Belisarius, had
Sylverius stripped of his robes and habited as a monk. He was
subsequently banished to the old convict island of Pandataria, and there
died. Vigilius embraced Eutychianism and, it was said, murdered one of
his secretaries, and caused his sister's son to be beaten to death. He
was made to feel what it is for a bishop to be in the hands of an
emperor; to taste of the cup so often presented to prelates at
Constantinople; to understand in what estimation his sovereign held the
vicar of God upon earth. Compelled to go to that metropolis to embrace
the theological views which Justinian had put forth, thrice he agreed to
them, and thrice he recanted; he excommunicated the Patriarch of
Constantinople, and was excommunicated by him. In his personal contests
with the imperial officials, they dragged him by his feet from a
sanctuary with so much violence that a part of the structure was pulled
down upon him; they confined him in a dungeon and fed him on bread and
water. Eventually he died an outcast in Sicily. The immediate effect of
the conquest of Italy was the reduction of the popes to the degraded
condition of the patriarchs of Constantinople. Such were the bitter
fruits of their treason to the Gothic king. The success of Justinian's
invasion was due to the clergy; in the ruin they brought upon their
country, and the relentless tyranny they drew upon themselves, they had
their reward.

[Sidenote: The paganization of religion proceeds.]

In the midst of this desolation and degradation the Age of Faith was
gradually assuming distinctive lineaments in Italy. Paganization, which
had been patronized as a matter of policy in the East, became a matter
of necessity in the West. To a man like Gregory the Great, born in a
position which enabled him to examine things from a very general point
of view, it was clear that the psychical condition of the lower social
stratum demanded concessions in accordance with its ideas. The belief of
the thoughtful must be alloyed with the superstition of the populace.

[Sidenote: Division of the subjects to be treated of.]

Accordingly, that was what actually occurred. For the clear
understanding of these events I shall have to speak, 1st, of the acts of
Pope Gregory the Great, by whom the ideas of the age were organized and
clothed in a dress suited to the requirements of the times; 2d, of the
relations which the papacy soon assumed with the kings of France, by
which the work of Gre