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
If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
“Wherefore then hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb. Oh that I had been consumed, and no eye had seen me. Which same sentiment he had already uttered in his first speech, saying, Why died I not from the womb?”
You have said, ‘My doctrine is sound, and I am pure in Your sight.’
“For Thou hast said, My speech is pure, and I am clean in Thine eyes. Whoso remembers the words of blessed Job, knows how falsely this charge is fastened upon his voice.”
But if only God would speak and open His lips against you,
“But oh that God would speak with thee, and open His lips unto thee! For man by himself speaks to himself when in all that he thinks he is not withdrawn by the Spirit of the Divine Being from the sense of carnal wisdom; when…”
They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
“He is higher than heaven, what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst thou know? His measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.”
Surely He knows the deceit of men. If He sees iniquity, does He not take note?
“For He knoweth the vanity of men; when He seeth wickedness also, doth He not consider it? As if he were subjoining in explaining the things premised, saying, 'Because He sees that by suffering them evil habits gain growth, by judging He brings to nought…”
if you put away the iniquity in your hand, and allow no injustice to dwell in your tents, then indeed you will lift up your face without shame; you will…
“If the iniquity which is in thine hand thou put far from thee, and wickedness dwell not in thy tabernacle, then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, yea thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear.”
But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; they will hope for their last breath.”
“But the eyes of the wicked shall fail and refuge shall perish from them, and their hope shall be the abomination of the soul.”
“Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die!
“No doubt but ye are the only men, and wisdom shall die with you. Now Zophar would have said this aright, if blessed Job had not proclaimed it all more fully even by living accordingly.”
The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure—those who carry their god in their hands.
“The tabernacles of robbers have plenty, and they provoke God with boldness; when He hath given all into their hand.”
Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
“Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? As if he said in plain terms; 'Whether you ask the dull of understanding, or persons full of the loftiest subjects, or those devoted to earthly ways, or the men…”
Wisdom is found with the elderly, and understanding comes with long life.
“With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding. For these sayings are set fast in the root of wisdom, which by continuance in living, are also made strong by the practice of deeds.”
Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are His.
“With Him is wisdom and strength: He hath counsel and understanding. We not unfitly interpret these words of the Only begotten Son of the Supreme Father, so as to understand Him to be Himself 'the Wisdom and Strength of God.'”
What He tears down cannot be rebuilt; the man He imprisons cannot be released.
“If He break down, there is none that can build again: if He shut up a man, there is none that can open. Almighty God 'breaks down' the heart of man, when He forsakes it; He 'builds it up,' when He fills it.”
He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows the established.
“He leadeth the priests inglorious, and overthroweth the mighty. The great glory of the priest is the righteousness of those that are subject to him. Whence the excellent preacher saith well to his disciples; For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?”
He deprives the trusted of speech and takes away the discernment of elders.
“Who changeth the lip of the truthful, and taketh away the instruction of the aged. When the priest does not do the good that he tells, even the very word of his lips is withdrawn from him, that he may not dare to speak what…”
He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into light.
“Who discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death. For when the several mystical truths are recognised in the secret words of the Prophets by them that believe, what else is it, than that 'deep things are discovered…”
He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland. They grope in the darkness without light; He makes them stagger like drunkards.
“Who changeth the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and deceiveth them, that they wander in vain where there is no way, they shall grope in the dark without any light, and He shall make them to stagger like a drunken…”
Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. I will still defend my ways to His face.
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. But I will rebuke mine own ways before Him. He also shall be my salvation. There is no room for the virtue of patience in prosperous circumstances.”
Behold, now that I have prepared my case, I know that I will be vindicated.
“If I shall be judged, I know that I shall be found just. Which too is not at variance with the person of the self-same blessed Job, since he is only telling that concerning himself without, which 'Truth' had inwardly declared to his enemy concerning…”
Withdraw Your hand from me, and do not let Your terror frighten me.
“Withdraw Thine hand far from me, and let not Thy dread make me afraid. By which same two what else does he ask in a voice of prophecy, but the season of grace and redemption?”
Why do You hide Your face and consider me as Your enemy?
“Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, and holdest me for Thine enemy? Man enjoyed the light of inward contemplation in Paradise, but by gratifying himself as he departed from himself, he lost the light of the Creator, and fled from His face to the trees of…”
Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!
“Who can make clean a thing conceived of unclean seed? Is it not Thou, Who only Art? He That alone is clean in Himself can cleanse the unclean thing.”
If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!
“Ver. 13. O that Thou wouldest defend me in hell! That before the coming of the Mediator between God and man, every person, though he might have been of a pure and approved life, descended to the prisons of hell, there can be no doubt…”
You will call, and I will answer; You will desire the work of Your hands.
“Ver. 15. Thou shalt call me, and I will answer Thee. We are said to answer anyone, when we do works in turn answerable to his deeds.”
He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.”
“Ver. 22. But his flesh while he liveth shall have pain, and His soul shall mourn over himself. Concerning the married Paul saith, Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh.”