last chapter suggest a troubled childhood. Two years before his birth the twelvemonth's siege of Vitiges left Rome crippled and starving; during his infancy Totila was subduing Southern Italy; in 546, when he was six years old, Rome passed through the terrible siege and famine ending in its capture by Totila and in its complete desertion; in 547 Belisarius occupied it and repulsed the assault of the Gothic king; in 549 Totila. again took the city; in 553 Narses regained possession of the capital, which was followed by the massacre of the patricians; and in 553-4 the whole of Italy was ravaged by the merciless invasion of the Franks and Allemani. Thus until Gregory was fourteen years of age unceasing calamity and disaster would make his education and training both difficult and dangerous; possibly during the troubles he was consigned to safe custody in the family estates in Sicily. The tone pervading all his writings, and his personal character, point to careful early training in piety and holiness, and this may safely be attributed to the tender and loving solicitude of his saintly mother, Sylvia. She blended the noble qualities of the typical Roman matron with the higher discipline of the Christian virtues, and the lawlessness and iniquity of the times would induce her to devote special care and jealous watchfulness in training her children. When freed from domestic cares by the death of her husband, she retired to a cell near St. Paul's, called Cella Nuova, and spent the days of her widowhood in prayer and asceticism.

After the triumph of Narses and the settlement of the kingdom by the establishment of the Exarchate of Ravenna, Gregory had attained the age of fifteen. The schools and lectures recommenced, and the ordinary course of a liberal education was again open to the Roman youth. Gregory devoted himself to grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, civil and canon law. He developed quick intelligence, amiability, force of character, and natural eloquence. St. Gregory of Tours states "that he was so skilled in grammar, dialectics, and rhetoric, that in the city itself he was decmed inferior to none."* Paul the Deacon thus speaks of his early studies: "While yet young in age he possessed a matured mind, clinging to the teachings of the ancients, and if he chanced to hear what was worth hearing, he did not sluggishly let it pass into oblivion, but retained it with tenacious memory. In those days he drew into a thirsty breast streams of learning, which afterwards at the fitting time he poured forth in honeyed words."+ At an early age he is said to have shown an inclination for the clerical state, from which his father dissuaded him, desiring him to continue his forensic studies.

His talents, success, and lineage, fitted him for a public career, and in 574, the Emperor, Justin the Younger, appointed him Prætor of Rome, at the age of thirty-four. This office brought responsibility as well as

Hist. Franc. X. 1.

Vita S. Greg. II.

dignity, for besides the leading position amongst the citizens, he wielded the chief judicial authority in the city. In public functions he wore the trabea, a silken robe adorned with jewels, the special insignia of consuls and prætors. His impartial justice, his winning ways, his open-handed charity, gained the hearts of the Romans, who idolised him: in the tribunal, in the streets, he was greeted with respectful acclamations. It was a time of anxiety and embarrassment for officials in Rome, for Alboin and the Lombards had six years previously established themselves in Italy, and although they did not besiege Rome, they frequently ravaged the neighbourhood, keeping the city in a state of constant alarm. Amid the cares and duties, the parade and dignity of his office, the soul of Gregory ever took refuge in an inner spiritual life he spent long hours at prayer in the church or in private; he courted the friendship of ecclesiastics, and would slip away from the most brilliant circle for the society of simple, holy monks. He became intimate with three Benedictines, Constantine and Simplician, of Monte Cassino, and Valentine, Abbot of Latran. Since the death of St. Benedict, with whom Gregory could claim distant kinship, and who is reported to have visited his father, Gordianus, in Rome, the Benedictine rule had spread through Italy, and was adopted in several of the twenty-two monasteries then existing in Rome. The interior peace of his three friends, and the self-sacrifice and seclusion of the monastic life, captivated the mind of Gregory. He did

not at first seek to join them, preferring to lead a holy life in the midst of the world, but he determined to give up all that he possessed to God and St. Benedict. Succeeding to the family estates on the death of his father, he carried out his intention by founding six monasteries in Sicily, and not content with that sacrifice he relinquished his own paternal house on the Cœlian Hill, and converted it into a monastery, dedicating it to the Apostle St. Andrew. When he had stripped himself of his possessions, he could no longer resist the craving to give himself also to God. He sold the remainder of his patrimony, distributed the money to the poor, resigned his office in the year 575, and asked for the Benedictine habit in his old home. This act discloses his force of character; position, wealth, dignity, power, popular favour, a brilliant career—all were abandoned for the coarse garb and hidden life of a monk, in order that he might live in close communion with God. The future he could not foresee, or the designs. of God; he simply buried himself from the gaze of men: "unless the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, itself remaineth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit."*)

The monastery of St. Andrewt was not a mere retreat

John xii., 24.

†The present church of S. Gregorio, on the Cœlian, occupies the site of the monastery of St. Andrew and the paternal hon e of St. Gregory. The Benedictines for a long time retained possession of the monastery. At the time of John the Deacon (A.D.

of ease and comfort. The monks, on taking possession, had removed all signs of luxury, and adapted the palace to the requirements of their rule. The Benedictine rule in its rigour tried a constitution nurtured in the surroundings of a patrician home; the divine office, manual labour, study, silence, spare diet, broken sleep, rough garments, minute obedience, absolute poverty, passed the whole frame through the crucible, and purified the soul from the dross of attachment to bodily comfort. It was a strange change from the life of a prætor to the life of a monk. Gregory sought no exemption or privilege; he took the last place in the community,

872) it was inhabited by Greek monks, possibly introduced by Pope Stephen III. For some time it seems to have been nearly deserted, and in 1573 Gregory XIII. restored it to the Benedictine family, and consigned it to the Camaldolese Congregation, who now have a small community there. On the seizure of Rome by Victor Emmanuel the Italian Government took possession of the property, assigned the larger part of the monastery as an asylum for old women, and allowed the Camaldolese to remain in the smaller portion as caretakers of the church. The spot has a special interest to Englishmen, being the monastic home of St. Augustine and his companions, who converted our Saxon forefathers; it may be considered the cradle of England's early faith. The external walls of the church and the internal piers are those of St. Gregory's time, for at the restorations in 1725 these were carefully preserved, thus retaining the outline of the church as planned by St. Gregory. The chapels contain a fine marble statue of the saint commenced by Michael Angelo and finished by Cordieri, the marble table at which he is supposed to have daily entertained twelve poor persons, an ancient picture of our Lady before which he is said to have prayed, and some interesting frescoes of the mission and landing of St. Augustine in England.

D