his remonstrances against it, and, although he accepted the announcement of Cyriac's promotion, forbade his envoys at Constantinople to communicate with the new patriarch so long as the style of Ecumenical Bishop should be retained." A.D. 593. During his residence at Constantinople, Gregory had been on terms of great intimacy with Maurice, who at that time was in a private station. But since the elevation of the one to the empire, and of the other to St. Peter's chair, many causes of disagreement had arisen. Maurice favoured John personally; he represented the question of the patriarch's title as trifling, and was deaf to Gregory's appeals on the subject." He often espoused the cause of bishops or others whom Gregory wished to censure, and reminded him that the troubles of the time made it inexpedient to insist on the rigour of discipline. By forbidding persons in public employment to become monks, and requiring that soldiers should not embrace the monastic life until after the expiration of their term of service, he provoked the pope to tell him that this measure might cost him his salvation, although, in fulfilment of his duty as a subject, Gregory transmitted the law to other bishops. Moreover there were differences arising out of Gregory's political conduct, which the exarchs and other imperial officers had represented to their master in an unfavourable light." Thus the friendship of former days had been succeeded by alienation, when in 602 a revolution took place at Constantinople. The discontent of Maurice's subjects, which had been growing for years, was swelled into revolt by the belief that, for reasons of disgraceful parsimony, he had allowed twelve thousand captive soldiers to be butchered by the Avars when it was in his power to ransom them.d The emperor was deposed, and the crown was bestowed on a centurion, named Phocas, who soon after caused Maurice and his children to be put to death with revolting cruelties, which the victims Epp. vii. 4, 31. 2 Schröckh, xvii. 343; Lau, 106. Baron. 590. 43. b Ep. iii. 65. Ste. Marthe remarks that the law was needed against those who in that age were ready to take refuge in cloisters when the state required their administrative or military services, and justifies the regulation as to soldiers by the analogy of similar canons as to slaves-soldiers being bound as truly as slaves for the term of their engagement (II. x. 3). As to the subsequent alteration of the law, see Lau, 109. Comp. De Marca, II. xi. 8-9. See Ep. v. 40, to Maurice, A.D. 594. d Theoph. Simocatta, viii. 6-7. Maurice had already been unpopular on account of the severe economy which he practised in order to remedy the profusion of his predecessor Tiberiusmore especially as this general economy contrasted offensively with his excessive liberality towards his own relations. (Joh. Ephes. 357-363.) Mr. Finlay (i. 369-370) supposes that he wished to punish the troops for their late mutinous conduct, and that he did not expect the Avars to put them to death. e bore with extraordinary firmness and with devout resignation. The behaviour of Gregory on this occasion has exposed him to censures from which his apologists have in vain endeavoured to clear him. Blinded by his zeal for the Church, and by his dislike of the late emperor's policy, he hailed with exultation the success of an usurper whom all agree in representing as a monster of vice and barbarity; he received with honour the pictures of Phocas and his wife, placed them in the chapel of a palace, and addressed the new emperor and empress in letters of warm congratulaJuly, 603. tion. Encouraged by the change of rulers, he now wrote again to Cyriac, exhorting him to abandon the title which had occasioned so much contention.h Phocas found it convenient to favour the Roman side, and for a time the word was given up or forbidden.' But the next emperor, Heraclius, again used it in addressing the bishops of Constantinople; their use of it was sanctioned by the sixth and seventh general councils; and it has been retained to the present day." Gregory was zealous in his endeavours to extend the knowledge of the Gospel, and to bring over Theophanes, 439-443; Simocatta, viii. 8-11; Joh. Diac. iv. 17-18; Gibbon, iv. 296. Baron. 603. 9; Maimbourg, in Bayle, art. Grégoire I. n. H.; Gibbon, iv. 299-300. Epp. xiii. 31, 39; Baron. 