rival Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch; in all vehemently inveighing against the arrogance of the Faster, and professing the very purest spirit of Christian humility. In his letter to the Emperor he declares that the public calamities are to be ascribed to no other cause than the ambition of the bishops. 'We destroy (he says) by example that which we preach in word; our bones are consumed with fastings, and our soul is puffed up with pride; beneath the meanest garments we conceal a haughty heart; we repose on ashes, and we pretend to grandeur; under the aspect of the sheep we nourish the fangs of the wolf.' (He proceeds) The direction and primacy of the whole Church has been given to St. Peter; nevertheless we do not call him the Universal Apostle, and yet the holy man John, my brother, is ambitious to be called the Universal Bishop.' To Constantina he mournfully complains of the insult which has been offered to the See of Rome; and while he humbly confesses that the sins of Gregory have merited such chastisement,' he reminds the Empress that St. Peter at least is sinless, and undeserving the outrage which had been offered him. From these and others, even among the few passages which we have cited from Gregory's writings, it appears that the ground on which the Church of Rome rested its assertion of supremacy was already changed very essentially. In its early days the sort of superiority which it endeavoured to assume was founded for the most part on its imperial name and dignity; but when that basis was overthrown by the conquests of the barbarians, another was substituted, of which the purely spiritual nature was admirably calculated to impose upon the ignorant proselytes. The name of St. Peter became more venerable than that of Augustus or Trajan; and his chair, as it was occupied by the successors of the Apostle and the vicars of Christ, inspired a deeper awe into the blind and superstitious multitude, than the throne of all the Cæsars. This change, no doubt, was gradual-it cannot entirely be ascribed to Gregory, or to any other individual; indications of that assertion may even be discovered in very early ecclesiastical writers; but that Pope exerted himself more than any of his predecessors to confirm it, and to give to that uncertain ground-work a stability which has enabled it to support the mighty papal edifice for so many ages.

It has also been observed that Gregory was the first who asserted the power of the keys, as committed to the successor of St. Peter, rather than to the body of the bishops; and he betrayed on many occasions a very ridiculous eagerness to secure their honour. Consequently he was profuse in his distribution of certain keys, endowed, as he was not ashamed to assert, with supernatural qualities; he even ventured to insult Anastasius, the Patriarch of Antioch, by such a gift. I have sent you (he says) keys of the blessed Apostle Peter, your guardian, which, when placed upon the sick, are wont to be resplendent with numerous miracles.'† We may attribute this absurdity to the basest superstition, or to the most

*St. Gregory could not foresee that, within twelve years from that in which he was writing, the same title would be proudly worn by a successor to the chair of St. Peter (Boniface III.), though granted to that pontiff by an Emperor who disgraced human

nature.

+ Amatoris vestri, beati Petri Apostoli, vobis claves transmisi, quæ super ægros positæ multis solent miraculis coruscare.' He addresses nearly the same words to one Andreas, a nobleman, with a similar present. And in another epistle (to Theotistus) he coolly relates a prodigy which had once been performed by one of those keys upon a Lombard soldier. Baronius, ann. 585, sect. iv., ann. 597, sect. xiv., ann. 591., sect. vii., viii, The historian (in the first of those places) eagerly attaches to the keys the notion and omen of possession, which probably did not occur to a Pope (even to Pope Gregory) in the sixth century.

impudent hypocrisy; and we would gladly have preferred the more excusable motive, if the supposed advancement of the See, which was clearly concerned in these presents, did not rather lead us to the latter.

