Mauricius Augustus

Emperor Maurice (539–602) ruled the Byzantine Empire from 582 to 602 and was one of Pope Gregory the Great's most important — and most difficult — correspondents. He appears 8 times in this collection as a recipient of Gregory's letters. Gregory and Maurice clashed over the emperor's decree forbidding soldiers from becoming monks (which Gregory saw as an intolerable interference in spiritual matters) and over the handling of the Lombard threat in Italy. Yet Gregory also needed Maurice's support and wrote to him with the carefully calibrated respect that a pope owed an emperor — even when he disagreed with him. The Gregory-Maurice correspondence matters because it documents the most important power relationship in the late sixth-century Mediterranean — the tension between papal spiritual authority and imperial political power that would define the medieval relationship between church and state.
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Letters sent
8
Letters received
8
Total letters
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Correspondents

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All letters (8)

From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 592

He is guilty before Almighty God who is not pure of offense towards our most serene lords in all he does and says. I, however, unworthy servant of your Piety, speak in this my representation neither as a bishop, nor as your servant in right of the republic, but as of private right, since, most serene Lord, you have been mine since the time when ...

gregory great #3065
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 594

Our most pious and God-appointed lord, among his other august cares and burdens, watches also in the uprightness of spiritual zeal over the preservation of peace among the priesthood, inasmuch as he piously and truly considers that no one can govern earthly things aright unless he knows how to deal with divine things, and that the peace of the r...

gregory great #5020
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 594

The Piety of my Lords, which has been wont mercifully to sustain your servants, has shone forth here in so kind a supply that the need of all the feeble has been relieved by the succour of your bounty. On this account we all with prayers and tears beseech Almighty God, who has moved the heart of your Clemency to do this thing, that He would pres...

gregory great #5030
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 594

The Piety of my Lords in their most serene commands, while set on refuting me on certain matters, in sparing me has by no means spared me. For by the use therein of the term simplicity they politely call me silly. It is true indeed that in Holy Scripture, when simplicity is spoken of in a good sense, it is often carefully associated with prudenc...

gregory great #5040
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 595

Seeing that in you, most Christian of princes, uncorrupt soundness of faith shines as a beam sent down from heaven, and that it is known to all that your Serenity embraces fervently and loves with entire devotion of heart the pure profession in which by God's favour you are powerful, we have perceived it to be very necessary to make request for ...

gregory great #6016
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 595

Amidst the cares of warfare and innumerable anxieties which you sustain in your unwearied zeal for the government of the Christian republic, it is a great cause of joy to me along with the whole world that your Piety ever watches over custody of the faith whereby the empire of our lords is resplendent. Whence I fully trust that, as you guard the...

gregory great #6065
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 596

Almighty God, who has made your Piety to be the guardian of ecclesiastical peace, preserves you by the same faith which, through unity among priests, you preserve; and when you submit your heart humbly to the yoke of heavenly loving-kindness, it is brought to pass by heavenly grace that you tread your enemies under the foot of valour. For it can...

gregory great #7006
From Pope Gregory the Greatc. 596

The provident piety of my lords, lest perchance any scandal might be engendered in the unity of Holy Church by the dissension of priests, has once and again deigned to admonish me to receive kindly the representatives of my brother and fellow priest Cyriacus, and to give them liberty to return soon. And although, most pious lord, all your injunc...

gregory great #7033