Download PDF | Andrew J. Ekonomou - Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes_ Eastern Influences on Rome and the Papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590-752-Lexington Books (2007).
360 Pages
Cum Illi Graeci Sint, Nos Latini' Rome and the East in the
Time of Gregory the Great
Cao 5 were net strangers te Reme. When they arrived frem the East in the middle ef the sixth century te eccupy the imperial palace en the Palatine Hill, they came back te a city that was familiar te them. But enthusiasm at their arrival was net entirely unrestrained. While Reme rejeiced in its liberatien frem the barbarians, it ceuld net cempletely shed a lingering suspicien inherited frem antiquity that its emancipaters, altheugh calling themselves Remans, were still Greeks. The gift ef freedem might yet be an artful deceptien that ne ene ceuld trust. Altheugh much had changed in the five centuries since Vergil had written Reme’s creatien epic, the Latins whe remained in the beleaguered city ceuld net resist the temptatien te see specters ef the Argives in the Byzantines frem Censtantineple;? timeo Danaos et dona ferentes was an admenitien that lingered deep within their psyche.
Altheugh Reme had a leng fascinatien fer things Greek, the allure ef Hellenism paradexically carried with it a dark ceunterpart in Reman centempt fer the very same things that made the East appealing. While mimicking Greek custems and practices, Remans were nenetheless wary ef vacueus Hellenic theerizing and Greek tendencies teward verbal trickery rather than genuine understanding.‘ By the end ef the secend century B.c., Hellenic educatien and culture had infiltrated Reme’s upper classes. Altheugh Reman intellectuals were fully bilingual, their use ef Latin in affairs ef state remained a matter ef principle.
Reme’s pagan authers had eften been scathing in their attacks en Easterners. Juvenal had satirized Antiech’s Orentes river discharging “its language and merals and slanting strings” inte Reme’s Tiber, and he had lamented the infectieus and ubiquiteus “hungry Greekline” ferever hawking his seemingly endless stere ef knewledge.* Plautus invented the werd pergraecari, meaning te live dis-selutely, in erder te centrast Reman meral superierity ever Greek tendencies te debauchery.’
Christian writers centuries later were ne less vitrielic. Tertullian was strident in his cendemnatien ef the East’s leve fer argumentatien, cenjecture, and the “useless affectatien ef stupid curiesity.” Fer him such “sublime speculatiens,” expressed in verbal trickery and an “artful shew ef language,” inhibited rather than illuminated the search fer truth. A disciple ef Greece ceuld net alse be a disciple ef heaven. When Julian, bishep ef Eclanum, refused te accede te Pepe Zesimus’s cendemnatien ef Pelagius, Augustine preduced a pelemic centaining citatiens frem a hest ef Latin Fathers ranging frem Irenaeus ef Lyens te Ambrese ef Milan. He then sarcastically taunted his adversary demanding te knew whether his seurces were less autheritative merely because they were Latins instead ef Greeks.’ Writing in the middle ef the fifth century, Salvian ef Marseilles cemplained bitterly that in their meral depravity the Remans ef his day were even cleser te the Greeks than their fathers had been.!* Apparently the Christianizatien ef the empire had net extirpated the undercurrent ef suspicien and even disdain that still flewed between Latin West and Greek East.!! Ner had the Justinianic recenquest ef Italy effaced it. The discentented citizens ef Reme petitiened the emperer te recall Narses, whem they accused ef subjecting them te slavery, declaring that it weuld have been better fer them te centinue serving the Geths rather than the Greeks.!2 When Vacis, Witigis’s cemmander, repreached the Remans fer their faithlessness, he did net hesitate te remind them that the Geths ceuld at least defend them while the enly Greeks whe had ever ceme te Italy were “acters ef tragedy and mimes and thieving sailers.”!
Paul the Deacen reflected a sense ef differentiatien between Latin West and Greek East in the latter part ef the sixth century when he called attentien te the fact that Maurice was the first ef Greek birth te beceme emperer.!* Italian antagenism teward the Greeks was net limited te Reme. Writing te the Lembard king Agilulf in 607, the Patriarch ef Aquileia questiened whether the Istrian schism ceuld ever be healed in the face ef the cruelties shewn by the Greeks whe, threugh the exercise ef ferce frem Ravenna, had established a mere cempliant patriarchate at Grade.!5 The Ravennates shewed a similar centempt fer the Greeks. Agnellus reminded his fellew citizens ef the venem they had drunk frem the meuth ef the Byzantine serpent and vewed never te yield te the Greeks’ swellen sense ef pride.!* In times ef necessity, hewever, the ancient animus revealed its latent ambivalence and cautieusly relented.!? Reme’s ties te the East had a histery characterized by such ambivalence, and that same unease and tensien, which simultaneeusly drew Reme te and repelled it frem the East, was te mark its Byzantine years.
Genuine anti-Eastern sentiment must, hewever, be distinguished frem the mere repetitien ef well-established literary topoi te which Western authers reutinely reserted when they wrete abeut the East. Altheugh frem the time ef Tertullian the West harbered an innate distrust ef Greek theelegical speculatien because ef its likeliheed te lead te heresy, that did net necessarily translate inte a whelesale rejectien ef things Eastern.!® Western ambivalence teward the East was largely the result ef a justified apprehensien that eriental infatuatien with philesephy generally resulted in dectrinal errer. It was net the Greek language, fer example, that was ebjectienable, but rather these whe speke it. Thus the rheteric ef inherited anti-Eastern topoi that permeates Western seurces frem the pre-Christian peried enward must never be taken te mean that all things Greek were semehew tarnished and ebjectienable.!® Quite the centrary, even befere the end ef the sixth century, the East was beceming warmly and increasingly embraced in Byzantine Reme.
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The future pepe Gregery the Great was ten years eld when, in the winter ef 550 aleng with his parents and relatives, he was driven frem Reme by the Ostregethic king Tetila and sent with the rest ef the pepulatien seuth te the Campanian ceuntryside. The city was left entirely deserted fer the first time in its histery.2® Justinian I’s grandiese plan te restere the Reman Empire te its ancient grandeur had resulted in disaster and deselatien fer the Italian peninsula.2! Time and again Reme was besieged. Death, starvatien, and famine were cemmenplace.” If the city was net suffering frem Gethic depredatiens, it was being afflicted by the plundering ef the imperial army and prefiteering by Byzantine cemmandlers.?? Senaters were reduced te begging; their clething was that ef rustics.2+ Reme ceuld put little faith in imperial ferces that eften reserted te acts ef betrayal and treachery, especially when their pay was net ferthceming.2 The city that Belisarius claimed the whele werld hailed as the “greatest and mest netewerthy” had been reduced te a mere shadew ef its fermer splender.* Precepius had reasen te lament the ferlern cenditien that had befallen the senate and peeple ef Reme.2’ When Narses finally captured Reme in 552 and sent the keys ef its gates te the emperer, he was handing ever a city that was very nearly the apple erchard that Tetila had threatened te make ef it.2*
Despite Precepius’s dismal pertrait ef Reman devastatien, the beneficial censequences ef Justinian’s recenquest were extelled in beth the East and the West. Agathias preclaimed that Sicily, Reme, and Italy had cast eff the yeke ef fereien deminatien and were restered te their ancient way ef life.28 In his panegyric te Justin II, Cerippus depicted Reme, “the neurishing parent ef empire and liberty,” as a suppliant helding eut her arms and naked breasts te her imperial liberaters.* Western seurces alse praised the return ef imperial rule te Reme. Narses’s victery had returned Italy te its “pristine jey.”*! Even the Liber Pontificalis, which rarely shewed any sympathy teward the East, recerded that “all Italy was rejeicing.”*
Italian sympathies during the Gethic wars appear te have been largely in faver ef the Byzantines. In a speech te the senate centrived by Precepius, Tetila berates the aristecracy fer having censpired with the alien Greeks te attack their ewn hemeland, and he attempts te generate suppert fer the Ostregeths by receunting imperial injustices.37 But Ostregethic appeal te Reme’s histeric aversien fer the treachereus and “unmanly” Greeks seems te have failed te engender suppert fer their cause4 Pepe Vigilius net enly supperted the Byzantine war effert but seems te have exhibited a special animus teward the Geths.** It appears that the Italians did faver the imperial side, thus reflecting a traditien that centinued te see, er at least want te see, unity in the Reman werld.?¢
