Gregory IX's attempted expeditions to the Latin Empire of Constantinople: the crusade for the union of the Latin and Greek churches

Gregory IX's crusade (1236–1240) to safeguard the Latin Empire was the last expedition sponsored by the papacy before the fall of the Latin state in 1261. Like his predecessors, Innocent III and Honorius III, Gregory believed that an expedition against his fellow Christians was necessary to safeguard the land route to the Holy Land and to protect the Latin Empire itself. Gregory also shared with Innocent and Honorius the belief that this was a divinely appointed policy, symbolized by God giving the Greek Empire into Latin hands in retribution for Greek schismstic beliefs. But Gregory's policy had another facet to its justification. He accused the supporters of the Greeks, in particular John II Asen, king of Bulgaria, of sheltering heretics and of allowing a climate in which heresy could flourish. Gregory evolved a method of justifying war against the Greeks and their supporters analogous to that used elsewhere in Europe against those who sheltered heretics. He threatened the guilty with the loss of their lands under the provisions of the Fourth Lateran Council canon, Excommunicamus. To make the theoretical concrete, Gregory tried to form two expeditions, one composed of Europeans, the other of Hungarians and even Bulgarians, against the emperor of Nicaea. But the expeditions failed and Gregory's rationale for warring against the Greeks was not utilized by his immediate successors to the pontifical throne.     

Familia Sancti Martini: Domus ecclesiae on earth as it is in heaven

In the post-imperial world of sixth-century Gaul, the Church found itself competing for allegiance with strengthened local family groupings as well as royal households. In this milieu the fragmentation of power and the propensity for spoliation of church lands posed a severe problem for ecclesiastical survival. An answer might be found in a competing kindred structure: the family of the saint. Such an entity would have the benefit of building a support group for the Church that could cut across the existing family lines and thereby weaken their impact. As a voluntary association based on the celestial it would have the added benefit of being a familia everlasting, and endlessly elastic.The works of Gregory of Tours contain such an idea built around his patronus, St Martin. Gregory's preface to Book 5 of his History, and his frequent pleas against feuding, show his concern as to how the familia Sancti Martini could perform an annealing function for society, mitigate the more rebarbative elements of the feud, and leave the Church in a strengthened position in society.     

On Becoming Pope in Late Antiquity

To an extent unusual among holders of papal office in late antiquity, we know something of the family of Gregory the Great (590–604). His father, Gordianus, was a wealthy Roman who had married a lady named Silvia, who herself had a sister named Pateria, while he had another three aunts, Aemiliana, Gordiana, and Tarsilla, the sisters of his father.¹ He also seems to have had one, and possibly a second brother.² We know from his writings that his three aunts on his father's side adopted a religious life in common, but they attained very different levels, for Gregory reports that, whereas Gordiana disgraced herself by marrying a farmer on her estates, Tarsilla reached the highest level of holiness. He describes his great‐great‐grandfather Felix, a bishop of the Roman church, appearing to her in a vision in which he showed her a mansion of great brightness and told her to come, for he would receive her there; soon afterwards, she died of fever.³ While such details may appear sparse, they provide a basis on which we can make some general statements on the kinds of people who became pope in the period from the late fifth to the early seventh centuries; a table of these popes is appended to this paper. We shall suggest that there was a set of criteria which were met by new popes time and time again, and that these remained surprisingly constant across the period.     

