rayed.
There was also a very stately one in Constantinople, under {410}
Justinian, the vault of which was covered with plates of gold, in which
it was the custom for men to make their most solemn oaths, as is related
by St. Gregory of Tours.[1] The same author informs us, in his history
of the Franks,[2] that the kings of France, of the first race, used to
confirm their treaties by the name of Polyeuctus. The martyrology
ascribed to St. Jerom, and the most ancient Armenian calendars, place
his feast on the 7th of January, which seems to have been the day of his
martyrdom. The Greeks defer his festival to the 9th of January: but it
is marked on the 13th of February in the ancient martyrology, which was
sent from Rome to Aquileia in the eighth century, and which is copied by
Ado, Usuard, and the Roman Martyrology. See his acts taken from those
written by Nearchus, the saint's friend, and Tillem. t. 3, p. 424. Jos.
Assemani, in Calend. ad 9 Januarii, t. 6.

Footnotes:
1. De Glor. Mart. c. 103.
2. Hist. l. 7, c. 6.

ST. GREGORY II., POPE, C.

HE was born in Rome, to an affluent fortune, and being educated in the
palace of the popes, acquired great skill in the holy scriptures and in
ecclesiastical affairs, and attained to an eminent degree of sanctity.
Pope Sergius I., to whom he was very dear, ordained him subdeacon. Under
the succeeding popes, John the sixth and seventh, Sisinnius, and
Constantine, he was treasurer of the church, and afterwards library
keeper, and was charged with several important commissions. The fifth
general council had been held upon the affair of the three chapters, in
553, in the reign of Justinian, and the sixth against the Monothelites,
in those of Constantine Pogonatus and pope Agatho, in 660. With a view
of adding a supplement of new canons to those of the aforesaid two
councils, the bishops of the Greek church, to the number of two hundred
and eleven, held the council called Quini-sext, in a hall of the
imperial palace at Constantinople, named Trullus, in 692, which laid a
foundation of certain differences to discipline between the Eastern and
Western churches; for in the thirteenth canon it was enacted, that a man
who was before married should be allowed to receive the holy orders of
subdeacon, deacon, or priest, without being obliged to leave his wife,
though this was forbid to bishops. (can. 12.) It was also forbid, (canon
55,) to fast on Saturdays, even in Lent. Pope Sergius I. refus