Pope Gregory I (the Great) (540-604) is a pivotal figure in the development of Christian theology in the West. Although much has been made of Gregory’s Latinitas and Romanitas, the view that Gregory was influenced by Greek Christian thought only through translation has come under fire.[1] Gregory was a synthesizer who produced an enduring fusion of Eastern and Western theological and philosophical themes. His most prominent sources are Augustine of Hippo and John Cassian, through whom he receives two important strands of the synthesis of Christian and Platonic thought. But Gregory’s exegesis is also inflected by Origen. As Henri de Lubac has said, “In Gregory’s case, it is not only his manner of understanding the threefold sense [of Scripture] that makes him reminiscent of Origen but also certain exegetical details and a likeness of mind which is perhaps connatural.”[2] That Gregory the Great was influenced by the Greek-speaking East beyond what was available to him in Latin translation, including the works of Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, remains an intriguing possibility.[3]
One of the key inheritances Gregory the Great receives from the East is an emphasis on discretion and compunction as essential for advancing in the knowledge of God—what might be called Gregory’s ascetic epistemology. The vision of God in this life can only ever be attained partially, and the struggles to glimpse God’s glory are frequent occasions of anxiety. Attempted ascents toward the divine in zeal can instigate pride, while humble overcorrection can leave the seeker mired in this earthly life.[4] Hence, the need for discretion—discretio—a favorite, technical term Gregory borrows from John Cassian to indicate one of the means of growth in virtue. The light of reason, which cascades into the human mind like rays from the divine is necessary to reign in the unruly thoughts that lead to temptation.[5] The discernment or discretion this outpouring of divine light makes possible leads to compunction—a heart transpierced by divine love.[6] “For unless we glimpse something of eternity in our mind, we would never prostrate ourselves upon our face in penitence.”[7]
In this paper I will engage the topic of the vision of God historically and systematically to show that Gregory the Great’s mystical theology contains important links to the eastern monastic tradition and that this is seen most clearly in the frequent attention he pays to the role of tears in attaining intellectual apprehension of the divine. First, tears are essential for clarifying the mind’s eye. They serve a purgative function, removing the detritus that makes clear sight impossible. Without catching a glimpse of eternity, recognizing the darkness of the mind mired in earthly things, and weeping over the incapacity to rise above them, it is impossible to attain the inward vision of God.[8] Second, with increased clarity of spiritual sight, the mind grows in love of God through reading of the Scriptures.[9] Because for Gregory “love itself is knowledge”[10] this growth in love is accompanied by an awareness of the need to turn away from earthly objects of desire towards God as the end of all human longing. Third, tears are a response to the recognition of how distant one is from God. Once tears have played their clarifying role and the penitent has grown in love and knowledge of God, the mind sees and recognizes how far it stands from God: “a fiery love is born in the mind, and sorrow springs from the flame.”[11] The clarity of vision extends into an awareness of earthly life as exile from the divine; this truly a cause for weeping.[12] For Gregory, tears are a necessary epistemological accompaniment to the activity of the fallen mind. Only through tears does the penitent become capable of clear sight. This, in turn, leads to increased knowledge and love of God through ascents made toward the divine. And finally it makes possible truthful vision about the human condition as separated from God, making tears a constant companion until the vision of God is completed eschatologically.
[1] John R. C. Martyn, “Introduction,” in The Letters of Gregory the Great, vol. 1 (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2004), esp. 2-3, 102-103; Joan Peterson, “Did Gregory the Great Know Greek?” Studies in Church History 13 (Jan 1976): 121-134; Joan Peterson, “‘Homo omnino Latinus’? The Theological and Cultural Background of Pope Gregory the Great” Speculum 62, no. 3 (1987): 529-551.
[2] Henri de Lubac, Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture, vol. 1, trans. Mark Sebanc (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998), 1:153.
[3] L. Cracco Ruggini, “Grégoire le Grand et le monde byzantin,” in Grégoire le Grand: Chantilly, Centre culturel Les Fontaines, 15-19 septembre 1982, eds. Jacques Fontaine and Robert Gillet (Editions de CNRS, 1986): 83-94.
[4] Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 8.6.9-10.
[5] Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 1.30.42, 1.35.49.
[6] Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 3.28.54
[7] Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Ezechielem, 1.9.3.
[8] Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 4.15.28-4.16.29.
[9] Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Ezechielem, 1.10.11.
[10] Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Evangelia, 2.27.4.
[11] Gregory the Great, Homiliae in Ezechielem, 2.2.1.
[12] Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 6.16.23.
This paper examines Pope Gregory the Great's ascetic epistemology historically and systematically. By treating Gregory's sources, both Latin and Greek, it establishes multiple lines of monastic influence on Gregory's approach to the knowledge of God in a Neoplatonic key. It does this by looking closely at Gregory's treatment of the gift of tears across his corpus. For Gregory, tears are a necessary precursor to the vision of God, they make growth in the knowledge and love of God possible, and they accompany the one seeking the vision of God throughout earthly life. By investigating sources of influence less commonly attributed to Gregory and tracing their effect on his picture of human knowledge of the divine, this paper offers a portrait of an understudied figure's inheritance and synthesis of multiple strands of the Christian Platonist tradition in the Late Antique period.