GREGORY. 



of performing the duties of liis liigh ofFice. AnibafTadors 

 were fent to him from the queen of the Lombards, an- 

 nouncing the birth and baptifm of her foil : lie was unable 

 to write an anfwer to her majefty, with regard to fome 

 difficiiltie,! whieh (he wiihed to have folved, but he returned 

 by her ambalfador, a comphmentary note, containing com- 

 iifendations of her zeal for the Catholic faitii, and with 

 prelents to the new-born prince, ot a crofs to wear at his 

 neck, in wliich was cncloied a piece of the true crofs, as 

 ne was pleafed to affirm, together with the gofpel, in a 

 Perilan box. This was one of the lad acts of the pope. 

 He died in the month of March 6;4. Sucli were the tranf- 

 adlions ot Gregory 1. who has, tor his talents and merits, 

 been furnamed the Great. There was, however, a ftrange 

 mixture of inconfiftencies i[i his charafler. In fome re- 

 fjjetts he difcovered a found and penetrating judgment, but 

 in others the moll flumeful and fuperftitious weaknefs. He 

 was no friend to fecular and polite learning : he has even 

 been accufed of having deilroyed the noble monuments of 

 the ancient magnificence of the Roman.'^, Icll travellers and 

 foreigners, who came to viiit Rome on religious motives, by 

 paying undue atteiuion to them, ihould neglett the holy 

 places. Tins accufation does not ftand on undeniable evi- 

 dence. It is doubted by Gibbon and other well-informed 

 hiftorians. " The writings of Gregory," fays IVIr. Gibbon, 

 " reveal the implacable averfion to the monuments of clalfic 

 genius ; and he points his fevered cenfure againll the profane 

 learnmg of a biiliop, who taught the art of grammar, ftudied 

 the Latin poets, and pronounced with the fame voice the 

 praiies of Jupiter and thofe of ChrilL But the evidence of 

 his deltructive rage is dolibtful and recent ; the temple of 

 peace, and the theatre of Marcellus, have been demolifhed 

 by the How operation of ages, and a formal profcription 

 would have multiplied the copies of Virgil and Livy in the 

 countries which were fubject to the ecclcfiaftioal dictator." 

 Gregory invented new offices for the fervices of the church, 

 and the facraments, in which he prefcribed a vaft number of 

 rites and ceremonies that were unknown before his time. 

 He took great pains in reforming the pfalniody of the church, 

 inftituting an academy of choirillers, whom he taugh.t to 

 chant, and for whofe ufe he compofed that mufic which goes 

 by his name. He left more writings behind him than any 

 other pope from the foundation of the fJe of Rome to the 

 prefent period. Thefe confiil of twelve books of " Letters,'' 

 amounting to upwards of eight hundred in number. " A 

 comment on the book of Job," generally known by the 

 name of " Gregory's Morals on Job.'' " A Paftoral,'' or 

 a treatife on the duties of a pallor. This work was held in 

 fuch veneration by tiie Galhcan church, that all the billiops 

 were obliged, by the canons of that church, to be thoroughly 

 acquainted with it, and punftually to obferve the rules con- 

 tained in it. He was author alfo of " Homilies " on the 

 prophet Ezekiel ; and on the gofpels, and of four books of 

 " Dialogues." His works have been printed over and over 

 again, in dlmod all forms, and at a number of different places 

 on the continent, as Lyons, Paris, Rouen, Bafd, Antwerp, 

 Venice, and Rome. Tlie beil edition is that of Paris, in 1 705, 

 in four vols folio. The charity and wealth of thib pontiff have 

 already been referred to : in the ufe of his abundant riches, 

 te acted like a faiihful ileward of the church and poor. 

