Abstract
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the letters of pope Gregory to discover if they show that he possessed certain mental and spiritual qualities which give him a claim to his title, "the Great." The qualities upon which the investigation was made are the following: justice, solicitude, moral strength, initiative, and organization and judgment, it is thought, if Pope Gregory possessed these qualities, he might give evidence of them in his writings to civil officials, spiritual leaders and private individuals. Book One of the Letters has been chosen as the basis both because it contains eighty-five letters, one of the largest numbers in the fourteen books, and because during the first year of his pontificate, pope Gregory had to face practically every type of civil, ecclesiastical and personal problem he would later handle, consequently, the letters in the first book reveal the foundation work of all his great projects, and are very illustrative of Gregory's policies in dealing with people. Readings into the letters from the other thirteen books show the same qualities and promise that a thorough investigation of them would substantiate the evidence found in Book I. Abbe Migne’s Edition of the Letters has been used as text. |A brief biography of pope Gregory end a general explanation of the letters are prefixed by way of introduction and clarification to what follows. But the real picture of Gregory and of his qualities is drawn from the letters themselves.