, c. 8. S. Greg. l. 2, Ep. 46.
33. L. 5. Ep. 41.
34. L. 4, Ep. 30.
35. Sublata exinde, qua par est veneratione, imagine et cruce. L. 9,
Ep. 6, p. 930.
36. L. 9, Ep. 6, p. 930.
37. L. 14, Ep. 12, p. 1270.
38. These words are quoted by Paul the deacon, in the council of Rome,
Conc. t. 6, p. 1462, and pope Adrian I., in his letter to Charlemagne
in defence of holy images.
39. L. 11, Ep. 13.
40. L. 3, Ep. 56; l. 3, Ep. 53; l. 9, Ep. 59; l. 6, Ep. 66; l. 7,
Ep. 19; l. 5, Ep. 20.
41. St. Gregory was always a zealous asserter of the celibacy of the
clergy, which law he extended also to subdeacons, who had before
been ranked among the clergy of the Minor orders, (l. 1, ep. 44, l.
4, Ep. 34.) The Centuriators, Heylin, and others, mention a forged
letter, under the name of Udalrirus, said to be written to pope
Nicholas, concerning the heads of children found by St. Gregory in a
pond. But a smore ridiculous fable was never invented, as is
demonstrated from many inconsistencies of that forged letter: and
St. Gregory in his epistles everywhere mentions the law of the
celibacy of the clergy as ancient and inviolable. Nor was any pope
Nicholas contemporary with St. Udalricus. See Baronius and Dom de
{Sainte} Marthe, in his life of St. Gregory.
42. L. 3, Ep. 29; l. 5, Ep. 13.
43. L. 6, Ep. 15, 16, 17.
44. L. 11, Ep. 28; olim 58, p. 1180, &c.
45. L. 7, Ep. 25.
46. Some Protestants slander St. Gregory, as if by this publication of
the imperial edict he had concurred to what he condemned as contrary
to the divine law. Dr. Mercier, in his letter in favor of a law
commanding silence, with regard to the constitution Unigenitus in
France, in 1759, pretends that this holy pope thought obedience to
the emperor a duty even in things of a like nature. But Dr. Launay,
Reponse a la Lettre d'un Docteur de Sorbunne, partie 2, p. 51, and
Dr. N., Examen de la Lettre d'un Docteur de Sorboune sur la
necessite de garder In silence sur la Constitution Unigenitus, p.
33, t. 1, demonstrate that St. Gregory regarded the matter, as it
really is, merely as a point of discipline, and nowhere says the
edict was contrary to the divine law, but only not agreeable to God,
and tending to prejudice the interest of his greater glory. In
matters of faith or essential obligation, he calls forth the zeal
and fortitude of prelates to stand upon their guard as opposing