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History of the Franks

St Gregory of Tours, tr. Dalton, 1927

Book 10, 1. Of Gregory, Pope of Rome

IN the fifteenth year of King Childebert,¹ our deacon, returning from Rome with relics of the saints, related that in the previous year, in the ninth month,² the river Tiber had covered the city of Rome with such floods, that ancient temples fell down, and the granaries of the Church were destroyed, with the loss of several thousand bushels of wheat. A multitude of serpents swam down the course of the river to the sea, among them a great dragon, large as a stout beam, but all were drowned in the salt waves of the stormy sea, and cast up on the shore. A pestilence soon followed, which men call the plague of the groin.³ Coming in the middle of the eleventh month, it first of all attacked Pope Pelagius, according as it is written in the prophet Ezekiel: ‘And begin at My sanctuary ’,⁴ and swiftly quenched his life. After his death great destruction of the people was wrought by this plague. And because the Church of God could not remain without a leader, the whole people chose the deacon Gregory. This Gregory descended from one of the first among senatorial families, and lived in the fear of God from his youth. He had from his own resources founded six monasteries in Sicily, and established a seventh within the walls of the city of Rome. He endowed them with sufficient lands to provide the monks their daily food; all the rest of his goods, even all his household effects, he sold, distributing the proceeds among the poor. He who was once wont to pass through the city in the silken garb of high office adorned with glittering gems now, clothed in a humble garment, consecrated himself to the service of the Lord’s altar and was appointed as seventh among the deacons who assisted the pope. Such was his abstinence in eating, such his watchfulness in prayer, such his zeal in fasting, that his weakened stomach scarce availed to support his frame. So accomplished was he in grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric, that he was held second to none in all the city. He was anxiously set upon avoiding this high honour of the papacy, for fear that if he assumed it, something of the worldly pride which he had long cast away might steal back upon him. For this cause he wrote a letter to the emperor Maurice, whose son he had received from the sacred font, conjuring him with many entreaties never to sanction his choice by the people, or permit his elevation to this dignity and power. But Germanus, prefect of Rome, intercepted the messenger, seized him, destroyed the letter, and sent him on to the emperor with the document declaring the people’s choice. The emperor, in his friendship for the deacon, gave thanks to God that he had now an opportunity of preferring him to such a dignity, and issued his diploma of confirmation commanding that he should be enthroned. But while preparations were being made for his consecration, the plague still devastating the city, he exhorted the people to do penance in the following address:

[Address of Gregory to the People.]⁵

Most beloved brethren, those scourges of God which we ought to dread when they are yet to come should be feared all the more when they are upon us and we have felt their power. May our sorrows open to us the way of conversion; may this punishment which we endure soften the hardness of our hearts, as indeed it was foretold by the prophet: ‘The sword reacheth unto the soul.’⁶ Behold how all the people is smitten by the sword of the divine wrath; one after another, they are swept away by sudden death. No gradual sickness cometh before death, but, as ye behold, death forestalleth the slow steps of sickness. The blow falleth; the victim is snatched away before he can turn to bewail his sins and to repent. Consider, therefore, in what guise he shall appear before the stern Judge of all, having no respite in which to lament his deeds. Our citizens are not withdrawn from us in part; all haste to death together. Houses are left void, parents behold the funerals of their children, and their heirs go before them to the grave. Let every one of us therefore betake himself to lamentation and repentance before the blow is fallen, and while time yet remaineth to weep. Let us recall before the mind’s eye all that in which we have gone astray and done amiss, let us chastise ourselves with tears for all our evil acts. Let us come before His presence making confession;⁷ like as the prophet admonisheth, let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord.⁸ This is to lift up our hearts with our hands to God, when we exalt the fervour of our prayers by the merit of our good works. And verily He giveth, He giveth confidence in our fear, who crieth through the mouth of the prophet: ‘I desire not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may be converted and live.’⁹ Let no man despair by reason of the immensity of his offences; for a repentance of three days absolved the men of Niniveh that were sunken in their sins; and the thief that repented won the reward of life in the very hour of his death. Let us therefore change our hearts, and think that already we have the object of our desire. The heart of the judge is sooner turned by the petition, if the suppliant hath himself repented him of the evil. And now that the sword of so great a chastisement hangeth over us, let us be instant in our tears, since the importunity, which is wont to displease man, is pleasing to the Judge of truth. For God is full of mercy and loving-kindness, and it is His will that pardon be won of Him by prayer, nor will He be angry according to the measure of our desert. For it is He who saith by the voice of the Psalmist: ‘Call upon Me in the day of thy tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.’¹⁰ He beareth witness therefore of Himself, that He desireth to have mercy upon them that call upon Him, who Himself admonisheth us so to call. Therefore, most dear brethren, with contrite heart and works amended let us assemble with a mind dedicated to tears in the order set forth below to celebrate the sevenfold litanies, on the first dawn of the fourth day of the week,¹¹ that when He seeth how we chastise ourselves for our sins, the stern Judge may Himself acquit us from the sentence of damnation prepared for us. Let the clergy therefore go in procession from the church of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian with all the priests of the sixth region. Let all the abbots with their monks go in procession from the church of the holy martyrs Gervasius and Protasius. Let all the abbesses with their congregations go in procession from the church of the holy martyrs Marcellinus and Peter with the priests of the first region. Let all the children go from the church of the holy martyrs John and Paul with the priests of the second region. Let all the laymen go from the church of the holy protomartyr Stephen with the priests of the seventh region. Let all the widows go from the church of the holy Euphemia with the priests of the fifth region. Let the married women start from the church of the holy martyr Clement with the priests of the third region; that all going forth with prayers and tears from these several churches may assemble together at the basilica of the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, Mother of our Lord God Jesus Christ, to the end that there, long while making supplication to the Lord with groans and lamentation, we may avail to win pardon for our sins.’

After these words, he assembled the different bodies of the clergy, and commanded that psalms be chanted for three days, and the mercy of the Lord implored. At the third hour all the choirs came to the church chanting psalms, and raising the supplication Kyrie eleison through the streets of the city. Our deacon, who was present, declared that in the space of a single hour, while the people were pouring forth the voice of their supplication to the Lord, there fell dead no less than eighty persons. But the bishop never ceased exhorting the people not to intermit their prayers. When our deacon obtained from him the relics of the saints, as I have written, he, too, was still only a deacon. He was preparing flight to some place of concealment, when he was seized, carried along, and brought into the basilica of Saint Peter, where he was consecrated bishop, and given as pope to the city of Rome.¹² Our deacon could not rest till he came back from Ostia to see with his own eyes how the consecration was carried out.

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