Pope Gregory and the Brides of Christ
Author: John Martyn
Date Of Publication: Jun 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-0616-9
Isbn: 1-4438-0616-1
The Letters of Gregory the Great, pope from 590 to 604, have long been viewed as an indispensable resource for scholars of the early medieval period. John Martyn’s knowledge of these letters is well nigh unsurpassed, In this book he turns his attention to a hitherto neglected subject; those letters of Pope Gregory which pertain to nuns and convents. Despite the fact that scholarship on the Middle Ages has in the last thirty years been transformed by feminist contributions, and there has developed, as a result, a heightened awareness of the presence of women in medieval life, both secular and religious, only two of the thirty-six letters identified by Martyn have previously been discussed by scholars. This edition of the letters in both Latin and English is therefore of inestimable value to scholars and will act as a spur for further research.

This sizeable collection of letters are analysed in company with other, better-known, writings about nuns from Gregory’s dialogi. In the introduction Martyn argues that his upbringing, dominated by his mother and four devout aunts, might reasonably have inculcated in him a deep and abiding concern for women, the religious in particular. This is evidenced by his friendships with Theoctista and Gordia, the sisters of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice, and with his wife, the pious Constantina. and with a number of abbesses, including Respecta (from Marseilles) and Talasia (from Autun). Gregory’s deep interest in the religious life of women, and his concern for their safety and wellbeing, are apparent throughout the letters. Martyn’s translations are clarified and enhanced by a commentary.

John Martyn, sole author of this book, is a Senior Fellow in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Since graduating from Cambridge, he has had over 25 books and 100 articles and published. He has taught as a visiting professor for about six months at the Universities of Berkeley, Toulouse-le-Mirail, Leuven and Leeds, and has given lectures at many others, including Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrew's and Glasgow. His recent books have been on The Letters of Pope Gregory the Great (PIMS, 2004, 3 vols), on The Art of Public Speaking (Mellen Press, 2004, 2 vols), on King Sisebut and Visigothic Spain (Mellen, 2008), on Arians and Vandals of the 4th-6th Centuries (CSP, 2008) and on Saint Leander of Seville, on the Teaching of Nuns (Lexington Books, 2009).

“While there has been a dramatic growth of interest over the last two decades in the life of medieval nuns and in the complex relationship between nuns and the clerics who served female religious communities, the witness of Gregory the Great has been unjustly neglected. John Martyn enables us to glimpse the role played by religious women in the late sixth century through the Pope’s extensive collection of letters addressed to such women. Through these letters, we can observe the significant, and hitherto unnoticed depth of concern of Pope Gregory for nuns, often women of aristocratic birth, accustomed to the exercise of power and influence. Gregory emerges not simply as a great Roman, concerned for the physical as much as the spiritual survival of his society in the face of enormous military threats, but as a pastor unusually aware of the contribution women could make in such a world.”

- Professor Constant J. Mews, Monash University

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