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Inventing Gregory “the Great”: Memory, Authority, and the Afterlives of the Letania Septiformis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2015

Abstract

In modern scholarship, Pope Gregory I “the Great” (590–604) is often simultaneously considered the final scion of classical Rome and the first medieval pope. The letania septiformis, a procession organized into seven groups that Gregory instituted in 590 in the face of plague and disease (and performed only once thereafter in 603), has similarly been construed as the very moment when Antiquity died and the Middle Ages were born. However, his Roman contemporaries in the papal curia largely ignored Gregory and his purportedly epochal procession. In fact, memory of the procession languished in Italy until the late-eighth century when Paul the Deacon made it the center of his Life of Gregory. At Rome, remembrance of the procession lay dormant in the papal archives until John the Deacon dug it out in the late-ninth century. How then did the letania septiformis come to be judged so pivotal? Over the course of centuries, the letania septiformis was inventively re-elaborated in literature, liturgy, and legend as part of the re-fashioning of the memory of Gregory. Shorn of its context, the letania septiformis gained greater imaginative power, becoming the emblem of Gregory's pontificate, if not also of an historical era.

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Copyright © American Society of Church History 2015 

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References

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11 Saxer, “L'utilisation par la liturgie de l'espace,” 963, on the date; and Barone, “Gregorio Magno e la vita religiosa,” on the possible clerical demotion.

12 Ermini, Letizia Pani, “La Roma di Gregorio Magno,” in L'Orbis christianus antiquus di Gregorio Magno: convegno di studi Roma, vol. 1, ed. Ermini, Letizia Pani (Rome: Presso la Società alla Biblioteca vallicelliana, 2007), 1947Google Scholar, and figs. 1 and 2 (maps of the processions). See also Andrews, “The Laetaniae Septiformes of Gregory I,” on S. Maria Maggiore as the destination.

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15 Liber Pontificalis, 2nd ed., 3 vols, eds. Duchesne, Louis and Vogel, Cyrille (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1955–1957)Google Scholar, vita 66. Hereafter cited as LP with vita and chapter number.

16 Thacker, Alan, “Memorializing Gregory the Great: The Origin and Transmission of a Papal Cult in the Seventh and Early Eighth Centuries,” Early Medieval Europe 7 (1998): 59Google Scholar. For what follows, see also Jounel, “Le culte de Saint Grégoire”; Godding, “Culto di Gregorio”; and Mews, Constant J. and Renkin, Claire, “The Legacy of Gregory the Great in the Latin West,” in A Companion to Gregory the Great, eds. Neil, Bronwen and Santo, Matthew Dal (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 315346Google Scholar.

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18 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 4.69 (Patrologia Latina [hereafter PL] 75 cols. 221D-222B), on which Lucia Castaldi, “L'Archivum Lateranense e la transmissione delle opere di Gregorio Magno,” in Ricci (ed.), Gregorio Magno e l'invenzione del Medioevo, 67–68.

19 Gregory I, Epistula 5.1: quia ego nullomodo patior loca sacra ut per clericorum ambitum destruantur, on which see Mews, “Gregory the Great, the Rule of Benedict,” 127–129.

20 On Gregory's apocalypticism, see Leyser, Authority and Asceticism, 150–159.

21 LP 67.2: Hic ecclesiam de clero implevit.

22 Anonymous Whitby, Vita Gregorii 28: pede suo percussit in caput. Cuius dolore percussionis in paucis diebus / defunctus est in The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great, By an Anonymous Monk of Whitby: Text, translation & notes by Bertram Colgrave (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1968), on which see Llewellyn, “The Roman Church,” and Thacker, “Memorializing Gregory the Great,” 62. See Gajano, Sofia Boesch, “La memoria della santità: Gregorio Magno autore e oggetto di scritture agiografiche,” in Gregorio Magno, nel XIV centenario della morte (Rome: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 2004), 337Google Scholar for clerical revenge.

23 LP 68.1.

24 LP 70.1: Hic clerum multum dilexit, sacerdotes et clerum ad loca pristine revocavit, trans. Davis, R., The Book of Pontiffs (Liber pontificalis), 2nd edition (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2000)Google Scholar.