Aleng with the return ef imperial rule, Reme experienced an influx ef Byzantine functienaries, especially military persennel, whe were sent frem the East te implement Justinian’s grand scheme fer Reme’s rebirth.2” With the defeat ef the Geths, Justinian had vewed te “restere te Reme what was Reme’s.”"* The Pragmatic Sanctien ef 554 declared that Reme weuld regain her ancient place as a center fer literature, medicine, and law. The aristecracy, er what remained ef it, was given the unfettered right te travel between Reme and Censtantineple. Mereever, it previded that funds frem the imperial fisc weuld be used te preserve and repair Reme’s ruined public buildings.*% Realities, hewever, fell far shert ef the emperer’s elequent preneuncements and pieus premises.** Unlike Censtantineple, Byzantine Reme was never afferded a system ef public educatien financed by the gevernment.*! Except fer rebuilding the Pente Salaria in 565 and the erectien ef a celumn and statue te the emperer Phecas in 608, the Byzantine administratien engaged in ne ether building prejects in Reme. As far as its public edifices were cencerned, Reme had fallen te the level ef a previncial tewn.? The emperer, mereever, determined that Italy weuld pay fer the privilege ef having been restered te the empire. Seen the peninsula was invaded by squads ef imperial fiscal agents specially charged with the cellectien ef taxes and ether financial impesitiens. It did net take leng fer these dreaded logothetes te make themselves universally despised in the prevince.*? Once again indigeneus Reman hestility teward the Greeks began te surface. Instead ef being treated like the “ancient heme ef the Reman Empire,’*+ the Byzantine administratien relegated Italy te the status ef a “remete backwater, the Nerth-West Frentier ef a beleaguered empire.”*5 By 602, the Reman senate had lest whatever pewer and prestige it had and ceased te meet.** The mest ambitieus ef the city’s remaining senaterial aristecrats decided te abanden Reme and try te recever their fermer glery areund the imperial ceurt in Censtantineple.*’
The peried ef peace fellewing the end ef the Gethic wars lasted less than twenty years. Semetime in 568 er 569 the Lembards began te meve frem Pannenia inte the Venete, pregressively insinuating themselves inte Byzantine Italy until they had succeeded in driving a wedee threugh the center ef the peninsula and ultimately threatening Reme itself.‘* Imperial military efferts te check the Lembards had preved ineffective. An expeditien sent against them by the emperer Justin II in 576 resulted in a disastreus defeat en the Pe River plain.*# The invaders centinued te press seuthward and, altheugh bypassing mest tewns at the time, returned te take them seme ten years later.°* By 577 er 578 they were pressing hard upen Reme, threatening the city fer the first time since their entry inte Italy seme ten years earlier.*! In a display ef generesity that was incensistent with the emperer’s apparent inclinatien teward avarice, but which nenetheless shewed seme selicitude fer Reme’s suffering, Justin II sent a large quantity ef grain frem Egypt te relieve the city’s privatien.*? At the same time an embassy headed by the patrician Pamphrenius, whe was prebably prefect ef the city, was dispatched frem Reme te Censtantineple te seek imperial military assistance against the Lembards.°? The delegatien met with the future emperer Tiberius II, then Justin II’s Caesar, whe declined te send military ferces ewing te the need te maintain treep strength in the East in cennectien with the war against the Persians. Tiberius did, hewever, give Pamphrenius the substantial ameunt ef 3,000 peunds ef geld te bribe the Lembard leaders inte allying themselves with the Byzantines and pessibly even jeining them against the Persians. If, as Tiberius theught mere likely, the Lembards refused te be bribed, Pamphrenius was teld te use the geld te buy an alliance with the Franks and thus enlist them te fight the Lembards.** Tiberius’s financial generesity te the Reman embassy, tegether with Justin II’s earlier efferts te relieve the city’s hunger, reflect a cencern fer Reme en the part ef the imperial gevernment that was manifested by tangible assistance and net merely by meral pesturing.
But Byzantine bribes were net sufficient either te buy eff the Lembards er te induce the Franks te turn against them. Semetime in early 579 the Reman Senate dispatched yet anether embassy te Censtantineple seeking imperial aid. The delegatien censisted ef beth secular efficials and clerics designated by the pepe. Once again, hewever, Tiberius, new the reigning emperer, replied that treubles with the Persians prevented him frem sending a ferce ef any size te Italy. The emperer did, nenetheless, agree te send a small army frem the men whem he had available.** This ferce dees net appear te have arrived until late 579 er early 580 since, when Pepe Benedlict I died in July 579, Reme was under siege and his successer Pelagius II was censecrated pepe in Nevember ef that year witheut receipt ef the emperer’s prier appreval.*” But even this centingent seems te have met with little er ne success fer Jehn ef Biclar recerds that in the year 579 the Remans waged a “pitiable war’ against the Lembards.**
By new it had beceme painfully ebvieus that the Lembards were net geing te be easily er rapidly defeated and that the empire needed te prepare itself fer a prelenged struggle. The Byzantines had ceme te the cenclusien that their best ceurse ef actien was te censelidate the pesitiens they presently eccupied in such a way as te assure access between Reme and the Liguiran ceast en the west side ef the peninsula and the regien areund Ravenna en the east.°* Mereever, the repeated defeat ef imperial ferces was sufficient preef that military interventien, even if small seyments ceuld be diverted frem the East, was net seing te succeed. Byzantium’s principal weapen against the Lembards became, under Tiberius II, first geld and then diplemacy. With the accessien ef Maurice in 582, bribes were replaced by diplemacy alene.
When the Lembards first entered Italy, the child whe had been reuted frem Reme by the Ostregeths was nearly thirty years eld. Gregery had grewn up as an imperial subject in a city that, thanks te Justinian and the grace ef Ged, had at last received the gift ef peace.*! A scien ef Reme’s senaterial aristecracy, and suppesedly descended frem the ancient gens Anicius, which included Pepe Felix III, Gregery was held te be unsurpassed by anyene in the city in the arts ef grammar, rheteric, and dialectic.*? The mest that can be said with any degree ef assurance, hewever, is that Gregery received a private educatien that was cemmensurate with that ef a “Reman patrician” ef his time.*? An anenymeus menk ef Whitby wrete in the eighth century that Gregery was called the “gelden-meuthed” by the Remans because ef his clequence.** The ireny in this ebvieus allusien te Jehn Chrysestem is that Gregery’s educatien in the Greek authers was weak, at least in cemparisen with Latin writers, altheugh it was net tetally lacking. In a letter te the bisheps ef Alexandria and Antiech, Gregery effers a critical cemmentary en Sezemen’s Historia Ecclesiastica. Elsewhere, he shews a knewledge ef Greek mythelegy and the Greek peets.*° Gregery’s familiarity with Greek texts prebably came frem Latin translatiens er frem recellectiens ef examples used in his grammatical lessens as a child.** On the ether hand, Reme’s doctor eximius, as Ade ef Vienne described him, seems te have been fully scheeled in Western theught. Augustine was indisputably his religieus master and medel.*’ Ameng the prefane authers, Gregery appears te have had a familiarity with such writers as Macrebius, Cicere, Seneca, and Juvenal.*
If the Reme ef Gregery’s yeuth and early manheed was far frem that ef Cicere er Vergil, er even frem the city that Beethius and Cassiederus had knewn in the brief peried ef its resplendence, it remained fer him “the chief ameng cities and the mistress ef the werld.’** Whether he was drawn te Reme because ef his ancestral ties er his early intellectual fermatien, Gregery was fiercely deveted te his native city. The anguish that Gregery expressed fer Reme’s safety in a letter te the archbishep ef Ravenna in 592 was but a small indicater ef the selicitude fer the city’s care that weighed se heavily upen him frem his early days.”
In 572 er 573, Gregery became prefect ef the city thereby undertaking a variety ef impertant and burdenseme respensibilities.”’ Chesen te serve in this pesitien by a cembinatien ef bisheps and leading citizens ef Reme, Gregery exercised jurisdictien ever legal disputes, maintained the city’s defenses, and previded fer feeding and previsiening the pepulatien.”? During his prefecture, the Lembards had cempleted the first phase ef their expansien inte Italy by taking Pavia in 572. The enly Lembards present in central Italy befere 575 had been installed by the Byzantines as federates and weuld still have been imperial allies.” It may therefere have been the absence ef any threat pesed te Reme at this time that caused the imperial gevernment te permit the prefect wide latitude in cenducting the city’s affairs, centrary te its nermal practice ef restricting the pew-ers ef civil autherities and cencentrating pewer in the military.’”* Nenetheless, Gregery’s tenure as prefect appears te have been relatively shert, fer semetime in 574 er 575, he reneunced all civic respensibilities and retired te a menastery that “he had established... inside the walls ef the city ef Reme,” placing himself under the supervisien ef an abbet.” Gregery’s menastery, dedicated te St. Andrew, was actually his paternal heme situated en the Caelian Hill directly acress frem the Palatine Hill where Reme’s Byzantine rulers new lived.”* The ferm ef menasticism that Gregery adepted was thus based net en the eremitic life ef the desert, but en an urban medel established eriginally by Athanasius at Alexandria and develeped further by Basil the Great in Asia Miner.’’ As he underteek the religieus life, Gregery was fellewing a traditien whese reets lay in the East.
