Abstract

In an article published in 1976, I attempted to challenge the assumption, made by generations of scholars, including Frederick Homes Dudden, Pierre Batiffol, and in more recent times Pierre Riché, that Gregory the Great, in spite of six years' residence at Constantinople as apocrisiarius, knew no Greek. Since then I have been investigating the grounds for a second common assumption, following from the first, that Gregory had little or no knowledge of Eastern Christian spirituality and theology