Two descriptions of papal agents rise into notice during the pontificate of Gregory-the Apocrisiarii (Correspondents), who acted as envoys, or legates, at the Court and at the See of Constantinople; and the Defensores, or Advocates, who, besides their general commission to protect the property of St. Peter, appear to have been vested with a kind of appellative jurisdiction, which might sometimes interfere with that of the bishops. The former of these appointments tended to raise the external dignity of the See; the latter to extend its internal influence. Again, we find sufficient evidence in the records of this age, that a practice which afterwards proved one of the most fruitful sources of papal power, was already gaining ground-that of appeal from episcopal decision to the Roman See. It does not, indeed, appear that it was founded on any general law, civil or ecclesiastical; but it proceeded very naturally from the prejudice attached to the name of Rome, and the chair of St. Peter; and it was carefully encouraged by the See, whose authority was insensibly augmented by it. Before we quit the subject of papal aggrandisement, we shall mention one other circumstance only t. Great relaxation in the monastic discipline of the age justified the very sedulous interference of Gregory to restrain it; and so much address did that pontiff combine with his diligence, as not only to reform the order, but also to secure and protect it. For, while he enforced the severity of the ancient rules with judicious rigourt, he took measures to shelter it from episcopal oppression, and taught it hereafter to look to Rome for redress and favour. As none are ignorant how firm a support to papal power was furnished in later ages by the devotion of the monasteries, it is important to record the origin of that connexion; and it is difficult to discover any earlier trace of it than that which we have mentioned.

Gibbon, who has drawn with vigour and impartiality the character of Gregory, has probably over-rated his qualities when he designates him as the greatest of that name. It is very true that the mixture of simplicity and cunning, of pride and humility §, of sense and superstition, which singularly distinguished him, was happily suited both to his station and to the temper of the times; and it might perhaps be pleaded, that he did no more

*Baron. ann. 598, sect. xv. xix. Gibbon (chap. xlv.) considers them to have possessed not a civil only, but a criminal jurisdiction over the tenants and husbandmen of the Holy See.

The bishops of Italy and the adjacent islands acknowledged the Roman Pontiff as their special Metropolitan. Even the existence, the union, and 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 prevent the abuses of popular elections; his zealous care maintained the purity of faith and discipline; and the apostolic shepherd assiduously watched over the faith and discipline of the subordinate pastors.' Gibbon, chap. xlv. Fleury, H. E. lib. xxxvi. sect. 33 and 34.

§ His humility sometimes descended to baseness. The abject adulation with which he courted Phocas, the usurper of the Eastern throne, the most execrable parricide in history, proves (as Bayle has malignantly remarked) that those who prevailed with him to accept the Popedom, knew him better than he knew himself. 'Îls voyoient en lui le fonds de toutes les ruses et de toutes les souplesses dont on a besoin pour se faire de grands protecteurs, et pour attirer sur l'Eglise les bénédictions de la terre. The motive of his flattery was jealousy of the Patriarch of Constantinople. He addressed, with the same servility, Brunehaud, a very wicked Queen of France, and again found his excuse in the interests of his Church.

than yield to that evil temper, when he gave sanction to opinions and usages which were at variance with the spirit of Scripture. But this was to consult his present convenience or popularity, not his perpetual fame. Those who follow the stream of prejudice may be excused or pitied, but they can establish no claim to greatness, no title to the respect or gratitude of a posterity to which they transmit, without correction, the errors or vices of their ancestors. So far as he applied himself to remedy those vices or imperfections, so far as he reformed the discipline and repressed the avarice of his clergy, and introduced such improvements into other departments of the system as were consistent with the Gospel truth on which it stood, his name is deservedly celebrated by every honest Christian; but his eagerness in the encouragement of superstitious corruptions (for he was not even contented to tolerate, still less did he make any effort to repress them) must not be treated with indifference or indulgence; because the diffusion of error* has a far more pernicious consequence in religious than in other matters. A mere speculative falsehood will mislead the understanding of the studious, but it will not reach his principles of action; a wrong political principle will unquestionably influence for a time the happiness of a nation; but on the discovery of its falsity, it is not difficult to modify or reject it, because it can seldom become rooted in the habits or the prejudices of the people. But the religious impostures which were authorized and propagated by Gregory, affected not the belief only, but the conduct and character of the greater portion of Christendom through a long succession of ages; and while their certain and necessary tendency was to debase the mass of believers, and to deliver them over in blindness and bondage to the control of their spiritual tyrants, their final and most disastrous effect has been to enlarge the path of infidelity, by dissociating the use of reason from the belief in Revelation.

