Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/257

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GREGORY 243 put down the Donatists, and in Constanti- nople opposed energetically the pretensions of the patriarch John the Abstinent to the title of oecumenical patriarch, assuming as his own title that of " servant of the servants of God," which was adopted by the subsequent bishops of Rome. Equally tolerant and zealous, while using every endeavor to spread the faith, he would have no other means employed for that purpose than those of an exemplary life and rational instruction. He reprimanded the bishop of Terracina, who would not permit the Jews to assemble for religious worship ; and wrote in the same spirit to the bishops of Sardinia, Sicily, and Marseilles. At Cagliari a converted Jew had changed a synagogue which he owned into a Christian church ; Gregory commanded that it be restored to its former use. He deplored the evils of slavery as it existed before his time, and seeing it ag- gravated by the barbarian wars, he emancipa- ted all his own slaves as an example. His works, besides his Libri Noralium, are Liber Regulm Pastoralis, 4 books of dialogues, and 14 books of letters. The best edition is that of the Benedictines (4 vols. fol., Paris, 1705). An old English version of his dialogues, edited by Henry James Coleridge, S.J., was published at London in 1874. A life of St. Gregory was written by Paul the Deacon, another by John the Deacon, and a history of his pontificate by Maimbourg. II. Saint, born in Rome in the lat- ter half of the 7th century, died in February, 731. He was equally renowned for learning and virtue when elected to the papal chair, in May, 715. He found Constantinople given up to revolutions in the imperial palace, the coasts of Italy open to the incursions of the newly created Mohammedan navy, and the in- terior ravaged by the Lombards. The empe- ror Leo the Isaurian urged in both east and west the persecution of those who honored images, and Gregory opposed him, while up- holding his authority in Italy. He built up at his own expense the ruined walls of Rome, purchased back from the Lombards the city of Cumae, persuaded King Liutprand to restore Sutri to the emperor, and some time afterward stopped the united forces of Liutprand and the exarch of Ravenna at the gates of Rome, and induced them to spare that city. He was most zealous in promoting the conversion of infidels, sent St. Boniface to preach the gospel among the Germans, and wrote to Charles Martel to beg his protection for the missionaries. He restored the ruined monastery of Monte Ca- sino, published important laws concerning Christian matrimony, and was firm in enforc- ing clerical morality. There are 17 letters of this pope in Labbe's collection of the councils, vols. vi. and vii. HI. Born in Syria, succeeded Gregory II. in 731, died in 741. He wrote to the emperor Leo, reproaching him for uphold- ing the iconoclasts; but finding that prince incorrigible, he assembled a council in 732, which excommunicated them as heretics. The Lombards annoyed him, and in the hope of obtaining the aid of Charles Martel against them he sent an embassy to France, but the application proved fruitless. Gregory was the first pope who ruled the exarchate of Ravenna in a temporal sense, not in virtue of any for- mal donation, but because, abandoned by the Greeks, the citizens saw no one to whom they could appeal for protection but the bishop of Rome. IV. Born in Rome, made pope in 827, died in 844. He rebuilt the city of Ostia, to defend the mouth of the Tiber against the in- roads of the Mussulmans who had taken pos- session of Sicily. He went to France in the hope of putting an end to the dissensions be- tween Louis le Debonnaire and his sons, but failed, and returned to Rome disgusted with both parties. V. Bruno, a Saxon, nephew of the emperor Otho II., elected pope in May, 996, died in 999. His pontificate was troubled by Philogethes, bishop of Piacenza, who became antipope under the name of John XVI. The latter was sustained by Crescentius, consul of Rome, but finally driven thence by Otho III., and excommunicated by Gregory in the council of Pavia, 997. Otho was crowned by his cou- sin in 996. VI. John Gratianns, a Roman, and archpriest of the Roman church, elected pope, some say by simoniacal means, April 8, 1045, died in 1047. He resigned at the council of Sutri in December, 1046, and retired to the monastery of Cluny. VII. Hildebrand, Saint, born at Soano, Tuscany, about 1018, died in Salerno, May 25, 1085. He was the son of a carpenter, and was educated by his uncle in a Roman monastery. He afterward went to France, and became a monk of Cluny. Recalled to Rome, and made prior of the abbey of St. Paul extra muros, he found his church almost in ruins, the community reduced to a few members, and nearly all its lands in the possession of powerful laymen. With an energy which foreshadowed his career, he recovered the lands, restored the church, improved the discipline, and increased the community. He gained the favor of Greg- ory VL, became the confidential adviser of Leo IX., and preserved his influence under Victor II. and Alexander II. By Gregory VI. he was sent to France in 1045 to urge the extirpation of simony. He had a law passed against it in a council at Lyons, and presided in the coun- cil of Tours, in which Berengarius recanted his opinions concerning the eucharist. He was in- strumental in effecting the election of Nicholas II. and Alexander II. ; and was himself chosen pope on April 22, 1073. It is asserted that he did not seek this elevation, and that he wrote to Henry IV., then in Bavaria, beseeching him to have the election set aside, and giving the 'emperor warning that if he occupied the papal chair he would call him to account for his tyranny and licentiousness. Henry sent officers to examine into the hasty election, ratified it, and allowed Gregory to be conse- crated on June 80. Once enthroned, he re- solved to purge the priesthood of the two enor-