Chapter 10

(H. M. Wo.)

1Figures 1, 2, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 16 are redrawn from Wasielewski’sSporozoenkunde, by permission of the author and of the publisher, Gustav Fischer, Jena.

GRÉGOIRE, HENRI(1750-1831), French revolutionist and constitutional bishop of Blois, was born at Vého near Lunéville, on the 4th of December 1750, the son of a peasant. Educated at the Jesuit college at Nancy, he became curé of Emberménil and a teacher at the Jesuit school at Pont-à-Mousson. In 1783 he was crowned by the academy of Nancy for hisÉloge de la poésie, and in 1788 by that of Metz for anEssai sur la régénération physique et morale des Juifs. He was elected in 1789 by the clergy of thebailliageof Nancy to the states-general, where he soon became conspicuous in the group of clerical and lay deputies of Jansenist or Gallican sympathies who supported the Revolution. He was among the first of the clergy to join the third estate, and contributed largely to the union of the three orders; he presided at the permanent sitting of sixty-two hours while the Bastille was being attacked by the people, and made a vehement speech against the enemies of the nation. He subsequently took a leading share in the abolition of the privileges of the nobles and the Church. Under the new civil constitution of the clergy, to which he was the first priest to take the oath (December 27, 1790), he was elected bishop by two departments. He selected that of Loire-et-Cher, taking the old title of bishop of Blois, and for ten years (1791-1801) ruled his diocese with exemplary zeal. An ardent republican, it was he who in the first session of the National Convention (September 21, 1792) proposed the motion for the abolition of the kingship, in a speech in which occurred the memorable phrase that “kings are in the moral order what monsters are in the natural.” On the 15th of November he delivered a speech in which he demanded that the king should be brought to trial, and immediately afterwards was elected president of the Convention, over which he presided in his episcopal dress. During the trial of Louis XVI., being absent with other three colleagues on a mission for the union of Savoy to France, he along with them wrote a letter urging the condemnation of the king, but omitting the wordsà mort; and he endeavoured to save the life of the king by proposing in the Convention that the penalty of death should be suspended.

When on the 7th of November 1793 Gobel, bishop of Paris, was intimidated into resigning his episcopal office at the bar of the Convention, Grégoire, who was temporarily absent from the sitting, hearing what had happened, hurried to the hall, and in the face of a howling mob of deputies refused to abjure either his religion or his office. He was prepared to face the death which he expected; but his courage, a rare quality at that time, won the day, and the hubbub subsided in cries of “Let Grégoire have his way!” Throughout the Terror, in spite of attacks in the Convention, in the press, and on placards posted at the street corners, he appeared in the streets in his episcopal dress and daily read mass in his house. After Robespierre’s fall he was the first to advocate the reopening of the churches (speech of December 21, 1794). He also exerted himself to get measures put in execution for restraining the vandalistic fury against the monuments of art, extended his protection to artists and men of letters, and devoted much of his attention to the reorganization of the public libraries, the establishment of botanic gardens, and the improvement of technical education. He had taken during the Constituent Assembly a great interest in Negro emancipation, and it was on his motion that men of colour in the French colonies were admitted to the same rights as whites. On the establishment of the new constitution, Grégoire was elected to the Council of 500, and after the 18th Brumaire he became a member of the Corps Législatif, then of the Senate (1801). He took the lead in the national church councils of 1797 and 1801; but he was strenuously opposed to Napoleon’s policy of reconciliation with the Holy See, and after the signature of the concordat he resigned his bishopric (October 8, 1801). He was one of the minority of five in the Senate who voted against the proclamation of the empire, and he opposed the creation of the new nobility and the divorce of Napoleon from Josephine; but notwithstanding this he was subsequently created a count of the empire and officer of the Legion of Honour. During the later years of Napoleon’s reign he travelled in England and Germany, but in 1814 he had returned to France and was one of the chief instigators of the action that was taken against the empire.

To the clerical and ultra-royalist faction which was supreme in the Lower Chamber and in the circles of the court after the second Restoration, Grégoire, as a revolutionist and a schismatic bishop, was an object of double loathing. He was expelled from the Institute and forced into retirement. But even in this period of headlong reaction his influence was felt and feared. In 1814 he had published a work,De la constitution française de l’an 1814, in which he commented on the Charter from a Liberal point of view, and this reached its fourth edition in 1819. In this latter year he was elected to the Lower Chamber by the department of Isère. By the powers of the Quadruple Alliance this event was regarded as of the most sinister omen, and the question was even raised of a fresh armed intervention in France under the terms of the secret treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. To prevent such a catastrophe Louis XVIII. decided on a modification of the franchise; the Dessolle ministry resigned; and the first act of Decazes, the new premier, was to carry a vote in the chamber annulling the election of Grégoire. From this time onward the ex-bishop lived in retirement, occupying himself in literary pursuits and in correspondence with most of the eminent savants of Europe; but as he had been deprived of his pension as a senator he was compelled to sell his library to obtain means of support. He died on the 20th of May 1831.

To the last Grégoire remained a devout Catholic, exactly fulfilling all his obligations as a Christian and a priest; but he refused to budge an inch from his revolutionary principles. During his last illness he confessed to his parishcuré, a priest of Jansenist sympathies, and expressed his desire for the last sacraments of the Church. These the archbishop of Paris would only concede on condition that he would retract his oath to the civil constitution of the clergy, which he peremptorily refused to do. Thereupon, in defiance of the archbishop, the abbé Baradère gave him theviaticum, while the rite of extreme unction was administered by the abbé Guillon, an opponent of the civil constitution, without consulting the archbishop or the parish curé. The attitude of the archbishop roused great excitement in Paris, and the government had to take precautions to avoid a repetition of the riots which in the preceding February had led to the sacking of the church of St Germain l’Auxerrois and the archiepiscopal palace. On the day after his death Grégoire’s funeral was celebrated at the church of the Abbaye-aux-Bois; the clergy of the church had absented themselves in obedience to the archbishop’s orders, but mass was sung by the abbé Grieu assisted by two clergy, the catafalque being decorated with the episcopal insignia. After the hearse set out from the church the horses were unyoked, and it was dragged by students to the cemetery of Montparnasse, the cortège being followed by a sympathetic crowd of some 20,000 people.

