was kept above three hundred years in the Lateran, as
the model of Christian economy. On the four great festivals, he divided
their quarterly allowance to the clergy, to his domestics, to the
monasteries, the churches, the places of burial, the almshouses, and
the hospitals of Rome, and the rest of the diocese. On the first day of
every month, he distributed to the poor, according to the season, their
stated portion of corn, wine, cheese, vegetables, oil, fish, fresh
provisions, clothes, and money; and his treasurers were continually
summoned to satisfy, in his name, the extraordinary demands of indigence
and merit. The instant distress of the sick and helpless, of strangers
and pilgrims, was relieved by the bounty of each day, and of every hour;
nor would the pontiff indulge himself in a frugal repast, till he had
sent the dishes from his own table to some objects deserving of his
compassion. The misery of the times had reduced the nobles and matrons
of Rome to accept, without a blush, the benevolence of the church: three
thousand virgins received their food and raiment from the hand of their
benefactor; and many bishops of Italy escaped from the Barbarians to the
hospitable threshold of the Vatican. Gregory might justly be styled
the Father of his Country; and such was the extreme sensibility of his
conscience, that, for the death of a beggar who had perished in the
streets, he interdicted himself during several days from the exercise
of sacerdotal functions. II. The misfortunes of Rome involved the
apostolical pastor in the business of peace and war; and it might be
doubtful to himself, whether piety or ambition prompted him to supply
the place of his absent sovereign. Gregory awakened the emperor from
a long slumber; exposed the guilt or incapacity of the exarch and his
inferior ministers; complained that the veterans were withdrawn from
Rome for the defence of Spoleto; encouraged the Italians to guard their
cities and altars; and condescended, in the crisis of danger, to name
the tribunes, and to direct the operations, of the provincial troops.
But the martial spirit of the pope was checked by the scruples of
humanity and religion: the imposition of tribute, though it was employed
in the Italian war, he freely condemned as odious and oppressive; whilst
he protected, against the Imperial edicts, the pious cowardice of the
soldiers who deserted a military for a monastic life If we may credit
his own declarations, it w