itigate the fierceness, and to dispel the dark enthusiasm of the
vulgar, and he readily forgave their tendency to promote the reign
of priesthood and superstition. The bishops of Italy and the adjacent
islands acknowledged the Roman pontiff as their special metropolitan.
Even the existence, the union, or the translation of episcopal seats was
decided by his absolute discretion: and his successful inroads into the
provinces of Greece, of Spain, and of Gaul, might countenance the more
lofty pretensions of succeeding popes. He interposed to prevent the
abuses of popular elections; his jealous care maintained the purity of
faith and discipline; and the apostolic shepherd assiduously watched
over the faith and discipline of the subordinate pastors. Under his
reign, the Arians of Italy and Spain were reconciled to the Catholic
church, and the conquest of Britain reflects less glory on the name of
Caesar, than on that of Gregory the First. Instead of six legions, forty
monks were embarked for that distant island, and the pontiff lamented
the austere duties which forbade him to partake the perils of their
spiritual warfare. In less than two years, he could announce to the
archbishop of Alexandria, that they had baptized the king of Kent with
ten thousand of his Anglo-Saxons, and that the Roman missionaries,
like those of the primitive church, were armed only with spiritual and
supernatural powers. The credulity or the prudence of Gregory was always
disposed to confirm the truths of religion by the evidence of ghosts,
miracles, and resurrections; [72] and posterity has paid to his memory
the same tribute which he freely granted to the virtue of his own or the
preceding generation. The celestial honors have been liberally bestowed
by the authority of the popes, but Gregory is the last of their own
order whom they have presumed to inscribe in the calendar of saints.

[Footnote 69: The Lord's Prayer consists of half a dozen lines; the
Sacramentarius and Antiphonarius of Gregory fill 880 folio pages, (tom.
iii. p. i. p. 1--880;) yet these only constitute a part of the Ordo
Romanus, which Mabillon has illustrated and Fleury has abridged, (Hist.
Eccles. tom. viii. p. 139--152.)]

[Footnote 70: I learn from the Abbe Dobos, (Reflexions sur la Poesie
et la Peinture, tom. iii. p. 174, 175,) that the simplicity of the
Ambrosian chant was confined to four modes, while the more perfect
harmony of the Gregorian comprised the eight modes or fi