Concerning A Diploma

Letter 2,49 - to Deacon Honoratus about honoring Venantius. September 591-August 592.

"My son Lord Venantius, one-time grandson of the patrician Opilio, has come to Saint Peter the apostle, to make this very strong petition to me, that I should have recommended his case to your Beloved. For he has no honors and seeks the diploma of ex consul, for which he has sent over thirty pounds of gold. so that it might be obtained for him.
In this matter I want your Beloved to take very special care, because he is such a man that an honor is owed to him even without a payment.
And because as I have said he was prepared to purchase the same diploma, it is not all that necessary that should say anything to our most serene emperor. But let your Beloved act more on your own, so that he deserves to receive honors, after offering the usual payments to the treasury."


Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 228.

A Friend to a Friend

Letter 1,27 - to Sebastian, bishop of Resini. February 591.

"I spurn my negligence and I awaken my torpor with incitements of love, so that he who is unwilling on his part to pay his dues, he may learn to pay back what he owes on pain of being spurned.
Furthermore I inform you that I have made a suggestion before the most pious of princes, filled with most earnest prayer, that he ought to send over the ex-patriarch Lord Anastasius, a most blessed gentleman, allowed the use of the pallium, to the Church of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles, to celebrate the solemn rites of the Mass with me, so that, if he were not allowed to return to his own see, he might at least live with me, his honor intact.
But the bearer of this letter will notify you what reason stopped me from sending that same letter to you. However, get to know the thoughts of this same Lord Anastasius, and indicate to me in your letter what would please him concerning this matter."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 149.

A Heavy Burden

INTRODUCTION This is the first letter with a hint to Gregory's elevation to the papacy. He was more a monk, who longed for a contemplative life, but he was drawn (again) to the world. And was congratulated for what he did not want by his friends. He doesn't hesitate to point to the fact, that he is not the only one 'bound by the burden of office'.

Letter 1,3 - to Paul the Scholastic. September 590.
"However much strangers congratulate me, due to the honor of my episcopal office, I do not put much value on it. But when you congratulate me over this matter, it brings me no little pain, as you are very well aware of my wish and yet believe that I have been successful. For it would have been the highest promotion for me, if what I wanted could have been fulfilled, if I had been able to achieve my desire, which you have long known about, the attainment of longed-for peace and quiet. But as things are, because I am held bound by the chains of this office in the city of Rome, I have something over which I may also rejoice, to your Glory. For with the arrival of the ex-consul and most eminent Lord Leo, I suspect that you will not remain in Sicily. And when you too, bound by your office, realize that you are kept in Rome, you will recognize what grief and bitterness I myself am suffering."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 121.