The spring,the seed and the tree: Gregory of Tours on the wonders of nature

In the preface to his liturgical calendar The reckoning of the course of the stars Bishop Gregory of Tours (538–594) — author also of Ten books of histories and Eight books of miracles as well as of a Commentary on the understanding of the Psalter (of which, however, only fragments are preserved) — declares God's “wonders” of the natural world to be superior to the seven ancient wonders of the world. The reason for this is that the latter, being works of men, are subject to decay and destruction, while the former, as miraculous works of God, are divinely sustained and renewed daily or annually, thereby becoming imperishable. An examination of the associative contexts in which two of these wonders — the sea (enlarged to include water in its various forms) and plant life — occur in the rest of Gregory's works reveals several essential themes of his thinking not only about nature, but also about God, man and society. Thought, for him, nature as a (divinely sustained) system of regularities does exist as a kind of backdrop, sudden unpredictable divine — and sometimes diabolic — action in and through phenomena occupies the center of the stage. Gregory tends to see this action in the shape of what he regards as pre-existing images or patterns of invisible spiritual truth, to which the visible, even material, structure of events must necessarily conform. He shows, too, how this action could reflect as well as meet various needs of the individual and of society as a whole. An association which recurs almost constantly in his treatment of divine action in these natural phenomena, which he sometimes describes as analogous to that in man, is precisely that with the cluster of closely related concepts of renewal, rebirth and creation ex nihilo. Together with what appears as an extreme, as it were ‘poetical’, sensitivity to sudden perceptions and intuitions, something like a longing for and surrender to what he describes as “astonished admiration” may have helped to make possible his recognition of that which he designated as divine creative power in the world of visible reality as well as in man's inner experience. His seeing this as an essential dynamic of the holy may mean that he felt it to be a fundamental need and concern not only of the individual personality but also, more obscurely, of the society in which he found himself.     

Exile and return in John Mauropous,Poem 47

Abstract

The author reads an epigram by John Mauropous as an engagement with epic and biblical traditions. Critical studies of exile and return from different eras of the Greek literary tradition by Émile Benveniste, Gregory Nagy and Nancy Sultan are used to provide a theoretical approach to the tradition with which Mauropous engages. It is suggested that Mauropous' wanderings in the territory of the xenos and return to the familiar world of the philos, and especially his personification of his home as a trophos (nurse), allude to Homer, and that epic language and motifs strengthen the poet's assertion of selfhood and make ancient literary themes relevant to Mauropous' life as a scholar and churchman.     

Texts,topoi and the self: a reading of Alfredian spirituality*

Challenging the allegation that Alfred's spirituality as Asser presents it is no more than a string of textual fictions, this article outlines a context for understanding Alfred's spirituality as a functional process of living texts, or of ‘textualizing’ the self. The discussion first draws support for this view from the history of early medieval spirituality and then demonstrates the theme's relevance both to Asser's representation of Alfred and to the king's own writings. Attention is given especially to the congruence between Alfred's depiction in the Life and Gregory the Great's teachings on the ideal rector as propounded in the Pastoral Care, a text carefully read and famously translated by Alfred himself. The comparison suggests that the main spiritual models for Alfred's kingly piety may be understood to reside in, and to involve assimilation of, this work of Gregory, making it possible to conceptualize the king's self‐presentation in terms of a conscious project to ‘live’ Gregory's text by bringing the ideals of the Gregorian rector to life in his own person. Such an argument helps to explain Alfred's interest in Gregory, to account for his concern to translate the Pastoral Care, and to legitimize the predominant images associated with the king's spirituality as indicative of a kind of functional piety grounded in the reading of texts, rather than simply reflected, perhaps falsely, in Asser’s Life.     

A Florida Fiddler: The Life and Times of Richard Seaman

In A Florida Fiddler, Gregory Hansen has done a masterful jobof bringing to life a portrait of a traditional artist, placinghim in the context of his geography, time, and community. Throughthe use of interviews, transcribed public performances, andobservation, the author lets Richard Seaman speak for himself,in his own voice, to tell his own     

Gregory the Great, the Rule of Benedict and Roman liturgy: the evolution of a legend

This paper relates the evolution of Gregory the Great’s reputation as creator of the Roman liturgy to the slow process by which the Rule of Benedict acquired authority within monasticism in the seventh and eighth centuries. It argues that Gregory composed the Dialogues to promote ascetic values within the Church, but that this work did not begin to circulate in Spain and then Gaul until the 630s, precisely when Gregory’s known interest in liturgical reform is first attested in Rome. The letters of Pope Vitalian (657-72) provide hitherto unnoticed testimony to the theft of Benedict’s relics by monks of Fleury c.660, marking a new stage in the evolution of monastic culture in Gaul. The paper also argues that the Ordo Romanus XIX is not a Frankish composition from the second half of the eighth century (as Andrieu claimed), but provides important evidence for the Rule being observed at St Peter’s, Rome, in the late seventh century. While Gregory was interested in liturgical reform, he never enforced any particular observance on the broader church, just as he never imposed any particular rule. By the time of Charlemagne, however, Gregory had been transformed into an ideal figure imposing uniformity of liturgical observance, as well as mandating the Rule of Benedict within monasticism. Yet the church of the Lateran, mother church of the city of Rome, continued to maintain its own liturgy and ancient form of chant, which it claimed had been composed by Pope Vitalian, even in the thirteenth century.     

