Editing Pope Gregory I (section)

===Writings===
[[File:Window, Gregory the Great, Church of the Good Shepherd.jpg|thumb|right|upright|St. Gregory the Great window, Episcopal [[Church of the Good Shepherd (Rosemont, Pennsylvania)]] US]]
Gregory is commonly credited with founding the medieval papacy and so many attribute the beginning of medieval spirituality to him.<ref>Straw pg 4</ref>
Gregory is the only pope between the fifth and the eleventh centuries whose correspondence and writings have survived enough to form a comprehensive corpus. Some of his writings are:

* {{lang|la|[[Moralia in Job]]}}. This is one of the longest patristic works. It was possibly finished as early as 591. It is based on talks Gregory gave on the Book of Job to his "brethren" who accompanied him to Constantinople. The work as we have it is the result of Gregory's revision and completion of it soon after his accession to the papal office.{{sfn|Markus|1997|p=15}}
* ''[[Pastoral Care]]'' ({{lang|la|Liber regulae pastoralis}}), in which he contrasted the role of bishops as pastors of their flock with their position as nobles of the church: the definitive statement of the nature of the episcopal office. This was probably begun before his election as pope and finished in 591.
* ''[[Dialogues (Pope Gregory I)|Dialogues]]'', a collection of four books of miracles, signs, wonders, and healings done by the holy men, mostly monastic, of sixth-century Italy, with the second book entirely devoted to a popular life of [[Benedict of Nursia|Saint Benedict]].{{sfn|Gardner|1911|p=}}
* [[Sermon]]s, including:
** The 22 {{lang|la|Homilae in Hiezechielem}} (''Homilies on Ezekiel''), dealing with Ezekiel 1.1–4.3 in Book One, and Ezekiel 40 in Book 2. These were preached during 592–593, the years that the Lombards besieged Rome, and contain some of Gregory's most profound mystical teachings. They were revised eight years later.
** The {{lang|la|Homilae xl in Evangelia}} (''Forty Homilies on the Gospels'') for the liturgical year, delivered during 591 and 592, which were seemingly finished by 593. A papyrus fragment from this codex survives in the [[British Museum]], London, UK.<ref name=britishlibrary />
** {{lang|la|Expositio in Canticis Canticorum}}. Only two of these sermons on the Song of Songs survive, discussing the text up to Song 1.9.
* {{lang|la|In Librum primum regum expositio}} (''Commentary on 1 Kings''), which scholars now think that this is a work by 12th-century monk [[Peter of Cava]], who used no longer extant Gregorian material.
* Copies of some 854 letters have survived. During Gregory's time, copies of papal letters were made by scribes into a {{lang|la|Registrum}} (''Register''), which was then kept in the {{lang|la|scrinium}}. It is known that in the 9th century, when John the Deacon composed his ''Life'' of Gregory, the {{lang|la|Registrum}} of Gregory's letters was formed of 14 papyrus rolls (though it is difficult to estimate how many letters this may have represented). Though these original rolls are now lost, the 854 letters have survived in copies made at various later times, the largest single batch of 686 letters being made by order of [[Adrian I]] (772–795).{{sfn|Markus|1997|p=15}} The majority of the copies, dating from the 10th to the 15th century, are stored in the [[Vatican Library]].{{sfn|Ambrosini|Willis|1996|pp=63–64}}

Gregory wrote over 850 letters in the last 13 years of his life (590–604) that give us an accurate picture of his work.{{sfn|Markus|1997|p=i}} A truly autobiographical presentation is nearly impossible for Gregory. The development of his mind and personality remains purely speculative in nature.{{sfn|Markus|1997|p=2}}

Opinions of the writings of Gregory vary. "His character strikes us as an ambiguous and enigmatic one", historian [[Norman F. Cantor|Norman Cantor]] observed. "On the one hand he was an able and determined administrator, a skilled and clever diplomat, a leader of the greatest sophistication and vision; but on the other hand, he appears in his writings as a superstitious and credulous [[monk]], hostile to learning, crudely limited as a theologian, and excessively devoted to saints, [[miracle]]s, and [[relic]]s".<ref>Cantor (1993) page 157.</ref>