Whatever his merits as a writer or as a philanthropist, Grégoire’s name lives in history mainly by reason of his wholehearted effort to prove that Catholic Christianity is not irreconcilable with modern conceptions of political liberty. In this effort he was defeated, mainly because the Revolution, for lack of experience in the right use of liberty, changed into a military despotism which allied itself with the spiritual despotism of Rome; partly because, when the Revolution was overthrown,the parties of reaction sought salvation in the “union of altar and throne.” Possibly Grégoire’s Gallicanism was fundamentally irreconcilable with the Catholic idea of authority. At least it made their traditional religion possible for those many French Catholics who clung passionately to the benefits the Revolution had brought them; and had it prevailed, it might have spared France and the world that fatal gulf between Liberalism and Catholicism which Pius IX.’s Syllabus of 1864 sought to make impassable.

Besides several political pamphlets, Grégoire was the author ofHistoire des sectes religieuses, depuis le commencement du siècle dernier jusqu’à l’époque actuelle(2 vols., 1810);Essai historique sur les libertés de l’église gallicane(1818);De l’influence du Christianisme sur la condition des femmes(1821);Histoire des confesseurs des empereurs, des rois, et d’autres princes(1824);Histoire du mariage des prêtres en France(1826).Grégoireana, ou résumé général de la conduite, des actions, et des écrits de M. le comte Henri Grégoire, preceded by a biographical notice by Cousin d’Avalon, was published in 1821; and theMémoires ... de Grégoire, with a biographical notice by H. Carnot, appeared in 1837 (2 vols.). See also A. Debidour,L’Abbé Grégoire(1881); A. Gazier, Études sur l’histoire religieuse de la Révolution Française (1883); L. Maggiolo, La Vie et les œuvres de l’abbé Grégoire (Nancy, 1884), and numerous articles inLa Révolution Française; E. Meaume,Étude hist. et biog. sur les Lorrains révolutionnaires(Nancy, 1882); and A. Gazier,Études sur l’histoire religieuse de la Révolution Française(1887).

GREGORAS, NICEPHORUS(c.1295-1360), Byzantine historian, man of learning and religious controversialist, was born at Heraclea in Pontus. At an early age he settled at Constantinople, where his reputation for learning brought him under the notice of Andronicus II., by whom he was appointed Chartophylax (keeper of the archives). In 1326 Gregoras proposed (in a still extant treatise) certain reforms in the calendar, which the emperor refused to carry out for fear of disturbances; nearly two hundred years later they were introduced by Gregory XIII. on almost the same lines. When Andronicus was dethroned (1328) by his grandson Andronicus III., Gregoras shared his downfall and retired into private life. Attacked by Barlaam, the famous monk of Calabria, he was with difficulty persuaded to come forward and meet him in a war of words, in which Barlaam was worsted. This greatly enhanced his reputation and brought him a large number of pupils. Gregoras remained loyal to the elder Andronicus to the last, but after his death he succeeded in gaining the favour of his grandson, by whom he was appointed to conduct the unsuccessful negotiations (for a union of the Greek and Latin churches) with the ambassadors of Pope John XXII. (1333). Gregoras subsequently took an important part in the Hesychast controversy, in which he violently opposed Gregorius Palamas, the chief supporter of the sect. After the doctrines of Palamas had been recognized at the synod of 1351, Gregoras, who refused to acquiesce, was practically imprisoned in a monastery for two years. Nothing is known of the end of his life. His chief work is hisRoman History, in 37 books, of the years 1204 to 1359. It thus partly supplements and partly continues the work of George Pachymeres. Gregoras shows considerable industry, but his style is pompous and affected. Far too much space is devoted to religious matters and dogmatic quarrels. This work and that of John Cantacuzene supplement and correct each other, and should be read together. The other writings of Gregoras, which (with a few exceptions) still remain unpublished, attest his great versatility. Amongst them may be mentioned a history of the dispute with Palamas; biographies of his uncle and early instructor John, metropolitan of Heraclea, and of the martyr Codratus of Antioch; funeral orations for Theodore Metochita, and the two emperors Andronicus; commentaries on the wanderings of Odysseus and on Synesius’s treatise on dreams; tracts on orthography and on words of doubtful meaning; a philosophical dialogue calledFlorentius or Concerning Wisdom; astronomical treatises on the date of Easter and the preparation of the astrolabe; and an extensive correspondence.

Editions: in BonnCorpus scriptorum hist. Byz., by L. Schopen and I. Bekker, with life and list of works by J. Boivin (1829-1855); J. P. Migne,Patrologia graeca, cxlviii., cxlix.; see also C. Krumbacher,Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur(1897).

GREGOROVIUS, FERDINAND(1821-1891), German historian, was born at Neidenburg on the 19th of January 1821, and studied at the university of Königsberg. After spending some years in teaching he took up his residence in Italy in 1852, remaining in that country for over twenty years. He was made a citizen of Rome, and he died at Munich on the 1st of May 1891. Gregorovius’s interest in and acquaintance with Italy and Italian history is mainly responsible for his great book,Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter(Stuttgart, 1859-1872, and other editions), a work of much erudition and interest, which has been translated into English by A. Hamilton (13 vols., 1894-1900), and also into Italian at the expense of the Romans (Venice, 1874-1876). It deals with the history of Rome from aboutA.D.400 to the death of Pope Clement VII. in 1534, and in the words of its author it describes “how, from the time of Charles the Great to that of Charles V., the historic system of the papacy remained inseparable from that of the Empire.” The other works of Gregorovius include:Geschichte des Kaisers Hadrian und seiner Zeit(Königsberg, 1851), English translation by M. E. Robinson (1898);Corsica(Stuttgart, 1854), English translation by R. Martineau (1855);Lucrezia Borgia(Stuttgart, 1874), English translation by J. L. Garner (1904);Die Grabdenkmäler der Päpste(Leipzig, 1881), English translation by R. W. Seton-Watson (1903);Wanderjahre in Italien(5 vols., Leipzig, 1888-1892);Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter(1889);Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte der Kultur(Leipzig, 1887-1892); andUrban VIII. im Widerspruch zu Spanien und dem Kaiser(Stuttgart, 1879). This last work was translated into Italian by the author himself (Rome, 1879). Gregorovius was also something of a poet; he wrote a drama,Der Tod des Tiberius(1851), and someGedichte(Leipzig, 1891).