The temptations of cult: Roman martyr piety in the age of Gregory the Great

Pope Gregory the Great (590–604) was arguably the most important Roman writer and civic leader of the early middle ages; the Roman martyrs were certainly the most important cult figures of the city. However modern scholarship on the relationship between Gregory and the Roman martyrs remains curiously underdeveloped, and has been principally devoted to comparison of the gesta martyrum with the stories of Italian holy men and women (in particular St Benedict) told by Gregory in his Dialogues; in the past generation the Dialogues have come to be understood as a polemic against the model of sanctity proposed by the Roman martyr narratives. This paper explores Gregory's role in the development of Roman martyr cult in the context of the immediate social world of Roman clerical politics of the sixth and seventh centuries. Gregory's authority as bishop of Rome was extremely precarious: the Roman clerical hierarchy with its well-developed protocols did not take kindly to the appearance of Gregory and his ascetic companions. In the conflict between Gregory and his followers, and their opponents, both sides used patronage of martyr cult to advance their cause. In spite of the political necessity of engaging in such 'competitive generosity', Gregory was also concerned to channel martyr devotion, urging contemplation on the moral achievements of the martyrs – which could be imitated in the present – as opposed to an aggressive and unrestrained piety focused on their death. Gregory's complex attitude to martyr cult needs to be differentiated from that which was developed over a century later, north of the Alps, by Carolingian readers and copyists of gesta martyrum and pilgrim guides, whose approach to the Roman martyrs was informed by Gregory's own posthumous reputation.     

Roses in January: a neglected dimension in Gregory of Tour's historiae

Gregory of Tours was a sixth-century bishop who wrote Ten books of histories, our only detailed source of information for that period in Gaul. A great deal of attention has been paid to his vivid portrayal of Merovingian society and politics. Apart from his often obscure Latin, the strictly chronological composition and the absence of clear co-ordinating statements give his work the appearance of a jumbled, if lively, mosaic. The following study is an attempt to follow one strand through the many-coloured texture of the Histories, that of extraordinary natural events and the context in which Gregory places them, since this seemed to reveal an up to now not so apparent dimension of his thinking about time and, history: his concept of contemporaneity.     

'Being Martin': Saint and Successor in Sixth-Century Tours

Utilising the poetry of Venantius Fortunatus ( c . 530–600), this article explores the literary fashioning of an idealized episcopal identity for the sixth-century bishops of Tours as successors to Martin, the celebrated fourth-century saint of the city. It is argued that the poet's deployment of the model was of political use to his patron, Bishop Gregory of Tours, both in the establishment of his authority in the town and in dealings with the Frankish kings about matters of taxation. It is suggested that this crafting of an episcopal identity allowed the poet to put pressure on Gregory himself to be Martin and intervene in such matters as a legal case or the affairs of a diocese outside his jurisdiction as metropolitan. The legitimating Martinian model of episcopal behaviour is presented therefore as potentially coercive.     

