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an impression upon him, that he applied himself soon after to pope Benedict I. and earnestly requested that some persons might be sent to preach christianity in Britain. And not finding any one disposed to undertake that mission, he made an offer of himself for the service, with the pope's consent and approbation. Having obtained leave, he privately set forward on his journey, in company with several monks of his own monastery. But when his departure was known, the whole city was in an uproar, and the people ran in a body to the pope, whom they met going to St Peter's church. They cried out to him, in the utmost consternation: "Apostolical father, what have you done? in suffering Gregory to go away, you have destroyed Rome: you have undone us, and offended St Peter." At these pressing instances, the pope dispatched messengers to recall him: and the saint, being overtaken by them on the third day, was obliged, though with great reluctance, to return to Rome. Not long after, the same pope, according to John the deacon, and the Benedictins, or as Paul the deacon and Baronius say, his successor Pelagius II. made him one of the seven deacons of the church at Rome, who assisted the pope. Pelagius II. sent him to Constantinople in quality of Apocrisiarius or Nuncio of the holy see to the religious emperor Tiberius, by whom the saint was received and treated with the highest distinction. This public employment did not

cy. The ingenious author of the late life of the lord chancellor Bacon, thought custom an apology for the most vicious style of that great man, of whom he writes: " His style has been objected to as full of affectation, full of false eloquence. But that was the vice, not of the man, but of the times he lived in; and particularly of a court that delighted in the tinsel of wit and learning, in the poor ingenuity of punning and quibbling. St Gregory was a man of a fine genius and of true learning: yet in familiar converse might conform to the taste of the age. Far from censuring his wit or the judgment of his historian, we ought to admire his piety, which from every circumstance, even from words, drew allusions to nourish devotion, and turn the heart to God. This we observe in other saints, and if it be a fault, we might more justly censure on this account the elegant epistles of St Paulinus or St Sulpicius Severus, than this dialogue of St Gregory.

make him lay aside the practices of a monastic life, in order to which he had taken with him certain monks of his house, with whom he might the better continue them, and by their example excite himself to recollection and prayer. At the request of St Leander bishop of Seville, whom he saw at Constantinople, he wrote in that city his thirty-five books of Morals upon Job, giving chiefly the moral and allegorical interpretations of that sacred book, in such a manner as to reduce into one body the most excellent principles of morality, and also of an interior life, of both which this admirable work hath been ever since regarded as the great storehouse and armory. Out of it St Isidore, St Thomas, and other masters of these holy sciences, have chiefly drawn their sublime maxims. Mauritius having married the daughter of Tiberius, in 582, who had the empire for her dowry, St Gregory was pitched upon to stand godfather to his eldest son. Eutychius was at that time patriarch of Constantinople (b) This prelate, having suffered for the faith under Justinian, fell at length into an error, importing, that after the general resurrection the glorified bodies of the elect will be no longer palpable, but of a more subtile texture than air. This error he touched in a certain book which he wrote. St Gregory was alarmed, and held several conferences with the patriarch upon that subject both in private and before the emperor, and clearly demonstrated, from the scriptures, that the glorified bodies of the saints will be the same which they had on earth, only delivered from the appendixes of mortality; and that they will be palpa

(b) Eutychius had formerly defended the catholic faith with great zeal against the Eutychians and the errors of the emperor Justinian, who, though he condemned those heretics, yet adopted one part of their blasphemies, asserting that Christ assumed a body which was by its own nature incorruptible, not formed of the Blessed Virgin, and subject to pain, hunger or alteration only by a miracle. This was called the heresy of the Incorrupticole, of which Justinian declared himself the abetter; and after many great exploits to retrieve the ancient glory of the empire, tarnished his reputation by persecuting the catholic church, and banishing Eutychins.

ble as that of Christ was after his resurrection. (3) The good bishop, being docile and humble, retracted his mistake, and shortly after falling sick, in presence of the emperor, who had honoured him with a visit, taking hold of his skin with his hand, said: "I profess the belief that we shall all rise in this very flesh." (c) Pope Pelagius recalled St Gregory in 584. He brought with him to Rome an arm of St Andrew, and the head of St Luke, which the emperor had given him. He placed both these relicks in his monastery of St Andrew, where the former remains to this day; but the latter has been removed thence to St Peter's, where it still continues. The saint with joy saw himself restored to the tranquillity of his cell, where he eagerly desired to bury himself with regard to the world, from which he had fled naked into this secure harbour; because, as he signified to St Leander, he saw how diffi cult a thing it is to converse with the world without contracting inordinate attachments. (d) Pope Pelagius also made him his secretary. He still continued to govern his monastery, in which he shewed a remarkable instance of severity. Justus, one of his monks, had acquired and kept privately three pieces of gold, which he confessed on his death-bed. St Gregory forbade the community to attend and pray by his bed-side, according to cus-. tom; but could not refuse him the assistance of a priest, which the council of Nice ordained that no one should be deprived of at the hour of death. Justus died in great sentiments of compunction; yet, in compliance with what the monastic discipline enjoins in such cases, in imitation of what St Macarius had prescribed on the like occasion, he ordered his corpse to be buried under the dunghill, and the three pieces of money to be thrown into the grave with it. Nevertheless, as he died penitent, he ordered mass to be daily offered