25 LP 71.3 (Boniface): Hic demisit omni clero pro obsequias suas rogam unam integram (trans. Davis, Book of Pontiffs), 73.5 (Severinus): Hic delixit clerum et omnibus donum augmentavit (trans. Davis, Book of Pontiffs), 74.3, 81.18, 84.5, and 85.5.

26 LP 83.5: Clerum videlicet diversis ordinibus in diem sanctum Paschae honoribus ampliavit, trans. Davis, Book of Pontiffs.

27 LP 72.1: Hic temporibus suis multa bona fecit. Hic erudivit clerum.

28 Notitia ecclesiarum urbis Romae in Codice topografico della città di Roma, vol. 2, eds. Valentini, R. and Zucchetti, G. (Rome: Tipografia del Senato, 1940–53)Google Scholar, 98: ad Gregorii lectum, patris sancti (see also 99, ad corpus sancti patris Gregori), on which see Birch, Debra, Pilgrimage to Rome in the Middle Ages: Continuity and Change (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1998), 1213Google Scholar.

29 LP 69.3: Hic domum suam monasterium fecit, quem et ditavit, trans. Davis, Book of Pontiffs.

30 LP 79.4.

31 See apposite remarks by Costambeys, Marios and Leyser, Conrad, “To be the neighbour of St Stephen: patronage, martyr cult, and Roman monasteries, c. 600-c. 900,” in Religion, Dynasty, and Patronage in Early Christian Rome, 300-900, eds. Cooper, Kate and Hillner, Julia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 262287CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 264–270.

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35 Jounel, “Le culte de Saint Grégoire”; and Godding, “Culto di Gregorio.”

36 LP 98.35: fecit vestem albam olosiricam cum tabulis de chrisoclavo et cruce, trans. Davis, Raymond, The Lives of the Eighth-Century Popes (Liber pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of Nine Popes from AD 715 to AD 817 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1992)Google Scholar.

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38 LP 103.6: Et quoniam tunc divino ignis amore succensus corpus beati Gregorii huius universalis ecclesiae praesulis, per quem sancti Spiritus gratia toto orbe terrarum inextinguibili sapientiae munus induxit, ex loco sepultus quo prius fuerat tulit, et non longe ab eo in alium noviter constructum infra ecclesiam beati Petri apostoli summo honore perduxit, eiusque sacrum altare argenteis tabulis undique perornavit, et oratorium suo sancto nomine titulavit, absidamque eius desuper aurato musibo depinxit, trans. Davis, Raymond, The Lives of the Ninth-Century Popes (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of Ten Popes from A.D. 817–891 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

39 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 4.80 (PL 75 col. 228). On dating the vita, see Devos, Paul, “Le mystérieux episode final de la Vita Gregorii de Jean Diacre: Formose et sa fuite de Rome,” Analecta Bollandiana 82 (1964): 355–81Google Scholar. On the vigil of Gregory, see Boesch Gajano, “La memoria della santità,” 342–47.

40 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 4.63 (PL 75 col. 213C): de magno Gregorio beatissimo papa romano, on which see Leyser, “Late Antiquity in the Medieval West”; and Leyser, Conrad, “The Memory of Pope Gregory the Great in the Ninth Century: A Redating of the Interpolator's Vita Gregorii (BHL 3640),” in Gregorio Magno e le origini dell'Europa, Atti Del Convegno Internazionale, Firenze, ed. Santo, F. (Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2014)Google Scholar.

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46 Amalarius, Liber officialis 4.24-5 in Amalarii episcopi opera liturgica omnia, vol. 2, ed. Hanssens, Ioanne Michaele (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1948–50), 481485Google Scholar.

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51 Eg, Judith McClure, “Gregory the Great: Exegesis and Audience” (PhD diss., Oxford University, 1978), 175–180; and Heinzelmann, Martin, Gregory of Tours: History and Society in the Sixth Century, trans. Carroll, Christopher (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 7681Google Scholar. Even Chadwich admitted that the manuscript evidence did not support his argument.

