ady bound by the laws of
celibacy, his consecration must have been preceded by the death of his
wife. The parents of Gregory, Sylvia, and Gordian, were the noblest
of the senate, and the most pious of the church of Rome; his female
relations were numbered among the saints and virgins; and his own
figure, with those of his father and mother, were represented near three
hundred years in a family portrait, which he offered to the monastery of
St. Andrew. The design and coloring of this picture afford an honorable
testimony that the art of painting was cultivated by the Italians of the
sixth century; but the most abject ideas must be entertained of their
taste and learning, since the epistles of Gregory, his sermons, and his
dialogues, are the work of a man who was second in erudition to none of
his contemporaries: his birth and abilities had raised him to the office
of praefect of the city, and he enjoyed the merit of renouncing the pomps
and vanities of this world. His ample patrimony was dedicated to the
foundation of seven monasteries, one in Rome, and six in Sicily; and
it was the wish of Gregory that he might be unknown in this life, and
glorious only in the next. Yet his devotion (and it might be sincere)
pursued the path which would have been chosen by a crafty and ambitious
statesman. The talents of Gregory, and the splendor which accompanied
his retreat, rendered him dear and useful to the church; and implicit
obedience has always been inculcated as the first duty of a monk. As
soon as he had received the character of deacon, Gregory was sent to
reside at the Byzantine court, the nuncio or minister of the apostolic
see; and he boldly assumed, in the name of St. Peter, a tone of
independent dignity, which would have been criminal and dangerous in the
most illustrious layman of the empire. He returned to Rome with a just
increase of reputation, and, after a short exercise of the monastic
virtues, he was dragged from the cloister to the papal throne, by the
unanimous voice of the clergy, the senate, and the people. He alone
resisted, or seemed to resist, his own elevation; and his humble
petition, that Maurice would be pleased to reject the choice of the
Romans, could only serve to exalt his character in the eyes of the
emperor and the public. When the fatal mandate was proclaimed, Gregory
solicited the aid of some friendly merchants to convey him in a basket
beyond the gates of Rome, and modestly concealed himself som