436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Apollo, was now attributed to Jehovah, and chroniclers tell us that 

 fiery darts were seen flung from heaven into the devoted city ; but 

 finally, in the midst of all this horror, Gregory, at the head of 

 a penitential procession, saw hovering over the mausoleum of 

 Hadrian the figure of the archangel Michael, who was just sheath- 

 ing a flaming sword, while three angels were heard chanting the 

 "Regina Cceli." The legend continues that the Pope immedi- 

 ately broke forth into hallelujahs for this sign that the plague was 

 stayed ; and as it shortly afterward became less severe, a chapel 

 was built at the summit of the mausoleum and dedicated to St. 

 Michael ; still later, above the whole was erected the colossal statue 

 of the archangel sheathing his sword, which still stands to perpetu- 

 ate the legend. Thus the greatest of Rome's ancient funeral monu- 

 ments was made to bear testimony to this medieeval belief ; the 

 mausoleum of Hadrian became the castle of St. Angelo. A legend 

 like this, claiming to date from the greatest of the early popes, 

 and vouched for by such an imposing monument, had undoubt- 

 edly a vast effect upon the dominant theology throughout Europe* 

 which was constantly developing a great body of thought regard- 

 ing the agencies by which the divine wrath might be averted. 



First among these agencies naturally were evidences of devo- 

 tion, especially gifts of land, money, or privileges to churches, 

 monasteries, and shrines the seats of fetiches which it was sup- 

 posed had wrought cures or might work them. The whole evolu- 

 tion of modern history, not only ecclesiastical but civil, has been 

 largely affected by the wealth transferred to the clergy at such 

 periods. It was noted that after the great plague in the four- 

 teenth century, the black death, had passed, an immensely in- 

 creased proportion of the landed and personal property of every 

 European country was in the hands of the Church ; well did a 

 great ecclesiastic remark that " pestilences are the harvests of the 

 ministers of God." * 



Other modes of propitiating the higher powers were peniten- 

 tial processions, the parading of images of the Virgin or of saints 



* For triumphant mention of St. Hilarion's filth, see the Roman Breviary for October 

 21st; and for details, seeS. Hieronymus, Vita S. Ililarionis Eremitse, Migne Patrologia, 

 tome 23. For the filthiness of the other saints named, see citations from Lives of the 

 Saints in Lecky's History of European Morals, vol. ii, pp. 117, 118. For Guyde Chauliac's 

 observation on the filthiness of Carmelite monks and their great losses by pestilence, see 

 Mcryon, History of Medicine, vol. i, p. 257. For the mortality among the Carthusian monks 

 in time of plague, see Mrs. Lecky's very interesting Visit to the Grand Chartreuse, in The 

 Nineteenth Century for March, 1891. For the plague at Rome in 590, the legend regarding 

 the fiery darts, mentioned by Gregory of Tours, and that of the castle of St. Angelo, see 

 Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom itn Mittelalter, vol. ii, pp. 26, 35. Also, Story, 

 Castle of St. Angelo, etc., chap. ii. For the remark that " pestilences are the harvest of 

 the ministers of God," see Charlevoix, given in Southey, History of Brazil, vol. ii, p. 254, 

 cited in Buckle, vol. i, p. 130, note. 