52 On the circulation of the work of Gregory of Tours, see Bourgain, Pascale, “Gregorius Turonensis Ep.,” in La trasmissione dei testi latini del Medioevo TE.TRA I, eds. Chiesa, Paolo and Castaldi, Lucia, (Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2004), 152168Google Scholar. On the Historiae specifically, see Goffart, Walter, Rome's Fall and After (London: Hambledon Press, 1989), 255274Google Scholar; and Reimitz, Helmut, “Social networks and identities in Frankish historiography: New aspects of the textual history of Gregory of Tours' Historiae,” in The Construction of Communities in the Early Middle Ages: Texts, Resources and Artefacts, eds. Corradini, Richard, Diesenberger, Max, and Reimitz, Helmut (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 229268Google Scholar.

53 Boesch Gajano, “La memoria della santità,” 333–335.

54 Gregory of Tours, Hist. 10.1: Anno igitur quinto decimo Childeberthi regis diaconus noster ab urbe Roma sanctorum cum pigneribus veniens, sic retulit, quod anno superiore, mense nono, tanta inundatio Tiberis fluvius Romam urbem obtexerit, ut aedes antiquae deruerent, horrea etiam eclesiae subversa sint, in quibus nonnulla milia modiorum tritici periere. Multitudo etiam serpentium cum magno dracone in modo trabis validae per huius fluvii alveum in mare discendit; sed suffocatae bestiae inter salsos maris turbidi fluctus et litori eiectae sunt. Subsecuta est de vestigio cladis, quam inguinariam vocant. Nam medio mense XI. adveniens, primum omnium iuxta illud, quod in Ezechiel profeta legitur: A sanctoario meo incipite, [Ezechiel 9.6] Pelagium papam perculit et sine mora extinxit. [February 7] Quo defuncto, magna stragis populi de hoc morbo facta est. Sed quia eclesia Dei absque rectorem esse non poterat, Gregorium diaconem plebs omnis elegit.

55 Gregory of Tours, Hist. 10.1: De hora quoque tertia veniebant utrique chori psallentium ad ecclesiam, clamantes per plateas urbis Kyrie eleison. Asserebat autem diaconus noster, qui aderat, in unius horae spatio, dum voces plebs ad Dominum supplicationis emisit, octoaginta homines ad terram conruisse et spiritum exalasse. Sed non distitit sacerdos dandus praedicare populo, ne ab oratione cessarent.

56 Hill, Joyce, “The Litaniae maiores and minores in Rome, Francia and Anglo-Saxon England: Terminology, Texts, and Traditions,” Early Medieval Europe 9 (2000): 228fn45Google Scholar. On the rogations, see Nathan, Geoffrey, “The Rogation Ceremonies of Late Antique Gaul: Creation, Transmission and the Role of the Bishop,” Classica et Medievalia 49 (1998): 275303Google Scholar.

57 On Gregory of Tours' apocalypticism, see Heinzelmann, Gregory of Tours; de Nie, Giselle, Views From a Many-Windowed Tower: Studies of Imagination in the Works of Gregory of Tours (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987), 4657Google Scholar. On the flood devastation see, Mollaret, H. H. and Brossollet, J., “La procession de saint Grégoire et la peste à Rome en l'an 590,” Médecine de France 199 (1969), 1415Google Scholar; Mark Humphries, “From Emperor to Pope? Ceremonial, space, and authority at Rome from Constantine to Gregory the Great,” in Religion, Dynasty, and Patronage, 22–25; and Squatriti, “The Floods of 589.”

