VI. obliged to enter upon his bishopric. This happened CENT. in the year 590. Gregory. Gregory continued to discharge the office in the Christian same spirit, in which he began it. Other bishops spirit of had been sedulous to adorn churches with gold or silver; he gave himself wholly, so far as he could, to the care of souls. The melancholy circumstances of his accession corresponded with the gloomy state of the Church, in the East almost universally fallen, in the West tarnished with much superstition, and defiled by variety of wickedness. The whole period of his episcopacy, which was thirteen years and a halft, was disastrous beyond measure, because of the ferocious Lombards; and Gregory himself was firmly persuaded, that the end of the world was near. Hence he had evi-! dently a strong contempt of sublunary things, and loved to refresh his mind with prospects beyond the grave. Nor has the sceptical, philosophical taste, as it is called, of this day, any reason to plume itself on comparison with that of Gregory. What is there, for instance, in the scene we have been just reviewing, which should excite the contempt of the philosopher, or rather, of the infidel who calls himself philosopher? Some superstition has appeared in it: it was an age of superstition: the form of Christianity was degenerated even in the best; but the divine religion sparkled through the gloom in" the real life of humility, faith, and repentance. The spiritual benefit of many, it is highly probable, resulted from the pastoral labours and litanies of Gregory; and whether is more rational, to fear the wrath of God, when his hand is upon us, to weep and pray, and implore his grace and mercy, in reliance on the promises of his word, beholding the' scourge as really sent from God; or to harden the heart in jocose and fastidious sneers at the weakness of superstition, and from the desolating judgments + Idem. Bede. CHAP. of the Almighty, to see nothing and to learn nothing that may lead us to repentance. V. His epis tles. In Gregory's works we have a collection of epistles, which will give us a view of his labours and transactions. Discipline, and indefatigable attention to order, justice, mercy, and piety, mark all his proceedings. The inordinate amplitude of authority and of extensive jurisdiction, to which superstition had already advanced the Roman See, and which afforded such copious fuel to pride and ambition in some of his predecessors, and many of. his successors, was to him only the cause of anxious care and conscientious solicitude. Italy and Sicily were of themselves too large a theatre of action; but with the government of these he received the prevailing notion of a superintendance of the Roman See over all the churches, derived from St. Peter. In ln, at least, the idea excited no pleasing sensations of dominion. A fatherly inspection of Christendom without civil power called him to incessant labour; besides that his own diocese was much too great for any one man's capacity. Humility and the fear of God were his ruling dispositions; and it is evident to a careful observer of Gregory, that he exerted authority in full consistency with these. Moreover he found time to expound the scriptures, to perform the office of a sedulous pastor, and to write much for the instruction of mankind. Deeply must the spirit of that man have been impressed with the prospects and hopes of inmortality, who amidst bodily infirmities, and in times of public perplexity, could persevere in such a course of arduous labours. I shall endeavour to enable the reader to form a judgment for himself of the man, by a review of his letters; omitting those which are the least interesting. He directed the bishops of Sicily to hold an annual visitation at Syracuse or Catana under his subdeacon, and to attend in it to things which VI. related to the public and ecclesiastical welfare, to CENT. relieve the necessities of the poor and oppressed, and to admonish and correct those who had fallen into errors. In which council he begs that they would be guarded against malice, envy, and discord, and maintain a godly unity and charity*. He reminds the prætor of Sicily, whose duty it was to send corn into Italy from that fruitful granary of the empire, to be just and equitable in his dealings, to remember that life is short, that he must soon appear before the Judge of all, and that he can carry away with him nothing of his gains, and that only the causes and methods of his gains will follow him to judgment t. 1 To a friend he writes thus on his promotion: "I value not the congratulations of strangers on my advancement. But it is a serious grief to me, that you, who know me thoroughly, should felicitate me on the occasion. Ye have long known my wish; I should have obtained the rest which I sought, could I have been gratified in it." "If charity," says he, writing to John bishop of Constantinople, " consist in the love of our neighbour, why do not ye love me, as yourselves? With what ardour and zeal ye would fly from the weight of episcopacy I know, and yet ye took no pains to hinder the imposition of this burden on me. as the government of an old and crazy vessel is committed to me, weak and unworthy as I am, I beseech you, by the Lord, that you would stretch out the hand of prayer to my relief II." But The employment of deciding causes, which in these times fell to the lot of bishops, must have been tedious and burdensome to a mind of conscientious exactness, like that of Gregory. Hear how feelingly he complains of the load, in a letter to Theoctista, sister to the emperor: B. I. Ep. 1. † Ep. 2. * Ep. 3. # Ep. 4. CHAP. "Under* colour of the bishopric, I find I am brought back to the world, in which I am enslaved to such a quantity of earthly cares, as I never remember to have been infested with in my lay capacity. I have lost the sublime joys of myself, and sinking inwardly, seem to rise externally. I deplore my expulsion from the face of my Maker. I was endeavouring to live out of the world and the flesh; to drive away all the phantasms of body from the eyes of my mind, and to see supernal joys mentally, and with my inmost soul panting after God, I said, my heart hath said to thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek.' Desiring nothing, and fearing nothing of the world, I seemed to have almost realized that of the prophet: I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth.' Surely it is so with him, who looks down from his intellectual elevation on all the grandeur and glory of the earth. But suddenly from the height of peace and stability, impelled by the whirlwind of this temptation, I have fallen into fears and terrors; because though I fear not for myself, I fear much for those who are committed to my charge: I am shaken with the fluctuations of causes on all sides, and say, 'I am come into deep waters, so that the floods run over me.' After the hurry of causes is over, I desire to return to my heart, but excluded from it by the vain tumults of thoughts, I cannot return." Such is the picture which Gregory draws of his mental situation, in the midst of all his envied greatness. Experience and habit might in time lessen his anxieties. Nor was it through want of capacity for business that he suffered thus extremely. No age ever saw a bishop more vigorous, firm, and circumspect. The immensity of ecclesiastical employment, which went through his hands, seems almost incredible. I rejoice to find in him such vivid tokens of that spiritual sensibility and life, which it is the • B. I. Ep. 5. VI. great business of this history to delineate, as it ap- CENT. peared from age to age in the church, and which distinguishes real Christians as much from nominal ones, as from all other men. In the mean time I have to regret, that while the power and experience of godliness decayed, the amplitude of bishoprics was so much auginented, and that so much extraneous matter, which ought to have been committed to other hands, was thrown upon them. The consequence has been, that the dignitaries of the church have ever since been thrown into circumstances peculiarly disadvantageous. Those of a secular spirit have toiled with eagerness for worldly and selfish' ends, without feeling any injury to the spiritual life, because they had none; those of an heavenly spirit have felt like Gregory under the united pressures of conscientious care and the tumult of thoughts very alien from the Christian life, and tending to extinguish it. The pious and upright Anastasius of Antioch has been already introduced to the reader's notice. Gregory had contracted an intimacy with him while in the East, and he writes to him thus in answer to his letter: "I received your letter, as a weary man does rest, as a sick man health, as a thirsty person a fountain, as one overcome with heat a shade. I read not mere words; I perceived the heart itself to be discovering your affection towards me in the spirit." He goes on to complain of Anastasius's cruel kindness in having contributed to his promotion, and describes his burdens in his usual manner. "But when you call me the mouth and lamp of the Lord, and a person capable of profiting many, this is added to the load of my iniquities, that I receive praise instead of punishment for my sins. How I am overloaded, no words can express; you may form some idea from the brevity of my letter, in which I say so little of him whom I love above all. I have begged of the Emperor |