Rare 1670 Gregory the Great Rule for Pastors Engravings

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The Rule for Pastors, by Pope St. Gregory I (Gregory the Great), Rare 1670 First Edition of This French Translation of His Great Pastoral Work, Still The Definitive Statement on The Role of Pastors - Magnificent Engravings You could spend €130.00 ($170.73) plus shipping from France at La Librairie Bourbonnaise , or €120.00 ($157.70) plus shipping at A l'S.P. Rance , in Brest, France, for the only two copies found available for sale online of this important first edition. So seize this opportunity to own a handsome and rare seventeenth century copy of a key work on the clergy's place in the church by this important Roman Catholic prelate and writer, for less: Le Livre Des Gregoire le Grand, Pape Premier du Nom, Du Soin et du Devoir Des Pasteurs , Addressé A Jean Evesque de Ravenne (Paris: Chez André Pralard, Matchand Libraire MDCLXX [1670]), first thus, 4 3/8" x 7 3/8" tall brown leattte hardbound, gilt lettering to spine, orange endpapers, engraved title page, title page, [36], 477, [3]pp. Rebound in leattte with endpapers renewed but preserving original marbled endpapers. Prior owner name on title page. Staining to some pages, especially title page and front prelims before beginning of numbered main text. Black dot to spine above gilt lettering. Covers a bit bumped. Otherwise, a very good+ complete copy - pages are amazingly clean, bright and supple Pope Saint Gregory I or Gregory the Great (c. 540 12 March 604) was pope from 3 September 590 until his death.He is also known as Gregory the Dialogist in Eastern Orthodoxy because of his Dialogues. For this reason, English translations of Orthodox texts will sometimes list him as "Gregory Dialogus". He was the first of the popes to come from a monastic background. Gregory is a Doctor of the Church and one of the six Latin Fathers. Immediately after his death, Gregory was canonized by popular acclaim.When he became Pope in 590, among his first acts were writing a series of letters disavowing any ambition to the throne of Peter and praising the contemplative life of the monks. At that time the Holy See had not exerted effective leadership in the West since the pontificate of Gelasius I. The episcopacy in Gaul was drawn from the great territorial families, and identified with them: the parochial horizon of Gregory's contemporary, Gregory of Tours, may be considered typical; in Visigothic Spain the bishops had little contact with Rome; in Italy the papacy was beset by the violent Lombard dukes and the rivalry of the Jews in the Exarchate of Ravenna and in the south. The scholarship and culture of Celtic Christianity had developed utterly unconnected with Rome, and it was from Ireland that Britain and Germany were likely to become Christianized, or so it seemed.Gregory is credited with re-energizing the Church's missionary work among the barbarian peoples of northern Europe. He is most famous for sending a mission under Augustine of Canterbury to evangelize the pagan Anglo-Saxons of England. The mission was successful, and it was from England that missionaries later set out for the Netherlands and Germany.In line with his predecessors such as Dionysius, Damasus, and St. Leo the Great, St. Gregory asserted the primacy of the office of the Bishop of Rome. Although he did not employ the term "Pope", he summed up the responsibilities of the papacy in his official appellation, as "servant of the servants of God". As Benedict of Nursia had justified the absolute authority of the abbot over the souls in his charge, so Gregory expressed the hieratic principle that he was responsible directly to God for his ministry. St. Gregory's pontificate saw the development of the notion of private penance as parallel to the institution of public penance. He explicitly taught a doctrine of Purgatory w a soul destined to undergo purification after death because of certain sins, could begin its purification in this earthly life, through good works, obedience and Christian conduct, making... read more

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