Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:43:00.399Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Uncovering a Lost Work of Gregory the Great: Fragments of the Early Commentary on Job

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Paul Meyvaert
Paul Meyvaert*
Affiliation:
Cambridge, Mass.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Lat. 2342 begins with a list of works by an anonymous monk of the abbey of Bec, in Normandy, who seems to have lived there during the first half of the twelfth century. Dom André Wilmart, who first published this list, characterized the author of these works as a writer “de troisième rang,” who nevertheless possessed a kind of encyclopedic knowledge. Approximately two thirds of the works mentioned in the list are preserved in the same manuscript. Among the works now lost must be counted:

Vnum scriptum prolixum contra uerba cuiusdam, in quo contra dogma illius po suit centum L. auctoritates de diuersis doctoribus collectas.

Item aliud scriptum multum prolixum de diuersis sententiis et auctoritatibus quod diuisit in VIItem partes.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 50 , 1995 , pp. 55 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by Fordham University 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For the list, see Wilmart, A., “Les ouvrages d'un moine de Bec. Un débat sur la profession monastique au XIIe siècle,” Revue Bénédictine 44 (1932): 22–26. Since copying mistakes abound, Wilmart doubted the manuscript could be an autograph. He dated its script to the second half of the twelfth century, and the script of the preliminary list of works to a slightly later period. Linking some data concerning the abbey of Bec found in the manuscript with the dates of the most recent authorities cited by the author — Guitmund of Aversa (d. ca. 1099), Lanfranc (d. 1089), and Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109) — Wilmart believed he had been a monk of Bec in the early part of the twelfth century.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., 25, no. [10] and no. [12]Google Scholar

3 Ibid., 28.Google Scholar

4 Martène, E., De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus (Bassano, 1788), 2:168–77.Google Scholar

5 They occur especially in the six treatises on fols. 29–96. For a brief characterization of each of these treatises, see Wilmart, , “Les Ouvrages,” 22, n. 4; 23, nn. 1–6. In addition to my thanks to Professor Constable I wish also to express my gratitude to Brepols for producing that magnificent resource for research, the Cetedoc Library of Christian Texts on CD-ROM (CLCLT), from which many of the findings presented in this paper emerged.Google Scholar

6 Augustine is described as “summus et magnificus doctor ecclesiae post apostolos et evangelistas” (fol. 96), while Gregory is called “doctor apostolicus” (fol. 31v).Google Scholar

7 For example: “De hac re beatus Gregorius in ix omelia super Ezechielem ita dicit,” “Sic de hac re dicit beatus Gregorius in xxxii libro moralium,” “Gregorius in libro xxvi moralium commemorat,” “Beatus Gregorius Iohanni episcopo,” “beatus Gregorius Iohanni defensori,” “beatus papa Gregorius Quirino episcopo,” etc.Google Scholar

8 “Beatus Gregorius in moralibus et in quarto Dialogorum libro” (fol. 71v), “Item ipse in eodem volumine, id est Registro” (fol. 82), “idem doctor in libris moralibus patenter et diligenter ostendit” (fol. 93r).Google Scholar

9 “Et in Toletano concilio viii, cap. xi” (fol. 74), “Toletano concilio ‘Sepe principes contra quoslibet … perdat gradum’: Item ‘His a quibus domini sacramenta tractantur … neganda’ ” (fols. 76v-77), “In quarto concilio Toletano” (fol. 160v), “Toletano concilio nono … et plura similia in eisdem Toletanis conciliis” (fol. 162).Google Scholar

10 References to Gregory's Moralia are here given as follows: the number of the book, followed by the “chapter” number; this is followed by the number of the individual paragraph and the lines of the Corpus Christianorum edition (CCL), both placed in square brackets. The paragraph numbers have been included to help those for whom Migne may be the only edition available. In using the Brepols CLCLT disk one is given only chapter and line numbers of the Corpus Christianorum edition, although the CCL volumes themselves, like Migne's PL, also contain the paragraph numbers deriving from the Maurist edition of Gregory. The footnotes generally omit the line numbers.Google Scholar

