Book 3

Chapter XXIII.

At this time [1] there was a deluge of water in the territories of Venefia and Liguria, and in other regions of Italy such as is believed not to have existed since the time of Noah. Ruins were made of estates and country seats, and at the same time a great destruction of men and animals. The paths were obliterated, the highways demolished, and the river Athesis (Adige) then rose so high that around the church of the blessed martyr Zeno, which is situated outside the walls of the city of Verona, the water reached the upper windows, although as St. Gregory, afterwards pope, also wrote, the water did not at all enter into that church. Likewise the walls of the city of Verona itself were partly demolished by the same inundation. And this inundation occurred on the 16th of the calends of November (Oct. 17th), yet there were so many flashes of lightning and peals of thunder as are hardly wont to occur even in the summer time. Also after two months this city of Verona was in great part consumed by fire.

[1] 589 (Hodgkin, V, 261).


Chapter XXIV.

In this outpouring of the flood the river Tiber at the city of Rome rose so much that its waters flowed in over the walls of the city and filled great regions in it. Then through the bed of the same stream a great multitude of serpents, and a dragon also of astonishing size passed by the city and descended to the sea. Straightway a very grievous pestilence called inguinal [1] followed this inundation, and it wasted the people with such great destruction of life that out of a countless multitude barely a few remained. First it struck Pope Pelagius, a venerable man, and quickly killed him. Then when their pastor was taken away it spread among the people. In this great tribulation the most blessed Gregory, who was then a deacon, [2] was elected Pope by the common consent of all. He ordained that a sevenfold litany should be offered, but while they were imploring God, eighty of them within the space of one hour fell suddenly to the earth and gave up the ghost. The seven-fold litany was thus called because all the people of the city were divided by the blessed Gregory into seven parts to intercede with the Lord. In the first troop indeed was all the clergy; in the second, all the abbots with their monks; in the third, all the abbesses with their companies; in the fourth, all the children; in the fifth, all the laymen ; in the sixth, all the widows; in the seventh, all the married women. And we omit to say anything more concerning the blessed Gregory because some years ago with the help of God we composed his life in which, according to our slender ability, we sketched in writing what was to be told. [3]

[1] Of the groin.
[2] Levita. See DuCange.
[3] Gregory the Great, the descendant of a noble Roman family, was born about the year 540. In 573 he became prefect of the city, but two years afterwards he laid down this office, founded six Benedictine convents in Sicily and converted his ancestral palace on the Coelian hill at Rome into a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew, in which he himself became a monk. It was at this time that walking through the Forum he saw exposed for sale the fair-haired boys from Britain of whom he said that they were not Angles but angels, and he obtained from Pope Benedict I, leave to undertake a mission to that island for the conversion of its people. He was recalled, however, while upon the way and was appointed deacon to the Pope. When Benedict died, his successor, Pelagius II, sent Gregory as his nuncio or apocrisarins to the Imperial Court at Constantinople, where, as Paul states (III, 13), he composed his book of Morals. With the emperor Maurice his relations were not always cordial, although the emperor asked him to stand sponsor for his son, the infant Theodosius. After remaining some six years in Constantinople he returned (A. D. 585 or 586) to Rome and became the head of the monastery of St. Andrew which he had established (Hodgkin, V, 287 to 296). He now placed his pen at the service of the Pope in the controversy between that pontiff and the bishops of Istria concerning the condemnation of the Three Chapters (See III, 20, supra, and note). In 589 the inundation mentioned at the beginning of this chapter occurred, and in 590 the plague ravaged Italy. On the 8th of February of the latter year Pope Pelagius II died and Gregory was chosen to succeed him. The seven-fold litany described by Paul occurred after Gregory was elected, but before he was confirmed in the papal dignity. A fuller account of this litany is given in Hodgkin (V, 298-302). Gregory's Epistles, composed during his pontificate, form a rich mine for the investigator of the history of that period. They treat of the care of the vast patrimony of St. Peter which included the largest and richest domains in Sicily as well as considerable estates in Rome, in the Sabine country, in the neighborhood of Ravenna, in Campania, Apulia, Bruttium, Gaul, Illyricum, Sardinia and Corsica, embracing property some 1800 square miles in extent. Gregory's letters show a conscientious regard for the just and careful management of these estates, as well as for the useful expenditure of the papal revenues and the efficient administration of the church, not only in these regions, but in Africa, Spain and elsewhere. It was in 596 that he sent St. Augustine, abbot of his own monastery of St. Andrew, to Britain on the mission mentioned in the following chapter, which resulted in the conversion of Ethelbert and a great part of his nobles and people to Christianity, and in 601 the second mission under Mellitus was dispatched to re-enforce Augustine and his co-laborers. Gregory reformed the music of the church and remodeled the Roman liturgy, giving the service of the mass nearly the form which it bears at the present day (Hodgkin, 307-329). He also took an important part in the political affairs of Italy and in the defense of Naples, Rome and other cities of the empire against "the unspeakable Langobards." He made a separate treaty with duke Ariulf of Spoleto (id., p.363), and was, as we shall see hereafter, the efficient agent in procuring- the peace between Agilulf and the empire which relieved Italy from the devastations of a protracted war. He made an earnest and even daring remonstrance to the emperor Maurice against the decree forbidding the servants of the state to enter monasteries (pp. 374-376); he reproached the emperor for preventing the peace for which he had long been striving (pp. 382-387), and he bitterly resented the claim of the patriarch John of Constantinople to be called the Ecumenical or Universal Bishop (pp. 390-400). While the contest over the title was at its height, John died. He was succeeded by Cyriacus, a man of gentler nature, who, while he did not renounce, would not obtrude a title which Gregory had declared to be "the precursor of Anti-christ," but which the patriarchs of Constantinople continued to use until the Roman pontiffs nearly a century afterwards began to adopt it for themselves (pp. 401-403). In 602 Maurice was overthrown by Phocas, and with his four youngest children was put to death; later the same fate befell his eldest son Theodosius, and three years afterwards it overtook his widowed empress Constantina and her daughters. Phocas proved to be a tyrant, imbecile and brutal, a monster of lust and cruelty. In April 603 he was formally proclaimed emperor in Rome, and Gregory, unmindful of the horrors incident to his accession to the throne, addressed to the usurper a paean of praise and thanksgiving that has cast a stain upon the memory of this great pope (pp. 434-447). But the judgment of his critics is perhaps too severe. He was slowly dying of the gout, from which he had suffered many years. Maurice had appeared to him as the oppressor of the church and the enemy of the true religion. The detestable character of Phocas was probably not yet manifest to Gregory, his responsibility for the assassination of the children of Maurice may well have been unknown or disbelieved. Within a year Gregory died, and although Hodgkin considers (V, 452) that it is safer to judge him as a great Roman than as a great saint, it seems just to his memory that the splendid qualities he exhibited throughout a life of intense activity should not be too greatly dimmed by a single mistake at its close. As Hodgkin rightly says, his generosity, his justice, his courage, entitle him to a high place among the noblest names of his imperial race. The secular power he wielded over the vast property owned by the church, as well as his political influence in Italy, his negotiations and treaties with the Langobards, his administration of the affairs of Rome and the surrounding territories at a time when the empire, weakened and beset by numerous enemies, could give no protection to its subjects - all these things tended to change the character of the Holy See, to make Gregory the true founder of the mediaeval papacy and to pave the way for the subsequent establishment under Charlemagne of the temporal power of the popes.


