VI. vows were made perpetual, and this godly queen, CENT. who might have caused her light to shine in a blessed manner in the world, was shut up during the remainder of her life in a nunnery. Toward the latter end of this century, the Lombards came from Pannonia into Italy, and settled there under Alboinus, their first king. They fixed their metropolis at Pavia. As they were Arians by profession, heresy again took root in Italy, whose inhabitants felt all the horrors and miseries which a savage and victorious nation could inflict. But the Church needed the scourge: the Roman See had been dreadfully corrupt under Vigilius, and formal superstition was corroding the vitals of genuine godliness. At the same time John Climmachus flourished, who was abbot of the monastery of Mount Sinai, in Arabia, near to which was a little monastery, called the Prison, in which all who had committed any great crime, since they entered on the monastic state, voluntarily confined themselves. The account which Climmachus gives of it is striking. The poor prisoners spent their time in prayer, with every possible external mark of self-denial and wretchedness. They did not allow themselves any one comfort of human life. In their prayers they did not dare to ask to be delivered entirely from punishment; they only begged not to be punished with the utmost rigour. 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 IV. CHAP. 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! Remark In the year 584, Levigildus, king of the Visigoths able Story in Spain, having married his eldest son Hermeniof Levigildus. gildus, to Ingonda, daughter of the French king, A. D. began to find effects from the marriage, which he 584. 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 dispatched 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 Gregory of Tours, B. VIII. C. ult. GREGORY THE FIRST. 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 ą 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 And in connexion with be exhibited distinctly. his affairs, whatever else has been omitted, which falls within our plan, may be introduced in the next chapter. 31 CENT. VI. CHAP. V. GREGORY THE FIRST, BISHOP OF ROME. HIS PASTORAL LABOURS. V. HE * Bede Eccles. Hist. B. II. C. I. 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. CHAP. opposition of a man so respectable as Gregory was V. 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 vigour 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 antient 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 room of the deceased Pelagius, and by unanimous consent the election fell. upon Gregory. He, with that humility which formed invariably a striking feature of his character, earnestly refused, and loudly proclaimed his own unworthiness. He did more; he wrote to Mauritius, the successor of Tiberius, beseeching him to withhold his assent. Germanus, the governor of Constan Vita Gregor. incert. autor. + These inundations of the Tiber were not uncommon. classical reader will recollect in Horace, Ode II. Lib. I. Ire dejectum monumenta regis, &c. The The assent of the emperor to the election of a bishop of Rome appears plainly to have been necessary by the custom tinople, intercepting the messenger, and opening the "Beloved brethren, we ought to have feared the scourge of God before it came; at least, after having felt it, let us tremble. Let grief open to us the passages of conversion, and let the punishment which we feel dissolve the hardness of our hearts. For, to use the prophet's language, the sword hath come even into the soul.' Our people, behold, are smitten with a weapon of divine indignation, and each is carrried off by the rapid devastation. Languor does not precede death, but death itself with hasty strides, as you see, outstrips the tardy course of languor." Every person, who is smitten, is carried off, before he has opportunity to bewail his sins. Conceive in what state that man will appear before his Judge, who is hurried off in the midst of his sins. Let each of us repent, while we have time to weep, before the sword devour us. Let us call our ways to remembrance.-Let us come before his face with confession, and lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord.-Truly he gives to our trembling hearts a confidence, who proclaims by the prophet, I would not the death of a sinner, of these times. But the total exclusion of the people from all concern in these appointments had not yet obtained. It is obvious to be noticed also, how dependant the bishop of Rome was on the emperor. Antichrist had not yet formally begun his reign, nor would have been known at Rome to this day, had all the bishops resembled Gregory, |