11 The expression “luxuriae uoragine” occurs in Moralia 3.31 [60]: “in luxuriae uoragine mersum cernat”; Moralia 26.17 [29]:“ad luxuriae uoraginem deuoluantur”; Moralia 33.12 [22]:“in tantam se luxuriae uoraginem mersit.”Google Scholar

12 See the preface to the Moralia: “ea, quae me loquente excepta sub oculis fuerant, per libros emendando composui” (CCL 143:3), “… quia haec uerbis sensibusque tepentibus per homelias dixeram utcumque studui in librorum ductum permutare.” (Ep. 1. 41, CCL 140:49); see also Meyvaert, P., “The Date of Gregory the Great's Commentaries on the Canticle of Canticles and on I Kings,” Sacris Erudiri 23 (1978–79): 209–11.Google Scholar

13 CCL 143:3, line 75.Google Scholar

14 The “uerbis sensibusque tepentibus” of his letter to Leander (see previous note) may betray a sentiment of dissatisfaction with some of his earlier sayings.Google Scholar

15 Moralia, 25.9 [24] (CCL 143B:1249).Google Scholar

16 Moralia, 31.45 [89] (CCL 14B:1611).Google Scholar

17 Regula pastoralis 3. 19 (PL 77:81B).Google Scholar

18 Ep. 56a (MGH, Ep. 2:343).Google Scholar

19 Moralia, 4.27 [49] (CCL 143:193).Google Scholar

20 Moralia, 27.26 [50] (CCL 143B:1370).Google Scholar

21 Since no extant letter of Gregory contains such a passage, I am conjecturing that the Bec monk, encountering this text in a florilegium, perhaps identified only by Gregory's name, surmised that the content — dealing with superiors and their subjects — must derive from a letter.Google Scholar

22 The Vulgate text reads: “ut interficerent animas quae non moriuntur et uiuificarent animas quae non uiuunt.”Google Scholar

23 See PL 76:1200B.Google Scholar

24 See Ep. 1.41a in Hartmann's edition of Gregory's Registrum (MGH, Ep. 1:58–61).Google Scholar

25 In Reg. past. 2.6 Gregory writes: “Nam sicut in libris iam Moralibus diximus” (SC 381:216, line 186 and PL 77:38A).Google Scholar

26 MGH, Ep. 1:60, lines 29–31.Google Scholar

27 Fontaine, J., “Les relations culturelles entre l'Italie byzantine et l'Espagne visigotique: la présence d'Eugippius dans la bibliothèque de Séville,” in J. Fontaine, Tradition et actualité chez Isidore de Séville (Variorum Reprints, 1988), 19. On Byzantine Spain and Cartagena as a Byzantine port, see also Hillgarth, J. N., “Coins and Chronicles: Propaganda in Sixth-Century Spain and the Byzantine Background,” in J. N. Hillgarth, Visigothic Spain, Byzantium and the Irish (Variorum Reprints, 1985), 496 n. 58, 499.Google Scholar

28 Ep. 1. 41 (CCL 140:49, lines 51–55).Google Scholar

29 Ep. 4.17a (MGH Ep. 1:251): “quidam fratres, sacri verbi studio ferventes, antequam ad propositum modum ea quae dixeram subtili emendatione perducerem transtulerunt. Quos recte ego quasi quibusdam famelicis similes dixerim, qui prius escas edere appetunt, quam cibi plenius excoquantur.” This statement, taken from the preface-letter to Bishop Secundinus that opens Gregory's revised edition of the Gospel homilies, shows that copies of the notary's shorthand notes were being made surreptitiously and circulated.Google Scholar

