Much Ado About Nothing: Gregory the Great’s Apology to the Istrians (original) (raw)
Related papers
"Much Ado about Nothing: Gregory the Great's Response to the Istrian Crisis"
The Crisis of the Oikoumene: The Three Chapters and the Failed Quest for Unity in the Sixth-Century Medierranean.s
Gregory upholds the Byzantine imperial position telling the Istrian clergy it was just a misunderstanding that should never had resulted in schism in the first place. It is Gregory as a rhetorician manipulating arguments for the sake of politics.
A Cooperative Correspondence: the letters of Gregory the Great
A Companion to Gregory the Great, 2013
Of all of Gregory's writings, there is perhaps no passage more striking than in the prologue to his Dialogues, where he paints a vivid, wistful picture of his present life as pope in a near poetic nautical metaphor:
Even if his historical existence is commonly recognized, limited information is available about the figure of the southern saint, ignored both by the Basilian hagiography and the Calabrian one, but still celebrated by the German community of Burtsheid. The reason of the silence was probably due to continuous movements forced by surrounding circumstances, just like the Saracen depredations. In fact, after Gregory's moving to Germany, his memory in his native region gradually disappeared. He was a model because of his love for pray, for hardworking and obedience, for his soul nobility and for his actions performed in the name of charity. The only information about his life is written into two anonymous Latin Vitae. The first one, the Vita Gregorii Abbatis Prior (BHL 3671) of the XII century is incomplete, ending his narration with the episode of the boarding of the saint in Otranto city. While the second one, the Vita Gregorii Abbatis Posterior (BHL 3672) composed in the XV century, contains more details. This last version considers Gregory as the brother of the Byzantine Empress Theophano and contains the account of the arrival to Rome, the foundation of Aachen monastery, the death and the post-mortem miracles. From the analysis of these sources we can draw a profile of saint Gregory set in the historical context of the X century. In particular, even if the two lives are hagiographical accounts, providing for the main part a description of the saint's deeds and/or miracles, they give important elements in the interpretation of Italian-Greek monachism guidelines. Gregory spent his adolescence in improving his knowledge of grammar, arts and sacral writings, but he decided soon to abandon his family and follow his devotion. He moved to Cassano, greeted by the episcopus David, who gave him the permission to start the path to the priestly ordination, gained in 951. From the Vita Gregorii we know the name of David, bishop of Cassano, attested nowhere else. The Cassanensis diocese, was already an episcopal see in the X century, but we can find the first mention of an episcopus in a diploma dated 1096: we read of a bishop of Cassano known as Saxo (Sassone), who was a Vicar of Pope Urban II and Pope Paschal II in the Region. So, by the presence of David we can not only expand the list of bishops, but moreover anticipate it of a century.
2023
Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West The essential aim of this series is to present high quality, original, and international scholarship, covering all aspects of the Medieval Church and its relationship with the secular world in an accessible form. Previous publications have covered such topics as aspects of Medieval Papal History, including neglected twelfth-and thirteenth-century popes, Monastic and Religious Orders for men and women, Canon Law, Liturgy and Ceremonial, Art, Architecture and Material Culture, Ecclesiastical Administration and Government, as well as aspects of Clerical Life, Councils and so on. Our authors are encouraged to challenge existing orthodoxies on the basis of thorough examination of relevant sources. These books are intended to engage scholars worldwide.
Upon taking office as bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, and in formulating his own theological position, Gregory of Neocaesarea (also known as Gregory the Wonder-worker) drew on what he had learnt under Origen in order to craft his own Statement of Faith. Sometime later, an alternative Statement of Faith was produced by Lucian of Antioch, premised on a different view of the relationships within the Trinity. Arius also responded to Gregory’s Statement of Faith, contradicting it, point by point, in his Thalia. Even though Eusebius of Palestinian Caesarea would have been aware of Gregory’s theology and Statement of Faith, he used Lucian’s Statement when preparing the creed he submitted to the Council of Nicaea, in this way aligning himself with Lucian’s theological perspective against Gregory’s. Nevertheless, we can deduce that Gregory’s theology lived on, serving as a background to the development of the theological positions of the famous Cappadocians, especially the brothers, Basil of Cappadocian Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. Finally, we can say that there remains a parallel between the teachings of Cyril of Alexandria and Gregory of Neocaesarea, specifically in relation to their respective teachings on the sufferings of Christ.
A. Diem, M.B. de Jong and I. van Renswoude (eds.), Connecting People. Saints, Relics and Communities in the early Medieval World – In Memory of Janneke Raaijmakers (Budapest: Trivent, 2025), pp. 332-349., 2025
This paper looks into the ways in which the memory of Gregory the Great was constructed and used in early medieval Europe. Conrad Leyser distinguished three main ways in which the memory of Gregory was constructed in the early Middle Ages: a Gregory as consolidator of Frankish power, a Gregory as model bishop of Rome and finally a Gregory as model for a bishop in a world without clear political order. By looking at the Libellus Responsionum, a set of answers by Gregory to questions from Augustine of Canterbury, constructions of other Gregories become visible: a Gregory who defended local ecclesiastical customs, endorsed patterns of close kin marriages, and a Gregory who promoted a lenient approach to ritual purity, in particular with regard to women.