not dare to ask to be delivered intirely from punishment; they only begged not to be punished with the utmost rigor. The voluntary torments they endured were amazing, and this voluntary humility of theirs continued till death. But I turn from the disagreeable scene to make one remark.

How precious is the light of the gospel! How gladly, we may suppose, would many of these miserable persons have received the doctrine of free forgiveness by faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, if it had been faithfully preached among them! How does their seriousness rebuke the levity of presumptuous sinners among ourselves, who trifle with the light! How deeply fallen was the east from the real genius of christianity, when men distressed for sin could find no hope but in their own formalities and rigid austerities!

In the year 584, Levigildus, king of the Visigoths in Spain, having married his eldest son Hermenigildus, to Ingonda, daughter of the French king, began to find effects from the marriage, which he little expected. Ingonda, though persecuted by her mother in law, the wife of the Spanish monarch, persevered in orthodoxy, and, by the assistance of Leander, bishop of Seville, under the influence of divine grace, brought over her husband to the faith. The father, enraged, commenced a grievous persecution against the orthodox in his dominions. Hermenigildus was led into the grievous error of rebelling against his father, not through ambition, it seems, but through fear of his father, who appeared to be bent on his destruction. Being obliged to fly into a church, he was induced by his father's promises to surrender himself. Levigildus at first treated him with kindness, but afterwards banished him to Valentia. His wife Ingonda flying to the Grecian emperor died by the way. Some time after, the young prince, loaded with irons, had leisure to learn the vanity of earthly greatness, and exhibited every mark of piety and humility. His father sent to him an arian bishop, offering him his favour, if he would receive the communion at his

hands. Hermenigildus continued firm in the faith, and the king, enraged, sent officers who despatched him. The father lived however to repent of his cruelty; and the young prince, notwithstanding the unjustifiable step into which his passions had betrayed him, had lived long enough to give a shining example of christian piety. Levigildus, before he died, desired Leander, bishop of Seville, whom he had much persecuted, to educate his second son Recaredus* in the same principles in which he had instructed his eldest. Recaredus succeeded his father in the government, and embraced orthodoxy with much zeal. The consequence was the establishment of orthodoxy in Spain, and the destruction of arianism, which had now no legal settlement in the world, except with the Lombards in Italy. Though this account be general and external, it seemed proper to give it, as an illustrious instance of the work of divine providence, effecting, by the means of a pious princess, a very salutary revolution in religion.

I have collected in this chapter the few events which appeared worthy of notice from the death of Justinian to the end of this century, with a studied exclusion of the concerns of Gregory the first, bishop of Rome. He is a character deserving to be exhibited distinctly. And in connexion with his affairs, whatever else has been omitted, which falls within our plan, may be introduced in the next chapter.

Gregory of Tours, b. viii. c. ult.

CHAP. V.

Gregory the First, Bishop of Rome.

HIS PASTORAL LABOURS.

HE was a Roman by birth, and of a noble family. But being religiously disposed, he assumed the monastic habit, and was eminently distinguished by the progress he made in piety.* It was not till after he was drawn back, in a degree, to a secular life by his employments in the church, that he became thorougly sensible what advantage he had enjoyed for his own soul from religious retirement. With tears he owned, that he had had the world under his feet, while he was absorbed in heavenly contemplation; but was now bereft of comfort. "Now," says he, " my mind, by reason of pastoral cares, is oppressed with the business of secular persons, and after so fair an appearance of rest, is defiled with the dust of earthly action. And suffering itself to be distracted by exterior things in condescension to many, even while it desires inward things, it returns to them, without doubt, more faintly. I weigh, therefore, what I endure: I weigh what I have lost, and while I look at that which I have lost, my present burdens are more heavy."

In truth, 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

* Bede Eccles. Hist. b. ii. c. 1.

It should be observed here, that before this he had studied the Roman jurisprudence, was eminent in that and every other fashionable secular kind of knowledge, had been distinguished as a senator, and promoted by Justin II. to the government of the city of Rome, an arduous and important office, which he had discharged with singular prudence, fidelity, and justice.

would have avoided the evils of which he complains. The great sees in these 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 indeed 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. Nothing could be more unwise than the custom which prevailed of encouraging monasticism and very large episcopal governments at the same time. The transition from the one to the other, as in Gregory's case (and it was a common one) must to holy minds, like his, have been a trial of no small magnitude. The serious complaints, however, which Gregory made of this trial during the whole scene of his bishopric, proceeded from the spirituality of his affections; and all, who have enjoyed in private the sweets of communion with God, and have found how difficult it is, in the hurry of business, to preserve a degree of the same spirit, will sympathize with him. A mediocrity and a mixture of employment and retirement are, doubtless, the best situation for religious improvement.

Being drawn from his monastery, and ordained to the ministry, he was sent from Rome to Constantinople, to transact ecclesiastical affairs. Here he became acquainted with Leander, afterwards bishop of Seville, the same person that we have spoken of in the relation of the affairs of Spain. Leander and he found in each other a similarity of taste and spirit; Gregory opened his heart to him. "I found my soul," says he, "convinced of the necessity of securing salvation; but I delayed too long, entangled with the world. At length I threw myself into a monastery; now I thought I had placed an insuperable bar between myself and the world. But again I am tossed on the tempestuous ocean, and unless I may enjoy the communion of my brethren, I can find no solace to my soul."*

* Gregor. Pref. to Job, c. i.

He had, however, taken with him some of the brethren of his monastery, and with them had enjoyed the benefit of christian discourse, and of searching the scriptures. Here, by the exhortation of his brethren, he began his long commentary on the book of Job, which he finished in his episcopacy.* His residence at Constantinople was not without, at least, some use to the church. By his arguments and influence he quashed the fanciful notion of the archbishop Eutychius concerning the qualities of the human body after the resurrection, which has been mentioned already. Had it not been for the timely and vigorous opposition of a man so respectable as Gregory was for knowledge and piety, the notion might have continued with many, to the disgrace of christianity, at this day. The emperor Tiberius, who had succeeded Justin, supported the labours of Gregory with his authority.

Gregory, even from his youth, was afflicted with frequent complaints in his stomach and bowels; and by his own account in his letters, appears to have suffered much in his body all his days. The vigor of his mind was not however depressed, and perhaps few men ever profited more than he did by such chastisements. His labours, both as a pastor and an author, were continued, and, in all probability, received peculiar unction from his afflictions.

After his return to Rome, there was so great an inundation of the Tiber, that it flowed upon the walls of the city, and threw down many monuments and ancient structures. The granaries of the church were overflowed, by which a prodigious quantity of wheat was lost. Presently after, an infectious distemper invaded the city. Pelagius the bishop fell a victim to it among the first. The destruction prevailed, and many houses were left without an inhabitant. In this distress the people were anxious to choose a bishop in the

* Bede.

Vita Gregor. incert. autor.

These inundations of the Tiber were not uncommon. The classical reader will recollect in Horace, Ode ii. lib. i.

Ire dejectum monumenta regis, &c.