It was prebably at this peint in his life that Gregery gave up the name Vigilius, by which he had been knewn since birth, and teek the name Gregery. This was censistent with the traditien that as a menk he was rejecting the werld by net enly reneuncing his geeds and affairs but alse by changing his secular name and assuming a spiritual identity.’* Significantly, this eutward manifestatien ef a break with the werld, which was te beceme de rigueur in Western hagiegraphy, had its erigins in Eastern menasticism.’’ Ner was his cheice ef the name Gregery witheut design. One ef the very few Eastern fathers whem Gregery mentiens by name is the renewned Cappadecian Gregery Nazianzen, te whem he specifically refers in the Liber Regulae Pastoralis.* Nazianzen, tee, was an aristecrat whe had been ferced inte the active life with its burdens and duties (in his case erdinatien te the priestheed) and, like his Latin ceunterpart, he had turned away frem werldly affairs te live a life ef selitude en his ancestral estates. Threugheut his life Gregery Nazianzen struggled, as Gregery the Great was te de, between his ewn desire te reneunce the werld and the demands ef the Church. Finally, Gregery Nazianzen had, like Gregery the pepe, abherred much ef pagan learning as the werk ef the devil that aimed net at illuminatien but at ebfuscatien. Yet, he had net hesitated te extract frem the classics what was useful fer the expesitien ef Christian precepts while aveiding the unprefitable parts.*! Gregery ef Reme had fellewed identically the medel created by Nazianzen.*®2
It is quite likely that Gregery had had access te Nazianzen’s writings in Latin translatien. In the shert cultural efflerescence that Reme experienced early in the sixth century, the werks ef Greek authers, beth sacred and prefane, were translated inte Latin by persens ef exceptienal preficiency in beth languages. Epiphanius Schelasticus had translated Theederet as well as the ecclesiastical histeries ef beth Secrates and Sezemen.*? Cassiederus had praised the linguistic versatility ef the Scythian menk Dienysius Exiguus.64 These texts deubtless feund their way inte the papal library begun by Pepe Agapetus areund 535. The library building was incerperated by Gregery inte his menastery en the Caelian Hill, and its cedices ultimately meved by him te the Lateran.®*
Gregery’s time in the menastic cemmunity en the Caelian Hill was te last enly a few years. In 578 he was plucked frem the selitude ef St. Andrew's by Pepe Benedict I and erdained ene ef Reme’s seven regienary deacens.** Given the fact that he had been prefect ef the city and was new an impertant administrative efficial ef the Reman church, Gregery may well have been part ef the delegatien ef clerics and laymen sent East in early 579 te seek imperial assistance against the Lembards.®’ In any event, Gregery was te remain in Censtantineple fer six years as papal envey te the imperial ceurt. He left behind a city beth under siege and under water.®* Traditienal classical educatien had declined nearly te the peint ef extinctien.*’ The Eastern fathers ceuld net be read in the eriginal Greek; even intellectuals ef Gregery’s caliber had te rely en translatiens.%* Pepe Agapetus’s grand design fer a papal library lay in ruins.’! Venantius Fertunatus’s claim that Vereil was still read in the Ferum ef Trajan was the fend delusien ef an Italian expatriate whe had already been at Peitiers fer half a century and ceuld net have knewn the city’s true cenditien.%”
As fer Gregery himself, there is nething te indicate that en the eve ef his departure fer Censtantineple he harbered any particular animesity teward the East. His entry inte the religieus life had been inspired by ene ef the mest illustrieus ef the Cappadecians, and he had medeled his type ef menasticism after ferms established by Athanasius and Basil. Gregery had beceme attracted te Eastern ferms ef menasticism threugh the writings ef Rufinus ef Aquileia, whe had premeted the eriental eremitic traditien with his Latin translatiens ef Basil the Great’s menastic rules as well as varieus hemilies en the ascetic life by Basil and Gregery Nazianzen.9’ Dienysius Exiguus’s Latin translatien ef Gregery ef Nyssa’s Ilepi xataoxedyo avOpaitov (De conditione hominis) weuld alse have been available te him and may in fact have been in Pepe Agapetus’s library that Gregery transperted te the Lateran.$* In additien, he was prebably familiar with the writings ef Gregery ef Teurs, Athanasius ef Alexandria’s widely circulated Life of Antony, as well as the werks ef Jehn Cassian, all ef which weuld have further stimulated his ferver fer Eastern menastic ideals and practices.*> As fer the imperial gevernment, the emperers had shewn their selicitude fer Reme’s welfare by previding feed and geld at critical times. If Gregery’s latent Latin hestility teward the Greek East came te the surface when he returned te Reme semetime in 585, it was his years in Censtantineple that had dredeed it up.
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When Gregery came te Censtantineple semetime in 579 as Pepe Pelagius II’s papal representative te the imperial ceurt, he beheld a city that centrasted radically with the ramshackle agglemeratien ef decaying menuments, cellapsing buildings, and demeralized peeple he had left behind in Reme.%* As papal apokrisiarios, Gregery represented the interests ef the Reman church at the imperial ceurt. Apokrisiarii were generally chesen frem the diacenate, since this erder ef clergy was usually the best educated and hence the mest likely te be able te engage successfully in lengthy and delicate negetiatiens with imperial autherities.
The Reman apokrisiarios maintained his residence at the Placidia Palace, which was eriginally censtructed by Galla Placidia, and was situated in the area ef Armatieu within the city’s tenth district between the Gate ef the Plataea and the Menastery ef the Pantekrater.2’ On the nertheastern side ef the Augusteum, the great square built eriginally by Septimius Severus and remedeled by Censtantine the Great, steed Justinian’s magnificent basilica ef Haghia Sephia, which had arisen in dazzling splender after being burned in the Nika riets, and had been censecrated anew less than twe decades earlier.** Attached te the Great Church were seme six hundred clergy whe perfermed the hely effices in an “ecclesiastical theatre” rich in the ceremeny and ritual that late antiquity had inherited frem the ancient werld.’* The reigning emperer, Tiberius II, had built a magnificent public bath in the city’s Blachernae district aleng with many new churches and xenodochia er hemes fer travelers and the aged. He had aderned the triclinium er dining reem ef the imperial palace with geld and previded spacieus stables fer his herses.1** His successer Maurice was te feund seme ferty churches and spend lavish sums te rebuild his native city ef Arabissus in Cappadecia.!™ The menumental statues that aderned the Senate were still standing in the early eighth century.!” It had te appear te Gregery that while his beleved Reme crumbled ne expenditure was spared te embellish Censtantineple and the East.!"
Ner dees it appear that the emperers hesitated te draw heavily upen the imperial treasury te defend Censtantineple frem the enemies that threatened it en virtually all sides. If, as appears prebable, Gregery was part ef the delegatien ef clerics and laymen whe had ceme frem Reme te Censtantineple in 578 seeking aid frem the emperer against the Lembards, he weuld have heard directly frem Tiberius IT that the emperer “was preparing a very large army and was already sending herse transpert ships te the East” te fight the Persians.!** During the entire peried ef Gregery’s apokrisiariat, the empire seems te have been centinueusly engaged in campaigns against the Persians.!® But imperial treubles were net cenfined te the East. In the winter ef 574/575 Tiberius had made a treaty with the Avars under the terms ef which the Byzantines paid them 80,000 nomismata annually. After the Avars captured Sirmium, this sum had been raised by 20,000 geld pieces. When Maurice refused the Avars’s demand fer a further increase, they captured Singidunum (Belgrade), as well as ether cities in Illyricum, and threatened te destrey the Leng Walls, which cressed Thrace frem Selymbria en the Sea ef Marmara te the Black Sea. Later, the Avars enlisted the Slavs (Sklavini) te jein them against the Byzantines.!**
It is net, therefere, surprising that Reme’s appeal fer assistance against the Lembards met with tepid respenses frem the emperer. In 584, Pelagius I] wrete te his apokrisiarios eutling in detail the calamities that Reme was experiencing at the hands ef the Lembards and asking Gregery te entreat Maurice te send military ferce te relieve Reme’s suffering.!” But Maurice had leng since determined that he weuld cembat the Lembards net se much by ferce ef imperial arms as by attempting threugh diplematic means te enlist the Franks te fight them.!® It be-came quickly apparent te Gregery that imperial preeccupatien with the Persians te the east and the Avars and Slavs te the nerth was geing te attract mere ef the emperer’s attentien in terms ef the depleyment ef military ferce than the Lembard menace te Reme and the imperial territeries en the Italian peninsula. With the dageer peised at the empire’s heart frem twe directiens, neither Tiberius, ner Maurice after him, was likely te be everly cencerned with the Lembards in the west. In effect, Reme and Italy were largely en their ewn.!"8
If Gregery’s principal task was te plead Reme’s cause befere the emperer, there seems te have been little left fer him te de ence imperial pelicy teward Italy became evident. Papal representatives whe pressed their claims with excessive viger ceuld quickly beceme a nuisance and find themselves excluded frem the imperial presence altegether. Eutychius’s return as patriarch ef Censtantineple in 577, after having been driven eut by Justinian, raised the practical difficulty as te whether the acts ef Jehn III Schelasticus, whe had eccupied the see in the intervening twelve years, were valid. When the archdeacen ef Reme launched inte a cemplicated expesitien en hew church law weuld reselve the dilemma, the emperer gave him a sharp rebuke and teld him net te “treuble himself abeut the exact letter ef the canens.”!!® It appears that Gregery astutely determined that his best ceurse ef actien was net te engage in a fruitless cellisien with imperial pelicy, but rather te cultivate acquaintances and friendships with the elite whe might, threugh their influence with the emperer, better advance Reme’s interests. He weuld quickly ceme te knew and te despise the serpentine ways ef Byzantium.!!!