HisRömische Tagebücherwere edited by F. Althaus (Stuttgart, 1892), and were translated into English as theRoman Journals of F. Gregorovius, by A. Hamilton (1907).

GREGORY, ST(c.213-c. 270), surnamed in later ecclesiastical tradition Thaumaturgus (the miracle-worker), was born of noble and wealthy pagan parents at Neocaesarea in Pontus, aboutA.D.213. His original name was Theodorus. He took up the study of civil law, and, with his brother Athenodorus, was on his way to Berytus to complete his training when at Caesarea he met Origen, and became his pupil and then his convert (A.D.233). In returning to Cappadocia some five years after his conversion, it had been his original intention to live a retired ascetic life (Eus.H.E.vi. 30), but, urged by Origen, and at last almost compelled by Phaedimus of Amasia, his metropolitan, neither of whom was willing to see so much learning, piety and masculine energy practically lost to the church, he, after many attempts to evade the dignity, was consecrated bishop of his native town (about 240). His episcopate, which lasted some thirty years, was characterized by great missionary zeal, and by so much success that, according to the (doubtless somewhat rhetorical) statement of Gregory of Nyssa, whereas at the outset of his labours there were only seventeen Christians in the city, there were at his death only seventeen persons in all who had not embraced Christianity. This result he achieved in spite of the Decian persecution (250-251), during which he had felt it to be his duty to absent himself from his diocese, and notwithstanding the demoralizing effects of an irruption of barbarians (Goths and Boranians) who laid waste the diocese inA.D.253-254. Gregory, although he has not always escaped the charge of Sabellianism, now holds an undisputed place among the fathers of the church; and although the turn of his mind was practical rather than speculative, he is known to have taken an energetic part in most of the doctrinal controversies of his time. He was active at the first synod of Antioch (A.D.264-265), which investigated and condemned the heresies of Paul of Samosata; and the rapid spread in Pontus of a Trinitarianism approaching the Nicene type is attributed in large measure to the weight of his influence. Gregory is believed to have died in the reign of Aurelian, about the year 270, though perhaps an earlier date is more probable. His festival (semiduplex) is observed by the Roman Catholic Church on the 17th of November.

For the facts of his biography we have an outline of his early years in his eulogy on Origen, and incidental notices in the writings of Eusebius, of Basil of Caesarea and Jerome. Gregory of Nyssa’s untrustworthy panegyric represents him as having wrought miracles of a very startling description; but nothing related by him comes near the astounding narratives given in theMartyrologies, or even in theBreviarium Romanum, in connexion with his name.The principal works of Gregory Thaumaturgus are thePanegyricus in Origenem(Εἰς Ὠριγένην πανηγυρικὸς λόγος), which he wrote when on the point of leaving the school of that great master (it contains a valuable minute description of Origen’s mode of instruction), aMetaphrasis in Ecclesiasten, characterized by Jerome as “short but useful”; and anEpistola canonica, which treats of the discipline to be undergone by those Christians who under pressure of persecution had relapsed into paganism, but desired to be restored to the privileges of the Church. It gives a good picture of the conditions of the time, and shows Gregory to be a true shepherd (cf. artPenance). TheἜκθεσις πίστεως(Expositio fidei), a short creed usually attributed to Gregory, and traditionally alleged to have been received by him immediately in vision from the apostle John himself, is probably authentic. A sort of Platonic dialogue of doubtful authenticity “on the impassivity and the passivity of God” in Syriac is in the British Museum.Editions: Gerhard Voss (Mainz, 1604), Fronto Ducäus (Paris, 1622), Migne, Patr. Graec. x. 963.Translations: S. D. F. Salmond inAnte-Nicene Fathers, vi.;Lives, by Pallavicini (Rome, 1644); J. L. Boye (Jena, 1709); H. R. Reynolds (Dict. Chr. Biog.ii.); G. Krüger,Early Chr. Lit.226; Herzog-Hauck,Realencyk.vii. (where full bibliographies are given).

The principal works of Gregory Thaumaturgus are thePanegyricus in Origenem(Εἰς Ὠριγένην πανηγυρικὸς λόγος), which he wrote when on the point of leaving the school of that great master (it contains a valuable minute description of Origen’s mode of instruction), aMetaphrasis in Ecclesiasten, characterized by Jerome as “short but useful”; and anEpistola canonica, which treats of the discipline to be undergone by those Christians who under pressure of persecution had relapsed into paganism, but desired to be restored to the privileges of the Church. It gives a good picture of the conditions of the time, and shows Gregory to be a true shepherd (cf. artPenance). TheἜκθεσις πίστεως(Expositio fidei), a short creed usually attributed to Gregory, and traditionally alleged to have been received by him immediately in vision from the apostle John himself, is probably authentic. A sort of Platonic dialogue of doubtful authenticity “on the impassivity and the passivity of God” in Syriac is in the British Museum.

Editions: Gerhard Voss (Mainz, 1604), Fronto Ducäus (Paris, 1622), Migne, Patr. Graec. x. 963.

