THE
BOOKS OF THE MORALS
OF
ST. GREGORY THE POPE,
OR
AN EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK OF BLESSED JOB.
THE EPISTLE,
Wherein he explains the time, occasion, division, plan, and the method of
discourse and of interpretation pursued in his work.
To the Most Devout aud Holy Brother^ my fellow Bishop
Leander^, Gregory, the servant of God^s servants.
1. When I knew you long since at Constantinople, ray
most blessed brother, at the time that I was kept there by the
Leander,who ishonoured as a Saint
and Doctor in Spain, was a native of
Carthagena ; his father Severianus
wa8 brother in Uw to Theodoric kin.j;
of the Ostrogoths. He early devoted
himself to a monastic life, and after a
long continuance in it he was made
Bishop of Seville, where he maintained
the Faith against the Arianism which
then prevailed, and received Hermini-
gild, who reigned there under hisfather
TJuvigild, into the Church. He wenton
an embassy to the Emperor Tiberius as
presently stated, afterwhich he returned
to Spain, but was banished for a time
by Liuvigild, who, however, on his
deathbed appointed him tutor to his
son Recared, whom he converted from
ArianiMm, and with bis assistance esta-
blished the Catholic Faith amongst the
Wisigoths and Suevi. Hi' took part
(and perhaps presided, see Baronius An.
689.H.ix. and xliv. Boll. Act. Sanct. Ap.
xiii. p. 277.) in the third Council of
Toledo, in which the Goths were united
to the Catholic Chu-ch, A.D. 589. He
died in 51)5. Ht- wrote a ru'e for
Virgins to his sister Firrentina, which
is extant in Ifjlstein's Codex Regu-
larum, a Homily of his, on the con-
version of the Goths, accompanies the
acts of the Synod of Toledo, and the
Mozarabic Missal is said by some to be
founded on one arranged by him ; his
other works are lost. See Cave, Hist.
Lit. an. 585. also the Isidoriana of Are-
valus in his edition of St. Isidore, Rome
17y7. There are three tpistles of St.
Gregory to Leander. Lib. i. Ep. 4 i.
Lib. V. Ep. 49. and Lib. ix. 1-21. ac-
companying the Pallium. His brother
Fulgcntius, Hp. of Carthagena and
Eceja, Bollaud. Jan. xiv. p. 97L and
his sister Florentina, A p. xiv. and Jun
XX. who devoted herselfto a life of Vir-
ginity, are locally honoured as Sainl.<».
He was succeeded in the See of Se\ille
(then called His/kilis,) by his younger
brother St. Isidore.
B