OREGORT
783
GREGORY
almost more difficult point of his relation to the plain jurisdiction over and above their universal primacy
song or chant of the Church, for Gregory's connexion as successors of St. Peter; and, among Western
with which matters the earliest authority seems to be
John the Deacon (Vita, 11, vi, xvii), see (iiiKGoiUAN
Chant; Sacramentar y. There is no lack of evidence,
however, to illustrate Gregory's activity as manager
of the patrimony of St. Peter. By his day the estates
of the Church had reached vast dimensions. Vary-
ing estimates place their total area at from 1800 to
churches, this jurisdiction extends in a most intimate
manner over the churches of Italy and the isles
adjacent. On the mainland much of this territory
was now in the hands of the Lombards, with whose
Arian clergy Gregory was, of course, not in com-
munion. Whenever opportunitj' offered, however, he
was careful to provide for the needs of the faithful
1800 square miles, and there seems no reason for in these parts, frequently uniting them to some neigh-
supposing this to be an exaggeration, while the income
arising therefrom was probably not le.ss than .$1,.500,-
000 a year. The land lay in many places — Campania,
Africa, Sicily, and elsewhere — and, as their landlord,
Gregory displayed a skill in finance and estate manage
bouring diocese, when they were too few to occupy
the energies of a bishop. On the islands, of which
Sicily was by far the most important, the pre-existing
church system was maintained. Gregory appointed
a vicar, usually the metropolitan of the province, who
ment which e.xcites our admiration no less than it did exercised a general supervision over the wliolc church
the surprise of his tenants and agents, who suddenly He also insisted strongly on tlic holding of liiral synod;
found that they had a new
master who was not to !>■'
deceived or cheated. Tin
management of each patTi
mony was carried out by :i
number of agents of varying
grades and duties under an
official called the rector or
dejenxor of the patrimony.
Previously the rectors had
usually been laymen, but
Gregory established the cus-
tom of appointing ecclesias-
tics to the post. In doing
this he probably had in view
the many extra duties of an
ecclesiastical nature which he
called upon them to under-
take. Thus examples may
be found of such rectors being
commissioned to undertake
the filling up of vacant sees,
holding of local synods, tak-
ing action against heretics,
providing for the maintenance
of churches and monasteries,
rectifying abuses in the
churches of their district, with
the enforcing of ecclesiastical
discipline and even the re-
proof and correction of local
bishops. Still Gregory never
allowed the rectors to inter-
fere in such matters on their
own responsibility. In the
minutia? of estate manage-
ment nothing was too small
for Gregory's personal notice, from the exact number
of scdarii in a modius of corn, or how many solidi went
to one golden pound, to the use of false weights by cer-
tain minor agents. He finds time to write instructions
on every detail and leaves no complaint vmattended to,
even from the humblest of his multitude of tenants.
Throughout the large number of letters which deal
with the management of the patrimony, the pope's
determination to secure a scrupulously righteous ad-
ministration is evident. As bishop, he is the trustee
of God and St. Peter, and his agents must show that
they realize this by their conduct. Consequently,
under his able management the estates of the Church
increased steadily in value, the tenants were eon-
tented, and the revenues paid in with imprecedented
regularity. The only fault ever laid at his door in
this matter is that, by his boundless charities, he
emptied his treasury. But this, if a fault at all,
Gregory
tury, preserved i
as ordered by the Council of
Nica-a, and letters of his ex-
ist addressed to bishops in
Sicily, Sardinia, and Gaul,
reminding them of their
duties in this respect. The
supreme instance of Greg-
ory's intervention in the af-
fairs of these dioceses occurs
in the case of Sardinia, where
the behaviour of Januarius,
the half-witted, aged Metro-
politan of Cagliari, had re-
duced the church to a state of
semi-chaos. A large number
of letters relate to the reforms
instituted by the pope (Epp.,
II, .xlvii; III, xxxvi; IV, ix,
xxiii-xxvii, xxix; V, ii; IX,
i, xi, ccii-cciv; XIV, ii). His
care over the election of a new
liishop whenever a vacancy
occurs is shown in many
cases, and if, after his exami-
nation of the elect, which is
always a searching one, he
finds him unfitted for the
post, he has no hesitation
in rejecting him and com-
manding another to be
chosen (Epp., I, Iv, Ivi;
VII, xxxviii; X, vii). With
regard to discipline the
pope was specially strict
in enforcing the Church's
laws as to the celibacy of
the clergy (Epp., I, xlii,l;
IV, V, xxvi, xxxiv; VII, i; IX, ex, ccxviii; X, xix ; XI, Ivi a; XIII, xxxviii, xxxix); the exemption of clerics from lay tribunals (Epp., I, xxxix a; VI, xi; IX, liii, Ixxvi, lxxi.x; X, iv; XI, xxxii; XIII, I); and the dep- rivation of all ecclesiastics guilty of criminal or scan- dalous offences (Epp., I, xviii. xlii; III, xlix; IV, xxvi;
V, V, xvii, xviii; VII, xxxLx; VIII, xxiv; IX, xxv; XII, iii, X, xi; XIV, ii). He was also inflexible with regard to the proper application of chvirch revenues, insisting that others should be as strict as he was in disposing of these funds for their proper ends (Epp., I. X, Ixiv; II, xx-xxii; III,xxii; IV, xi; V, xii, xlviii; VIII. vii; XI, xxii, hi a; XIII, xh-i; XIV, ii).
(.3) lielnlioiis irith Other CInirches. — With regard to the other Western Churches limits of space prohibit any detailed account of Gregory's dealings, but the following quotation, all the more valuable as coming from a Protestant authority, indicates very clearly the line he followed herein: "In his dealings with the
IE Great Semis Mis.sioxar
TO England
lo-Saxon manuJscript of the tenth
the British Museum
was a natural consequence of his view that he was
the administrator of the property of the poor, for Churches of the West, Gregory acted invariably on
whom he could never do enough. the assumption that all were subject to the juris-
(2) Relations with the Suburbicarian Churches. — As diction of the Roman See. Of the rights claimed
patriarchs of the West the popes exercise a special or exercised by his predecessors he would not abate