58 Paul the Deacon, Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni, ed. Tuzzo, Sabina (Pisa: Scuola normale superiore, 2002)Google Scholar, on which see Castaldi, Lucia, “Nouvi testimoni della Vita Gregorii di Paolo Diacono [BHL 3639],” in Chiesa, Paolo (ed.), Paolo Diacono: Uno scrittore fra tradizione longobarda e rinnovamento carolingio, atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Cividale del Friuli, Udine (Udine: Forum, 2000), 75126Google Scholar; Lucia Castaldi, “Paolo Diacono,” in Enciclopedia Gregoriana, 249–250; and Limone, Orazio, “La tradizione manoscritta della ‘Vita Gregorii Magni’ di Paolo Diacono (B.H.L. 3639): censimento dei testimoni,” Studi Medievali 3, no. 29 (1988): 888953Google Scholar. For a comparison of Gregory of Tours and Paul, see Bianchi, Dante, “Da Gregorio di Tours a Paolo Diacono,” Aevum 35 (1961): 150166Google Scholar.

59 Goffart, Walter, The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988), 370372Google Scholar, 394–399, argues for Monte Cassino, while Marios Costambeys, “The Monastic Environment of Paul the Deacon,” in Paolo Diacono, 127–138; and McKitterick, Rosamond, History and Memory in the Carolingian World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 6083Google Scholar, urge caution.

60 Paul the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 11: Proinde, fratres carissimi, contrito corde [cf. Ps. 50.19] et correctis operibus, ab ipso feriae quartae diluculo septiformis letaniae devota ad lacrimas mente veniamus, ut districtus Iudex, dum culpas nostras nos punire considerat, ipse a sententia propositae damnationis parcat.

61 Paul the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 11: magna multitudo sacerdotum, monachorum diversique sexus et aetatis.

62 Claudio Azzara, “La figura di Gregorio Magno nell'opera di Paolo Diacono,” in Paolo Diacono, 29–38.

63 Boesch Gajano, “La memoria della santità,” 339–342.

64 Leyser, “Memory of Gregory and Latin Europe,” now dates the Interpolator to before 844. On the circulation of the interpolated life, see Chiesa, Paolo and Stella, Francesco, “Paulus Diaconus,” in La trasmissione dei testi latini del Medioevo TE.TRA 2, vol. 2, eds. Chiesa, P. and Castaldi, L. (Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2005), 497498Google Scholar.

65 Goffart, Narrators of Barbarian History, 394–399 and 424–431; McKitterick, History and Memory, 66–77; and on transmission Chiesa and Stella, “Paulus Diaconus,” 491–495.

66 Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum 3.24 (Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum Saec. VI-IX, ed. Bethmann, L. and Waitz, G. [Hanover, Hahn 1878]): Qui dum septiformem laetaniam fieri ordinasset, intra unius horae spatium, dum hi Deum deprecarentur, octuaginta ex eis subito ad terra corruentes, spiritum exalarunt. Septiformis autem laetania ideo dicta est, quia omnis urbis populus a beato Gregorio in septem partes deprecaturus Dominum est divisus. In primo namque choro fuit omnis clerus, in secundo omnes abbates cum monachis suis, in tertio omnes abbatissae cum congregationibus suis, in quarto omnes infantes, in quinto omnes laici, in sexto universae viduae, in septimo omnes mulieres coniugatae. Ideo autem de beato Gregorio plura dicere obmittimus, quia iam ante aliquod annos eius vitam Deo auxiliante texuimus. In qua quae dicenda fuerant iuxta tenuitatis nostrae vires universa discripsimusGoogle Scholar.

67 Paul the Deacon, Storia dei Longobardi, trans. Capo, Lidia (Vicenza: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, 1992), 479480Google Scholar.

68 On the relations between the lives of Gregory, Limone, “La tradizione scritta della ‘Vita Gregorii Magni’ di Paolo Diacono,” 887–902; Paul the Deacon, Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni, ed. Tuzzo, vii–xi; Judic, “À propos de la “messe de saint Grégoire,” 78–81; 84–85; and Boesch Gajano, “La memoria della santità,” 339–342.

