, cod. 233, &c.) The last lines are
an addition. In the fortieth chapter he expounds to the catechumens the
mysteries of the Unity and Trinity of God, and the Incarnation: also the
two sacraments of baptism and the body of Christ, in which latter
Christ's real body is mixed with our corruptible bodies, to bestow on us
immortality and grace.

In his book upon Virginity he extols its merit and dignity.

St. Gregory was much scandalized in his journey to Jerusalem to see
contentions reign in that holy place; yet he had the comfort to find
there several persons of great virtue, especially three very devout
ladies, to whom he afterwards wrote a letter, in which he says, (t. 3,
pp. 655, 656:) "When I saw those holy places, I was filled with a joy
and pleasure which no tongue can express." Soon after his return, he
wrote a short treatise on those who go to Jerusalem, (t. 3. app. p. 72,)
in which he condemns pilgrimages, when made an occasion of sloth,
dissipation of mind, and other dangers; and observes that they are no
part of the gospel precepts. Dr. Cave (p. 44) borrows the sophistry of
Du Moulin to employ this piece against the practice of pilgrimages; but
in part very unjustly, as Gretser (not. in Notas Molinei) demonstrates.
Some set too great a value on pilgrimages, and made them an essential
part of perfection: and by them even many monks and nuns exchanged their
solitude into a vagabond life. These abuses St. Gregory justly reproves.
What he says, that he himself received no good by visiting the holy
places, must be understood to be a Miosis, or extenuation to check the
monks' too ardent passion for pilgrimages, and only means, the presence
of those holy places, barely of itself, contributes nothing to a man's
sanctification: but he does not deny it to be profitable by many devout
persons uniting together in prayer and mortification, and by exciting
hearts more powerfully to devotion. "Movemur locis ipsis in quibus eorum
quos admiramur aut diligimus adsunt vestigia," said Atticas in Cicero.
"Me quidem illae ipsae nostrae Athenae, non tam operibus magnificis
exquisitisque antiquorum artibus delectant, quam recordatione summorum
virorum, ubi quis habitare, ubi sedere, ubi disputare sit, solitus,
studiuseque eorum sepulchra contemplor." Much more must the sight of the
places of Christ's mysteries stir up our sentiments and love. Why else
did St. Gregory go over Calvary, Golgotha, Olivet, Bethlehem? What was
the unspeaka