Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I CONSIDERATION
- PART II TALK OF GOD
- PART III INWARD AND OUTWARD: SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORLD
- Light and silence
- Contemplation and action
- Monastic order
- Rectus Ordo
- The bishop
- Division
- CONCLUSION
- Select bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- PART I CONSIDERATION
- PART II TALK OF GOD
- PART III INWARD AND OUTWARD: SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORLD
- Light and silence
- Contemplation and action
- Monastic order
- Rectus Ordo
- The bishop
- Division
- CONCLUSION
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Gregory's influence on the inner life of Western monasticism was perhaps greater than on the outward details of observance and administrative practice. He was, however, obliged to take a view of a number of practical aspects, and when he does so, it is always with a concern for right order. We shall come to that order more fully in a moment, but first something may usefully be said about Gregory's practical concerns in the running of monasteries; nothing brings home harder the gulf of thought and feeling between his ideals for the monastic life and the outward reality it often presented; nothing demonstrates better the magnitude of the task he set himself in trying to create a continuous working relationship between his outward and his inward preoccupations.
Monasticism had been flourishing in Italy before Gregory's day; both cenobitic monasticism and experiments in the eremitical life had been tried by the mid-fifth century. The model was Eastern and austere. The ‘rules’ of Basil, Macarius, Pachomius, all had their adherents. The Rules drawn up for Western monks in the sixth century by the Master and by Benedict (see pp. 20–1) had a new note, an emphasis on corporate life and on the moderation and common sense which makes it possible for a community to run smoothly.
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- Information
- The Thought of Gregory the Great , pp. 112 - 116Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986