Regarded as a saint and one of the six Western Fathers of the Church, Gregory the Great (590–604) is often considered the first great pope. He was the first monk to become pope, and is considered one of the most important. He is also known for sending diplomats (missionaries) who persuaded kings to fight against the pagans and heretics of the West.
Born into an aristocratic family, Pope Gregory the Great had been prefect of Rome, a position from which he founded six monasteries in Sicily. Having become a monk after his father’s death, Gregory initially hesitated to accept the papal crown, as he preferred the monastic life. An authoritative pope, he implemented a series of reforms in worship and was a prolific theologian and writer, producing around 880 letters and other writings. He fought against simony and was a philanthropist who cared for the poor and oppressed. At the same time, Gregory I was the administrator of the vast ecclesiastical estates in various regions of Italy, Gaul, and Africa. At that time, the head of the Roman Church was the principal authority in divided Italy, performing the functions that state bodies had failed to fulfil, and he had a veritable militia of the papacy in the form of the monks. His life clearly reflected all the qualities and flaws of the papacy. He was, in fact, the first canonised pope of this period.
The development of the papacy under Gregory I
Gregory I worked tirelessly to discipline the Church and spread papal authority. He continued Pelagius II’s protests against the use of the title “Ecumenical Patriarch” by John the Hermit, the Patriarch of Constantinople. Gregory considered the title “Ecumenical Patriarch” to be “anti-Christian and diabolical”. Consequently, he refused the title for himself, instead calling himself “the servant of the servants of God”. From this point onwards, all popes began their official documents with the introduction: “We, the Pope . . . the servant of the servants of God . . .”, adding hypocrisy to the dogmatic assertion that the Pope is lord of lords.
A great champion of papal primacy and Catholicism, Gregory I affirmed the pope’s universal authority to absolve people of their sins in the year 592. It would be interesting to know if he could have absolved everyone at once and for free. He defended the use of icons as intuitive teaching aids for the uneducated (“the poor man’s Bible”), in opposition to Bishop Serenus of Marseille, who saw them as an opportunity for idolatry. Initially, images (paintings and statues) were introduced into the Church without veneration, but this was later permitted as a means of compensating the converted pagans. Paganism still survived in various areas and, while its practices were forbidden, much of its essence was absorbed by state Christianity.
Gregory I: missionary work or diplomacy?
The devil uses two methods in alternation: missionary diplomacy and coercion. Gregory was an expert in the former. In his writings, he therefore urged the conversion of non-believers through persuasion alone. Under his reign, the Lombards, who had invaded Byzantine Italy, accepted Catholicism. In 596, he sent Augustine, a monk, to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons. These fierce pagans, who had rejected British Christianity, quickly embraced Roman Catholicism. However, the Roman missionaries encountered resistance from the Britons, who did not recognise the supremacy of the pope and wanted Christ as their only leader. They received threats for their refusal to cooperate with Rome.
War, treachery, and deceit were then employed against the Britons until their churches were either destroyed or forced to submit to the Pope. The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons brought Gregory more glory than Caesar had achieved by conquering Britain.
Meanwhile, missionaries of ancient Irish Christianity, not subject to the papacy, had also entered the Frankish Kingdom (modern-day France and Germany) to evangelise. Around the year 600, Gregory I was intrigued by the audacity of certain missionaries spreading a separate doctrine. He addressed a pastoral letter (Epistle 13.1), piously introducing himself as “bishop by the grace of God to his well-beloved sons, the Roman citizens: It has come to me that certain men of perverse spirit have disseminated among you things depraved and opposed to the holy faith, so that they forbid anything to be done on the day of the Sabbath. What shall I call them except preachers of anti-Christ?”
In 602, a revolt in the Balkans overthrew the Byzantine emperor, Maurice, who was assassinated by the centurion Phocas, who then became emperor. This coup d’etat favoured the papacy, since Maurice had been on good terms with the Patriarch of Constantinople and had not welcomed the claims of the Patriarch of Rome. Upon Phocas’ accession to the throne, Gregory was overjoyed, showering the murderous usurper with praise: “Let us bless God who changes times and kings!” In 606, Phocas recognised the papal primacy in Christendom, repeating Justinian’s decrees from 533: “the Apostolic See of the blessed Apostle Peter is the head of all the churches”, and the titles “universal bishop” and “ecumenical patriarch” were reserved exclusively for the Pope of Rome.
