gory was consolidated, upheld, and diffused all
over Europe. It adds not a little to the interest of these things that
the influences thus created have outlasted their original causes, and,
after the lapse of more than a thousand years, though moss-covered and
rotten, are a stumbling-block to the progress of nations.

[Sidenote: Gregory the Great.]

Gregory the Great was the grandson of Pope Felix. His patrician
parentage and conspicuous abilities had attracted in early life the
attention of the Emperor Justin, by whom he was appointed prefect of
Rome. Withdrawn by the Church from the splendours of secular life, he
was sent, while yet a deacon, as nuncio to Constantinople. Discharging
the duties that had been committed to him with singular ability and
firmness, he resumed the monastic life on his return, with daily
increasing reputation. Elected to the papacy by the clergy, the senate,
and people of Rome, A.D. 590, with well dissembled resistance he
implored the emperor to reject their choice, and, on being refused,
escaped from the city hidden in a basket. It is related that the retreat
in which he was concealed was discovered by a celestial hovering light
that settled upon it, and revealed to the faithful their reluctant pope.
This was during a time of pestilence and famine.

Once made supreme pontiff, this austere monk in an instant resumed the
character he had displayed at Constantinople, and exhibited the
qualities of a great statesman. He regulated the Roman liturgy, the
calendar of festivals, the order of processions, the fashions of
sacerdotal garments; he himself officiated in the canon of the mass,
devised many solemn and pompous rites, and invented the chant known by
his name. He established schools of music, administered the Church
revenues with precision and justice, and set an example of almsgiving
and charity; for such was the misery of the times that even Roman
matrons had to accept the benevolence of the Church. He authorized the
alienation of Church property for the redemption of slaves, laymen as
well as ecclesiastics.

An insubordinate clergy and a dissolute populace quickly felt the hand
that now held the reins. He sedulously watched the inferior pastors,
dealing out justice to them, and punishing all who offended with
rigorous severity. He compelled the Italian bishops to acknowledge him
as their metropolitan. He extended his influence to Greece; prohibited
simony in Gaul; received into the bos