Translations: S. D. F. Salmond inAnte-Nicene Fathers, vi.;Lives, by Pallavicini (Rome, 1644); J. L. Boye (Jena, 1709); H. R. Reynolds (Dict. Chr. Biog.ii.); G. Krüger,Early Chr. Lit.226; Herzog-Hauck,Realencyk.vii. (where full bibliographies are given).

GREGORY, ST, OF NAZIANZUS(329-389), surnamed Theologus, one of the four great fathers of the Eastern Church, was born about the yearA.D.329, at or near Nazianzus, Cappadocia. His father, also named Gregory, had lately become bishop of the diocese; his mother, Nonna, exercised a powerful influence over the religious convictions of both father and son. Gregory visited successively the two Caesareas, Alexandria and Athens, as a student of grammar, mathematics, rhetoric and philosophy; at Athens he had for fellow-students Basil (q.v.), who afterwards became bishop of Caesarea, and Julian, afterwards emperor. Shortly after his return to his father’s house at Nazianzus (about the year 360) Gregory received baptism. He resolved to give himself to the service of religion; but for some time, and indeed more or less throughout his whole life, was in a state of hesitation as to the form which that service ought to take. Strongly inclined by nature and education to a contemplative life spent among books and in the society of congenial friends, he was continually urged by outward circumstances, as well as by an inward call, to active pastoral labour. The spirit of refined intellectual monasticism, which clung to him through life and never ceased to struggle for the ascendancy, was about this time strongly encouraged by his intercourse with Basil, who induced him to share the exalted pleasures of his retirement in Pontus. To this period belongs the preparation of theΦιλοκαλία, a sort of chrestomathy compiled by the two friends from the writings of Origen. But the events which were stirring the political and ecclesiastical life of Cappadocia, and indeed of the whole Roman world, made a career of learned leisure difficult if not impossible to a man of Gregory’s position and temperament. The emperor Constantius, having by intrigue and intimidation succeeded in thrusting a semi-Arian formula upon the Western bishops assembled at Ariminum in Italy, had next attempted to follow the same course with the Eastern episcopate. The aged bishop of Nazianzus having yielded to the imperial threats, a great storm arose among the monks of the diocese, which was only quelled by the influence of the younger Gregory, who shortly afterwards (about 361) was ordained to the priesthood. After a vain attempt to evade his new duties and responsibilities by flight, he appears to have continued to act as a presbyter in his father’s diocese without interruption for some considerable time; and it is probable that his twoInvectivesagainst Julian are to be assigned to this period. Subsequently (about 372), under a pressure which he somewhat resented, he allowed himself to be nominated by Basil as bishop of Sasima, a miserable little village some 32 m. from Tyana; but he seems hardly, if at all, to have assumed the duties of this diocese, for after another interval of “flight” we find him once more (about 372-373) at Nazianzus, assisting his aged father, on whose death (374) he retired to Seleucia in Isauria for a period of some years. Meanwhile a more important field for his activities was opening up. Towards 378-379 the small and depressed remnant of the orthodox party in Constantinople sent him an urgent summons to undertake the task of resuscitating their cause, so long persecuted and borne down by the Arians of the capital. With the accession of Theodosius to the imperial throne, the prospect of success to the Nicene doctrine had dawned, if only it could find some courageous and devoted champion. The fame of Gregory as a learned and eloquent disciple of Origen, and still more of Athanasius, pointed him out as such a defender; nor could he resist the appeal made to him, although he took the step reluctantly. Once arrived in Constantinople, he laboured so zealously and well that the orthodox party speedily gathered strength; and the small apartment in which they had been accustomed to meet was soon exchanged for a vast and celebrated church which received the significant name of Anastasia, the Church of the Resurrection. Among the hearers of Gregory were to be found, not only churchmen like Jerome and Evagrius, but also heretics and pagans; and it says much for the sound wisdom and practical tact of the preacher that he set himself less to build up and defend a doctrinal position than to urge his flock to the cultivation of the loving Christian spirit which cherishes higher aims than mere heresy hunting or endless disputation. Doctrinal, nevertheless, he was, as is abundantly shown by the famous five discourses on the Trinity, which earned for him the distinctive appellation ofθεολόγος. These orations are the finest exposition of the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity as conceived by the orthodox teachers of the East, and they were directed especially against the Eunomians and Macedonians. “There is perhaps no single book in Greek patristic literature to which the student who desires to gain an exact and comprehensive view of Greek theology can be more confidently referred.” With the arrival of Theodosius in 380 came the visible triumph of the orthodox cause; the metropolitan see was then conferred upon Gregory, and after the assembling of the second ecumenical council in 381 he received consecration from Meletius. In consequence, however, of a spirit of discord and envy which had manifested itself in connexion with this promotion, he soon afterwards resigned his dignity and withdrew into comparative retirement. The rest of his days were spent partly at Nazianzus in ecclesiastical affairs, and partly on his neighbouring patrimonial estate at Arianzus, where he followed his favourite literary pursuits, especially poetical composition, until his death, which occurred in 389 or 390. His festival is celebrated in the Eastern Church on the 25th and 30th of January, in the Western on the 9th of May (duplex).

