e emperor, though he should
be a loser by it, would not fill his exchequer by oppressing his people,
nor suffer taxes to be levied by iniquitous methods, which would be an
impediment to his eternal salvation. He sent to this empress a brandeum,
or veil, which had touched the bodies of the apostles, and assured her
that miracles had been wrought by such relics.[34] He promised to send
her also some dust-filings of the chains of St. Paul; of which relics he
makes frequent mention in his epistles. At Cagliari, a curtain rich Jew,
having been converted to the faith, had seized the synagogue in order to
convert it into a church, and had set up in it an image of the Virgin
Mary and a cross. Upon the complaint of the other Jews, St. Gregory
ordered[35] the synagogue to be restored to them, but that the image and
cross should be first removed with due veneration and respect.[36]
Writing to Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, he mentions,[37] that he
sent her son, the young king, a little cross, in which was a particle of
the wood of the true Cross, to carry about his neck. Secundinus, a holy
hermit near Ravenna, godfather to this young king, begged of the pope
some devout pictures. St. Gregory, in his answer, says: "We have sent
you two cloths, containing the picture of God our Saviour, and of Mary
the holy Mother of God, and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and
one cross: also for a benediction, a key which hath been applied to the
most holy body of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, that you may
remain defended from the enemy."[38] But when Serenus, bishop of
Marseilles, had broken certain sacred images which some persons lately
converted from idolatry honored with their former idolatrous
superstitions, St. Gregory commended his zeal for suppressing this
abuse, but reproved him for breaking the images.[39] When the archbishop
of Ravenna used the pallium, not only at mass, but also in other
functions, St. Gregory wrote him a severe reprimand, telling him that no
ornament shines so bright on the shoulders of a bishop as
humility.[40][41] He extended his pastoral zeal and solicitude over all
churches; and he frequently takes notice that the care of the churches
of the whole world was intrusted to St. Peter, and his successors in the
see of Rome.[42] This authority he exerted in the oriental
patriarchates. A certain monk having been accused of Manicheism, and
beaten by the order of John the patriarch of Constantinople, a