69 John the Deacon, vita Gregorii praefatio (PL 75 col. 61B). On John, see Arnaldi, Girolama, “Giovanni Immonide e la cultura a Roma al tempo di Giovanni VIII,” in Bullettino dell'Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo 68 (1956): 4875Google Scholar on the “idea of Rome”; Arnaldi, Girolama, “Giovanni Immonide e la cultura a Roma al tempo di Giovanni VIII: una retractio,” in Europa medievale e mondo bizantino: contatti effettivi e possibilità di studi comparati: tavola rotonda del XVIII Congresso del CISH, eds. Arnaldi, Girolama and Cavallo, Guglielmo (Rome: Nella sede dell'Istituto Palazzo Borromini, 1997), 163177Google Scholar; Bertini, Ferruccio, “Giovanni Immonides e la cultura a Roma nel IX secolo,” in Roma nell'alto Medioevo, vol. 2 (Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 2001), 897917Google Scholar; and Lucia Castaldi, “Giovanni Immonide, diacono romano,” in Enciclopedia Gregoriana, 156–157.

70 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 1.39 (PL 75 col. 79B), on which see Beneš, Carrie E., “Whose SPQR? Sovereignty and Semiotics in Medieval Rome,” Speculum 84 (2009): 876877Google Scholar; and John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 2.17 (PL 75 col. 94A): Gelasianum Codicem de missarum solemniis . . . in unius libri volumine coarctavit, on which see Mews, “Gregory the Great, the Rule of Benedict,” 126–127. On John's vita, see Leonardi, Claudio, “La ‘Vita Gregorii’ di Giovanni Diacono,” in Roma e l'età carolingia: atti delle Giornate di studio (Rome: Multigrafica editrice tipografica, 1976), 381–93Google Scholar; and Leonardi, Claudio, “Pienezza ecclesiale e santità nella ‘Vita Gregorii’ di Giovanni Diacono,” Renovatio 12 (1977): 5166Google Scholar.

71 Neil, Bronwen, “The Politics of Hagiography in Ninth-Century Rome,” in Text and Transmission in Medieval Europe, ed. Bishop, Chris (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2007), 5875Google Scholar.

72 Leonardi, “Pienezza ecclesiale e santità,” 57–59, suggests papal-Byzantine relations; Arnaldi (1956), “Giovanni Immonide e la cultura a Roma,” Frankish vs Roman empire. On the Formosan schism and memory, see Leyser, Conrad, “Charisma in the Archive: Roman Monasteries and the Memory of Gregory the Great, c. 870–940,” in Le scritture dai monasteri: Atti del II seminario internazionale di studio “I monasteri nell'alto Medioevo,” ed. De Rubeis, Flavia and Pohl, Walter (Rome: Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, 2003), 207–26Google Scholar, whose argument was amended in part by Leyser, “The Memory of Pope Gregory the Great in the Ninth Century,” fn17, allowing still however the possibility of a battle over memory. Forlin Patrucco, “Registrum Epistularum,” also suggests troubles with Holy Roman emperor. According to Boesch Gajano, “La memoria della santità,” 342–7, John's VGregorii was unusable hagiography, but still widely diffused, on which see Castaldi, Lucia, ed., Iohannes Hymmonides diaconus Romanus, Vita Gregorii I Papae (B. H. L. 3641–3642), vol. 1: La tradizione manoscritta (Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2004)Google Scholar. See Wilhelmi, Hans-Albert, Die “Vita Gregorii Magni” des Johannes Diaconus: Schwerpunkte ihrer Wirkungsgeschichte (Neuried: Ars Una, 1998)Google Scholar, on the influence, citation, and use of John's Vita Gregorii.

73 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii praefatio (PL 75 col. 62C): archival work and 1.41-3 (PL 75 col. 79C-81A): the procession. On the limits of John's archival research, see Castaldi, “Registrum epistularum,” 87–97; Costambeys and Leyser, “To be the neighbour of St Stephen,” 267; and Leyser “The Memory of Pope Gregory the Great in the Ninth Century,” 7–11.

74 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 1.40 (PL 75 col. 79B).

75 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 1.42 (PL 75 col. 80D-81A): Litania clericorum exeat ab ecclesia sancti Joannis Baptistae; litania virorum ab ecclesia sancti martyris Marcelli; litania monachorum ab ecclesia sanctorum martyrum Joannis et Pauli; litania ancillarum Dei ab ecclesia beatorum martyrum Cosmae et Damiani; litania feminarum conjugatarum ab ecclesia beati primi martyris Stephani; litania viduarum ab ecclesia martyris Vitalis; litania pauperum et infantium ab ecclesia beatae Caeciliae martyris.