His extant works consist of poems, epistles and orations. The poems, which include epigrams, elegies and an autobiographical sketch, have been frequently printed, theeditio princepsbeing the Aldine (1504). Other editions are those of Tollius (1696) and Muratori (1709); a volume ofCarmina selectaalso has been edited by Dronke (1840). The tragedy entitledΧριστὸς πἀσχωνusually included is certainly not genuine. Gregory’s poetry did not absorb his best energies; it was adopted in his later years as a recreation rather than as a serious pursuit; thus it is occasionally delicate, graphic, beautiful, but it is not sustained. Of the hymns none have passed into ecclesiastical use. The letters are entitled to a higher place in literature. They are always easy and natural; and there is nothing forced in the manner in which their acute, witty and profound sayings are introduced. Those to Basil introduce us to the story of a most romantic friendship, those to Cledonius have theological value for their bearing on the Apollinarian controversy. As an orator he was so facile, vigorous and persuasive, that men forgot his small stature and emaciated countenance. Forty-five orations are extant. Gregory was less an independent theologian than an interpreter. He was influenced by Athanasius in his Christology, by Origen in his anthropology, for, though teaching original sin and deriving human mortality from the Fall, he insists on the ability of the human will to choose the good and to co-operate in the work of salvation with the will of God. Though possessed neither of Basil’s gift of government nor of Gregory of Nyssa’s power of speculative thought, he worthily takes a place in that triumvirate of Cappadocians whom the Catholic Church gratefully recognizes as having been, during the critical struggles in the latter half of the 4th century, the best defenders of its faith. TheOpera omniawerefirst published by Hervagius (Basel, 1550); the subsequent editions have been those of Billius (Paris, 1609, 1611; aucta ex interpretatione Morelli, 1630), of the Benedictines (begun in 1778, but interrupted by the French Revolution and not completed until 1840, Caillau being the final editor) and of Migne. TheTheological Orations(edited by A. J. Mason) were published separately at Cambridge in 1899.Scattered notices of the life of Gregory Nazianzen are to be found in the writings of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret and Rufinus, as well as in his own letters and poems. The data derived from these sources do not always harmonize with the account of Suidas. The earlier modern authorities, such as Tillemont (Mem. Eccl.t. ix.) and Leclerc (Bib. Univ.t. xviii.), were used by Gibbon. See also C. Ullmann,Gregorius von Nazianz, der Theologe(1825; Eng. trans. by G. F. Coxe, M.A., 1857); A. Bénoit,St Grégoire de Nazianze; sa vie, ses œuvres, et son époque(1877); Montaut,Revue critique de quelques questions historiques se rapportant à St Grégoire de Nazianze(1879); F. W. Farrar,Lives of the Fathers, i. 491-582, and F. Loofs in Hauck-Herzog’sRealencyk. für prot. Theologie, vii. 138.

Scattered notices of the life of Gregory Nazianzen are to be found in the writings of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret and Rufinus, as well as in his own letters and poems. The data derived from these sources do not always harmonize with the account of Suidas. The earlier modern authorities, such as Tillemont (Mem. Eccl.t. ix.) and Leclerc (Bib. Univ.t. xviii.), were used by Gibbon. See also C. Ullmann,Gregorius von Nazianz, der Theologe(1825; Eng. trans. by G. F. Coxe, M.A., 1857); A. Bénoit,St Grégoire de Nazianze; sa vie, ses œuvres, et son époque(1877); Montaut,Revue critique de quelques questions historiques se rapportant à St Grégoire de Nazianze(1879); F. W. Farrar,Lives of the Fathers, i. 491-582, and F. Loofs in Hauck-Herzog’sRealencyk. für prot. Theologie, vii. 138.

GREGORY, ST, OF NYSSA(c.331-c.396), one of the four great fathers of the Eastern Church, designated by one of the later ecumenical councils as “a father of fathers,” was a younger brother of Basil (the Great), bishop of Caesarea, and was born (probably) at Neocaesarea aboutA.D.331. For his education he was chiefly indebted to his elder brother. At a comparatively early age he entered the church, and held for some time the office of anagnost or reader; subsequently he manifested a desire to devote himself to the secular life as a rhetorician, an impulse which was checked by the earnest remonstrances of Gregory of Nazianzus. Finally, in 371 or 372 he was ordained by his brother Basil to the bishopric of Nyssa, a small town in Cappadocia. Here he is usually said (but on inadequate data) to have adopted the opinion then gaining ground in favour of the celibacy of the clergy, and to have separated from his wife Theosebia, who became a deaconess in the church. His strict orthodoxy on the subject of the Trinity and the Incarnation, together with his vigorous eloquence, combined to make him peculiarly obnoxious to the Arian faction, which was at that time in the ascendant through the protection of the emperor Valens; and in 375, the synod of Ancyra, convened by Demetrius the Arian governor of Pontus, condemned him for alleged irregularities in his election and in the administration of the finances of his diocese. In 376 he was deprived of his see, and Valens sent him into exile, whence he did not return till the publication of the edict of Gratian in 378. Shortly afterwards he took part in the proceedings of the synod which met at Antioch in Caria, principally in connexion with the Meletian schism. At the great ecumenical council held at Constantinople in 381, he was a conspicuous champion of the orthodox faith; according to Nicephorus, indeed, the additions made to the Nicene creed were entirely due to his suggestion, but this statement is of doubtful authority. That his eloquence was highly appreciated is shown by the facts that he pronounced the discourse at the consecration of Gregory of Nazianzus, and that he was chosen to deliver the funeral oration on the death of Meletius the first president of the council. In the following year, moreover (382), he was commissioned by the council to inspect and set in order the churches of Arabia, in connexion with which mission he also visited Jerusalem. The impressions he gathered from this journey may, in part at least, be gathered from his famous letterDe euntibus Hierosolyma, in which an opinion strongly unfavourable to pilgrimages is expressed. In 383 he was probably again in Constantinople; where in 385 he pronounced the funeral orations of the princess Pulcheria and afterwards of the empress Placilla. Once more we read of him in 394 as having been present in that metropolis at the synod held under the presidency of Nectarius to settle a controversy which had arisen among the bishops of Arabia; in the same year he assisted at the consecration of the new church of the apostles at Chalcedon, on which occasion there is reason to believe that his discourse commonly but wrongly known as thatΕἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ χειροτονίανwas delivered. The exact date of his death is unknown; some authorities refer it to396, others to 400. His festival is observed by the Greek Church on the 10th of January; in the Western martyrologies he is commemorated on the 9th of March.