3. HISTORIOGRAPHY WITHOUT GOD: A REPLY TO GREGORY1

This reply aims both to respond to Gregory and to move forward the debate about God's place in historiography. The first section is devoted to the nature of science and God. Whereas Gregory thinks science is based on metaphysical naturalism with a methodological corollary of critical‐realist empiricism, I see critical, empiricist methodology as basic, and naturalism as a consequence. Gregory's exposition of his apophatic theology, in which univocity is eschewed, illustrates the fissure between religious and scientific worldviews—no matter which basic scientific theory one subscribes to. The second section is allotted to miracles. As I do, Gregory thinks no miracle occurred on Fox Lakes in 1652, but he restricts himself to understanding the actors and explaining change over time, and refuses to explain past or contemporary actions and events. Marc Bloch, in his book The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France, is willing to go much further than Gregory. Using his superior medical knowledge to substitute his own explanation of the phenomenon for that of the actors, Bloch dismisses the actors’ beliefs that they or others had been miraculously cured, and explains that they believed they saw miraculous healing because they were expecting to see it. In the third section, on historical explanation, I rephrase the question whether historians can accommodate both believers in God and naturalist scientists, asking whether God, acting miraculously or not, can be part of the ideal explanatory text. I reply in the negative, and explicate how the concept of a plural subject suggests how scientists can also be believers. This approach may be compatible with two options presented by Peter Lipton for resolving the tension between religion and science. The first is to see the truth claims of religious texts as untranslatable into scientific language (and vice versa); the other is to immerse oneself in religious texts by accepting them as a guide but not believing in their truth claims when these contradict science.     

Gregory IX's attempted expeditions to the Latin Empire of Constantinople: the crusade for the union of the Latin and Greek churches

Gregory IX's crusade (1236–1240) to safeguard the Latin Empire was the last expedition sponsored by the papacy before the fall of the Latin state in 1261. Like his predecessors, Innocent III and Honorius III, Gregory believed that an expedition against his fellow Christians was necessary to safeguard the land route to the Holy Land and to protect the Latin Empire itself. Gregory also shared with Innocent and Honorius the belief that this was a divinely appointed policy, symbolized by God giving the Greek Empire into Latin hands in retribution for Greek schismstic beliefs. But Gregory's policy had another facet to its justification. He accused the supporters of the Greeks, in particular John II Asen, king of Bulgaria, of sheltering heretics and of allowing a climate in which heresy could flourish. Gregory evolved a method of justifying war against the Greeks and their supporters analogous to that used elsewhere in Europe against those who sheltered heretics. He threatened the guilty with the loss of their lands under the provisions of the Fourth Lateran Council canon, Excommunicamus. To make the theoretical concrete, Gregory tried to form two expeditions, one composed of Europeans, the other of Hungarians and even Bulgarians, against the emperor of Nicaea. But the expeditions failed and Gregory's rationale for warring against the Greeks was not utilized by his immediate successors to the pontifical throne.     

Negotiating episcopal support in the Merovingian kingdom of Reims (ad 561–75)

Minimal scholarly attention has been paid to the ecclesiastical policies of King Sigibert I of Reims (r. 561–75). An examination of Sigibert's policies suggests the lengths to which the king went to attract and maintain episcopal allies in strategic and politically divided civitates. While Gregory of Tours in his Decem Libri Historiarum blamed Sigibert's death on his stubborn refusal to heed episcopal counsel, the bishop of Tours recognized that the king of Reims was not consistently hostile to the church and its bishops, and saw the circumstances of Sigibert's untimely death as ultimately tragic.     

Preaching and History: The Audience of Ranulf Higden’s Ars componendi sermones and Polychronicon

In his Ars praedicandi sermones, in traditional yet rich metaphoric language, Ranulf Higden compares Christ to a fountain, a shepherd, a rock, a lily, a rose, a violet, an elephant, a unicorn, and a youthful bridegroom wooing his beloved spouse. Ranulf encourages preachers to use such metaphors while using them himself, rendering his text a performed example of what he encourages. This text is clearly linked to two others: Ranulf’s Latin universal history, the Polychronicon, and John Trevisa’s English translation of it. In the Polychronicon, Ranulf relates the life of Christ, utilizing some of his own rhetorical suggestions from his preaching manual. He also depicts a cross-section of good and bad preachers, including Gregory, Wulfstan, Eustas, St Edmund, and one William Long-Beard and his kinsman, who exemplify (in different ways) the wisdom conveyed in Ranulf’s instruction in the Ars praedicandi. This essay suggests that the literary relationship between the preaching manual and the Polychronicon supplies additional support for the idea that the audience of the latter was not noblemen exclusively, but also clergymen who preached and had responsibility for the care of souls (cura animae).     

