Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2367
Gregory the Great is outraged that the presbyters in charge of the church of Saint Pancratius in Rome (Italy) neglect their duties. He dismisses them and entrusts the church to the monks that will be installed in the adjacent monastery. A presbyter from the outside of this community should be employed and sustained by the monastery in which he will also live, to celebrate Mass. Gregory the Great, Letter 4.18, AD 594.
Letter 4.18 to Abbot Maurus of Saint Pancratius (March 594)
 
Gregorius Mauro abbati a sancto Pancratio
 
Ecclesiarum cura, quae sacerdotalibus officiis euidenter infixa est, ita nos cogit esse sollicitos, ut nulla in eis culpa neglectus appareat. Quoniam uero ecclesiam sancti Pancratii, quae erat commissa presbyteris, frequenter neglectum habuisse cognouimus, ita ut uenientes Dominicorum die populi missarum sollemnia celebraturi, non inuento presbytero, murmurantes redirent, hoc matura deliberatione nostro sedit arbitrio ut, eis remotis, monachorum congregationem in monasterio eidem ecclesiae cohaerenti constituere cum Christi gratia deberemus, quatenus abbas, qui illic praeesset, curam et sollicitudinem antefatae ecclesiae habere modis omnibus debuisset.
In quo etiam monasterio te Maurum abbatem praeuidimus praeponendum, statuentes ut terras praefatae ecclesiae uel quicquid illic intrauerit seu de reditibus eius accesserit antedicto monasterio tuo debeat applicari atque illic sine diminutione aliqua pertinere, ita sane ut, quaecumque in suprascripta ecclesia fienda reparanda que sunt, per te sine dubio reparentur.
Sed ne, remotis presbyteris quibus ecclesia ipsa fuerat ante commissa, uacare mysteriis uideatur, idcirco huius tibi auctoritatis tenore praecipimus ut peregrinum illic non desinas adhibere presbyterum, qui sacra missarum possit sollemnia celebrare. Quem tamen et in monasterio tuo habitare, et exinde uitae subsidia habere necesse est. Sed et hoc prae omnibus curae tuae sit ut ibidem ad sacratissimum corpus beati Pancratii cotidie opus Dei proculdubio peragatur. Haec igitur quae tibi huius praecepti fienda serie deputamus non solum te perficere uerum etiam et ab his qui in officio loco que tuo successerint sic in perpetuum seruari uolumus et impleri, ut nullus deinceps in supradicta ecclesia possit inueniri neglectus.
 
(ed. Norberg 1982: 236–237)
Letter 4.18 to Abbot Maurus of Saint Pancratius (March 594)
 
Gregory to Maurus, abbot of Saint Pancratius
 
The care of churches, which has clearly been established among priestly duties, forces us to be very much concerned that no fault of neglect should appear in them. But we have learnt that the church of Saint Pancratius, which was entrusted to presbyters, has frequently suffered from neglect, to the extent that when the people came on a Sunday to celebrate solemn Mass, they found no presbyter and went home muttering. And so, after due deliberation, we have settled on this decision. We should remove the presbyters and establish a community of monks in the monastery adjacent to the same church, by the grace of Christ, so that the abbot in charge there should have total care and concern for the aforesaid church.
We have also decided that you, Maurus should be pit in charge, as abbot of that monastery. And we make it a condition that the lands of the aforesaid church, and whatever has entered there or had accrued from its financial returns, ought to be directed to the above-ementioned monastery of yours, and should apply there without any reduction. In this way, of course, whatever needs to be done and repaired in the church should without doubt be repaired through you.
But in case that church might seem to lack the holy mysteries, when the presbyters have been removed to whom that church had been entrusted before, we accordingly order you with the direction of this authority not to stop employing the presbyter from the outside [of the community] (peregrinus presbyter), who could celebrate the holy solemnities of Mass. However, it is necessary that he should both live in your monastery and obtain his sustenance from there. But take care over this before all else, that each day the divine office (opus Dei) is carried out there without question, before the most sacred body of Saint Pancratius. And so we consider that you should do these things through the direction of this order. We not only want you to carry them out, but we also want them to be preserved and implemented in perpetuity by those who succeed you in your office and rank, so that no neglect might be found thereafter in the aforementioned church.
 