Gregory of Nyssa was not so firm and able an administrator as his brother Basil, nor so magnificent an orator as Gregory of Nazianzus, but he excelled them both, alike as a speculative and constructive theologian, and in the wide extent of his acquirements. His teaching, though strictly trinitarian, shows considerable freedom and originality of thought; in many points his mental and spiritual affinities with Origen show themselves with advantage, as in his doctrine ofἀποκατάστασιςor final restoration. There are marked pantheistic tendencies,e.g.the inclusion of sin as a necessary part of the cosmical process, which make him akin to the pantheistic monophysites and to some modern thinkers.

His style has been frequently praised by competent authorities for sweetness, richness and elegance. His numerous works may be classified under five heads: (1) Treatises in doctrinal and polemical theology. Of these the most important is thatAgainst Eunomiusin twelve books. Its doctrinal thesis (which is supported with great philosophic acumen and rhetorical power) is the divinity and consubstantiality of the Word; incidentally the character of Basil, which Eunomius had aspersed, is vindicated, and the heretic himself is held up to scorn and contempt. This is the work which, most probably in a shorter draft, was read by its author when at Constantinople before Gregory Nazianzen and Jerome in 381 (Jerome,De vir. ill.128). To the same class belong the treatiseTo Ablavius, against the tritheists;On Faith, against the Arians;On Common Notions, in explanation of the terms in current employment with regard to the Trinity;Ten Syllogisms, against the Manichaeans;To Theophilus, against the Apollinarians; anAntirrheticagainst the same;Against Fate, a disputation with a heathen philosopher;De anima et resurrectione, a dialogue with his dying sister Macrina; and theOratio catechetica magna, an argument for the incarnation as the best possible form of redemption, intended to convince educated pagans and Jews. (2) Practical treatises. To this category belong the tractsOn VirginityandOn Pilgrimages; as also theCanonical Epistleupon the rules of penance. (3) Expository and homiletical works, including theHexaëmeron, and several series of discoursesOn the Workmanship of Man,On the Inscriptions of the Psalms,On the Sixth Psalm,On the first three Chapters of Ecclesiastes,On Canticles,On the Lord’s PrayerandOn the Eight Beatitudes. (4) Biographical, consisting chiefly of funeral orations. (5) Letters.The only complete editions of the whole works are those by Fronton le Duc (Fronto Ducäus, Paris, 1615; with additions, 1618 and 1638) and by Migne. G. H. Forbes began an excellent critical edition, but only two parts of the first volume appeared (Burntisland, 1855 and 1861) containing theExplicatio apologetica in hexaëmeronand theDe opificio hominis. Of the new edition projected by F. Oehler only the first volume, containing theOpera dogmatica, has appeared (1865). There have been numerous editions of several single treatises, as for example of theOratio catechetica(J. G. Krabinger, Munich, 1838; J. H. Crawley, Cambridge, 1903),De precationeandDe anima et resurrectione.See F. W. Farrar,Lives of the Fathers, ii. 56-83, the monograph by J. Rupp (Gregors, des Bischofs von Nyssa, Leben und Meinungen, Leipzig, 1834), and compare P. Heyns (Disputatio historico-theologica de Greg. Nyss., 1835), C. W. Möller (Gregorii Nyss. doctrinam de hominis natura et illustravit et cum Origeniana comparavit, 1854) and J. N. Stigler,Die Psychologie des h. Gregors von Nyssa(Regensburg, 1857), and many smaller monographs cited in Hauck-Herzog’sRealencyk. für prot. Theol.vii. 149.

The only complete editions of the whole works are those by Fronton le Duc (Fronto Ducäus, Paris, 1615; with additions, 1618 and 1638) and by Migne. G. H. Forbes began an excellent critical edition, but only two parts of the first volume appeared (Burntisland, 1855 and 1861) containing theExplicatio apologetica in hexaëmeronand theDe opificio hominis. Of the new edition projected by F. Oehler only the first volume, containing theOpera dogmatica, has appeared (1865). There have been numerous editions of several single treatises, as for example of theOratio catechetica(J. G. Krabinger, Munich, 1838; J. H. Crawley, Cambridge, 1903),De precationeandDe anima et resurrectione.

See F. W. Farrar,Lives of the Fathers, ii. 56-83, the monograph by J. Rupp (Gregors, des Bischofs von Nyssa, Leben und Meinungen, Leipzig, 1834), and compare P. Heyns (Disputatio historico-theologica de Greg. Nyss., 1835), C. W. Möller (Gregorii Nyss. doctrinam de hominis natura et illustravit et cum Origeniana comparavit, 1854) and J. N. Stigler,Die Psychologie des h. Gregors von Nyssa(Regensburg, 1857), and many smaller monographs cited in Hauck-Herzog’sRealencyk. für prot. Theol.vii. 149.

GREGORY, ST, OF TOURS(538-594), historian of the Franks, was born in the chief city of the Arverni (the modern Clermont-Ferrand) on the 30th of November 538. His real name was Georgius Florentius, Georgius being his grandfather’s name and Florentius his father’s. He was called Gregory after his maternal great-grandfather, the bishop of Langres. Gregory belonged to an illustrious senatorial family, many of whose members held high office in the church and bear honoured names in the history of Christianity. He was descended, it is said, from Vettius Epagathus, who was martyred at Lyons in 177 with St Pothinus; his paternal uncle, Gallus, was bishop of Clermont; his maternal grand-uncle, Nicetius (St Nizier), occupied the see of Lyons; and he was a kinsman of Euphronius, bishop of Tours.

Gregory lost his father early, and his mother Armentaria settled in the kingdom of Burgundy on an estate belonging to her near Cavaillon, where her son often visited her. Gregory was brought up at Clermont-Ferrand by his uncle Gallus and by his successor, Avitus, and there he received his education. Among profane authors he read the first six books of theAeneidand Sallust’s history of the Catiline conspiracy, but his education was mainly religious. The principles of religion he learnt fromthe Bible, Sulpicius Severus and some lives of saints, but to patristic literature and the subtleties of theology he remained a stranger. In 563, at the age of twenty-five, he was ordained deacon. Falling seriously ill, he went to Tours to seek a cure at the tomb of St Martin. At Tours he lived with Euphronius, and so great was the young man’s popularity that, on the death of Euphronius in 573, the people unanimously designated him bishop.

