relics and clerics in late Roman Gaul’, JECS vii (1999), 401–30Google Scholar, and Clark, G., ‘Victricius of Rouen: praising the saints’, JECS vii (1999), 365–99.Google Scholar So far as I know this aspect of Theodoret's text remains completely unstudied: Théodoret de Cyr: thérapeutique des maladies helléniques, ed. P. Canivet, SC, Paris 1958, esp. ch. viii, ‘Le culte des martyrs’.

52 As the possible starting point for such an enterprise see G. Dagron, ‘Le Saint, le savant, l'astrologue: étude de thèmes hagiographiques à travers quelques recueils de Questions et Réponses des ve-viie siècles’, Hagiographie, cultures et sociétés, 143–56, and ‘L'Ombre d'un doute: l'hagiographie en question, vie-xie siècles’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers xlvi (1992), 59–68.