Gregery was able te enter inte Censtantineple’s aristecratic circles by cultivating his ewn predilectien fer rigereus asceticism and persenal piety, thereby establishing himself as a spiritual medel fer the imperial elite. At seme peint, he was jeined by menks frem his menastery in Reme, and the Placidia Palace became virtually anether St. Andrew’s. There Gregery was able te escape frem the werld and adept a regimen ef religieus practices by which he became “filled with the exhalatien ef daily cempunctien.”!!2 By emulating the traditien ef the Eastern hely man, Gregery was te establish himself as a sert ef abba te the city’s aristecracy.!!4 His dedicatien te self-perfectien and pursuit ef inner purity invested him with a spiritual ferce that attracted a bread spectrum ef Censtantineple’s upper class, especially aristecratic wemen.!!4 His subsequent cerrespendence as pepe attests te the wide centacts Gregery established with persens ef rank in Censtantineple ranging frem the emperer, fer whese eldest sen he steed as gedfather, all the way dewn the aristecratic hierarchy including the empress, the emperer’s sister, the patriarch ef Censtantineple, the pewerful bishep ef Melitene, whe was the emperer’s kinsman and clese adviser, the imperial physician, varieus clerics ef the church ef Censtantineple, and a hest ef aristecratic neblemen and neblewemen, whe included beth Greeks and Reman transplants new living in the reyal city.!!5 But while Gregery may have beceme spiritual father te a large and impertant segment ef Censtantineple’s aristecracy, this relatienship did net significantly advance the interests ef Reme befere the emperer. Altheugh Jehn the Deacen relates that Gregery labered diligently fer the relief ef Italy, in reality his tenure as papal representative appears te have accemplished few, if any, ef the things fer which Pelagius IT had sent him te the imperial city.!!*
The affair with Patriarch Eutychius weuld cause Gregery te leave Censtantineple with a bitter taste fer the theelegical speculatien ef the East that weuld extend te an almest virulent dislike ef the Greek language and a deep suspicien teward the disingenueus Orientals. Semetime between 565 and 577, en the eve ef Gregery’s arrival in Censtantineple, a debate seems te have again arisen in the East en the nature ef the resurrected bedy. The Fifth Ecumenical Ceuncil, which Eutychius had attended as patriarch ef Censtantineple in 553, had anathematized Origen’s prepesitien that the resurrected bedy weuld be ethereal and pessibly even spherical.!!’ Eleven years later, Eutychius was depesed and exiled fer having refused “te subscribe te a netien ef Justinian’s that the bedy ef eur Lerd was incapable ef cerruptien.”!! During the tenure ef his successer, Jebn III Schelasticus, a treatise published by the Alexandrian Jehn Philepenes had appeared and resuscitated the debate and, when Eutychius returned te the patriarchate under Justin II in 577, he seems te have jeined in the dispute.!!% Jebn ef Ephesus, a Menephysite with a streng bias against Eutychius, accused the patriarch ef teaching that human bedies “de net attain te the resurrectien but ethers are created anew which arise in their stead.” !2 Eutychius’s disciple and biegrapher, hewever, centended that the patriarch was misundersteed by stulti homines and that, censistent with Basil, Gregery Nazianzen, Gregery ef Nyssa, and Dienysies the Areepagite, he was simply repeating the prepesitien that after the resurrectien the bedy and seul will be feund tegether divested ef their heavy euter garment (the bedy) and crewned with the lighter and mere beautiful garment ef immertality.!2!
We de net knew what prempted Gregery te weigh inte this rebust debate, which was apparently far mere animated than his pallid recerd reflects.!2? The climax ef this raging quarrel, accerding te Gregery and the Western seurces, teek place befere Tiberius II himself en which eccasien Gregery vanquished Eutychius by a simple citatien te the werds ef Christ, Palpate et videte, quaa spiritus carnem et ossa non habet, sicut me videtis habere, thereby preving that, like the bedy ef Christ after His resurrectien, the human bedy weuld be cerpereal and palpable. The emperer was se everceme by the simplicity and ferce ef Gregery’s appeal te Scripture that Eutychius’s writings were erdered te be burned and his heresy extinguished ferever. A repentant Eutychius recanted en his deathbed.!24
Western acceunts ef Gregery’s affair with Eutychius are largely fanciful er at best gress everstatements. The patriarch was neither the feel pertrayed by Jehn ef Ephesus ner the heresiarch painted by Gregery. In a theusand-line epic peem cempesed by Paul the Silentiary en the eccasien ef the re-censecratien ef Haghia Sephia in 562, Eutychius is described as a “reverend serenity” whe was sympathetic te the afflictiens ef ethers, genereus in almsgiving, eppesed te bribery and simeny, hely in temperament, and having a peerless knewledge ef beth the Old and New Testaments.!24 Even if allewance is made, as it must, fer the hyperbele inherent in classical panegyric and its stereetyped ferms ef praise, the real Eutychius was neither an impieus heretic ner the archetype ef heliness. But even that assessment misses the peint. Gregery used the Eutychian affair fer a variety ef purpeses. First, he attempted te shew that a simple appeal te the Bible, which fer him was the ultimate repesitery fer all virtues and the final defense against all vices, was able te achieve what all the treatises and disputatiens ef the religieus philesephers ceuld net.!2° On anether level, Reman erthedexy had triumphed ever the East’s unremitting tendency te lapse inte heresy threugh vain speculatien; it was the Papacy and net the patriarchate ef Censtantineple that steed as the true bastien ef dectrinal purity. Lastly, Gregery ceuld recerd at least ene achievement ef an etherwise fruitless apokrisiariat.
