Gregory the Great

The traditional iconography of Pope Gregory I (590–604), as it appears in the miniatures decorating innumerable liturgical manuscripts of the Middle Ages, shows him clad in papal vestments, with stylus and volumen in hand, while a dove, symbolising divine inspiration, suggests the texts and melodies of the liturgy to him. The image sums up the centuries-old belief that Gregory had played a central and active role in the formation of the liturgical heritage of the West, to the point where the name ‘Gregorian’ had been given to the chant of the Roman church.

The accuracy of this traditional view was first questioned in the seventeenth century, by Pierre Goussainville, and from the nineteenth century onwards the problem came to seem increasingly urgent and indeed fundamental. Historians were forced to make their choice among contrary positions. Even today the controversy awaits a complete and definitive solution, but historical researches presented in support of the various hypotheses make it easier to form a balanced judgement which corresponds more closely to the truth.

Born in 540 into a noble Roman family (probably the gens Anicia), Gregory had the most thorough education available in the society of his time. It was one of the darkest periods in Roman history, when the city, taken and retaken by Ostrogoths and Byzantines during the Gothic war, was in danger of destruction at the hands of King Totila. After administrative and educational order was re-established by the Pragmatica sanctio of Justinian in 554, Gregory was able to embark on the career of public office for which his family had intended him.