Changes from Gregory to Charlemagne.

Ecclesiastical History is not distinguished by any character of very great eminence for the period of above a hundred and fifty years, which separates Gregory from Charlemagne; nor is that period marked by any single occurrence of striking importance, excepting the separation of the Roman states from the Eastern empire, and the Donation made by Pepin to the Holy See. Yet very considerable changes were gradually taking place in the constitution of the Church, which it is the more necessary to detect and notice, because they are not discovered without some care, and have indeed commonly escaped the observation which is due to them. The conquest of the Western Empire by the barbarians, its subdivision into numerous Principalities and Provinces, and the prevalence of the institutions and habits of the conquerors, could not fail to influence, in many respects, the religious establishment of those countries. And hence it is, that the distinction between the Eastern and Western Churches, which may be traced in name, at least, to the division of the Empire, was afterwards extended and widened by many substantial points of difference. In the former, indeed, very

In his Epistle to the King of England, Gregory (cited by Baronius, Ann. 601. sect. xix.) thus expresses his own millennarian opinions. Besides, we wish you (vestram gloriam) to know, as we learn from the words of Almighty God, in the Holy Scriptures, that the end of the present world is already near, and the kingdom of the Saints is at hand, which can know no end. But as the end of the world is now approaching, many things hang over us which before were not,-to wit, change of atmosphere, and terrors from Heaven, and unseasonable tempests, war, famine, pestilence, and earthquakes,— which however shall not all fall out in our days, but will certainly follow afterwards.' The caution of the concluding sentence would almost prove the Pope's distrust in his own prophecy.

few alterations took place after the time of Justinian, even in the form of administering the Church, and none in the principles of its constitution: if some new privileges, or additional revenues, seemed to swell the importance of the clergy, yet the Emperors maintained so firmly their undisputed supremacy, and exerted, moreover, such frequent interference in spiritual affairs, that the power of the hierarchy received no real increase; nor did any other circumstances accidentally intrude, to enlarge beyond its just limits their influence over the people. But the policy for the most part pursued by the Western kings was differentthey were usually watchful in preserving their temporal rights over the Church, and even in usurping others which they did not possess, especially that of episcopal election; but they abstained from all intervention in matters strictly spiritual, and in committing to the priesthood the entire regulation of doctrine, and consigning to their uncontrolled direction the consciences of their ignorant and uncivilized subjects, they left to that Body much larger means of despotic and permanent authority than any of those of which they deprived it. In the more enlightened provinces of the East, the discussion of theological subjects was not uncommonly shared by intelligent laymen; but in the West it became exclusively confined to the clergy, and their dictates, howsoever remote from scripture or reason, were submissively and blindly received. Again, in the aristocratical assemblies, by which political affairs were chiefly regulated, the property and intelligence of the Bishops acquired for them both rank and influence; and thus also were they placed in a different position from their brethren in the East, where the original spiritual character of the hierarchy was more rigidly preserved. It has been already remarked, that the limits of the spiritual and temporal powers were, even from the very establishment of Christianity, liable to some confusion and perplexity. They were long maintained, however, with tolerable distinctness in the countries which escaped from barbarian invasion; but in the West, from the circumstances just mentioned, and from the unsettled and arbi trary form of the civil governments, the causes of discord and temptations to mutual aggression were incalculably multiplied.

The clergy were very early divided into the major and minor orders, of which the latter consisted of the acolyths, porters, exorcists, and readers: between the sixth and eighth century this lost its whole weight and almost name in the Church; and even the higher order of subdeacons, deacons, and priests, suffered great degradation. The kings of the West, in their desire to devote the whole of their free subjects to military service, forbade the ordination of a freeman without their particular consent; and hence proceeded the debasing, but not uncommon practice, of conferring the office of priesthood on serfs of the Church, emancipated for that purpose. Nor did the Bishops contend against this innovation so vigorously as the interests of the Church required, because their own authority was obviously augmented by the humiliation of the order next below them. Add to this, that the Priests were in some places, and perhaps generally, bound, on their ordination, by a solemn obligation to remain attached as it were to the Church, to which they were originally appointed a sort of servitude which subjected even their persons to the authority of the Bishop. No such changes in the constitution of the clergy took place in the Eastern Church.

