tories, was able to hold his dominions as an independent prince. Our present concern is with Rome at the close of the sixth century, when it was still part of the Eastern Empire.

The Roman province extended along the coast from Civita Vecchia to Terracina, and inland to Ameria and Narni. During the period which we have reached -the close of the sixth century-the Duchy of Rome was in this condition: it was a dependency of the Exarchate of Ravenna, isolated amidst the Lombard conquests; ruled by the Exarch and his representative in Rome, but left to defend itself by its own diplomacy and force, in face of the hostile attitude of the Lombard Duke of Beneventum on the south. In 570-582, the clergy and Senate collected the remains of their ancient opulence, and sent an embassy to the Emperor Tiberius II., asking aid, and offering three thousand pounds of gold as their contribution to the cost of the expedition. The Emperor declared his inability to help them, and returned the money, advising the Romans either to buy peace from the Lombards with it, or to spend it in hiring the aid of the Franks. Rome had reached the lowest point of its depression. The influx of wealth from the revenues of the provinces had ceased; strangers no longer resorted to it for business or curiosity; large parts of the city were in ruins; the Campagna was falling into the condition of an unwholesome waste, from which it has never recovered. So great were the miseries of the time, as to produce in many minds the belief that the end of the world was at hand.

The Church of Rome had shared in the misfortunes

of the city. In the previous centuries, the See, endowed by the piety of wealthy devotees with estates in Italy and the provinces, and further enriched by continual offerings, was very wealthy. The legal recognition accorded by the Christian Emperors to the arbitration of bishops between disputants, and the deference paid to their intercession on behalf of accused persons, had placed the bishop virtually among the chief magistrates of the city; and the magistracy of Rome maintained some of the pretensions of the ancient Senate; the position of the Bishop of Rome had therefore been one of great wealth, dignity, and influence.

But the overthrow of the Empire and the ruin of Rome had dried up the chief sources of the wealth of the See, and, under the rule of Ostrogothic Kings and Eastern Emperors, it had lost much of its prestige. Both rulers had maintained the right of intervention in the appointment of bishops, and both had treated the bishops as their subjects. Theodoric had sent Bishop John to Constantinople, as his ambassador, to obtain for the Arians in the East that toleration which the Arians gave to the Orthodox in the West, and on his return had cast him into prison for the partial failure of his mission, where he shortly died (536 A.D.). Theodahat had sent Bishop Agapetus, as his ambassador, to avert a a threatened attack. When Belisarius had conquered the city, he, or rather his wife Antonina, had summoned Bishop Sylverius to her chamber, rated him for treasonable correspondence with the besieging Goths, sent him off by sea to the East, and caused Vigilius to be elected in his place. Vigilius (545 A.D.) had been summoned to

court by Justinian to give an account of himself, and had been detained there seven years, and died on his way homeward. The vacillation of Vigilius on the great theological dispute of the time had even sullied the reputation of the See for its soundness in the faith, and diminished its spiritual authority. In the time of his successor Pelagius, the rest of the Italian bishops withdrew from communion with Rome, and the province of Aquileia maintained its excommunication of Rome for nearly a century and a half. This was the Rome of Gregory the Great, and the scene of the opening of the present history.

CHAPTER II

GREGORY THE GREAT

GREGORY THE GREAT (Anicius Gregorius) is said to have descended from the Anician family. His grandfather was Bishop Felix III.; his father, Gordian, was the noblest of the Senate; his mother, Sylvia, illustrious for her piety, retired to a convent on her husband's death. Gregory entered into civil life, and attained the highest municipal office of prefect of the city. But at the age of thirty-five (about 575 A.D.) he fell under the influence of the prevalent ascetic enthusiasm, and entered what was technically called the "religious" life. He converted the house of his family on the Cælian Hill into a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew, and devoted the remainder of his patrimony to the founding of six monasteries in Sicily. Whether he adopted the rule which St. Benedict had drawn up for his monks fifty years before, is not stated by the contemporary authorities, and is disputed by the modern historians. Gregory was a great admirer of Benedict, and wrote his biography; but he was a man of so much originality of genius and selfreliance, so much in the habit of seeking to improve what he touched, that while he could hardly help taking the rule of Benedict in its broad outlines as a wise adaptation, on the whole, of the Eastern rule to

Western conditions, he would be very likely to modify it at his own discretion. It is a point of some importance, since Augustine, who was a man of routine, would be sure to introduce the rule of St. Andrew's of the Cælian Hill into the monasteries of Kent. It may be noted here that when Benedict Biscop founded his Northumbrian monasteries at Wearmouth and Jarrow, he did not adopt the Benedictine rule as a matter of course, but gave them an eclectic rule based upon his study of the most famous monasteries of Italy and Gaul.

The position and talents of Gregory were enough to ensure him an eminent position in the Church, as formerly in the civil service of his native city. It was the custom of the time for the great Patriarchs to maintain an agent (Apocrisiarius) at the court of the Emperor, to watch over the interests of their churches, and to transact the business frequently arising. Pelagius II. sent Gregory in 578 or 579 to Constantinople in this capacity, Tiberius II. being Emperor; and here he must have acquired, during the six years of his residence, a skill in diplomacy and a knowledge of men and affairs which would be useful in the political difficulties with which it was afterwards his lot to deal.

It is necessary to a right understanding of our history, to consider carefully the position of the Bishops of Italy and Gaul at this period. The early Christians, acting upon the precept of St. Paul not to go to law with one another before the heathen courts (1 Cor. vi. 1-6), had made a practice of referring their disputes to the arbitration of their bishops. The Christian Emperors had recognised the custom,