 The voluminous accounts of his receipts and difburfements 

 were kept above three hundred years in the Lateran as the 

 model of Chrillian economy. On the four great fellivals, he 

 divided their quarterly a!low.mce to the clergy, to his domef- 

 tic., to the monafteries, to the churches, the places of burial, 

 the alms'-houfes, and the hofpitals of Rome, and the reil of 

 the dioccfe. On the fir It day <if every month he dillributed 



to the poor, according to the feafon, their ftatcd portion of 

 ccrn, &c. ; and his treafurcrs were continually iummon' d to 

 fatisty in his name the extraordinary demands of indigence 

 and merit. The dillrefs of the Tick and h.lpl.fs, of 

 ftrangcrB and pilgrims, was relieved by the bounty of each 

 day and of every hour, nor wotjld the pontiff indu'ge himfelf 

 in a frugal repall till he liad fent the difhes from hi^ own 

 table to fome objedls deferving of his compaflion. The 

 inifery of the times had reduced the nobles and matrons of 

 Rome to accept, without a blufh, the benevolence of the 

 church. Three thoufand virgins received their food and 

 raiment from the hand of th'.ir benefadtor, and many bilhops 

 of Italy efcaped from the barbarians to the hofpi a' Ij abode 

 of the Vatican. Gregory might julUy be ilyled the father of 

 his country, and fuch was the extreme fenfibility c»f his con- 

 fcience, that, for the deatli of a beggar, who had perifhed in the 

 Itreets, he interdicted himfelf during feveral days from the 

 exercife of facerdotal funftions. Moreri. Gibbon, Lardncr. 

 Eccleliallical writers feem unanimous in allowing that it 

 was the learned and aftive pope Gregory the Great, who 

 colledted the mullcal ffagments of fuch ancient hymns and 

 pfalms as the firft fathers of the church had approved, and re- 

 commended to the primitive ChrilHans ; and that he feleftcd, 

 methodized, and arranged them in the order which was long 

 continued at Rome, and foon adopted by the chief part of 

 the wellern church. 



The anonymous author of his life, publifhed by Caniilus, 

 fpeaks of this tranfadion in the following words : " This 

 pontiff compofed, arranged, and conilituted the jlnlifkona' 

 riiim and chants ufed in the morning and evening fervice.'' 

 Fleury, in his Hill. Eccl. torn. vii. p. 150, gives a circum- 

 flantial account of the Scola Cantorum, inflituted by St. 

 Gregory. It fubi'ifted 300 years after the death of that 

 pontiff, which happened in 604, as we are inform.cd by John 

 Diaconus, author of his life. The original Antiphonarium 

 of this pope was then fubliiling ; and the whip with which 

 he ufed to threaten to fcourge the boys ; as well as the he'd 

 on which he reclined in the latter part of his life, when he 

 vifited the fchool in order to liear them praClife. Two col- 

 leges were appropriated to thefe lludies ; one near the church 

 of St. Peter, and one near that of St. John Lateran ; both 

 of which were endowed with lands. 



It has been imagined that St. Gregory was rather a com- 

 piler than a compufer of ecclefiallical chants, as mufic had 

 been etlabliflied in the church long before his pontificate ; 

 and John Diaconus, in his life, (lib. i. cap. 6.) calls his col- 

 lection " Antiphonarium Ccntonciu," the ground-work of 

 which was the ancient Greek chant, upon the principles of 

 which it was formed. This is the opinion of the Abbe 

 Lebceuf, (Traitc Hillorique et Pratique fur le Chant Etcle- 

 ilaflique, chap, iii.) and of many others. The derivation is 

 rcfpeCtable ; but if the Romans in the time of St. Ambrofe 

 had any mufic, it mull have been compofed upon the Gi-cek . 

 fyftem : all the arts at Rome, during the time of the empe- 

 rors, were Greek, and chiefly cultivated by Greek artifts ; 

 and we hear of no niufical fvitem in ufe among the Romans, 

 or at leall none is mentioned by their writers on the art, but 

 that of the Greeks. 



Gregory II., pope, was a native of Rome, and educated 

 froin childhood, in the Lateran palace, under pope Sergius, 

 who appointed him his fub-deacon, almoner, and libraiiarj. 

 He was afterwards railed to higher polls in the church, and 

 was feleded by pope Conllantine, as the mod learned man of 

 his time, t^. accompany him « hen he went to Conilar^iiioplc, 

 in the year 710. In that city Gregory didinguifhed himfelf by 

 anfweiing certain dilfieulties propofcdto him by the emperor 

 Judinian, and lolving his doubts r.ith regard to fome quellions 



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