Another order was rapidly increasing in the seventh and eighth centuries, which probably exercised more influence in Church matters than is usually attributed to it. The tonsure was originally considered as a sign of

* Giannone, Stor. di Nap., lib, iii., cap. vi,

destination for orders, (signum destinationis ad ordinem,) and was given to those only who were intended for the sacred profession; but in aftertimes it was less discriminately administered, and was made the means of connecting with the Church a large body of persons who received some of the immunities without any of the restrictions of the sacerdotal condition, and became clerks without being ecclesiastics. It may be true*, that they introduced to a certain extent a sort of lay influence into the ecclesiastical administration; but they had probably a much greater effect in diffusing that of the clergy among the private and sacred relations of domestic life. The grand principle of the Unity of the Church'-existing as one mighty spiritual communion undivided by any diversity in place, time, language, government, or other circumstances-though it was broached as early as the third century, did not enter into full operation till the dissolution of the Western Empire. Its worst effects had, indeed, been developed before that time in the persecutions to which it gave birth on both sides of the Adriatic. But the good which it was capable of producing was not felt until the Western Provinces were broken up into numerous, and independent, and hostile states, with no political bond of union, and little friendly or commercial intercourse. It was then that the notion of one universal religious society contributed to supply the want of international sympathy and co-operation, and, through the means of a common belief, introduced the feeling of common interests, and the exercise of common virtues. Subsequently, during the seventh and eighth centuries, the principle was more rapidly progressive; and it presently gave birth to a second principle, which naturally sprang from it, that the one Body could have only one Head; and the general footing which this acquired, at least throughout the West, contributed in no small degree to prepare and smooth the way to papal despotism.

Much of the history of this period is collected from the Canons of the Councils held in all the kingdoms of the West, and especially in Spainfor the ecclesiastical affairs of Gault were also in part regulated by these last. Those of Toledo were the most celebrated and influential, and the attention which was paid to their proceedings even by the Roman See sufficiently proves the authority which they held in the Church. The fifteenth of these was assembled in 688, and the last, not long before the invasion of the Saracens, in 696. But upon the whole the number of Councils diminished during the seventh and eighth centuries, and in Gaul especially, we find that, whereas fifty-four were held in the sixth, twenty only assembled in the seventh century, and only seven during the first half of the eighth. This gradual disuse of one of the most ancient

Guizot (Hist. de la Civilisation en France, 13 Leçon) mentions four avenues through which the laity still continued, in the seventh and eighth centuries, to exert an influence in ecclesiastical matters. (1.) The distinction between the Ordination and the Tonsure, and the numbers of those who received the latter only. (2.) The founder of a Church or Chapel, whether Bishop or Layman, possessed the privilege of appointing the minister to serve it. (3.) Chaplains were very commonly resident in noble families for the service of the private oratories. (4.) Certain laymen, under the names of Causidici, Tutores, and Vicedomini, were appointed at an early period for the protection of the Church property. They originated, it would seem, in the African Church; at Rome they were called Defensores, and they were afterwards employed in Gaul, under the title of Advocates. Fleury (end of liv. xliv,) mentions that they were originally Scholastics or Lawyers; but that after the barbarian conquests they possessed also a military character-to the end that, in case of necessity, they might also be qualified to defend the interests of the Church by material weapons.

+ The fourth Council of Toledo, held in 633, ordains an uniformity of rites and ceremonies, prayer and psalmody, throughout Spain and Gaul-the same office of the mass, and other services, Fleury, 1, xxxvii., sect, 46.