30 Fontaine, J., “Les relations culturelles,” 22.Google Scholar

31 Cf. Serrano, L., “La obra ‘Morales de San Gregorio’ en la literatura hispano-goda,” Revista de archivos, bibliotecas y museos 24 (1911): 488: “A punto fijo no sabemos cuando se remitieron estas dos últimas partes de los Morales á San Leandro; seguramente fué antes de 599, pues en la carta que le dirigió San Gregorio … ninguna referencia se hace ya á los Morales; y de no haber enviado ya antes las partes que faltaban, no hay duda hubiese aprovechado esta ocasión para hacerlo.” Serrano, however, here mistakenly considers the parts not sent in 595 (parts 3 and 4, comprising books 11–22) to be the final portion of the Moralia. Leander had received this portion, parts 5 and 6 (books 23–35) in 595. See also de Aldama, J. A., “Indicaciones sobre la cronologia de las obras de S. Isidoro,” Miscellanea Isidoriana (Rome, 1936), 72: “Asi, pues, los Morales vinieron a Sevilla ya el año 595; pero no enteros. La ‘tercera y cuarta parte’ no pudo enviarse por entonces. Cuándo se enviaron? Ciertamente antes de 599, porque en la carta de S. Gregorio a S. Leandro en esa fecha no se hace mención ninguna de la obra, lo que supone que ya se había enviado.”Google Scholar

32 In 1970 Laureano Robles announced a new edition of Isidore's Sententiae: “No nos metemos en el estudio de fuentes, problema este serio y mas. Nos limitamos preferentemente a un estudio de la tradición manuscrita de la obra isidoriana, cuya edición crítica preparamos” (“Isidoro de Sevilla y la cultura eclesiastica de la España Visigotica,” Archivos Leoneses 24 (1970) 14). According to Medioevo latino 8 (1985), no. 1676, Pierre Cazier presented a doctoral thesis on the Sententiae at the Sorbonne in 1984. Cazier announced a new edition to appear “prochainement” in his article, “Les ‘sentences’ d'Isidore de Séville, Genre littéraire et procédés stylistiques,” in Richesse du proverbe, vol. 2 (Université de Lille III, 1984), 72, n. 1. Neither edition has yet appeared.Google Scholar

33 Sermon 296, chap. 8 (PL 38:1357).Google Scholar

34 On the scriptural corrections introduced into the Regula pastoralis, see the remarks of Dekkers, Dom E. in: Grégoire le Grand, Règle pastorale 1 (SC 381), 108: “A côté des corrections purement orthographiques, on trouvera des adaptations du texte des citations bibliques à la Vulgate. Le texte sous-jacent, pour autant qu'on peut le déchiffrer reflète une version vieille latine, souvent citée de mémoire et avec assez de liberté.” These comments refer to the famous manuscript, Troyes 504, considered to be a quasi-autograph of the work.Google Scholar

35 Isidore's artificial division of the text is evident at the transition from sententia 6 to 7. On the other hand Pierre Cazier has recently kindly informed me that the numbered division of the text found in Migne's PL edition is lacking in the early manuscripts of Isidore. This only underlines the need for a critical edition of the Sententiae. Google Scholar

36 For example: “superna dispensatio coactauit,” (Moralia 2.12 [41]); “superna dispensatio obuiat,” (Moralia 6.17 [27]; “superna dispensatio … permittit” etc. (Moralia 8.24 [43]); “pio moderamine format” (Moralia 27.24 [44]).Google Scholar

37 The edition of Isidore's Sententiae by F. Arevalo (1797–1803), reproduced in Migne (PL 83:537–738), abounds in footnote references to Gregory's works. For determining precisely where Gregory is being used, these notes are not very helpful. Thus, to give an example, the source for Sent. 1.10.19 is none of those mentioned in the note but, instead, Moralia 28.1 [7, lines 131–135]. Compare (Isidore) “Angeli corpora in quibus hominibus apparent, de superno aere sumunt, solidamque speciem elemento induunt, per quam obtutibus manifestius demonstrentur,” with (Gregory) “Nisi enim angeli quaedam nobis interna nuntiantes ad tempus ex aere corpora sumerent, exterioribus profecto nostris obtutibus non apparerent; nec cibos cum Abraham caperent, nisi propter nos solidum aliquid ex caelesti elemento gestarent.” It is the new electronic means (especially the Brepols CLCLT) now at our disposal that facilitate the rapid detection of such textual relationships.Google Scholar