76 Derrida, Jacques, Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression trans. Prenowitz, Eric (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996)Google Scholar, 4fn1, cited and discussed by Assmann, Aleida, Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archives (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 328329Google Scholar.

77 According to Leyser, “Charisma in the Archive,” John's extensive use of Gregory's letters aimed to conjure Gregory himself.

78 Barone, “Gregorio Magno e la vita religiosa,” 22.

79 John the Deacon, Vita Gregorii 1.43 (PL 75 col. 81A): Igitur dum magna multitudo omnis aetatis, sexus atque professionis, juxta praeceptionem levitae Gregorii, die constituta, Dominum rogatura venisset.

80 E.g. Ps.-Bede, Homilia XCVII: De majori litania (PL 94 col. 499A-D), cited by Hill, “The Litaniae maiores and minores,” 246fn94. Perhaps inspired by Amalarius, this undated medieval homily describes a septiform procession (a letania septiformis) to St. Peter's as a letania maior. Leclerq, Jean, “Le IIIe livre des homélies de Bède le Vénérable,” Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 14 (1947): 211218Google Scholar, suggests a composition date of the 8th-9th century or after, while the collection stems from the 12th or 13th century.

81 OR L.35: Andrieu, ed., Les Ordines Romani, 5:72–79 (date) and 5:314-315 (text). On the ordines and OR L, see Vogel, Medieval Liturgy, 135–55, 187-190, 230-237: Martimort, Aimé-Georges, Les ‘Ordines,’ Les Ordinaires et Les Cérémoniaux (Turnhout: Brepols, 1991), 1547Google Scholar; and Palazzo, A History of Liturgical Books, 175–185.

82 Gregory I, Registrum epistularum, appendix IV. On the major litany see, Baldovin, Urban Character of Christian Worship, 139–140, 158–166; Saxer, , “L'utilisation par la liturgie de l'espace,” 963–964 and idem, Sainte-Marie-Majeure: une basilique de Rome dans l'histoire de la ville et de son église, Ve-XIIIe siècle (Rome: Ecole française de Rome, 2001), 133136Google Scholar; Hill, “The Litaniae maiores and minores”; Twyman, Susan, “The Romana Fraternitas and Urban Processions at Rome in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries,” in Pope, church, and city: essays in honour of Brenda M. Bolton, ed. Andrews, Frances, Egger, Christoph, and Rousseau, Constance M. (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 211217Google Scholar; and Dyer, Joseph, “Roman Processions of the Major Litany (litaniae maiores) from the Sixth to the Twelfth Century,” in Roma Felix: Formation and Reflections of Medieval Rome, eds. Carragáin, Éamonn Ó and de Vegvar, Carol Neuman (Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2007), 113137Google Scholar.

83 Le sacramentaire grégorien, 1.211-213 #100.

84 Bartholomew of Trent, Liber epilogorum in gesta sanctorum, ed. Paoli, E. (Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2001)Google Scholar, 119: CLXI De apparitione sancti Michaelis. See Boesch-Gajano, “La memoria della santità,” 337 n. 79 and 348; and Robert Godding, “Leggenda di Gregorio Magno,” in Enciclopedia Gregoriana, 202-203. For a similar transformation of a Gregorian legend, see Whatley, Gordon, “The Uses of Hagiography: The Legend of Pope Gregory and the Emperor Trajan in the Middle Ages,” Viator 15 (1984): 2563Google Scholar.

85 On the Golden Legend, see Le Goff, Jacques, In Search of Sacred Time: Jacobus de Voragine and the Golden Legend, trans. Cochrane, Lydia (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton, 2014)Google Scholar.