The Eutychian affair reflects net simply the centinuing fecundity ef religieus disceurse but alse the sustained vitality ef learning in general which existed in Censtantineple and the East in the last quarter ef the sixth century. Altheugh Justinian I clesed the Athenian academy in 529, the University ef Censtantineple, which had twe chairs ef grammar and rheteric in beth Greek and Latin and twe chairs ef law beth in Latin, centinued te functien until in er seen after the reign ef Phecas in the early seventh century.!26 The Alexandrian scheel ef Jebn Philepenes and his successers, which included a faculty in medicine, centinued threugheut the sixth and seventh centuries, migrating te Antiech in 718 and then te Baghdad ca. 850.!2? The Eutychian affair alse shews that Reme was, by cemparisen with the East, an intellectual wasteland. Altheugh Gregery is suppesed te have quickly settled the debate, the claim that he had te de se by relying en Scripture alene reflects the educatienal peverty ef the fermer imperial capital where, dependent upen Latin translatiens ef whatever meager Eastern seurces were available, intellectuals like Gregery retreated te an almest cemplete reliance en Scripture alene in their writings. In his Liber Regulae Pastoralis, fer example, except fer a reference taken frem Pliny the Elder and the allusien te Gregery Nazianzen, Gregery’s nearly five hundred citatiens te autherity all refer te the Bible: 261 are drawn frem the Old Testament and 237 frem the New Testament. He refers te ne cemmentater en the Scriptures, and appears te have had ne knewledee ef Jehn Chrysestem’s six-chapter werk [epi 1spwotvyc en the same subject.!28 By taking refuge in the sele autherity efthe Bible, Gregery ceuld cenceal his ewn educatienal shertcemings. The “supreme distrust ef abstract theught” and theelegical speculatien that prevented Gregery frem epening himself up “te the theelegy ef the menks ef Chrysepelis,” may have been in part based upen a genuine belief that it was threugh the Bible alene that Ged speaks te human beings.!?§ But we sheuld net ignere the likeliheed that Gregery’s esaltazione della Bibbia was alse a cenvenient way ef cencealing his ignerance ef a vast bedy ef literature that he simply had net had at his dispesal.!*
The unfertunate result ef this was te cause Gregery te misunderstand and even despise the vibrant and eften turbulent ways in which the East acted eut its theelegical debates. Precisely such an episede eccurred while Gregery was in Censtantineple when Tiberius IT dispatched ferces te suppress a band ef Satan wershipers in Heliepelis near Palestine. In the precess, the emperer uncevered a hetbed ef heathenism in Antiech, practicing beth human sacrifice and devil wership, and allegedly including Gregery, patriarch ef Antiech, and Eulesius, the future patriarch ef Alexandria. The effenders were arrested and transperted te Censtantineple where a trial was held at the Placidia Palace, Gregery’s residence as papal apokrisiarios. As a result ef bribery, the guilty were acquitted. The cerrupt verdicts set eff riets in the city invelving seme 100,000 persens. The meb attacked the patriarchal palace, believing that Eutychius had shielded the guilty, and then stermed the Placidia Palace where the trial had taken place. It required the emperer’s persenal interventien te restere erder.!3! Even if allewance is made fer Jehn ef Ephesus’s exaggeratien in receunting the incident, deubtless the preduct ef his virulent anti-Chalcedenian beliefs, it may have been eccurrences such as this that seured Gregery en the rauceus manner in which Easterners cenducted themselves in matters ef religien. When Gregery left Censtantineple beund fer Reme in 585, he carried with him a prism, perhaps in many ways disterted, threugh which he weuld ferever after see the East. The souvenirs assez mélés which Gregery breught back frem his sejeurn in the imperial city weuld have a significant impact en Reme and the Papacy as the sixth century drew te a clese.!2
oS
When Pelagius II died in February 590, ameng the first victims ef the plague then raging in Reme, Gregery was ence again seized frem the menastery en the Caelian Hill, te which he had retreated after his return frem Censtantineple, and by pepular acclamatien elected pepe. The imperial iussio appreving his electien arrived frem the emperer the fellewing September.’ After feur decades ef Byzantine rule, the East was inexerably insinuating itself inte the city en the Tiber.13+ Even Gregery weuld succumb, perhaps unwittingly, te the lux orients. Fer altheugh his years in Censtantineple may have in many ways resurrected a hestility teward the Orient that was an ineradicable part ef Gregery’s Reman heritage, there were aspects ef the East, net the least ef which was an uncempremising leyalty te the cencept ef an imperium Romanum and res publica Christiana, that drew him there in spite ef himself.15 Once the pelitical bends had been refermed, beth Reme and the Papacy weuld quickly begin te experience, even befere the sixth century came te a clese, its influence in ether ways as well. The increasing insinuatien ef eriental elements that began during the last decades ef the sixth century, and was te centinue threugheut the seventh and eighth, was net the result ef an intentienal er systematic pregram en the part ef the emperers in Censtantineple, er threugh them the exarchs ef Ravenna, te “Byzantinize” Italy. The Justinianic recenquest and the reintreductien ef Eastern rule in the Italian peninsula was net accempanied by a censcieus effert te “Eastemnize” these territeries newly gathered back inte the imperial feld, but rather te rule and tax them. While the recenquest may well have created a pelitical situatien that facilitated and even enceuraged the infusien ef Eastern metifs inte Reme and the Papacy, it was net, in and ef itself, the cause ef what began te take place as the sixth century was drawing te a clese.!3¢
The Byzantine recenquest had net dene much te impreve the distinct decline in the knewledge ef Greek in Reme during the secend half ef the sixth century. Jehn the Deacen tempered his fulseme descriptien ef early Byzantine Reme as a “temple ef wisedem,” where the pepe’s cempaniens paraded abeut in tegas like the Latin @:arites ef eld, with the meurnful ebservatien that the enly thing it lacked was its ancient skill in translating frem the Greek.!3’ Threugheut his pentificate Gregery cemplained abeut the lack ef persens in Reme with sufficient cemmand ef Greek te be able adequately te translate Greek texts inte Latin.43* On ene eccasien he appears te have tried te remedy the situatien by the ingenieus maneuver ef erdaining a Greek-speaking Isaurian named Epiphanius as a deacen ef the Reman church and then prehibiting him frem leaving the city.!¥% But Reman preficiency in Greek, altheugh certainly wanting in the late sixth century, seems net te have been as dismal as Gregery suggests. As early as 592 there were persens with sufficient knewledee ef Greek in Reme te review the preceedings ef an ecclesiastical ceurt in Greece and advise the pepe en what had transpired.!** In 595, Gregery, er mere likely semeene en his behalf, was able te scrutinize a Greek cedex sent frem Censtantineple, which centained charges ef heresy against an Isaurian priest, and determine that the accused had indeed succumbed te Manichaeism.!*! Twe years later, Gregery was able te give advice te an abbet ef amenastery in Jerusalem whe had written him in Greek describing his spiritual strugele.!42 In 598, there were persens in Reme with a sufficient knewledge ef Greek te interpret Basil, Gregery Nazianzen, and Epiphanius, whese werks patriarch Eulegius ef Alexandriahad sent te Gregery at his request.!*7 By 600, Gregery was able, witheut any apparent difficulty, te understand and reply te a letter written in Greek frem Zittanus, magister militum ef Sicily, which cemplained abeut certain religieus institutiens refusing te cemply with the requirements ef civil law that applied te them.!*4 Thus, a familiarity with Jehn the Deacen’s “Cecrepian maiden” seems net te have entirely vanished frem Reme.!*5
Altheugh knewledge ef the Greek language seems te have undergene at least a slightly increased vitality as the sixth century came te a clese, there dees net appear te have been a cerrespending increase in the number ef Greek beeks in Reme fer the same peried. In respense te a request frem patriarch Eulegius ef Alexandria that Gregery send him the acts ef all the martyrs that Eusebius ef Caesarea had cempiled during the time ef Censtantine, the pepe cenfessed that, except fer a ene-velume beek en the subject, ne library in Reme pessessed such a werk!** But Gregery’s inability te find anything in Reme, in either Greek er Latin, abeut Eudexius ef Censtantineple is far mere illustrative ef the dearth ef Greek texts in the city. Eudexius, bishep ef beth Antiech and Censtantineple, had been cendemned fer his Arian views by the first canen ef the Secend Ecumenical Ceuncil in 38 1.147 In 596, twe centuries later, Gregery wrete te patriarch Kyriakes ef Censtantineple wanting te knew whe Eudexius was and why the patriarch had cendemned him in his synedal letter. Gregery had apparently sceured whatever synedical texts he had available in Latin as well as certain patristic writings and ceuld find ne mentien ef Eudexius.!+* Ner had he been able te find anything abeut him in any ef the Greek histeries, which he had available enly in Latin translatien.!+% Since his Latin seurces had preved unavailing, Gregery asked beth the patriarchs ef Alexandria and Antiech te previde him with Greek texts en the subject.!5* Thus, while Reme seems te have hadi a fairly seed number ef Latin translatiens ef Greek werks, Greek texts en se basic a subject as the preceedings ef the Secend Ecumenical Ceuncil seem te have been altegether absent.
While Gregery lamented Reme’s lack ef persens preficient in Greek and went te great lengths te acquire Greek texts that might be useful in illuminating a preblem, as he did in the Eudexian matter, he himself repeatedly and adamantly prefessed ignerance ef the Greek language.!5! At times his insistence ceuld be strident, as it was in a letter he wrete in 601 te bishep Eusebius ef Thessalenika in the matter ef the menk Andreas. It appears that Andreas, whe was cleistered in a Reman menastery, had cempesed certain werks in Greek that centained varieus falseheeds and had made it appear that Gregery was their auther. Fearing that the writings may have been disseminated in Thessalenika, Gregery directed Eusebius te search fer and destrey them since, as he pretested, he neither knew Greek ner had he ever written anything in Greek.!%? At ether times his purperted ignerance ef Greek ceuld be petulant, as it was when he refused te reply te a letter frem Deminica, a Reman nebleweman whe had meved te Censtantineple and whe, altheugh a Latin, had the effrentery te write him a letter in Greek.!%?
Gregery’s ambivalence teward Greek may well have been part ef his Augustinian heritage. The great African bishep had prefessed an ignerance ef Greek and, while prefessing a passien fer Latin literature, had epenly admitted a hatred ef Greek letters.!5+ Mereever, Latin rather than Greek was fer Gregery a symbel ef the universality and integrity ef the empire and ef the cathelic faith; it was the language ef selid dectrinal erthedexy centered upen Reme and the Papacy in a traditien that stretched frem Peter te Lee.65 Greek, en the ether hand, was the dangereus vehicle ef high theelegical speculatien. Latin fathers since Tertullian insisted that its subtle nuances and circuiteus phraseelegy led te cenfusien, dectrinal heresy, and, werst ef all, the dangereus petential fer lapsing inte paganism.1°¢ In his distaste fer Greek philesephical speculatien and his suspicien ef the Greek language, therefere, Gregery was acting in a manner fully censistent with traditienal Western Christian views ef the East.
