Gregory - The Humble Pope

Between Pope Leo I and Pope Gregory I there was a huge chasm. That chasm was the fall of the Roman Empire. In Leo's time the empire was beginning to fall, and he faced off against those who were coming to sack Rome. In Gregory's time it had already fallen, and the process of coming back together after the chaos had begun. Gregory did not want to be pope, but was greatly used by God in the post.

What Gregory would have preferred was a quiet life of contemplation, but  he was thrust into a position where he was distracted by continually attending to worldly things. When the government collapsed, the organizational church became the glue holding society together, and it became powerful. It also became corrupted and worldly. Though hating feeling trapped worldly affairs, Gregory proved a competent and honest administrator. He reined in those among his minions who were using questionable means to increase his land and property. He also wrote a useful book explaining to Christian leaders how to be in the world and not of it.

One of the results of the empire's collapse was a conquest by peoples who were generally pagans or Arians (who denied the deity of Christ). Now Patrick had already converted the Irish, and these in turn had begun to reach out to other people. Clovis king of the Franks had converted to Christianity from paganism and had used conquest to spread it among his neighbors.(Clovis, based on the description we have of him, does not seem to be a deep or sincere Christian, but he may have produced good in spite of it.) But Gregory was a major contributor. He sent missionaries to the Anglo-Saxons, pagans who had conquered the original romanized inhabitants of Britain. They were converted with some help from the spiritual descendants of the Irish, and together they sent missionaries back to Germany, where the Anglo-Saxons had come from. Gregory also reached out to those nearby in Italy who were Arians to convince them Jesus was God. He worked hard to give the message of Christ to those who needed it,

Also, when the patriarch of Constantinople declared himself universal bishop, Gregory objected violently. Further, he vehemently denied the title or any similar one for himself. He not only opposed the idea, but gave detailed Scriptural and logical reasoning for opposing it. He denied that anyone other than Christ can be the absolute and unquestionable authority in the church. The Protestant reformers obtained many of their arguments on this issue from Gregory. Gregory may have increased the prestige of the papacy by being a competent, honest leader who worked to spread God's truth. But he also laid the foundation for questioning it when it became so powerful as to become a tyrant. In spite of great temptations produced by the power vacuum that Gregory found himself in, he preserved his integrity. And demonstrated that humble people who are not seeking power can do great things.