Letter-writing and literary culture in Merovingian Gaul

This essay discusses Gregory of Tours' claim that literary culture was in decline in light of the considerable quantity of poetry and letters composed by Merovingian authors. Scholars have come to appreciate the importance of letter-writing for historical inquiry, yet the contrast between Gregory's assessment and aristocratic literary activity remains under-explored. This essay discusses fifth-century precedents and examines the continuity and discontinuity that occurred in the literary transition from late Antique to early-medieval Gaul. It examines the place of literary culture within Merovingian elite friendship networks, focusing on the interconnected writings of three Merovingian authors. Venantius Fortunatus was an Italian-born poet who spent most of his career writing for Merovingian elites. The royal officials Dynamius and Gogo composed letters found in a compilation of sixth-century letters called the Epistolae Austrasicae. Using the letters and poetry of these three writers, this essay argues that literary skill facilitated the creation and maintenance of connections across distance and was a necessary part of elite identity. It shows that Gregory of Tours' dramatic rhetorical claim did not reflect the true state of literature in Gaul.     

The Venerable Bede and Gregory the Great: exegetical connections, spiritual departures

This article revisits the familiar comparison between the thought and writings of Bede and Gregory the Great. Bede was keen to foreground his debt to Gregory and past assessments have illuminated aspects of it, but this investigation offers a more searching analysis of the interface between biblical exegesis and spiritual teaching, a subject that highlights Bede's frequent reliance on Gregory as well as his calculated departures from him. Accordingly, the article first examines the different ways Bede in his commentaries could deploy Gregory's writings as a source, then discusses the more pragmatic, less mystical thrust of Bede's thought that sets him apart from Gregory.     

‘Uproot and destroy,build and plant’: legatine authority under Pope Gregory VII

Confronted with the need for scholarly criteria in properly defining the ad hoc papal institution existent under Pope Gregory VII (1073–85), this paper seeks to clarify the title, office, and jurisdiction of the eleventh-century reforming legate. Discussing the Roman origins of this office through to the twelfth century – taking into account the political, ecclesiastical and legal constraints of the period – questions are raised concerning the extent and nature of legatine authority (especially as the reformers understood it). Contemporary criteria are unclear, but modern scholars can infer some regularities from Gregory VII's Register and other contemporary sources as to how this office operated in the last quarter of the eleventh century, and ultimately, to understand more clearly how reform was being implemented in the provinces.     

Rebel with a cause? From traitor prince to exemplary martyr: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's representation of San Hermenegildo

El mártir del sacramento, San Hermenegildo is an auto sacramental or Eucharistic play, written in the 1680s by the Mexican nun and literary superstar, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. The play centres on the story of a (purportedly Catholic) Visigothic prince who died in Seville in 586 by order of his Arian father, Leovigild. Contempary sources vary in their portrayal of Hermenegild, with most painting him as a traitor who rebelled against his father for political gain. Gregory the Great, however, championed Hermenegild as an exemplary martyr who died in defence of the Faith. One thousand years on, Spain saw a revival of its Visigothic ‘Golden Age’, and Hermenegild was among those to be venerated; he was canonised in 1585 and his memory was brought to life in various artistic forms; in poetry, paintings and even on the stage. This paper will examine the part that Sor Juana's auto played within this tradition, exploring the purpose of the play and the various historical and biblical sources used to create it.     

Poet as politician: Venantius Fortunatus' panegyric to King Chilperic

In August 580 the Italian poet, Venantius Fortunatus, delivered a panegyric before King Chilperic and a synod of bishops assembled at Berny-Rivière to hear the poet's friend and patron, Bishop Gregory of Tours, arraigned on a charge of treason. The poem has long and widely been interpreted as a dishonourable and opportunistic betrayal of the bishop, as the poet looked for more convenient patronage. This article argues that the poem must be analysed in its historical context and in its place in the poet's development of the genre of addressing the Merovingian kings. Such an analysis shows that the poet is using the panegyric with subtlety and political acumen to offer a formula for rapprochement between the king and his bishops, thus protecting his friend Gregory; and that more generally he is playing the traditional active role of a panegyrist in mediating between the ruler and his people, developing a distinctive image of Merovingian kingship as he does so.