Chapter XXV.

At this time the same blessed Gregory sent Augustine and Mellitus and John with many other monks who feared God into Britain and he converted the Angles to Christ by their preaching.


Chapter XXVI

In these days when Helias (Elias), patriarch of Aquileia, had died after holding his holy office fifteen years, Severus succeeded him and undertook the management of the church. Smaragdus the patrician, coming from Ravenna to Gradus (Grado), personally dragged him out of the church, and brought him with insults to Ravenna together with three other bishops from Istria, that is, John of Parentium (Parenzo), Severus [1] and Vendemius [2] and also Antony, [3] now an old man and trustee [4] of the church. Threatening them with exile and inflicting violence, he compelled them to hold communion with John, the bishop of Ravenna, a condemner of the Three Chapters, who had separated from the communion of the Roman church at the time of Pope Vigilius or Pelagius. [5] After the expiration of a year [6] they returned from Ravenna to Grado. And the people were not willing to hold communion with them nor did the other bishops receive them. The patrician Smaragdus became not unjustly possessed of a devil, and being succeeded by the patrician Romanus, returned to Constantinople. [7] After these things a synod of ten bishops was held in Marianum (Marano) [8] where they took back Severus, the patriarch of Aquileia, upon his giving a written confession of his error in taking communion at Ravenna with those who had condemned the Three Chapters. [9] The names of the bishops who had withheld themselves from this schism are these: Peter of Altinum (Altino) ; Clarissimus; [10] Ingenuinus of Sabione (Seben) ; [11] Agnellus of Tridentum (Trent) ; Junior of Verona; Horontius of Vicentia (Vicenza) ; Rusticus of Tarvisium (Treviso); Fonteius of Feltria (Feltre) ; Agnellus of Acilum (Asolo) ; Laurentius of Bellunum (Belluno) ; Maxentius of Julium (Zuglio) ; [12] and Adrian of Pola. [13] But the following bishops held communion with the patriarch ; Severus, John of Parentium (Parenzo), Patricius, Vendemius and John.[14]

