Pope Gregory I was born ca 540 and died on this date in 604; he occupied the papacy for the last fourteen years of his life. Prior to a long career as an ecclesiastical administrator, he was a monk in the Roman monastery of St Andrew. As pope he selected Augustine, prior of the same monastery, to undertake a mission to England. Despite Augustine's misgivings, the mission took root and English Roman Catholics and Anglicans both look to these two saints as founders. The Venerable Bede in his
Ecclesiastical History of the English People describes some of the interaction between Gregory and Augustine.
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27. Augustine is made a bishop, tells Pope Gregory what has happened in Britain, and has his questions answered.
In the meantime, Augustine, the man of God, went to Arles [in Gaul]
and as instructed by the holy Father Gregory was ordained Archbishop of
the English by Aetherius, Archbishop of that city. Returning to Britain,
he sent men to Rome to tell Pope Gregory that the English nation had
received the faith of Christ, and that he was himself made their bishop.
At the same time, he asked Gregory to answer some urgent questions. He
soon received fitting answers to his questions, which I have reproduced
here:
1. How should bishops relate to their clergy? How should the
offerings of the faithful at the altar be apportioned? And how should
the bishop act in Church?
Gregory answers: Holy Scripture, which you know well, explains this –
particularly the Blessed Paul’s letters to Timothy. He tells him how he
should act in the house of God, and it is the custom of the Apostolic
See to apply these rules to bishops. All the money they are given should
be divided in four: one for the bishop and his household, for
hospitality to guests; another for the clergy; a third for the poor; and
the fourth for the repair of churches. But you, my brother, have been
instructed in monastic rules, so you must not live apart from your
clergy in the Church of the English. You must live like our fathers in
the primitive Church, none of whom considered his possessions his own,
but shared all things common.
Any clerics who are not monks and who are not willing to stay
celibate, should to take wives, and receive their income from outside
the community, because it is written that the same forefathers I
mentioned distributed goods to any who were in need. Watch over their
pay and make sure they are provided for. They should be kept under
church rules, live orderly lives, oversee the singing of psalms, and, by
the help of God, preserve their hearts and tongues and bodies from all
that is unlawful. As for those who live as a community, there is no need
to say anything about assigning portions, being hospitable and showing
mercy, since whatever they have left over is to be used for religious
works, according to the teaching of him who is the Lord and Master of
all: “Give charitably from what you have, and all things will be clean
to you.”
2. Since the faith is one and the same, why are there
different customs in different Churches? Why do the holy Roman Church
and the Church of Gaul celebrate Mass in different ways?
Gregory answers: You know the customs of the Roman Church in which
you remember that you were brought up, my brother. But if you have found
anything which may be more acceptable to Almighty God, whether it is in
the Roman church or in Gaul, or anywhere else, what I want you to do is
to make a careful selection from them, and bring them together in the
religion that you teach to the English Church which is still new in the
faith. For things are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places
for the sake of good things. So, pick from every Church those things
that are pious and right, and when you have made them up into one
package, let the English grow accustomed to it.