(trans. Martyn 2004: 301, slightly altered and summarized by J. Szafranowski)

Discussion:

Martyn considers the peregrinus presbyter to be "non-Italian presbyter", adding that Irish monks were known to call themselves peregrini. This is almost certainly wrong because 1) there was hardly reason for Gregory to limit the choice of possible presbyters to Irish monks; 2) an Irish monk would be likely not interested in serving as a simple parish presbyter; and 3) such monk would definetely live with other monks and be sustained by the newly-created monastery – there would be no need to insist on it. Gregory does mention it, because peregrinus quite plainly refers here to the fact that he was to be employed from the outside of the community. Gregory frowned upon monks being involved in pastoral care (cf. [2357]); a presbyter employed by a community for Eucharistic services, while being formally (and quite often spatially) separated from it does resemble the relations between nuns and the presbyters assigned to their convents. The main difference is the fact that monks could be ordained – it seems that the presbyter mentioned in this letter would be hired by the monastery solely in order to provide Eucharist to the laymen, rather than the monks. Maybe this is the reason why there is a mention of only one presbyter in place of at least a couple that occupied the church before Gregory's intervention.
 
This letter also proves that the regular parish presbyters assigned to a particular church were sustained by the lands being also allocated to this specific church, rather than being paid directly by the bishop.

Place of event:

Region
  • Rome
City
  • Rome

About the source:

Author: Gregory the Great
Title: Letters, Epistulae, Epistolae, Registrum epistularum, Registrum epistolarum
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
Gregory, later called the Great (Gregorius Magnus), was born ca 540 to an influential Roman family with some connection to the ancient gens Anicia. His great-great-grandfather was Felix III, who served as the bishop of Rome from 526 to 530. Possibly, Agapetus I, pope between 535 and 536, was his relative as well. Little is known about his early career, but in 573 Gregory ascended to the high office of city prefect. Shortly afterwards, however, he resigned from his post and adopted the monastic way of life. He founded a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew within his family estate on Coelian Hill, next to the library established by Agapetus and Cassiodorus. Six other monasteries were founded in the estates his family owned in Sicily. Soon after his monastic conversion, he started to be given various tasks by Popes Benedict I (575–578) and Pelagius II (578–590). At that time, he was ordained a deacon. Between 579 and 585/6, Gregory acted as Pelagius` envoy in Constantinople. In 590, he was elected Pelagius` successor to the bishopric of Rome. The registry of his letters contained copies of Gregory`s papal correspondence up to his death in 604. The scope of Gregory`s original registry is still the subject of scholarly speculation. There are 854 extant letters gathered in fourteen volumes, most of them (686 letters) originating from the collection compiled at the time of Pope Hadrian I (772–795).
 
It is worth remembering that the majority of Gregory’s correspondence was jointly produced by the pope and his subordinates, see Pollard 2013.
Edition:
D. Norberg ed., S. Gregorii Magni Registrum Epistularum, Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina 140, 140A, Turnhout 1982.
 
Translation:
The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. J.R.C. Martyn, Mediaeval Sources in Translation 40, Toronto 2004.
Bibliography:
R.M. Pollard, A Cooperative Correspondence: The Letters of Gregory the Great, in: M. Dal Santo, B. Neil (eds.), A Companion to Gregory the Great, Leiden-Boston 2013, pp. 291–312.

Categories:

Ecclesiastical transfer
    Functions within the Church - Urban presbyter
      Functions within the Church - Monastic presbyter
        Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
          Monastic or common life - Cenobitic monk
            Specific number of presbyters from the same church
              Ritual activity - Eucharist
                Ecclesiastical administration - Administering Church property
                  Economic status and activity - Ownership or possession of land
                    Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical
                      Livelihood/income
                        Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: J. Szafranowski, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2367, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2367