death; and thus it is that I, that am always ready to die, am withdrawn from death.' It happed that a widow, that was wont every Sunday to bring hosts to sing mass with, should on a time be houseled and communed; and when S. Gregory should give to her the holy sacrament in saying: 'Corpus domini nostri, etc.,' that is to say: 'The body of our Lord Jesu Christ keep thee into everlasting life,' anon this woman began to smile wantonly tofore S. Gregory, and anon he withdrew his hand and remised the sacrament upon the altar. And he demanded her, tofore the people, why she smiled, and she said: ’Because that the bread that I have made with my proper hands thou namest it the body of our Lord Jesu Christ' Anon S. Gregory put himself to prayer with the people, for to pray to God that hereupon he would show his grace for to confirm our belief; and when they were risen from prayer S. Gregory saw the holy sacrament in figure of a piece of flesh as great as the little finger of an hand, and anon after, by the prayers of S. Gregory, the flesh of the sacrament turned into semblance of bread as it had been tofore, and therewith he communed and houseled the woman, which after was more religious, and the people more firm in the faith.
S. Gregory made and ordained the song of the office of holy church; and established at Rome two schools of song, that one beside the church of S. Peter, and that other by the church of S. John Lateran, where the place is yet where he lay and taught the scholars; and the rod with which he menaced them and the antiphoner on which he learned them is
