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GREGORIE (saint). Gregory the Great, c. A.D. 540-604, was born in Rome. He became one of the great fathers and one of the greatest prelates of the Roman Catholic Church. In A.D. 597, Gregory sent Augustine, a pupil of Felix of Messana, to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Bede refers to Gregorie as "our own Apostle" because he was instrumental in converting the Anglo-Saxons, and gives the story of his life in History of the English Church and People II.l. He was canonized soon after his death in 604.

St. Gregorie says that when a man considers the number of his faults and sins, the pains and tribulations he suffers seem less, Mel 1497. This quotation is attributed to Gregory in all the French manuscripts but is missing from the Latin original of Albertanus Brixiensis. The Parson's quotation on penitence, ParsT 92, appears in Moralia IV.27.51-52 (PL 75: 662-664); on wretched felons, ParsT 214, appears in Moralia IX.66.100 (PL 75: 915); on remembrance of past sins, ParsT 238, appears in Homiliae in Hiezech. I.11.21 (CC 142: 178); on costly clothing, ParsT 414, 934, appears in XL Homiliae in Evangelia, II.40.3 (PL 76: 1305); on taking pride in the gifts of grace, ParsT 470, recalls Moralia XXXIII.12.25 (PL 76: 688). S. Wenzel notes that the quotation at ParsT 692 refers to the preceding sentence, not translated by Chaucer. The quotation on gluttony, ParsT 828, appears in Moralia, XXX.18.60 (PL 76: 556); those who continue in sin, ParsT 1069, appears in Moralia, XXXIV.19.36 (PL 76: 738).

The form of the name is ME and OF, and occurs only in the prose works.


Bede, Opera historica, ed. and trans. J.E. King, I: 184-203; ibid., A History of the English Church and People, trans. L. Sherley-Price, 93-99; The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great by an anonymous Monk of Whitby, ed. B. Colgrave; G.R. Evans, The Thought of Gregory the Great; J.M. Petersen, The Dialogues of Gregory the Great in their Late Antique Cultural Background; Riverside Chaucer, ed. L. Benson, 961-962; J.B. Severs, S&A, 596.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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