their neighbours, it is manifest that the wishes of many to enjoy Christian worship were known in France, and had reached even to Rome: for Gregory, in his letters to Theodorick, king of Austrasia in Gaul, and to Theodobert his brother, desiring them to assist Augustin in his undertaking, complains of the French. "We are informed," says he, "that, through the mercy of God, the English nation is desirous to turn Christian; but the clergy of your nation, notwithstanding their neighbourhood, refuse to assist them in their good motions, and encourage their piety *.”—In his letter to Queen Brunichild also, on the same occasion, he makes a similar statement, with the same complaint against the clergy. Such a disposition, thus extensively published, must have arisen from the information derived principally from the British Christians. Besides, Bertha, the queen of Ethelbert, king of Kent, is acknowledged to have been a Christian of superior attainments; and her influence had been employed in promoting the honour of her Lord and Saviour. Bertha was the daughter of Cherebert, king of Paris; and Ethelbert, after her father's death, had obtained her in marriage, A. D. 570, from her uncle Chilperic, on condition of being permitted to enjoy her religious privileges with her chosen instructors. Ethelbert, to secure the amity of the French, readily agreed to this proposition; and Luidhard, bishop of Soissons, with several other ecclesiastics, accompanied Bertha to England, as her chaplain: and a neglected church at Canterbury, dedicated to St. Martin in the time of the Romans, was fitted up imme. diately as the Queen's Chapel. Chilperic hoped, that as the queen was thoroughly grounded in the truth of her divine religion, she would be so far from turning idolater herself, that she would contribute greatly to the conversion of the English monarch. And in this expectation he was not disappointed; for, as soon as they came together, she spared no pains to gain his love and esteem by her affable and condescending behaviour. Ethelbert, charmed with the good qualities of his spouse, had all the value and affection for her she 66 * Gregory's Epistles, book v, chap. 58. could desire. In this agreeable situation, Bertha justly hoped to bring the king at length to have favourable thoughts of the Christian religion; and therefore took all occasions to display the gospel truths in the most affecting manner" Bertha reported her success to the French, from whom she could obtain no assistance; and afterwards to the Pope, probably by means of her chaplain Luidhard. Such were the circumstances of the Anglo-Saxons in Kent, when Augustin came on his celebrated mission from Popè Gregory. It must be remarked, also, that the labours of Augustin and his colleagues extended no farther than the kingdom of Kent, except by some fruitless efforts of Miletus, who for a short time was acknowledged by the king of Essex as bishop of London. CHAPTER VI. CHARACTER OF POPE GREGORY. Ecclesiastical System of Gregory in England - Grandson of Felix II. — His early Life Elected Pope- His Litanies - -Milner's Testimony - Much of the Common Prayer from him- His Ambition - Universal Bishop-His Flattery of the Monster Phocas-Appeal of Bower-Fry's Observations - Dr. Haweis — Fox. POPE GREGORY was an extraordinary character. This it will be necessary for us to review, since many writers ascribe to his ministry the blessings of Christianity, as bestowed upon England; and especially since his ecclesiastical system is the basis on which church government has been constructed in this country, even to our times. Gregory was a native of Rome, of a noble family, and great grandson to Pope Felix II. He had been educated agreeably to his rank; and his abilities as a senator recommended him to the Emperor Justinian II, by whom he was appointed prefect of Rome. This high office he filled with singular fidelity, justice, and prudence, at a difficult period. His religious impressions received in early life reviving, he determined, on * Rapin's History of England, book iii, p. 65. the death of his father, to retire from the world, and devote his great property agreeably to the superstitions of the times. He founded seven monasteries; six in Sicily, and one at Rome, and withdrew to one of those religious asylums. But his talents being known, he was drawn from his seclusion, ordained deacon, and sent by Pope Pelagius II, as nuncio, to transact ecclesiastical affairs at Constantinople. On his return, he was chosen abbot; and an epidemic carrying off Pelagius, Gregory was elected pope. This dignity he appears anxious to have declined, declaring himself unworthy of the honour, and writing to the Emperor Mauricius to withhold his assent. Gregory made a powerful appeal to the alarmed people, calling them to repentance during the plague, and concluding his discourse by appointing a litany to be performed at day-break in seven companies; the first consisting of the clergy, the second of the abbots and monks, the third of the abbesses and nuns, the fourth of children, the fifth of laymen, the sixth of widows, and the seventh of married men, Gregory concealed himself for three days, being conveyed out of the city in a wicker basket; but being discovered, he was obliged to enter upon his bishopric, A. D. 