(3) St Greg. Moral. 1. 14. c. 76. T. 1. p. 465. (c) He died in 582, and is ranked by the Greeks among the Saints. See the Bollandists in vita St Eutychii ad 6 Apr.

(d) Fleury thinks he was chosen abbot before his embassy to Constantinople. But Ceillier and others prove, that this only hap

pened after his return.

up for him during thirty days. (e) St Gregory says, (4) that after the mass of the thirtieth day, Justus appearing to his brother Copiosus, assured him that he had been in torments, but was then released.

Pope Pelagius II. dying in the beginning of the great pestilence in January 590, the clergy, senate and Roman people unanimously agreed to choose St Gregory for their bishop, although he opposed his election with all his power. It was then the custom at the election of a pope to consult the emperor as the head of the senate and people. Our saint, trusting to his friendship with Mauritius, to whose son he had stood godfather, wrote to him privately to conjure him not to approve of this choice. He wrote also with great earnestness to John patriarch of Constantinople, and to other powerful friends in that city, begging them to employ their interest with the emperor for that purpose: but complains in several letters afterwards that they had all refused to serve him. The governor of Rome intercepted his letters to the emperor, and sent others to him, in the name of the senate and people, to the contrary effect. In the mean time the plague continued to rage at Rome with great violence; and, while the people waited for the emperor's answer, St Gregory took occasion, from their calamities, to exhort them to repentance. Having made them a pathetic sermon on that subject, (f) he appointed a solemn litany or procession, in seven companies, with a priest at the head of each, who were to march from different churches, and all to meet in that of St Mary Major; singing Kyrie Eleison as they went along the streets. During this procession there died in one hour's

(4) Dial. I. 4. c. 55. p. 465. T. 2.

(e) It appears from the life of St Theodosius the Cenobiarch, from St Ambrose's funeral oration on Valentinian, and other monuments, that it was the custom from the primitive ages, to keep the third, seventh, and thirtieth, or sometimes fourtieth day, after the decease of a christian, with solemn prayers and sacrifices for the departed soul. From this fact of St Gregory a trental of masses for a soul departed are usually called the Gregorian masses, on which see Gavant and others.

(f) It is inserted by St Gregory of Tours in his history. Greg. Touron. 1. 10. c. I.

But St Gre

time fourscore of those who assisted at it. gory did not forbear to exhort the people, and to pray till such time as the distemper ceased. (g) During the public calamity, St Gregory seemed to have forgot the danger he was in of being exalted to the pontifical throne; for he feared as much to lose the security of his poverty, as the most avaricious can do to lose their treasures. He had been informed that his letters to Constantinople had been intercepted: wherefore, not being able to go out of the gates of Rome, where guards were placed, he prevailed with certain merchants to carry him off disguised, and shut up in a wicker basket. Three days he lay concealed in the woods and caverns, during which time the people of Rome observed fasts and prayers. Being miraculously discovered, (b) and no longer able, as he says himself, (5) to resist, after the manifestation of the divine will, he was taken, brought back to Rome with great acclamations, and consecrated on the third of September, in 590. In this ceremony, he was conducted, according to custom, to the Confession of St Peter, as his tomb is called; where he made a profession of his faith, which is still extant in his works. He sent also to the other patriarchs a synodal epistle, in which was contained the profession of his faith. (6) In it he declares, that he received the four general councils as the four gospels. He received congratulatory letters upon his exaltation; to all which he returned for answer rather tears than words, in the most feeling sentiments of profound humility. To Theoctista, the emperor's sister, he wrote thus: (7) “ I have lost the comfort of my calm, and appearing to be outwardly exalted, I am inwardly and really fallen. . . My endeavours were to banish corporal objects from

(5) L. 1. Ep. 21. L. 7. Ep. 4. (6) L. 1. Ep. 25. ́ (7) L. 1. Ep. 5. p. 491.

(g) Some moderns say, an angel was seen sheathing his sword on the stately pile of Adrian's sepulchre. But no such circumstancé is mentioned by St Gregory of Tours, Bede, Paul, or John.

(b) Paul the deacon says, it was by a pillar of light appearing over the place where he lay concealed.

VOL. III.

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