Voices and influences
Gregory the Dialogist
The Roman prefect who became a monk, then a reluctant pope, and taught the Middle Ages how to care for souls.
Summary
This site quotes Gregory the Dialogist 628 times across 33 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 604.
- Quoted here most in Job: 384 of 628.
Gregory the Dialogist
- Lived
- died 604
- Tradition
- Patristic
5 of 628 quotations
Own words
Quoted in full, because Gregory the Dialogist died in 604 and these works are out of copyright. Each citation below names its edition and its year. A citation naming a modernised text means that edition makes its own editorial changes, and that edition's terms are not in this site's record.
Kish, who is called harsh, signifies not only his elect, but also the Redeemer himself. For no one was harsher toward himself than he.
The rest of the quotation
For the prophet, indicating the severity of this harshness, says: "Truly he himself bore our infirmities, and he himself carried our sorrows" (Isa. 53:4). For to die is not to suffer for mortals, who are subject to the suffering of a condemned nature.
1 Samuel 9:3 One day the donkeys of Saul’s father Kish wandered off, and Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants and go look for the donkeys.” BSB
There follows: "But as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you." 15.
The rest of the quotation
He speaks these things, to whom the Lord said above concerning those to whom he speaks: "They have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them." Behold, the prophet is rejected, and he speaks to those who reject him, saying: "Far be it from me that I should commit this sin against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you."
1 Samuel 12:23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way. BSB
When long afterward David sat against the battle lines of enemies, he wished from desire to drink water from the cistern of Bethlehem. His chosen soldiers, breaking through the midst of the opposing forces, brought back unharmed the water the king had desired.
The rest of the quotation
But the man instructed by scourges immediately reproached himself for having desired water at the peril of his soldiers, and pouring it out, he offered it to the Lord, as it is written there: He poured it out to the Lord.
2 Samuel 23:16 So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD, BSB
Behold, His servants are not stedfast, and in His Angels He found folly: How much more in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which shall be consumed as by the moth?
The rest of the quotation
Though the Angelical nature, by being fixed in contemplation of the Creator, remains unchangeable in its own state, yet hereby, that it is a created being, it admits in itself the variableness of change. Now to be changed is to go from one thing into another, and to be without stability in one's self.
Job 4:18–19 If God puts no trust in His servants, and He charges His angels with error, how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth! BSB
MORAL INTERPRETATION. But he shall save the poor from the sword of their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. For the 'poor' is everyone that is not set up in his own eyes.
The rest of the quotation
And hence 'Truth' saith in the Gospel, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now a person is drawn into sin in two ways. For either he is led on by pleasure, or overcome by fear. For 'the sword of the mouth' is the mischievousness of persuasion, but 'the hand of the mighty' is the opposition of power.
Job 5:15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth and from the clutches of the powerful. BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Gregory the Dialogist 628 times across 33 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Gregory was born in Rome about 540, into an old senatorial family with money and land. The Rome he grew up in was a wreck. Plague came through in waves. The Lombards were burning their way down the peninsula. A city that had once held a million people was down to a few tens of thousands, camped among ruins it could no longer repair. About 573 he became prefect of the city — the highest civil office left in Rome. Then he walked away from it. He turned the family mansion on the Caelian Hill into a monastery of St. Andrew and used the family estates in Sicily to found six more. He later said those were the happiest years of his life. He was pulled back out. For roughly six years he served as the pope's representative at the imperial court in Constantinople, learning how empires actually work. He came home to Rome, and in 590 plague killed Pope Pelagius II. The city elected Gregory. He tried to refuse. He called the office a burden and began signing his letters servus servorum Dei — servant of the servants of God. Popes still use the title. He governed like a man who expected no help. He fed Rome out of the church's own estates, kept careful accounts of grain and the poor who received it, and negotiated peace with the Lombard king Agilulf when the emperor in Constantinople would not. In 596 he sent the monk Augustine and about forty companions to convert the English. Bede preserved the story behind it: Gregory seeing fair-haired boys for sale in the Roman market and asking who they were. Angles, he was told. Not Angles but angels, he answered. He wrote the Pastoral Rule, a short and practical book on how a pastor should live and how differently he must speak to the proud man and the frightened one. It became the standard handbook for bishops for a thousand years; King Alfred had it put into English. His Moralia on Job, thirty-five books long, was the most-copied commentary of the early Middle Ages. His Dialogues — four books of stories about Italian holy men, including the only life we have of Benedict — gave him his Eastern name. In Greek churches he is Gregory the Dialogist, and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is called by his name. He was ill for most of his working life: gout, and a stomach complaint that often kept him off his feet. He wrote about it plainly in his letters. He died on 12 March 604. Sources: Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People; Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule and Dialogues; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. IV; The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).
628 quotations across 33 books
Where this voice is quoted
Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?
“When there is a reference to the voice or the "arm" [power] of God, we must be very careful not to attribute to him any corporeal feature.”
Unleash the fury of your wrath; look on every proud man and bring him low.
