Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/58

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36
THE DECILINE AND FALL


perience had shewn him the efficacy of these solemn and pompous rites, to soothe the distress, to confirm the faith, to mitigate the fierceness, and to dispel the dark enthusiasm, of the vulgar, and he readily forgave their tendency to promote the reign of priesthood and superstition. The bishops of Italy and the adjacent islands acknowledged the Roman pontiff as their special metropolitan. Even the existence, the union, or the translation of episcopal seats was decided by his absolute discretion ; and his successful inroads into the provinces of Greece, of Spain, and of Gaul, might countenance the more lofty pretensions of succeeding popes. He interposed to pre- vent the abuses of popular elections; his jealous care maintained the purity of faith and discipline ; and the apostolic shepherd assiduously watched over the faith and discipline of the subor- dinate pastors. Under his reign, the Arians of Italy and Spain were reconciled to the catholic church, and the conquest of Britain reflects less glory on the name of Caesar than on that of Gregory the First. Instead of six legions, forty monks were embarked for that distant island, and the Pontiff lamented the austere duties which forbade him to partake the perils of their spiritual warfare. In less that two years he could announce to the archbishop of Alexandria that they had baptized the king [AD. 597] of Kent with ten thousand of his Anglo-Saxons, and that the Roman missionaries, like those of the primitive church, were armed only with spiritual and supernatural powers. The credulity or the prudence of Gregory was always disposed to confirm the truths of religion by the evidence of ghosts, miracles, and resurrections;[1] and posterity has paid to his memory the same tribute which he freely granted to the virtue of his own or the preceding generation. The celestial honours have been liberally bestowed by the authority of the popes, but Gregory is the last of their own order whom they have presumed to inscribe in the calendar of saints.

and temporal government

Their temporal power insensibly arose from the calamities of times ; and the Roman bishops, who have deluged Europe

    Italians for tramontane singing. Alpiiia scilicet corpora vocum suarum tonitruis altisone perstrepentia. susceptæ modulationis dulcedinem proprie non resultant:quia bibuli gutturis barbara feritas dum inflexionibus et repercussionibus mitem nititur edere cantilenam, naturali quodam fragore quasi plaustra per gradus confuse sonantia rigidas voces jactat, &c. In the time of Charlemagne, the Franks, though with some reluctance, admitted the justice of the reproach. Muratori, Disseit. xxv.

  1. A French critic (Petrus Gussanvillus, Opera, tom. ii. p. 105-112) has indicated the right of Gregory to the entire nonsense of the Dialogues. Dupin (tom. V. p. 138) does not think that any one will vouch for the truth of all these miracles; I should like to know how many of them he believed himself.