603, 2; Lau, 232-3. For censures on his conduct, see Bayle, art. Grégoire I.; Mosheim, ii. 19; Gibbon, iv. 299; Milman, i. 460-3. John the Deacon (iv. 23), Baronius (603, 7), the Benedictines (Vita, IV. vii. 4-5; n. in Ep. xiii. 31), and others suggest that Gregory meant to indicate to Phocas what his conduct ought to be; that he did not suspect his hypocrisy or foresee his misconduct, &c. Dom Pitra goes to the Iliad for a justification-"S'il descend á la louange officielle envers l'assassin de. Maurice, souvenons-nous de Priam aux pieds d'Achille." (Hist. de S. Léger, p. xxxiii.) M. Rohrbacher settles the question more boldly, and to his own perfect satisfaction. After quoting Gregory's letter to Phocas, "C'est ainsi," says the Abbé, que le chef de l'Eglise universelle, le chef de l'univers Chrétien, juge l'empereur qui n'est plus, et admoneste celui qui le remplace!" (ix. 513.) M. de Montalembert, however, notwithstanding his general admiration of Gregory, is strongly against him in this case separatists to the Church. He (ii. 120-3). Gregory's frequent compli- It has been said that Phocas afterwards granted the title to Gregory's successors, but see Schröckh, xvii. 73; Planck, i. 655. k Sammarth. iii. 1; Giesel. I. ii. 414. See for the later history of the title, Schröckh, xvii. 73-8. A.D. 593. laboured, and with considerable, although not complete success, to put an end to the schism of Aquileia and Istria, which had arisen out of the controversy as to the "Three Articles" and the Fifth General Council.m In order to this purpose, he was willing to abstain from insisting on the reception of that council: the first four councils, he said, were to be acknowledged like the four Gospels; "that which by some was called the Fifth " did not impugn the Council of Chalcedon, but it related to personal matters only, and did not stand on the same footing with the others." By means of this view he was able to establish a reconciliation between Constantius, bishop of Milan, an adherent of the Council, and Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, although the queen persisted in refusing to condemn the "Three- Articles." " The influence of this princess was of great advantage to the pope, both in religious and in political affairs. According to the usual belief, she was daughter of the prince of the Bavarians, and had been trained in the Catholic faith. It is said that on the death of her husband, the Lombard king Authari, her people desired her to choose another, and promised to accept him for their sovereign; and her choice fell on Agilulf, duke of Turin, who, out of gratitude for his elevation, was disposed to show favour to her religion, and to listen to her mediation in behalf of the Romans. The statement of some writers, that Agilulf himself became a Catholic, appears to be erroneous; but his son was baptised into the Church, and in the middle of the seventh century Arianism was extinct among the Lombards." A.D. 590. Towards those who were not members of the Church Gregory was in general tolerant. That he urged the execution of the laws against the Donatists is an exception which the fanatical violence of the sect may serve to explain, if not even to justify. He protected the Jews in the exercise of their religion,' and disapproved of the forcible measures by which some princes of Gaul and Spain had attempted to drive them to a profession of Christianity." מון Epp. ix. 9; xii. 33, &c.; Joh. Diac. For the famous "iron crown" of Agii. 47-50; Lau, 67-71, 143-8. Epp. iii. 16; iv. 2-4, 38-9. • Baron. 593. 31-9; 594. 1, seqq. Sammarth. II. xii. 1-3. P Paul. Warnefr. De Gestis Langob. iii. 29, 34; iv. 6, 8 (Patrol. xcv.); Pagi, x. 506; Lau, 46, 61. Rettberg thinks the story fabulous, because Fredegar (c. 34) makes her a Frankish princess, and names no other husband than 'Ago," i. e. Agilulf. (ii. 180.) lulf, see the Patrol. xcv. 551-6, and Ducange, s. vv. Corona Ferrea. 4 Paul, de Gestis Langob. iv. 6. See Muratori, Annali, A.D. 599. Schröckh, xviii. 131. Ep. iv. 34, &c.; Baron. 591. 32-7; 592. 3-4; Lau, 72. Ep. vi. 23: Schröckh, xvii. 320-3; Lau, 142. Epp. i. 47; iii. 53. Such compulsory conversions are often mentioned in When a bishop of Palermo had seized and consecrated a synagogue, Gregory ordered that as, after consecration, it could not be alienated from the Church, the bishop should pay the value of it to the Jews. On another occasion, when a convert from Judaism, having been baptized on Easter eve, had signalized his zeal by invading the synagogue of Cagliari on the following day, and placing in it his baptismal robe, with a cross and a picture of the blessed Virgin, he was censured for the proceeding, and it was ordered that the building should be restored to the rightful owners. Sometimes, however, Gregory endeavoured to expedite the conversion of Jews by holding out allowances of money or diminution of rent as inducements, and by increasing the rent of those who were obstinate in their misbelief; and, although he expressed