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
They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.
“They are exalted for a little while, but they shall not hold on. The glory of bad men, whilst it is for the most part extended into a multitude of years, is by the minds of the weak reckoned to be long and as it…”
“Dominion and awe belong to God; He establishes harmony in the heights of heaven.
“Dominion and fear are with Him; Who maketh peace in His high places. [LITERAL INTERPRETATION] As though he expressed himself in plain words; 'He only truly terrifies the hearts of mortals, who by the power of His Divine nature truly possesses these.'”
Can His troops be numbered? On whom does His light not rise?
“Is there any number of His soldiers? In the cognizance of human reason there is not any number of the spirits above, in that it cannot tell how great is that concourse of the Invisible Host, whereof it is said by Daniel, Thousand thousands ministered…”
How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
“Can a man be justified being compared with God? or can he be found clean that is born of a woman?”
If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,
“Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. What is denoted by 'the moon' but the whole Church together? what by 'the stars' but the souls of the several persons that live rightly?”
how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!”
“How much more is man rottenness, and the son of man a worm? As if it were in plain words; 'If those very persons also cannot be void of contagion, who amidst the darkness of the present life shine bright by virtuous attainments, with what…”
“How you have helped the powerless and saved the arm that is feeble!
“But Job answered and said, Of whom art thou the helper? whether of one that is powerless? or dost thou sustain the arm of him that is not strong?”
To whom have you uttered these words? And whose spirit spoke through you?
“Whom wouldest thou have taught? Was it not Him Who made the breathway? By the 'breathway' we live, by prudence we are wise.”
The dead tremble—those beneath the waters and those who dwell in them.
“Lo, the giants groan under the waters. For it was fitting that by rebuking he should first beat down the swelling of earthly wisdom, and by instruction afterwards pass on to words replete with mysteries.”
Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.
“Hell is naked before Him, and destruction hath no covering. Which same Paul likewise saith, But all things are naked and opened unto His eyes.”
He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.
“He stretcheth out the north over the empty place. [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] By the title of the 'north,' in Holy Writ the devil is used to be designated, who with the thought to bind up the hearts of the nations with the iciness of insensibility, said…”
He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their own weight.
“He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, that they should not burst forth alike beneath. For what does he call 'the waters' in this place but knowledge; what 'clouds' but the Preachers?”
He covers the face of the full moon, spreading over it His cloud.
“He holdeth back the face of His Throne, and spreadeth His cloud upon it. [LITERAL INTERPRETATION] In the face there is wont to be shewn forth acquaintanceship.”
The foundations of heaven quake, astounded at His rebuke.
“The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at His nod. [MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION] What else does he call 'the pillars of heaven' but the holy Angels, or the principal preachers of the Church, over whom in the heavenly world the whole structure of the spiritual…”
By His power He stirred the sea; by His understanding He shattered Rahab.
“In His might the seas are suddenly gathered together, and His wisdom hath struck the proud one. What else is denoted by the title of the sea save the present world, wherein the hearts of men seeking after earthly things swell with the diverse billows…”
Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”
“Lo, these things have been spoken for part of His ways; and whilst we scarcely hear a little drop of His words, who shall be able to look on the thunder of His Majesty?”
as long as my breath is still within me and the breath of God remains in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter…
“All the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips shall not speak iniquity, nor my tongue meditate falsehood. What he first calls 'iniquity,' this repeating afterwards he calls 'falsehood.'”
I will never say that you are right; I will maintain my integrity until I die.
“God forbid that I should justify you; till I die, I will not depart from mine innocency. For he would 'depart from his innocency,' if he reckoned good things of bad persons; as Solomon bears witness, who saith, He that justifieth the wicked, and he…”
May my enemy be like the wicked and my opponent like the unjust.
“Let mine enemy be like the ungodly, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous. In Holy Writ, the words 'like as' and 'as if' are sometimes put not for a likeness, but for the reality.”
For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
“For what is the hope of the hypocrite, if he seize with covetousness, and God free not his soul? Will God hear his cry, when trouble cometh upon him?”
He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
“When the rich man sleepeth, he shall take nothing away with him, he shall open his eyes and shall find nought.”
Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night.
“Want shall take hold of him like water; a tempest shall overwhelm him in the night. Let us look now at the want of the rich man as burning, whose abundance was so great as feasting.”
The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
“The scorching wind shall carry him off, and take him away. And as a whirlwind shall carry him out of his place.”
It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.
“For He shall let loose upon him, and not spare. Fleeing he shall flee out of His hand. God, as often as He chastens the sinner by smiting him, for this reason 'lets loose' the scourge, that He may 'spare.'”
Proud beasts have never trodden it; no lion has ever prowled over it.
“The children of the dealers have not trodden it, nor hath the lioness passed through it. In all the Latin copies we find the word 'Instructors' put down, but in the Greek we find 'traders,' whereby it may be inferred that in this passage the…”