“Scatter the proud in thy wrath. 9. Thou understandest, As I, Who in the season of tranquillity bear with them united against Me, and when I come at last with severity, I scatter them in My wrath.”
Look on every proud man and humble him; trample the wicked where they stand.
“Look on all the proud, and confound them, and tread down the wicked in their place. 11. Thou understandest, As I.”
Then I will confess to you that your own right hand can save you.
“And I will confess that thy right hand can save thee. 14. As if He were openly saying, If thou art able to do these terrible things, which I Myself have displayed, I attribute to thee, and not to Myself, all the good things thou…”
Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He feeds on grass like an ox.
“Behold Behemoth, which I made with thee. 16. Whom does He suggest, under the name 'Behemoth,' except the ancient enemy? which being interpreted from the Hebrew word, means 'Animal' in the Latin tongue.”
See the strength of his loins and the power in the muscles of his belly.
“What is understood by the loins except the delight of the flesh? Hence the Psalmist also asks, saying: "Burn my loins."”
The lotus plants conceal him in their shade; the willows of the brook surround him.
“The shadows cover his shadow. 10. For all the wicked are in truth shadows of the devil: for while they give themselves up to imitate his iniquity, they derive, as it were, a form of resemblance from his body.”
Though the river rages, Behemoth is unafraid; he remains secure, though the Jordan surges to his mouth.
“Hence the Lord says to blessed Job concerning the ancient enemy of the human race: "He will swallow up a river and not wonder, and he has confidence that the Jordan will flow into his mouth."”
“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope?
“This the Lord openly indicates to blessed Job, saying: "Will you catch Leviathan with a hook?" By Leviathan, which means "their addition," that whale who devours the human race is designated. For while he promised to add divinity to man, he took away immortality.”
Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens?
“Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? Or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens? 30. Why is it that our adversary is first called Behemoth, afterwards Leviathan, but is now compared to a 'bird,' in ridicule at his destruction?”
Surely hope of overcoming him is false. Is not the sight of him overwhelming?
“Behold, his hope shall disappoint him. And in the sight of all he shall be cast down. 37. But this ought to be so understood, as to be referred to his body also; because all wicked men who fear not the strictness of Divine justice…”
One scale is so near to another that no air can pass between them.
“One is joined to another, and not even a breath comes between them. 54. These scales of sinners are both hardened and joined together, so as not to be penetrated by any breath of life from the mouth of preachers.”
Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
“Out of his nostrils goeth smoke. As of a heated and boiling pot. 61. For the sight of the eyes is pained by smoke.”
His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour from his mouth.
“His breath kindleth coals. And a flame goeth out of his mouth. 67. For what does He call 'coals,' but the minds of reprobate men, kindled with earthly desires.”
His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!
“His heart shall be hardened as a stone, and he will be bound as the anvil of the hammerer. 11. For the heart of the ancient enemy will be hardened as a stone, because it will never be softened by any penitence of conversion.”
When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw before his thrashing.
“When he shall be taken away, the angels shall fear, and being affrighted shall be purified. 12. Holy Scripture often so mixes up past and future times, as sometimes to use the future for the past, sometimes the past for the future.”
The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or dart or arrow.
“When a sword has reached him, it will not be able to remain, nor a spear, nor a breastplate. 17. In Holy Scripture by a 'sword' is sometimes designated holy preaching, sometimes eternal damnation, sometimes temporal tribulation, sometimes the wrath or persuasion of the ancient…”
He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.
“For he shall esteem iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. 19. That which above He called a 'spear,' he mentioned again below under the appellation of 'iron:' and that which He spoke of as a 'breastplate,' He again designated by mentioning it as…”
No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like chaff to him.
“The archer shall not put him to flight. The stones of the sling are turned with him into stubble. 21. For what do we understand by 'arrows' but the words of preachers?”
His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.
“The rays of the sun will be under him. He will strew gold under him like clay. 25. For in Holy Scripture when the 'sun' is used figuratively, there is designated sometimes the Lord, sometimes persecution, sometimes the display of an open sight of any…”
He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.
“He will make the deep sea to boil like a pot. He will make it as when ointments boil. 31. What is expressed by the 'sea' but the life of the worldly, what by the 'deep' ['profundum'] but their deep and hidden thoughts?”
He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!
“A path will shine after him. He will esteem the deep as growing old. 33. For a 'path' is said to shine after Leviathan, because wherever he passes along, he leaves behind him great astonishment from the brightness of his miracles, and wherever he goes…”
Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature devoid of fear!
“There is no power upon earth, which can be compared to him. Who was made to fear no one. 39.”
“I know that You can do all things and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted.
“I know that Thou canst do all things, and that no thought is hid from Thee. 2. For against his huge strength he observed; I know that Thou canst do all things; but against his hidden machinations he subjoined; And no thought is hid from…”
You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
“Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? For Leviathan hides counsel without knowledge, because, though he is concealed from our infirmity by many frauds, he is yet disclosed to us by the holy inspiration of our Protector.”