86 de Voragine, Jacobus, Legenda Aurea, 2nd ed., vol. 1, ed. Maggioni, Giovanni Paolo (Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1998)Google Scholar, 288: XLVI De sancto Gregorio: Cum ergo benedici deberet et lues populum deuastaret, sermonem ad populum fecit, processionem faciens litanias instituit et ut omnes deum attentius exorarent admonuit. Cum igitur deum omnis congregatus populus exoraret, in tantum lues ipsa deseuit ut in una hora octoginta homines spiritu exhalarent, sed nequaquam cessauit populum admonere ut ab oratione nunquam desisterent donec pestem ipsam diuina miseratio propulsaret.

87 Jacobus, Legenda Aurea, 1:289–290: Sed quia adhuc Romam pestis supradicta uastabat, more solito processionem cum litaniis per ciuitatis circuitum quodam paschali tempore ordinauit, in qua ymaginem beate Marie semper uirginis, que adhuc, ut aiunt, est Rome, quam Lucas arte medicus et pictor egregius formasse dicitur et eidem uirgini simillima per omnia perhibetur, ante processionem reuerenter portari fecit. Et ecce, tota aeris infectio et turbulentia ymagini cedebat ac si ipsam ymaginem fugeret et eius presentiam ferre non posset sicque post ymaginem mira serenitas et aeris puritas remanebat. Tunc in aere, ut fertur, iuxta ymaginem audite sunt uoces angelorum canentium ‘Regina celi letare, alleluia, quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia, resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia’. Statimque beatus Gregorius quod sequiter adiunxit: “Ora pro nobis, rogamus, alleluia”. Tunc Gregorius uidit super castrum Crescentii angelum domini qui gladium cruentatum detergens in uaginam reuocabat; intellexitque Gregorius quod pestis illa cessasset et sic factum est. Unde et castrum illud castrum angeli deinceps uocatum est.

88 On the icon, see Belting, Hans, Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image Before the Era of Art trans. Jephcott, E. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 4759Google Scholar; and Wolf, Gerhard, Salus populi Romani: die Geschichte römischer Kultbilder im Mittelalter (Weinheim: VCH Acta humaniora, 1990)Google Scholar.

89 On the images, see Mollaret and Brossollet, “La procession de saint Grégoire”; and V. Cerruti, “Iconografia di Gregorio Magno (I temi devozionali): 1. Apparizione dell'angelo sopra la Mole Adriana durante la processione contro la peste,” in Enciclopedi Gregoriana, 175–176.

90 Longnon, Jean and Cazelles, Raymond, The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, trans. Benedict, Victoria (New York: George Braziller, 1969), 7374Google Scholar; and Martyn, J. R. C., “Four Notes on the Registrum of Gregory the Great,” Parergon 19 (2002): 1617Google Scholar, 22–23.

91 Jacobus, Legenda aurea, 1:473–474: Prima igitur letania tripliciter uocatur: primo letania maior, secundo dicitur processio septiformis, tertio dicitur cruces nigre. Dicitur autem letania maior propter tres causas, scilicet ratione illius a quo instituta est, scilicet a magno Gregorio papa urbis Rome, ratione loci in quo instituta est, quia Rome que est domina et caput mundi ex eo quod ibi est corpus principis apostolorum et apostolica sedes, ratione cause pro qua instituta est, quia pro magno et grauissimo morbo . . . Secundo dicitur processio septiformis ex eo quod beatus Gregorius processiones quas tunc faciebat per septem ordines disponebat. Nam in primo ordine erat omnis clerus, in secundo omnes monachi et religiosi, in tertio omnes sanctimoniales, in quarto omnes infantes, in quinto omnes laici, in sextos omnes uidue et continentes, in septimo omnes conuigate.

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93 Gregorovius, Ferdinand, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 2, trans. Hamilton, Anne (London: George Bell & Sons, 1894–1906), 3233Google Scholar.

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102 Baldovin, Urban Character of Christian Worship, 260 (with 139-140 and 158-159 n. 66), on which see Saxer, “L'utilisation par la liturgie de l'espace,” 2.960-964.

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105 Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, 5.302.

106 Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities (London: Verso, 1983)Google Scholar.