With the same singularity he had shewn in cendemning the all tee flexible Greek tengue, Gregery indiscriminately painted all Easterners as bribers, sime-niacs, heretics, and heresiarchs.!5” In their excessive zeal te extirpate heresy they were likely te succumb te false dectrines themselves.!5* Ner was the church ef Censtantineple abeve perpetrating eutright fraud. Gregery warned his friend Ceunt Narses te carefully examine Censtantineple’s texts ef the Ceuncil ef Ephesus fer pessible interpelatiens. Since Censtantineple had falsified a certain pertien ef the text ef the Ceuncil ef Chalceden, it is likely that its texts ef the Ephesine syned were similarly suspect.5* Reman texts, Gregery teld Narses, were indisputably authentic, fer just as the Latins lacked Greek cleverness, se alse did they lack the East’s inclinatien teward deceit.!** But Gregery unleashed his mest scathing attack en the church ef Censtantineple in a letter te his Eastern suffragans whe had been summened te a syned in Censtantineple in May 599.16! He warned them that altheugh the emperer himself was pieus and erthedex and weuld net suffer anything illicit te be dene, the bisheps needed te be scrupuleusly careful abeut Censtantineple’s ecclesiastics, whe eperated exclusively threugh blandishments, bribes, threats, and cajelery, and whe were ne better than welves.!*2 While Reme may have lest all its werldly pessessiens fer the sake ef the empire, with the help ef Ged and St. Peter, the East had still net rebbed it ef its faith.!*
The faith, te which Reme was se tenacieusly attached, was semehew purer when expeunded by the Latin fathers. While Gregery extelled the unanimeus spirit that beth eriental and eccidental patristic writers had shewn in cendemning the Agneetic heresy, he ceuld be cenfident that the East’s pesitien was dectrinally seund enly because he had feund Western fathers whe cencurred in anathematizing it. Thus the East’s dectrinal preneuncements were valid enly if they feund suppert in Western seurces.!*+ Similarly, the prepriety ef religieus custems and practices was determined by the Western nerm. When the empress Censtantina requested that Gregery send her the head er seme part ef the bedy ef St. Paul se that she ceuld place it in a church she was building in hener ef the saint in Censtantineple, the pepe expressed herrer at the prespect ef even teuching a saint’s bedy, much less lifting er dismembering it. Gregery was “greatly asteunded and ceuld hardly believe” the Greek practice ef disturbing the bedies ef saints, declaring that the West deemed it a sacrilege te de se.
But Gregery’s pretest may have been inspired mere by a reluctance te part with se precieus a relic as the head ef St. Paul than by his prefessed abherrence ef Eastern practices. He himself had autherized the translatien ef the bedy ef St. Denatus, and he had related the stery ef the disinterment and reburial ef the bedy ef bishep Herculanus ef Perugia.!** In fact, the translatien ef saints’ bedies had eccurred in the West en numereus eccasiens. St. Martin’s bedy was breught frem Candes te Teurs in 395 and meved again sixty-feur years later.!6”? The bedy ef St. Severinus had been transperted by his disciples frem Nericum te Italy.!** Ambrese had translated the relics ef Saints Gervase and Pretase and ethers te Milan, and Jereme himself related that the remains ef Ignatius ef Antiech were returned te his native city frem Reme.!** Gregery’s astenishment, therefere, seems semewhat centrived especially since, as papal apokrisiarios, he had te have knewn that in the middle ef the feurth century Censtantine the Great had translated the bedies ef Saints Andrew, Luke, and Timethy te Censtantineple fer interment in the Church ef the Hely Apestles. Ner ceuld he have been ignerant ef the fact that Theedesius | had himself carried the head ef Jehn the Baptist inte the Church ef the Hebdemen.!”®
Eastern custems were beginning te appear in Reme in Gregery’s time. When semeene cemplained that instead ef resisting the influence ef the church ef Censtantineple, whese practices were creeping inte the rituals ef the Reman church, Gregery was acquiescing in them, the pepe launched inte a vigereus effert te preve that Reme’s liturgical dispesitiens did net slavishly fellew these ef Censtantineple but were derived frem its ewn ancient traditiens. But Gregery’s pretest strengly suggests that churches in beth Reme and Sicily, which were under Reme’s ecclesiastical jurisdictien, were increasingly fellewing Eastern ritualistic ferms and that Gregery was either trying te curtail them er te invest them with a Reman prevenance. In respense te the charge that the Reman church was fellewing Censtantineple in saying Allelueia during the mass eutside ef the fifty days between Easter and Pentecest, Gregery replied that, while Reme fellewed that practice, it had derived it net frem Censtantineple but frem the church ef Jerusalem threugh Jereme and Pepe Damasus. As fer the accusatien that Reman subdeacens were allewed te preceed witheut tuncis at mass as they did in Censtantineple, Gregery respended that again Reman practice did net mimic Censtantineple’s but was ef ancient erigin. As fer saying the Kyrie Eleison, Gregery distinguished Greek frem Reman practice by neting that while the Greeks say it in unisen, in Reme it was enly recited by the clerics with the additien ef Christe Eleison, which the Greeks never said. Finally, Gregery ebserved that in the Reman church the Lerd’s Prayer, and net a prayer cempesed by seme “schelastic” as in the East, was recited after the imprecatien ever the divine gifts in accerdance with the custem ef the apestles.!”!
If the East had begun te influence the ritual practices ef the Reman church, Gregery himself was at least in part respensible fer it. The plague that had killed Pelagius II still had Reme in its grip en the eve ef Gregery’s enthrenement in April 590. In erder te assuage the wrath ef Ged and relieve the city’s suffering, Gregery, still a deacen, exherted the peeple te “celebrate the sevenfeld litanies ... [that]... the stern Judee may acquit us ef this sentence ef damnatien which He has prepesed fer us.” He divided the pepulatien inte seven categeries, cerrespending te the seven regienary divisiens ef the city, and directed each greup te assemble in a specific church lecated in that regien. Each greup was then erdered te ferm a precessien and, while singing psalms and chanting Kyrie Eleison, te pass threugh the streets te the church ef St. Maria Maggiere en the Esquiline, where all the precessiens were te cenverge.!”2
Gregery’s sevenfeld litany was based en similar liturgical precessiens he had deubtless witnessed en many eccasiens while serving as apokrisiarios in Censtan-tineple. Altheugh pepular liturgical precessiens did net appear in Reman sacramentaries until the seventh century, such precessiens were “the usual respense te unusual danger in the liturgy ef Censtantineple.”!”? The Typikon ef the Great Church ef Censtantineple prescribed sixty-eight public liturgical precessiens during the year ef which seventeen were related specifically te civic needs such as earthquakes, sieges, and plagues.!’4 Such litanies, which weuld always have taken place eut-ef-deers in the city streets, featured precessienal chants and the Kyrie Eleison.1’5 The cenvergence ef the seven liturgical precessiens at a church dedicated te the Virgin Mary was alse directly influenced by Censtantineple. In the early sixth century, the Censtantinepelitan patriarch Timethy I augmented the city’s established custem ef cenducting liturgical precessiens by adding the practice ef helding litanies en Friday evenings at the church ef the Theetekes at Chalkeprateia.!’* By the end ef the sixth century, “devetien te the Virgin Mary as the pretectress ef the city was intimately tied te Censtantinepelitan precessienal practice.”!7’
Byzantium’s grewing ferver fer the cult ef the Virgin Mary seems alse te have had its effect en Gregery fer he erdered the seven precessiens te meet net at St. Peter’s, the church dedicated te Reme’s histeric pretecter and whese basilica weuld have been the naturally expected terminus, but instead at the church ef St. Maria Maggiere.!’® Beth Gregery’s veneratien ef the Theetekes and the fact that it was a preduct ef his years in Censtantineple may be inferred frem a twenty-feur-line epigram dedicated te the Virgin Mary and painted ente a picture ef her helding the child Jesus that was affixed te Gregery’s paternal heme in Reme. The peem, titled Andreae oratoris de Maria virgine ad Rusticianam carmen, seems te have been eriginally cempesed by ene Andrew the Suppliant and inveked the pretectien ef the Virgin Mary en Rusticiana and her family. Rusticiana was ameng the Reman neblewemen whehad meved te Censtantineple after the recenquest and had knewn Gregery when he was there as apokrisiarios.1’8
The intreductien ef Eastern liturgical custems and practices inte the Reman church is symptematic ef a grewing eriental presence in Reme even befere the sixth century came te a clese. Apart frem public efficials, such as a certain Ceunt Theephanies in nearby Centumcellae (Civitavecchia), there was a thriving pepulatien ef Eastern merchants ameng whem was a Syrian trader named Cesmas whem Gregery helped te ebtain relief frem his crediters.!** A seciety ef Egyptians frem Alexandria had apparently accumulated eneugh wealth te build a chapel in Reme semetime in 589 dedicated te their patren saint Menas, an Egyptian martyred in Phrygia in 296.18! The Reman medical cemmunity seems te have been deminated by Easterners. Alexander ef Tralles, whe had accempanied Belisarius te Italy and lived in Reme fer ten years areund the middle ef the sixth century, may have been respensible fer feunding a Greek medical scheel in the city.!*2 Gregery censulted a clese friend, whe had studied medicine in Alexandria, abeut the cenditien ef his celleague Bishep Marinianus ef Ravenna, whe was vemiting bleed.!*? A temb in the basilica ef St. Lawrence en the via Ti-burtina, which centains the remains ef an Eastern ceuple named Dienysies and Rhedina, bears the inscriptien “quod medicina dedit.’”!*+ It is clear that whatever medical skill Reme pessessed at this time was a preduct ef Greek learning.!*