[1] Of Tergeste (Trieste) (Waitz).
[2] Of Cissa (Pago) (Waitz).
[3] Of Grado (Waitz).
[4] 'Defensor ecclesiae', a functionary often mentioned in the church annals, nominated by the emperor on presentation of the bishop to protect the temporal interests of a particular church.
[5] Vigilius, A. D. 538-555; Pelagius, 555-559 or 560 (Muratori Ann. Ill, 455). It was at the time of Vigilius, in 553, that the second Council of Constantinople was held. The words of Paul appear to be written from the standpoint of the schismatics. In point of fact the Roman church was now supporting the condemnation of the Three Chapters. Paul seems to have believed that orthodoxy lay upon the other side (see Cipolla, Atti del Congresso in Cividale, 1899, p. 144).
Cipolla believes (p. 145) that the reference to Vigilius was taken by Paul from a petition of the schismatic bishops of the synod of Marano to the emperor Maurice in which they declared that their predecessors held firmly to the instruction they had received from Pope Vigilius and the Council of Chalcedon, and kept themselves faithful to the Three Chapters. This would explain his distorted view of the controversy. If Paul took this statement from Secundus, the latter may well have derived it from the petition of the schismatic bishops.
[6] A. D. 588 or 589 (Waitz).
[7] A. D. 590 (Waitz).
[8] About twelve miles west of Aquileia. The council was held about 589 (Hodgkin, V, 468, 470).
[9] This part of Paul's narrative is taken in all probability from the lost work of Secundus, bishop of Trent, who was himself a schismatic and defender of the Three Chapters, and it may be due to this that Paul's narrative is colored in their favor (Hodgkin, V, 468, note).
[10] Of Concordia (Waitz).
[11] Near Brixen (Waitz).
[12] On the Tagliamento above Tolmezzo (Abel).
[13] These bishops came largely from places under Langobard protection and could well afford to defy the pope and the exarch (Hodgkin, V, 469).
[14] This Severus was bishop of Tergeste (Trieste); Patricius, of Aemona. (Laybach); Vendemius, of Cissa (Pago), and John, of Celeia (Cilli) (Waitz). It is not clear whether they held communion with the patriarch before or after his recantation (Hodgkin, V, 469, 4/0, note 2), probably before. Paul does not tell the rest of the story. In the following year Gregory the Great became pope and wrote a letter summoning the patriarch and his followers to Rome to be judged by a synod as to the matters in controversy (Hodgkin, V, 470). Upon receipt of this letter two councils were assembled, one composed of the bishops of the territory occupied by the Langobards, and the other of the bishops in the coast cities subject to the empire. Each of these councils sent a letter to the emperor, and Severus the patriarch sent a third. One of these letters, that of the Langobard bishops, has been preserved. They congratulated Maurice upon his victories in Italy, and predicted that the day would soon come when the ''Gentiles'' would be overthrown and they would again become subjects of the empire. Then they would gladly present themselves before a synod in Constantinople, but they asked that they should not be compelled to appear before Gregory, who was a party to the cause, and whose communion they had renounced. If their enemies were allowed to persecute them the result would be that their churches would be alienated from the imperial authority (p. 471). This was an unpleasant prospect for the emperor, so Maurice ordered the Pope not to molest them (p. 472). Gregory, thus restrained, had now to confine himself to argument. When Callinicus became exarch, about 579, the schismatic bishops found it harder to preserve their independence, and we hear of certain secessions from their ranks (pp. 474, 477). The schism had extended beyond the confines of Venetia and Istria. Constantius, bishop of Milan and a friend of Gregory, was urged to declare that he had never condemned the Three Chapters and when he refused, three of his suffragans renounced his communion and induced Theudelinda, the Langobard queen, a Catholic and the friend of Pope Gregory to do the same. "Here, indeed, was a blow for the Catholic cause, if the royal influence which had been won with difficulty after the contest with Arianism was to be lost again over the souls of the three Syrians '' (Hodgkin, V, 479). Upon the entreaties of the Pope, the breach seems to have been healed and the queen's relations with Gregory remained friendly, although she probably sympathized with the schismatics. In December, 603, shortly before his death, he wrote congratulating her upon the birth and Catholic baptism of her son Adaloald, and said that sickness prevented him from answering "his dearest son, the abbot Secundus," who appears to have also been on the side of heresy (p. 480). At the time of Gregory's death the schism had assumed a geographical character. In Istria, at Grado, and among the lagoons of Venice, ''in fact, wherever the galleys of Constantinople could penetrate, churchmen were desirous to return into unity with the Emperor and the Pope, and were willing to admit that Theodoret, Theodore and Ibas were suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. On the mainland . . . wherever the swords of the Lombards flashed, men took a more hopeful view of the spiritual prospects of the three Syrians" (p. 481). On the death of Severus two sets of patriarchs were appointed, one for each section (IV, 33. infra). The schism continued until the end of the 7th century, when king Cunincpert summoned a council at Pavia in which the schismatics "with shouts of triumph" renounced their heresy and asked to be restored to the church (Hodgkin, V, 483; VI, 14, infra, see note).