590. Mr. Milner, far more than any other Protestant historian, praises Pope Gregory. That excellent writer remarks, "In different periods of his life he moved in opposite extremes. He was one while dormant, in the quietism of solitude; another while, involved in the multiplicity of episcopal cares at Rome. If his lot had been cast in the earlier and purer days of Christianity, he would neither have been a monk, nor a bishop charged with such extensive secular concerns, and so would have avoided the evils of which he complains. The great sees in those times that of Rome in particular through the increasing growth of spiritual domination, and the load of worldly business very improperly connected with it-worldly though in some sense ecclesiastical-were agreeable enough to minds like that of Vigilius, earthly and ambitious, but were fatiguing beyond measure to men like Gregory, who unfeignedly loved heavenly things *." * Church History, vol. iii, p. 32. Gregory seems indeed to have displayed a spirit of piety; and some of his letters even breathe a pure, elevated, and scriptural devotion... "He particularly excelled in devotional compositions," says Milner. "Litanies," he adds, " had been used in the West before his time in calamitous seasons, as during plague and famine. These were collected, and the choicest parts selected from them, and compiled, through the care of Gregory, in one large litany, not much different from that used by the church of England at this day. But the church of England is not only indebted to Gregory for the Litany. In his Sacramentary he embodied the collects of the ancient church, and improved old or made new ones. Gelasius, before him, had appointed public prayers, composed by himself or others. These were all placed in the offices by Gregory and by a comparison of our Book of Common Prayer with his Sacramentary, it is evident that almost all the collects for Sundays, and the principal festivals in the church of England, were taken out of the latter *" Gregory died in the year 604, after having possessed his bishopric thirteen years and six months-a period which forms a remarkable epoch in the popedom. Mr. Milner labours to clear Gregory from the imputation of being a pope; and says, that "the inordinate amplitude of authority and of extensive jurisdiction to which superstition had already advanced the Roman see, with the government of Italy and Sicily, and a prevailing notion of a superintendence over all the churches, derived from St. Peter, excited in him no pleasing sensations of dominion t." Yet he acknowledges, Gregory no doubt had himself too high views of the dignity of his own see; and its supposed relation to St. Peter blinded his judgment ;" and that "superstition and ecclesiastical power, in the excess, adhered indeed to the conduct of the Roman prelate, as the fault of the age, not of his temper §." Bower says, "Gregory inviolably adhered to the principle common to all popes, from the earliest times to the latest; viz. never to part with any power which his predecessors had * Church History, vol. iii, p. 87, 88. + Ibid. p. 38. § Ibid. p. 70. Ibid. p. 54. acquired, by what means soever it had been gained *.” Agreeably to this policy, Gregory strained every nerve to prevent the patriarch of Constantinople from assuming the title of Universal Bishop, denouncing it as a mark of Antichrist. On this occasion Gregory assumed to himself the title of affected humility, ever since retained by the popes, Servant of the Servants of God. That lofty title which he had condemned in his dignified brother John, he ardently sought for himself; as is evident from his adulatory letters to those monsters in wickedness, Phocas and his wife Leontia. Phocas had opened a passage to the imperial throne by the murder of Mauricius and his six sons; and afterwards, most barbarously, of the Empress Constantia and her three daughters, dragged from their refuge in one of the churches of Constantinople. Mauricius is generally commended as a prince of many virtues, and of but few vices: and Gregory in his letters to him declares, that his " tongue could not express the good he had received of the Almighty, and his Lord the emperor; that he thought himself bound in gratitude to pray incessantly for the life of his most pious and most Christian Lord; and that, in return for the goodness of his most religious Lord to him, he could do no less than love the very ground on which he trod t" Yet Gregory, courtier like, congratulated Phocas on his being proclaimed Emperor, saying, "Let the heavens rejoice! let the earth leap for joy! let the whole people return thanks for so happy a change!" In the same strain he wrote, in reply to the first letter of Phocas and to Leontia, the empress, he says, "What tongue can utter, what mind can conceive, the thanks we owe to God, who has placed you on the throne, to ease us of the yoke with which we have been hitherto so cruelly galled? Let the angels give glory to God in heaven! let men return thanks to God upon earth! for the republic is relieved, and our sorrows are banished!" : "Who would have expected such letters from a Christian bishop to a usurper! a tyrant! a murderer! a regicide! Who * History of the Popes, vol. ii. + Bower's Lives of the Popes, vol. ii, p. 536. + Ibid. p. 534. |