Gregory was the first monk to be pope; proverbially, he would have preferred to have remained a monk; the audience he addressed was almost always made up of monks. However, no sustained attempt has been made to establish the contexts for Gregory as a monastic writer. The thesis represents an initial attempt to do so, and in particular, to question the image of Gregory as a monk unable to cope with the assumption of episcopal power. The sources principally chosen for study are as follows: Augustine's Praeceptum; Cassian's Institutes and Conferences; the writings of the early Lerins circle; the Sermons and Rules of Caesarius of Aries; the Rule of St. Benedict, together with the Rules of the Master and Eugippius of Lucullanum. The thesis has been structured as a series of comparisons between these texts, and the situations in which they were produced, with Gregory's writings and his situation in late sixth century Rome. Gregory's ecclesial and eschatalogical perspectives, to which he adhered before papal election, are seen to set him apart from earlier monastic writers, and into confrontation with contemporary ascetics and clerics, the Roman clerical establishment in particular. These aspects of Gregory's thought are related to his rhetorical performance, and the voice he develops is compared to those of earlier ascetics. It is argued that the central concern of the texts considered is that of language: western ascetic projects are seen to focus on holiness of rhetoric, especially in the sixth century. In choosing to speak and write primarily as an exegete, Gregory signalled that he did not wish to contribute to the Gaulish or Italian monastic cultures developing around written Rules. He was concerned instead to articulate a personal holy authority.

Thesis (doctoral)--Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn. / Includes Greek and Latin texts with English translations. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. 11-15).

Inaug.-Dis.--Berlin. / Vita.

No description available.

Florida-State-Univ., Diss.--Tallahassee, 2006.

Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1992. / Includes "The Seven letters of St. Anthony the Great," translated by Derwas J. Chitty, 1975. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-80).

Thesis (S.T.D.)--Catholic University of America, 1924. / Biography. Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-116).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2005. / Advisor: Zdravko Planinc. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-208). Also available via World Wide Web.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DLitt)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Ancient Languages / unrestricted

Maxims, proverbs, and other forms of pithy sayings are sprinkled throughout ancient and medieval literature; polysemous and manipulable by nature, they serve as communicative tools whose precise meaning and function shifts from context to context. My dissertation explores how late antique and medieval Christians capitalized on the flexible forms of Greek and Latin aphorisms to negotiate and construct what it meant to be a Christian. Using theories and methods developed in the fields of folklore, linguistic anthropology, and ethno- and sociolinguistics, I investigate three examples in which Christians revised and reused wisdom in new contexts. First, I document the proverbial concept of gathering something useful from somewhere dangerous as expressed in sayings like “to pluck a rose from among thorns” and “to gather gold from shit,” charting how it originally went viral in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, remained in vogue well into the Middle Ages, and continued to evolve in meaning throughout its usage. I then analyze the Sentences of Sextus, a second-century collection of Greek maxims assembled from various Pythagorean aphorisms and sayings of Jesus. Whereas previous scholarship has focused on the authorship, content, and structure of the Sentences, I study the new meanings, functions, and forms the collection acquired as it underwent processes of translation, transcription, epitomization, excerption, and quotation. The text’s gnomic format and armchair morality contributed not only to its centuried popularity and widespread readership, but also to the dispersion of many of its individual sayings. In particular, I consider the extensive and unstudied reception of the Sentences of Sextus within the mid-ninth-century legal forgeries known as the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. I show that the Sextine elements reveal the presence of recurring textual units across the Decretals and offer new insights regarding Pseudo-Isidore’s compositional method—a method that, in many ways, parallels the Sentences’ recycling of Pythagorean and biblical material. Ultimately, my project models how wisdom-centered investigations of late antique and medieval literature lead to new understandings of the craftsmanship of individual authors as well as to deeper understandings of the time and its culture.