Pope St. Gregory I: "On sudden attainment of supreme rule"

"FOR commonly in the school of adversity the heart is subdued under discipline, while, on sudden attainment of supreme rule, it is immediately changed and becomes elated through familiarity with glory. Thus Saul, who had before fled in consideration of his unworthiness, no sooner had assumed the government of the kingdom than he was puffed up (1 Sam 10:22; 15:17-30); for, desirous of being honoured before the people while unwilling to be publicly blamed, he cut off from himself even him who had anointed him to the kingdom."

~Pope St. Gregory I (c. 540-604): Pastoral Rule, Bk. I, Ch. 3.

The Shade of Samuel Appears to Saul, by Rosa Salvator.

Oil on canvas, 1668; Musée du Louvre, Paris.

St. Gregory I: "The hand of governance"

“IT is one thing to be, and another thing to be primarily (principipaliter), one thing to be subject to change, and another thing to be independent of change. For all these things [i.e. creatures] are in being, but they are not maintained in being by themselves, and unless they are maintained by the hand of a governing agent, they could never be…. For all things were made out of nothing, and their being would again go into nothing, unless the author of all things held it by the hand of governance.”

~Pope St. Gregory I (540 - 604):  Morals, 16, 45.

Gregory I: "Puffed up by the experience"

(Government)

“IT IS a common experience that in the school of adversity the heart is forced to discipline itself; but when a man has achieved supreme rule, it is at once changed and puffed up by the experience of his high estate.”

~Pope St. Gregory I: Pastoral Care, I, 3.

Gregory I: Angels and Men

“HEREIN then is the nature of angels distinguished from the present condition of our own nature, that we are both circumscribed by space, and straightened by the blindness of ignorance; but the spirits of angels are indeed bounded by space, yet their knowledge extends far above us beyond comparison; for they expand by external and internal knowing, since they contemplate the very Source of knowledge Itself.”

~Pope St. Gregory I:  Morals, 2, 3. (6th cent.)

Resources:
• Pope St. Gregory I ("the Great"), biographical article
• Angels, Catholic Encyclopedia

St. Gregory the Great with Sts. Ignatius and Francis Xavier,
by Guercino. Oil on canvas, c. 1626; National Gallery, London.