Four Notes on the Registrum of Gregory the Great

Modern biographers of Gregory the Great have failed to understand key evidence for the Pope's reaction to the murder of his old friend, Maurice, and of his godson and heir to the throne, Theodosius, by the military usurper Phocas, to be found in the Pope's Latin letters. Several of these are lengthy and in complex Ciceronian Latin, which may explain their superficial use to date. In this article, a close analysis of the Latin from four points of view should provide plenty of evidence for a change in the usual condemnation of the Pope over his praise of the new Emperor. The very early arrival in Italy of Phocas' agent, Beator, to plunder the estates of Maurice's old friends is fully described for the first time, as is the hostile reception in Rome of the new rulers' icons, and the covert criticism of Phocas in the litany for the plague procession of 603. Most revealing is the careful study of how Gregory wrote to Phocas and his wife, and to his old friends in Constantinople. He skilfully condemns the murderer with ironic praise, just as Petronius did with Nero, neither of them risking his own neck.