At that time Tours belonged to Austrasia, and King Sigebert hastened to confirm Gregory’s election. After the assassination of Sigebert (575), the province was ruled by Chilperic for nine years, during which period Gregory displayed the greatest energy in protecting his town and church from the Frankish king. He had to contend with Count Leudast, the governor of Tours; despite all the king’s threats, he refused to give up Chilperic’s son Meroving, who had sought refuge from his father’s wrath at the sanctuary of St Martin; and he defended Bishop Pretextatus against Chilperic, by whom he had been condemned for celebrating the marriage of Merovech and Queen Brunhilda. In 580 Gregory was himself accused before a council at Berny of using abusive language against Queen Fredegond, but he cleared himself of the charge by an oath and was acquitted. On the death of Chilperic, Tours remained for two years (584-585) in the hands of Guntram, but when Guntram adopted his nephew Childebert, Sigebert’s son, it again became Austrasian. This change was welcome to Gregory, who often visited the court. In 586 he was at Coblenz, and on his return to Yvois (the modern Carignan) visited the stylite Wulfilaic; in 588 we hear of him at Metz and also at Chalon-sur-Saône, whither he was sent to obtain from King Guntram the ratification of the pact of Andelot; in 593 he was at Orleans, where Childebert had just succeeded his uncle Guntram. In the intervals of these journeys he governed Tours with great firmness, repressing disorders and reducing the monks and nuns to obedience. He died on the 17th of November 594.

Gregory left many writings, of which he himself gives an enumeration at the end of hisHistoria Francorum: “Decem libros Historiarum, septem Miraculorum, unum de Vita Patrum scripsi; in Psalterii tractatu librum unum commentatus sum; de Cursibus etiam ecclesiasticis unum librum condidi.” The ten books of history are discussed below. The seven books of miracles are divided into theDe gloria martyrum, theDe virtutibus sancti Juliani, four books ofMiracula sancti Martini, and theDe gloria confessorum, the last dealing mainly with confessors who had dwelt in the cities of Tours and Clermont. TheVitae patrumconsists of twenty biographies of bishops, abbots and hermits belonging to Gaul. The commentary on the Psalms is lost, the preface and the titles of the chapters alone being extant. The treatiseDe cursibus ecclesiasticis, discovered in 1853, is a liturgical manual for determining the hour of divers nocturnal offices by the position of the stars. Gregory also left a life of St Andrew, translated from the Greek, and a history of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, translated from Syriac.

His most important work, however, is theHistoria Francorum, which is divided into three parts. The first four books, which were composed at one time, cover the period from the creation of the world to the death of Sigebert in 575. The first book, which is a mere compilation from the chronicles of St Jerome and Orosius, is of no value. The second book, from 397 to 511, deals with the invasions of the Franks, and is based on the histories of Sulpicius Alexander and Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, now lost; on the catalogues of the bishops of Clermont and Tours; on some lives of saints,e.g.Remigius and Maxentius, now lost; on the annals of Arles and Angers, now lost; and on legends, either collected by Gregory himself from oral tradition, or cantilenes or epics written in the Latin and Germanic languages. In the third and fourth books the earlier part is based on materials collected from men older than himself; of the later events he was himself an eye-witness. The fifth and sixth books, up to the death of Chilperic (584), deal with matters within his own experience. The first six books are often separate in the MSS., and it was these alone that were used by the chronicler Fredegarius in his abridgment of Gregory’s history. To the first six books Gregory subsequently added chapters on the bishops Salonius and Sagittarius, and on his quarrels with Felix of Nantes. The authenticity of these chapters has been undeservedly attacked by Catholic writers. Books vii. to x., from 584 to 591, were written in the form of a diary; of each important event, as it occurred, he inserted an account in his book. The last six books are of great historical value.

Gregory had an intimate knowledge of contemporary events. He was frequently at court, and he found Tours an excellent place for collecting information. The shrine of St Martin attracted the sick from all quarters, and the basilica of the saint was a favourite sanctuary for political refugees. Moreover, Tours was on the high road between the north and south of France, and was a convenient stage for travellers, the ambassadors going to and from Spain frequently halting there. Gregory plied every one with questions, and in this way gathered a great mass of detailed information. He was, besides, at great pains to be an impartial writer, but was not always successful. His devotion to Austrasia made him very bitter against, and perhaps unjust to, the sovereigns of Neustria, Chilperic and Fredegond. As an orthodox Christian, he had no good word for the Arians. He excuses the crimes of kings who protected the church, such as Clovis, Clotaire I. and Guntram, but had no mercy for those who violated ecclesiastical privileges. This attitude, no doubt, explains his hatred for Chilperic. But if Gregory’s historical judgments are suspect, he at least concealed nothing and invented nothing; and we can correct his judgments by his own narrative. His history is a curious compound of artlessness and shrewdness. He was ignorant of the rules of grammar, confused genders and cases, and wrote in the vernacular Latin of his time, apart from certain passages which are especially elaborated and filled with poetical and elegant expressions. But in spite of his shortcomings he is an exceedingly attractive writer, and his mastery of the art of narrative has earned for him the name of the Herodotus of the barbarians.

T. Ruinart brought out a complete edition of Gregory’s works at Paris in 1699. The best modern complete edition is that of W. Arndt and B. Krusch inMon. Germ. hist. script. rer. Merov.(vol. i., 1885). Of the many editions of theHistoria Francorummay be mentioned those of Guadet and Taranne in theSoc. de l’hist. de France(4 vols., with French translation, 1836-1838), of Omont (the first six books; a reproduction of the Corvey MS.) and of G. Collon (the last four books; a reproduction of the Brussels MS. No. 9, 403). Gregory’s hagiographic works were published by H. Bordier in theSoc. de l’hist. de France(4 vols., with French translation, 1857-1864). Cf. J. W. Löbell,Gregor von Tours und seine Zeit(2nd ed., Leipzig, 1868); G. Monod, “Études critiques sur les sources de l’histoire mérovingienne” in theBibl. de l’École des Hautes Études(1872); G. Kurth, “Grégoire de Tours et les études classiques au VIesiècle” in theRevue des questions historiques(xxiv. 586 seq., 1878); Max Bonnet,Le Latin de Grégoire de Tours(Paris, 1890). For details, see Ulysse Chevalier,Biobibliographie(2nd ed.).

