Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

teaching 743
Christian who learns the ascetic life, is promoted in the church, deals with
governments and writes improving literature has many lesser parallels in his
own area, such as Eucherius of Lyons and Gennadius of Marseilles. The
influence of the literary activity involved should not be underestimated.
There flows out from centres like Lérins and Arles a steady stream of
books. All of these provide bases for Christian living, and are used at all
levels to promote morality and holiness. They include copies of the scriptures,
martyrologies and saints’ lives (increasingly concerned with the
achievements of ascetics), works of notable Fathers on exegesis, morality
and doctrine, and, increasingly, liturgical texts and collections of canons.
Comparable things may be said of other centres, old and new: in the west,
Cassiodorus’ foundation at Vivarium deserves notice, and in the east
Constantinople and Jerusalem rise steadily, alongside Alexandria and
Antioch (notably under Severus).
The rise of Gregory I as bishop of Rome (590–604) brought various
developments in the west. He was well qualified. 48 He numbered two
bishops of Rome among his ancestors. His father was a senator, and he
himself became prefect of Rome. He founded the monastery of St
Andrew in Rome, and dedicated all the family estates at his disposal to
endowing monasteries; his sisters had all become nuns. In 579 Pelagius II
(579–90) sent him to Constantinople as papal apocrisarius, and he stayed on
bad terms with the patriarchs till 586. He returned to his monastery, and
was forced out by popular demand to become bishop in 590. In war-torn
Italy he served the city well by negotiating peace with the Lombards. He
tried to re-establish a semblance of unity in the Italian churches, where
competing imperial and Lombard (‘Arian’) policies aggravated church tensions,
as in the Three Chapters controversy. His Register reveals worldwide
interests and activities. He clearly had a good administrative mind and made
good appointments. The management of the Patrimony of Peter through
his agents in Sicily, Italy and Gaul helped to strengthen the resources of the
papacy. He used this and other methods to deal with the immense social
and humanitarian problems which afflicted Rome as a result of war and
plague.
His persistent influence lies, however, elsewhere. The Regula pastoralis,
which he composed early in his episcopate, sets out the goals and methods
of a bishop. 49 The spiritual qualifications, and the continuing spiritual training,
of the bishop himself are considered. The third and longest of the four
parts is particularly important, emphasizing the pastor’s educational duty in
training believers of all varieties and levels for their life in the church, and
the temptations they must overcome. This work was transmitted all over
48 Articles with bibliographies: Recchia (1990); Markus (1985); see also Richards (1980).
49 See Rommel and Morel (1992).
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