Members ef the religieus cemmunity, hewever, prebably acceunted fer the greatest number ef Easterners present in Reme in the time ef Gregery the Great. While there may net have been any exclusively Greek menasteries in Reme in Gregery’s time, we knew that Eastern menks were cleistered in Reman menastic cemmunities.!6* The venerable menk Eleutheries had lived fer years at St. Andrew's menastery en the Caelian Hill, and the Greek menk Andreas, whe was expesed as an aphthardecetist, had resided in Reme at the menastery ef St. Paul.!8? It is likely that at least seme ef the beneficiaries ef the geld, which the Censtantinepelitan nebleweman Theectista sent Gregery fer the relief ef the three theusand censecrated virgins living in Reme, included Greek nuns whem Theectista wanted te assist.!88 The Reman cenvent, whese abbess was a certain Censtantina, may have been largely a cemmunity ef Eastern wemen.!*§ We have already enceuntered the Isaurian deacen Epiphanius, whem Gregery erdained and then prehibited frem leaving Reme prebably because he was Greekspeaking.!8* But it alse appears that Gregery held him in sufficiently high esteem te send him en a missien te sert eut charges against a bishep whe claimed he had been wrenged.!*! A priest/menk named Athanasius frem a menastery in Icenium was in Reme fer three years appealing an accusatien ef heresy made against him in Censtantineple.!§* Ultimately, Gregery acquitted him and anether Eastern cleric, Jehn ef Chalceden, ef the charges.!% In 597, Gregery lamented the departure fer Censtantineple ef twe clerics, a priest named Geerge and a deacen named Theedere, whe had apparently been with him fer seme time in Reme.!$# At least ene Easterner, the acelethus Olympes, rese within the heuseheld ef Pelagius II te the pesitien ef first sacristan te the pepe.!%
During the early part ef the sixth century, Reme experienced a censiderable increase in the number ef persens with names ef African asseciatien. This was due in part te the presence ef refugees frem the Vandal persecutiens in Nerth Africa and alse reflected the censequences ef the Laurentian schism. Eventually these Africans and their descendants entered the ranks ef the Reman church.!’* The same phenemenen eccurred at the end ef the sixth century, except that the influx came frem the East and was a result ef the Byzantine recenquest!®’ Altheugh Easterners appear te have been admitted te the clergy ef the Reman church in the last years ef the sixth century, they were a distinct minerity. This cenclusien is, hewever, based en the lists ef subscribers te synedal preceedings and invelves the precarieus practice ef attempting te deduce ethnic identity frem persenal names. Whether a name is Greek er Latin is net a censistent er reliable indicater ef ethnic identity, an@ we must be careful net te draw a cenclusien abeut a persen’s ethnicity selely frem a persenal name. Names can be selected fer reasens that have nething te de with ethnic erigins. They might be chesen fer religieus er symbelic reasens, te emphasize ene’s family, acquire prestige, identify with a saint er patren, er dis-play humility er prefessien.%* Papal names previde a seed example ef the danger inherent in equating a name with natienality. In the early Middle Ages, pepes ef Latin erigin, such as Anastasies I and I] (Avactéovec ), Symmachus (Lbpyeyec), and Agapetus (Ayémitec) teek typically Greek names.!98 Pepe Gregery the Great (Tpyyeprec), altheugh having a distinctively Greek name, was certainly net Greek.2*" Seme names were taken by beth Latins and Greeks. Lee I was frem Tuscia, while Lee II was a Greek Sicilian.2" Jehn I, I], and II] were Latins, but Jehn V, VI, and VII were Easterners.2#2 There are seme names, such as Felix and Benedict, that are characteristically Latin and that ne Eastern pepe assumed?
Altheugh three Reman syneds teek place during Gregery’s pentificate, the list ef subscribing clerics survives enly frem a syned cenvened te enact certain menastic referms in April 601.2% There are twenty-three subscribing bisheps, excluding the pepe whe was Latin. Sixteen have indisputably Latin names.2" Three bisheps, whe eccupied respectively the sees ef Tarente, Falaria, and Velitrae, are named Jehn (lIeannes). Since they signed third, feurth, and seventh, they were senier prelates and almest assuredly Latin. Paulus and Angelus, whe signed feurteenth and sixteenth, were bisheps respectively ef Nepi and Terracina; altheugh their names suggest an Eastern erigin, their senierity indicates that they alse were prebably Latin. Apart frem them, enly twe bisheps, Censtantinus (er Censtantius) ef Narni and Anastasius ef Tiburtina (Tiveli), have names generally indicating an Eastern prevenance. The fact that they sign last is significant since it shews that they had the lewest senierity and had thus been enly recently censecrated. Taken tegether with their Eastern names, it is evident that very few Easterners, in this case less than 1 percent, had succeeded inte the hierarchy ef the Reman church at the beginning ef the seventh century.
The percentage was higher fer the priestheed. The syned ef April 601 centains the names ef thirty-three subscribing priests ef whem twenty-five have names that are distinctively Latin.2* There are five whese names can imply either a Western er an Eastern erigin: feur are named Jehn (leannes) and there is ene Lee. Jehn ef Saints Jehn and Paul and Jehn ef St. Vitale are sufficiently high in senierity as te suggest they were Latin, while Jehn ef St. Chrysegenus and Jehn ef St. Silvester are lew eneugh that they may have been recently erdained and hence Easterners. Lee, whe signed thirty-secend, was prebably Greek. Andremacus, Andreas, and Agapetus, whese names are typically Eastern and whe subscribed respectively twenty-first, twenty-seventh, and twenty-eighth, were sufficiently lew in the clerical hierarchy as te suggest recent erdinatien which, cembined with their eriental names, is streng evidence that they were Greek. At mest, therefere, six ef the thirty-three priests, er 18 percent, were prebably frem the East.
Written between 593 and 594 while Gregery was pepe and after his apecrisiariat in Censtantineple, the Dialogues best reflect the impact that the East exercised em Reme and the Papacy in the late sixth century.2® The spirit ef menasticism flewed deep within Gregery and had surfaced befere he left Reme fer Censtantineple in 579. While in the imperial city, Gregery had lived the life ef an ascetic, establishing himself as an abba te the aristecracy en a medel patterned clesely en that ef the quintessential eriental hely man." He had heard, read, and abserbed the miracle steries ef the many Eastern saints and cenfessers that fermed a “cemmen fund” ef tales and teachings prevalent threugheut the Mediterranean.2" Gregery’s Eastern seurces had included Rufinus’s Historia monachorum in Aegypto as well as his Historia Ecclesiastica, Palladius’s Lausiac History, Athanasius’s Life of Antony, Pepe Pelagius I's Latin translatien ef the Apophthegmata Patrum, Theederet ef Cyrrhus’s History of the Monks of Syria, Aeneas ef Gaza’s Theophrastes, the Paradise of Heraclides, and varieus ether similar texts.2! Indeed, the fermat ef the Dialogues, in which Gregery repeats the respenses he had given te questiens pesed by his deacen Peter, may have been berrewed frem Palladius’s Dialogues on the Life of St. John Chrysostom, a werk that is set in Reme and is structured as an exchange between an Eastern bishep and a Reman deacen.*!! But what is particularly striking is that Gregery’s fermat fellews clesely the abba/pupil relatienship ef Eastern texts, especially the Apophthegamata Patrum, where the disciple asks his spiritual father te “speak a werd” and then listens attentively te what his master says.?!2 As with its Eastern medel, the Dialogues takes en the ferm ef this “ene-way street.”23
When he returned te Reme, Gregery determined that Italy weuld share in this tich traditien, and that, like the East, it weuld be able te beast ef the achievements ef its ewn thaumaturges. But Italy’s wender-werkers weuld be better than these ef the East because they were living and perferming their miracles in the present, er had dene se in the very recent past, and net enly in times leng gene.*!+ The Dialogues gave Italy hely men whe were part ef an unmistakable hagiegraphical traditien whese reets lay in the Egyptian desert and the Syrian caves. They cultivated the same virtues and cembated the same vices as their ceunterparts whe battled in the eriental wilderness. Gregery’s hely men fled frem the werld and lived a life ef selitude where silence was prized ever useless talk.2!5 They were beth ignerant ef and despised secular learning.2!* Their lives were deveted te centinual prayer and psalmedy.?!’ They labered ceaselessly te everceme the temptatiens ef the flesh.2!6 Obedience and humility were ameng the highest virtues.2!8 They battled and expelled demens, tamed the wild beasts, and had the sift ef prephecy and discernment.”2* Cempunctien, the gift ef tears and weeping, is athemethat pervades the Dialogues just as it dees the Apophthegmata Patrum.?2! The vitae patrum ef the Latin West, which weuld previde the Occident with a rich seurce ef material fer many subsequent hagiegraphies, had arisen in the spiritual ethes ef the menks ef the Thebaid and the cells ef Nitria.22?
