agreed with each other, and
their disagreement could not be adjusted by the metropolitan, he drew the
decision to himself.

Gregory also held many councils in Rome which passed decisions upon
doctrine and discipline. We may take as a specimen that which he held in
the Lateran Church on the 5th April, 601,[216] with twenty-four bishops and
many priests and deacons. It is headed: "Gregory, bishop, servant of the
servants of God, to all bishops". The Pope says that his own government of
a monastery had shown him how necessary it was to provide for their
perpetual security: "Since we have come to the knowledge that in very many
monasteries the monks have suffered much to their prejudice and grievance
from bishops ... we therefore, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by
the authority of the blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, in whose place
we preside over this Church, forbid that henceforth any bishop or layman,
in respect of the revenues, goods, or charters of monasteries, the cells or
buildings belonging to them, do in any manner or upon any occasion diminish
them, or use deceit or interference". If there be a contest whether any
property belong to the church of a bishop or to a monastery, arbitrators
shall decide. If an abbot dies, no stranger, but one of the same community,
must be chosen by the brethren, freely and concordantly, for his successor.
If no fitting person is found in the monastery itself, the monks are to
provide that one be chosen from another monastery. In the abbot's lifetime
no other superior may be set over the monastery, except the abbot have
committed transgressions punishable by the canons. Against the will of the
abbot no monk may be chosen to be set over another monastery or receive
holy orders. The bishop may not make an inventory of the goods of the
monastery, nor mix himself, even after the abbot's death, in the concerns
of the monastery; he may hold no public mass in the monastery, that there
be no meeting of people, or women, there; he may set up no pulpit there,
and without the consent of the abbot make no regulation, and employ no
monk for any church service.

All the bishops answered: "We rejoice in the liberties of the monks, and
confirm what your Holiness has set forth as to this".

As metropolitan of the particular Roman province, Gregory was equally
active. The political circumstances of Italy had exerted the most
prejudicial effect on the Church. Ecclesiastical life was imp