Abstract
Those interested in St. Gregory and his times find constant reference to the life of that pope written by John the Deacon. Because no translation of that work has hitherto appeared in English, a group of students, at the suggestion of Dr. L.V. Jacks, director of the classical department of The Creighton University, decided to undertake a translation and commentary on the Vita as their piece of research. |Since Books I and II of the Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni were already in process of translation when this work was begun, the original plan was to present a translation and commentary on Books III and IV. However, as the manuscript took shape, it ran into a forbidding length--some three hundred pages of translation alone; hence the first plan was abandoned and the scope of the work was limited to the third book alone. The text used was that of J.P. Migne, Volume LXXV of Patrologlae cursus completus Patrum Latinorum, which in the course of this study will be referred to as the Patrologia Latina. |Through the commentary the author has endeavored to supplement and clarify the text and to present various views on controversial questions. No textual, grammatical, or stylistic problems are handled, herein since these points have already been treated by competent scholars in this field. |This study has the secondary purpose of examining the historiography of John the Deacon in the Vita III. As background material a chapter containing the few known facts about this Roman deacon of the ninth century and his works has been included; also a chapter dealing with the early life and writings of St. Gregory because this material is not included in Book III.