38 On Taio's Gregorian compilations, see my comments in “The Enigma of Gregory the Great's Dialogues: A Response to Francis Clark,” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 39 (1988): 361–66.Google Scholar

41 See above p. 56 at note 8.Google Scholar

39 Except here and there where Taio does no more than integrate a section of Isidore into his work: thus Taio Sent. 1.9 transcribes the whole of Isidore Sent. 1.4, but without the numbers that distinguish the sentences in Isidore.Google Scholar

40 I find it puzzling that while strong links between Isidore's Sententiae and Gregory's Moralia can be discovered, the new electronic resources fail to reveal similar connections between Isidore and, say, Augustine. The impression I, at least, receive is that at the stage when he was composing the Sententiae, Isidore's encounter with Gregory was recent and rather overwhelming. Could the Sententiae perhaps be a much earlier work than has been hitherto supposed, written not long after Leander's return from Constantinople?Google Scholar

42 On Gregory's fondness for the expression “Deo auctore” see Frickel, M., Deus totus ubisque simul. Untersuchungen zur allgemeinen Gottgegenwart im Rahmen der Gotteslehre Gregors des Großen (Freiburg, 1956), 126–31. The Cetedoc CD-ROM (CLCLT) shows Gregory using “sincero iudicio,” “puris mentibus,” and phrases like “nuda appellatione,” “nuda historia,” “nuda cogitatione.” The word “profecto” is altogether one of Gregory's favorites — it occurs no less than 696 times in his works.Google Scholar

43 Ep. 9. 219 (CCL 140A:784). The similarity is all the more striking since this is a letter, of July 599, addressed jointly to bishops Syagrius of Autun, Aetherius of Lyons, and Desiderius of Vienne, on the need to eradicate simony; it was almost certainly brought to them by Augustine who was then on his way from Rome to evangelize the English.Google Scholar

44 See Richards, Jeffrey, Consul of God. The Life and Times of Gregory the Great (London, 1980), 41: “just as [Gregory] had fought against being removed from St Andrew's [his monastery] to become a deacon, he also fought against elevation to the papal throne…. He wrote to the emperor, asking him to refuse his consent to the election. But the letter was intercepted and destroyed by Gregory's brother, the city prefect Palatinus, who substituted a letter announcing Gregory's unanimous election as Pope Gregory I. The emperor duly confirmed it.”Google Scholar

45 The Council of Nicea (chap. 4) had stipulated that no fewer than three other bishops should be present at an episcopal ordination. Augustine sought Gregory's counsel since, at the time, he was the only bishop in England. Gregory replied that at the outset Augustine had no option but to perform episcopal consecrations alone. He advised him, however, to set up new episcopal sees in a manner that would render it easier for bishops to congregate for future ordinations.Google Scholar

46 See Ep. 9. 56a (MGH, Ep. 2:336, no. vi).Google Scholar

47 On the origins of the surviving text of the Libellus, see the comments in Meyvaert, P., “Le Libellus responsionum à Augustin de Cantorbéry: une oeuvre authentique de saint Grégoire le Grand,” Grégoire le Grand (Paris, 1986), 546–48.Google Scholar

48 The Registrum copies have preserved only a fraction of Gregory's original correspondence: see the comments in Meyvaert, , “The Enigma of Gregory the Great's Dialogues,” 347.Google Scholar

49 On this question see the comments of D. Norberg, In Registrum Gregorii Magni studia critica (Uppsala, 1939), 49–52.Google Scholar

50 For Augustine we now have the ongoing series Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des Heiligen Augustinus, and for Jerome the precious multi-volume Bibliotheca Hieronymiana manuscripta of the late Dom B. Lambert.Google Scholar