(C. Pf.)

GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR,the reputed founder of the Armenian Church. His legend is briefly as follows. His father Anak, head of the Parthian clan of Suren, was bribed about the time of his birth (c.257) by the Sassanid king of Persia to assassinate the Armenian king, Chosroes, who was of the old Arsacid dynasty, and father of Tiridates or Trdat, first Christian king of Armenia. Anak was slain by his victim’s soldiers; Gregory was rescued by his Christian nurse, carried to Caesarea in Cappadocia, and brought up a Christian. Grown to manhood he took service under Tiridates, now king of Armenia, in order by his own fidelity to atone for his father’s treachery. Presently at a feast of Anahite Gregory refused to assist his sovereign in offering pagan sacrifice, and his parentage being now revealed, was thrown into a deep pit at Artashat, where he languished for fourteen years, during which persecution raged in Armenia.

The scene of the legend now shifts to Rome, where Diocletian falls in love with a lovely nun named Ripsimé; she, rather than gratify his passion, flees with her abbess Gaiana and several priests to Armenia. Diocletian asks her back of Tiridates, who meanwhile has fallen in love with her himself. He too is flouted, and in his rage tortures and slays her and her companions. The traditional date of this massacre is the 5th of October,A.D.301. Providence, incensed at such cruelty, turns Tiridates into a wild boar, and afflicts his subjects with madness; but his sister, Chosrowidukht, has a revelation to bring Gregory back out of his pit. The king consents, the saint is acclaimed, the bodies of the thirty-seven martyrs solemnly interred, and the king, after fasting five, and listening to Gregory’s homilies for sixty days, is healed. This all took place at Valarshapat, where Gregory, anxious to fix a site on which to build shrines for the relics of Ripsimé and Gaiana, saw the Son of God come down in a sheen of light, the stars of heaven attending, and smite the earth with a golden hammer till the nether world resounded to his blows. Three chapels were built on the spot, and Gregory raised his cross there and elsewhere for the people to worship, just as St Nino was doing about the same time in Georgia. There followed a campaign against the idols whose temples and books were destroyed. The time had now come for Gregory, who was still a layman and father of two sons, to receive ordination; so he went to Caesarea, where Leontius ordained and consecrated him catholicos or vicar-general of Armenia. This was sometime about 290, when Leontius may have acceded, though we first hear of him as bishop in 314.

Gregory’s ordination at Caesarea is historical. The vision at Valarshapat was invented later by the Armenians when they broke with the Greeks, in order to give to their church the semblance, if not of apostolic, at least of divine origin.

According to Agathangelus, Tiridates went to Rome with Gregory, Aristaces, son of Gregory, and Albianos, head of the other priestly family, to make a pact with Constantine, newly converted to the faith, and receive a pallium from Silvester. The better sources make Sardica the scene of meeting and name Eusebius (of Nicomedia) as the prelate who attended Constantine. There is no reason to doubt that some such visit was made about the year 315, when the death of Maximin Daza left Constantine supreme. Eusebius testifies (H.E.ix. 8) that the Armenians were ardent Christians, and ancient friends and allies of the Roman empire when Maximin attacked them about the year 308. The conversion of Tiridates was probably a matter of policy. His kingdom was honeycombed with Christianity, and he wished to draw closer to the West, where he foresaw the victory of the new faith, in order to fortify his realm against the Sassanids of Persia. Following the same policy he sent Aristaces in 325 to the council of Nice. Gregory is related to have added a clause to the creed which Aristaces brought back; he became a hermit on Mount Sebuh about the year 332, and died there.

Is the Ripsimé episode mere legend? The story of the conversion of Georgia by St Nino in the same age is so full of local colour, and coheres so closely with the story of Ripsimé and Gaiana, that it seems over-sceptical to explain the latter away as a mere doublet of the legend of Prisca and Valeria. The historians Faustus of Byzant and Lazar of Pharp in the 5th century already attest the reverence with which their memory was invested. We know from many sources the prominence assigned to women prophets in the Phrygian church. Nino’s story reads like that of such a female missionary, and something similar must underlie the story of her Armenian companions.

The history of Gregory by Agathangelus is a compilation of about 450, which was rendered into Greek 550. Professor Marr has lately published an Arabic text from a MS. in Sinai which seems to contain an older tradition. A letter of Bishop George of Arabia to Jeshu, a priest of the town Anab, dated 714 (edited by Dashian, Vienna, 1891), contains an independent tradition of Gregory, and styles him a Roman by birth.

In spite of legendary accretions we can still discern the true outlines and significance of his life. He did not really illumine or convert great Armenia, for the people were in the main already converted by Syrian missionaries to the Adoptionist or Ebionite type of faith which was dominant in the far East, and was afterwards known as Nestorianism. Marcionites and Montanists had also worked in the field. Gregory persuaded Tiridates to destroy the last relics of the old paganism, and carried out in the religious sphere his sovereign’s policy of detaching Great Armenia from the Sassanid realm and allying it with the Graeco-Roman empire and civilization. He set himself to Hellenize or Catholicize Armenian Christianity, and in furtherance of this aim set up a hierarchy officially dependent on the Cappadocian. He in effect turned his country into a province of the Greek see of Cappadocia. This hierarchical tie was soon snapped, but the Hellenizing influence continued to work, and bore its most abundant fruit in the 5th century. His career was thus analogous to that of St Patrick in Ireland.

Back to Index Next