occasioned him some difficulties, as did also the ambition of the Archbishop of Constantinople, whom he severely reproved for assuming the title of Universal Bishop. In 596, he sent St. Augustine, like himself a Benedictine Monk, to England, in pursuance of a design he had long entertained. He had indeed been himself sent out on a similar expedition, at his own desire, by Pope Benedict I. but had been recalled immediately after he had set out, from the unwillingness of the people to part with him. And we find St. Augustine, when in England, still referring to St. Gregory in his difficulties, and receiving his directions. On the usurpation of the Empire by Phocas, A.D. 603, he sent letters to the Tyrant, for which he has been severely blamed by Cave and other writers. His Benedictine biograper defends him as not having exceeded the honour due to a de facto Emperor, and the good wishes that he must have felt even for the sake of the Church. He died the next year, and was buried in St. Peter's at Rome. He appears to have watched over the whole Church with a truly pastoral solicitude, and to have exhausted himself by his perpetual labours for its benefit. His powers of mind were evidently great, though he has sometimes been accused of an excessive credulity, especially with respect to the contents of his Dialogues. Some writers again suspect that these have been interpolated. Perhaps the chief characteristic of his doctrine in the present work is his assertion of real inherent righteousness in the Saints, combined with his distinct acknowledgment and searching investigation of sin even in the holiest of mere men. In this respect indeed he interprets some passages, such as the latter part of Rom. vii. differently from the Fathers in general, yet so as to supply a corrective, through the analogy of the Faith, to any error that might result from such a view. In the case just mentioned, and in some others, he closely follows St. Augustine. A large collection of practical portions from this work has been made, under the title of Speculum, the Mss. of which are of frequent occurrence. Of the whole work also there are many Mss. extant, and the Benedictine edition pre ents a text generally very carefully and judiciously made out from them. The Benedictine Editors used occasionally the notes from Mss. at Oxford published by James in his Vindicia Gregorianæ. The whole collation made by him and others with an edition is in the library of St. John's College, Oxford, and through the kindness of that Society, and the assistance of the Rev. H. Coombs, M.A. Fellow of St. John's College, the Editor has had a copy of the various readings at hand in revising the translation. It is not, however, very much that can be added to the diligence and judgment of the Benedictines, though Oxford possesses some valuable Mss. not hitherto collated. For the Translation, the Editors are indebted to a friend who prefers concealing his name. It is hoped that the two remaining Volumes will appear in 1845 and 6, and that in due time the Original Text may also be reprinted with some few corrections. Oriel Coll. Feast of St. Andrew, 1844. C. M. CONTENTS. The first verses of the first chapter of the Book of Job are explained first historically, then in an allegorical, and lastly in a moral sense. The whole of the second chapter of the book of Job is explained after the manner of the former Books, historically, allegorically, and morally. 130 Wherein Gregory, having in the Preface set forth in few words, that the letter of Scripture is at times at variance with itself, and that the im- precations of Job, as of Jeremiah and David, cannot be understood without absurdity according to the sound which they convey, explains the words of Job in historical, mystical, and moral sense, from the commencement of the third chapter to the twentieth verse of the same. 177 The whole of the fifth chapter, beginning at the third verse, is explained first in a spiritual sense, a few parts in an allegorical, and a great many He explains part of the sixth chapter, from verse 27, and the whole of the seventh and eighth chapters. In the course of this exposition, from verse 11, to the end of the eighth chapter, he speaks at length on the THE BOOKS OF THE MORALS OF ST. GREGORY THE POPE, OR AN EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK OF BLESSED JOB. THE EPISTLE, Wherein he explains the time, occasion, division, plan, and the method of discourse and of interpretation pursued in his work. To the Most Devout and Holy Brother, my fellow Bishop Leander, Gregory, the servant of God's servants. 1. WHEN I knew you long since at Constantinople, my most blessed brother, at the time that I was kept there by the • Leander, who is honoured as a Saint and Doctor in Spain, was a native of Carthagena; his father Severianus was brother in law to Theodoric king of the Ostrogoths. He early devoted himself to a monastic life, and after a long continuance in it he was made Bishop of Seville, where he maintained the Faith against the Arianism which then prevailed, and received Herminigild, who reigned there under his father Liuvigild, into the Church. He went on an embassy to the Emperor Tiberius as presently stated, after which he returned to Spain, but was banished for a time by Liuvigild, who, however, on his deathbed appointed him tutor to his son Recared, whom he converted from Arianism, and with his assistance established the Catholic Faith amongst the Wisigoths and Suevi. He took part (and perhaps presided, see Baronius An. 589.s.ix. and xliv. Boll. Act. Sanct. Ap. xiii. p. 277.) in the third Council of Toledo, in which the Goths were united B to the Catholic Church, A.D. 589. He died in 595. He wrote a rule for Virgins to his sister Florentina, which is extant in Holstein's Codex Regularum, a Homily of his, on the conversion of the Goths, accompanies the acts of the Synod of Toledo, and the Mozarabic Missal is said by some to be founded on one arranged by him; his other works are lost. See Cave, Hist. Lit. an. 585. also the Isidoriana of Arevalus in his edition of St. Isidore, Rome 1797. There are three epistles of St. Gregory to Leander. Lib. i. Ep. 43. Lib. v. Ep. 49. and Lib. ix. 121. accompanying the Pallium. His brother Fulgentius, Bp. of Carthagena and Eceja, Bolland. Jan. xiv. p. 971. and his sister Florentina, Ap. xiv. and Jun xx. who devoted herself to a life of Virginity, are locally honoured as Saints. He was succeeded in the See of Seville (then called Hispalis,) by his younger brother St. Isidore. |