a consciousness that conversion produced by such means might be hypocritical, he justified them by the consideration that the children of the converts would enjoy Christian training, and might thus become sincere professors of the Gospel." Gregory endeavoured to root out the remains of Paganism which still existed in some parts of Italy, and in the islands of Sardinia and Corsica. He wrote in reproof of landowners-some of them even bishops-who allowed their peasants to continue in heathenism, and of official persons who suffered themselves to be bribed into conniving at it. Sometimes he recommended lenity as the best means of converting the pagan rustics; sometimes the imposition of taxes, or even personal chastisement. But the most memorable of Gregory's attempts for the conversion of the heathen had our own island for its scene. It is probable that many of the Britons who had become slaves to the northern invaders retained some sort of Christianity ; but the visible appearance of a church no longer existed among them; the last bishops within the Saxon territory are said to have withdrawn from London and York into Wales about the year 587. The zeal of controversy has largely affected the representations given by many writers of the subject at which we have now arrived. Those in the Roman Χ Ep. ix. 55. › Ep. ix. 6. a E. g. Epp. iv. 32; v. 8. the records of the time. The IVth in monasteries or elsewhere. C. 60. Council of Toledo (A.D. 633) enacted that Jews should not be "saved against their will," but that those who had been compelled to profess Christianity in the reign of the late king Sisebut, should still be obliged to adhere to their profession. (C. 57. Cf. Isid. Hispal. Hist. Goth. 60, in Patrol. lxxxiii.) Children of Jews are to be separated from their parents, and to be Christianly trained b Epp. iv. 23-6; v. 41; vi. 1, 18; Lau, 102. C Ep. iv. 26; ix. 65; Lau, 242-3. d Lingard, H. E. i. 89; Lappenberg. i. 63, 133. e Collier i. 144. interest have made it their object to narrow as much as possible the extent of the British Christianity, to disparage its character, and to reflect on the British clergy for their supineness and uncharitableness in neglecting to impart the knowledge of salvation to their Saxon neighbours. And, while some Anglican writers have caught this tone, without sufficiently considering what abatements may fairly be made from the declamations of Gildas and from the statements of ancient authors unfriendly to the Britons; or whether, in the fierce struggles of war, and in the state of bondage which followed, it would have been even possible for these to attempt the conversion of their conquerors and oppressors-other Protestants have committed the opposite injustice of decrying the motives and putting the worst construction on the actions of those who were instrumental in the conversion which proceeded from Rome." h It will be enough to allude to the familiar story of the incident which is said to have first directed Gregory's mind towards the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons-the sight of the fair-haired captives in the slave-market, and the succession of fanciful plays on words by which he declared that these Angles of angelic beauty, subjects of Aella, king of Deira, must be called from the ire of God, and taught to sing Alleluiah. The date of this is placed by some in the early days of his monastic life; by others, after his return from Constantinople. He resolved to undertake a mission to Britain, and the pope (whether Benedict or Pelagius) sanctioned the enterprise; but the people of Rome, who were warmly attached to Gregory, made such demonstrations that he was obliged to abandon it. Although, however, he was thus prevented from executing the work in person, he kept it in view until, after his elevation to the papal chair, he was able to commit it to the agency of others. k Ethelbert had succeeded to the kingdom of Kent in 568, and in 593 had attained the dignity of Bretwalda, which gave him an influence over the whole of England south of the Humber. About 570, as is supposed, he had married a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert, king of Paris, and the saintly Ingoberga. As a condition of this marriage, the free exercise of her religion was secured for the queen, and a French bishop, named Luidhard, accompanied her to See Schröckh, xvi. 268; Neander, v. 15; Lappenb. i. 136. Beda, ii. 1; Paul. 17. Mr. Soames disbelieves the story. Ang. Sax. Ch. 32-3; Latin Ch. 13-4. h Joh. Diac. i. 22; Fleury, xxxiv. 35. Lau, 36. k Paul. 19-21. 1 Beda, i. 25; ii. 5; Turner, Hist. Anglo-Sax. i. 328, 338; Lingard, H. E. i. 88; Lappenberg, i. 127-8. |