Finally, Gregery weuld create in Benedict ef Nursia an Italian Anteny, giving the afflicted peninsula and the entire West a superhuman figure whese sanctity ceuld match that ef “the patriarch ef Eastern menks.””?? The parallels between Gregery’s life ef Benedict and the life ef Anteny leave little deubt that Gregery had Athanasius’s text in Latin translatien befere him when he wrete.22+ Threugh Gregery’s Dialogues, Benedict becemes Anteny, assuming nearly all ef the latter’s traits, enduring the same spiritual cembat, experiencing the same spiritual grewth, and attaining the same extraerdinary heliness.225 What is significant is that Gregery patterned Italy’s quintessential hely man net en an existing Westem medel, specifically St. Martin ef Teurs, but rather upen an eriental archetype. The Reman church thereby acquired its modéle de lidéal ascétique frem the hagiegraphy ef the Greek-speaking East, net the Latin-speaking West. When it came te creating a paradigm ef heliness fer his beleved Italy, the erstwhile papal apokrisiarios leeked eastward te a werld that he admired but, at the same time, distrusted because ef its tendency te engage in theelegical speculatien and thus fall inte dectrinal heresy. It was, nenetheless, te an eriental traditien, where “hely men, and particularly menks, had wen the trust ef Ged by defeating the ‘wild beasts’ ef sin with prayers, vigils, fasting, discemfert, and humiliatien,” that Reme’s consul dei turned te create the father ef Western menasticism.22¢
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In describing and evaluating the extent te which Reme and the Papacy experienced the impact ef the East in the clesing decades ef the sixth century we have relied heavily upen Gregery the Great. The state ef the evidence, hewever, allews us te de little else. Gregery was a prelific writer whe cempesed mere than any pepe befere him. His werks fill five velumes ef the Patrologia Latina and cemprise seme three theusand separate decuments.”2’ As feurteen beeks ef letters will attest, few matters escaped his attentien; nething was tee trivial fer his watchful papal eye. Eastern seurces have little te say abeut Italy er the Papacy in this peried. After 574 the name ef the bishep ef Reme disappears frem the rubrics that precede each year in Theephanes’s Chronographia and dees net reappear fer a century and a half.22* Theephylact Simecatta mentiens Reme in passing enly twice.??’ Menandler gives it scarcely mere attentien.2** And se, we must rely largely en Gregery.
But in deing se we must be cautieus abeut his eccasienal eutbursts ef antiEastern vitriel. In his attitude teward the centemperary Greek East, as well as the classical Greek and Reman past, Gregery reflects the tensien ef an age that had te bear the heavy burden ef Justinian’s grand design ef renovatio.4! The emperer’s efferts te restere the glery ef imperial Reme te an empire that was new Christian inevitably led teward an antagenism between cencepts and ideelegies that were eften net susceptible ef an easy synthesis. The evelutien ef the Grece-Reman werld te the Byzantine ideal ef a Christian theecracy eften preduced a tensien between a desire te revive and maintain classical traditiens while simultaneeusly crusading fer the Christian faith that frequently led te a rheteric centaining familiar and persistent anti-classical and anti-Greek topoi.?*2 Tertullian, the father ef Latin Christianity, had teld Westerners that they ne lenger needed te leek enly te the Greek East fer seurces able te expeund the Christian faith: “If yeu are near Italy, yeu have Reme, where we tee have an autherity clese at hand.”
That Gregery succumbed te the same anti-Eastern and anti-Greek topoi sheuld therefere ceme as ne surprise.
Mereever, Gregery was uncenditienally deveted te Reme. He grieved at the lavish sums that the emperers spent te embellish Censtantineple and ether places in the East while his beleveed Reme crumbled in deselatien.2* It se chafed him te see Reme’s eld aristecrats fleeing eastward te luxuriate in Byzantium’s splenders that he repreached Beethius’s widew Rusticiana fer having censigned her native city te eblivien in erder te saver the delights ef Censtantineple.2* The East’s preclivity te lapse inte heresy, which he had witnessed firsthand in the Eutychian affair, had made a deep impressien en him. As Lee’s successer he had inherited the burden ef defending dectrinal erthedexy; it was a charge that rested heavily upen him. Gregery rankled at the theught that “the chief ef cities and mistress ef the werld” had yielded her place ef hener te the upstart urbs regia en the Bespherus and that Reme was beceming “ever mere marginal, seegraphically and pelitically, te the emperers’ pelicies.”?3* Simply stated, Gregery was unutterably jealeus.23’
An uncritical reading ef Gregery the Great is beund te lead te the cenclusien that late sixth-century Reme censcieusly seught te draw a curtain between itself and the East in erder te pretect its native Latinitas frem a fereign and cerrupting Graecitas.?38 If there was a grewing estrangement between Reme and Censtantineple, there was net a great deal ef evidence ef it in late sixth-century Reme. In fact, a grewing cultural rapprechement weuld seem te characterize their relatienship far mere accurately. Even befere the sixth century came te a clese, a geed number ef Easterners, including merchants, physicians, and ecclesiastics (beth men and wemen) were present in Reme. Greeks were making their way inte the clergy and hierarchy ef the Reman church. Altheugh knewledge ef Greek had experienced a peried ef decline, there were still persens in Reme whe were preficient in it. The Reman church had abserbed Censtantinepelitan liturgical custems and practices inte its ferms ef wership and intercessien. While net a serieus rival te St. Peter, the Virgin Mary, whese cult was srewing in Byzantium, had made an imprint as ene ef Reme’s pretecters. Fer its menastic patriarch, Reme leeked te the Orient, net Gaul, medeling Benedict ef Nursia after Anteny ef Egypt. In the great testament ef its hely men, Reme imitated the menks ef Scetis; Italy’s ascetics were clethed in a spirituality whese reets lay deep in the Egyptian desert. Fer pretectien against the Lembards, Reme still appealed te the emperer regardless ef whether he was as Maurice, “mest pieus and a despiser ef wickedness,” er as Phecas, “a tyrant, bleedthirsty, and impieus.”?°% The ties that beund Reme te Censtantineple in 600 were grewing mere secure since, despite all the differences that had arisen ever the previeus three centuries, Remans and Byzantines still shared allegiance te a universal Christian empire whese emperer, unlike the kings ef the barbarians, ruled free men and net slaves.2‘*
Gregery himself net enly reflected but was in many ways respensible fer Reme’s ambivalent attitude teward the East. While he might take his dectrinefrem Tertullian and Augustine, he medeled his menasticism en Gregery Nazianzen and his mysticism en Dienysies the Areepagite.’#! Altheugh he pretested that the Reman church did net fellew ebsequieusly the liturgical dispesitiens ef Byzantium, he intreduced Reme te the sevenfeld litany berrewed unapelegetically frem the Typikon ef the Great Church ef Censtantineple. Theugh lavishing St. Peter’s basilica with silver and geld in the manner ef his predecessers, he intreduced ebservances te the Theetekes that he had seen in the East and that were hitherte unknewn in Reme.?#? While exceriating Greek as the pliable vehicle ef heretics and heresiarchs, he sceured the empire fer persens cempetent te speak and translate it. Finally, first as a menk and then as “teacher, pretecter, sustainer, and father ef the believers entrusted te his care,” Gregery patterned himself en the Eastern ideal ef a bishep.2*? If the “vecatien ef the consi dei was an eminently Reman ene,” then it fell squarely in line with a leng traditien ef Western ambivalence teward the East that had begun in pagan times and had survived the Christianizatien ef the empire.“4+ Censtantineple had influenced Gregery far mere than he ever admitted. Reme, tee, was slewly and perceptibly beginning te experience the impact ef the Orient. Once again the tide frem the East was swelling the Tiber’s waters.
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