ge her father's
death by stabbing him to the heart in the year 573. The Lombard power
did not, however, fall with him; his nephew succeeded him, and ruled
over the country we still call Lombardy. Rome was not taken by them, but
was still in name belonging to the Emperor, though he had little power
there, and the Senate governed it in name, with all the old magistrates.
The Praetor at the time the Lombards arrived was a man of one of the old
noble families, Anicius Gregorius, or, as we have learned to call him,
Gregory. He had always been a good and pious man, and while he took
great care to fulfil all the duties of his office, his mind was more and
more drawn away from the world, till at last he became a monk of St.
Benedict, gave all his vast wealth to build and endow monasteries and
hospitals, and lived himself in an hospital for beggars, nursing them,
studying the Holy Scriptures, and living only on pulse, which his mother
sent him every day in a silver dish--the only remnant of his
wealth--till one day, having nothing else to give a shipwrecked sailor
who asked alms, he bestowed it on him.

[Illustration: POPE GREGORY THE GREAT.]

He was made one of the seven deacons who were called Cardinal Deacons,
because they had charge of the poor of the principal parishes of
Rome; and it was when going about on some errand of kindness that he saw
the English slave children in the market, and planned the conversion of
their country; but the people would not let him leave Rome, and in 590,
the Senate, the clergy, and the people chose him Pope. It was just then
that a terrible pestilence fell on Rome, and he made the people form
seven great processions--of clergy, of monks, of nuns, of children, of
men, of wives, and of widows--all singing litanies to entreat that the
plague might be turned away. Then it was that he beheld an angel
standing on the tomb of Hadrian, and the plague ceased. Ever after, the
great old tomb has been called the Castle of St. Angelo.

[Illustration: THE POPE'S PULPIT.]

It was a troublous time, but Gregory was so much respected that he was
able to keep Rome orderly and safe, and to make peace between the
Emperor Maurice and the Lombards' king, Agilulf, who had an excellent
wife, Theodolinda. She was a great friend of the Pope, wrote a letter to
him, and did all she could to support him. The Eastern Empire was still
owned at Rome, but when there was an attempt to make out that the
Patriarch of Constant