Gregory the Great

There have been good popes and bad popes.  Gregory the Great (540-604) was a good pope, one of the best.  The sixteenth century Protestant reformer John Calvin overstated matters to call Gregory “the last good pope.” There are three popes from history who have been had the title “the Great” appended to their name and Gregory is one of them.  He converted his family estate into a monastery and brought much needed reform to the church by renouncing financial impropriety and removing priests “for pride and misdeeds.”  He wrote On Pastoral Care as a manual for new priests that is still considered a classic in personal ethics for clergy.  His words about humility are instructive, “Act in such a way that your humility may not be weakness, nor your authority be severity, that your justice be accompanied by humility and your humility render justice loveable.”  His interest in church music was considerable and the “Gregorian Chant” was named in his honor. We have a written record of his Easter message on April 15, 591.  “There are two lives,” he said, “one of which we know, the other of which we do not [know]. The one is mortal, the other is immortal; the one is linked with human infirmity, the other with incorruption; one is marked with death, the other for resurrection.” He observed that Jesus lived both lives. Back to Gregory, “The Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, came and took upon himself the one and revealed to us the other. The one he endured by dying; the other he revealed when he rose from the dead.” A portion of his Easter prayer follows here: