One Of The Most Important Roman Catholic Pontiffs
Pope Gregory I was one of the most important Roman Catholic Pontiffs during the Centuries after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West.
Pope Gregory I was also as will become clear a reforming pontiff that restructured the Papacy to make it more effectively administered. As a pontiff he also became remembered for beginning the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon tribes of England.
Christianity was at the behest of Pope Gregory I restored to England through the missionary work of St Augustine of Canterbury. It was one of Gregory's most cherished
Rome And Pope Gregory I As A Monk
Rome had remained the centre of Catholicism despite the collapse of the Western empire. Pope Gregory I himself was born in the city of Rome itself during the year of 520 AD, he later became a cleric before joining a Roman monastery. During his time as a monk Pope Gregory I gained a well-earned reputation for being pious, caring, and generous in donating wealth to the poorest people living in the city of Rome and its outlying districts. It was his reputation for piety and generosity that made he an obvious choice for becoming pontiff when his predecessor died.
Sending St Augustine Of Canterbury To England
The Christian inhabitants of Roman Britain had been forced to live in Wales as the pagan Anglo-Saxon tribes had settled in England. Pope Gregory I had seen young Anglo-Saxon slaves on sale in the Roman markets, and then decided to send a mission to England.
St Augustine of Canterbury thus went to England to convert its Anglo-Saxon population to the Christian religion. He believed that it was his duty to spread Christianity as far as possible, to enable people to be redeemed through the good news of the Gospels.
Pope Gregory I And Administrative Reforms
Administrative reforms as well as liturgical reforms that fundamentally shaped if not altered the Roman Catholic church for many centuries. In office Gregory had decided to introduce clerical, ritual, and also theological reforms that made the Roman Catholic church more appealing to its adherents as well as administratively better organized. Over all the consequences of these reforms introduced by Pope Gregory I was that the Papacy effectively remained unaltered in its basic liturgy, governance, and rituals until the emergence of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation during the sixteenth century.
The legacy Of Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I’s tenure as pontiff main highlight, certainly from his own perspective was to send St Augustine of Canterbury to England to convert its Anglo-Saxon population to the Christian religion. Sending St Augustine of Canterbury to England certainly added to his reputation for piety and generosity, and it also increased the number of practising Roman Catholics owing allegiance to the Papacy.
Bibliography
Crystal D (1998) Chambers’ Biographical Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, Edinburgh
Lenman B, (2004) Chambers Dictionary of World History, Edinburgh
