Gregory was a very voluminous writer. His letters amount to eight hundred and forty ; and besides them he wrote a Comment on the Book of Joh, comprised in thirty-six books ; a Pastoral, or a treatise on the du- ties of a pastor, consisting of four parts, and, as it were, of four difierent treatises ; twentj'-two Homilies on the prophet Ezckiel ; forty H(miilies on the Gospels, and four books of Dialofjues. The Comment on the Book of Job is commonly stj'led Gregorj-'s Morals of Job (Moralia), being rather a collection of moral prin- ciples than an exposition of the text. It is translated into English in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 4 vols. 8vo). That work and the Pastoral were ancient- \y, and still are, reckoned among the best writings of the later fathers. "The Pastoral, in particular, was held in such high esteem by the Galilean Church that all bishops were obliged by the canons of that Church to be thoroughly acquainted with it, and punctually to observe the rules it contained ; nay, to remind them of that obligation, it was delivered into their hands at the time of their ordination. As for the dialogues, the}' are filled with alleged miracles and stories so grosslj' absurd and fabulous that it would be a reflec- tion on the understanding and good sense of this ^ reat pope to think that he really believed them ; the r;«ther as for manj' of them he had no better vouchers tlian old, doting, and ignorant people. He was the first, as has been said, who discovered /w/?77afo/7/, and it was by means of the apparitions and visions which he re- lates in his dialogues that he first discovered it ; fO that the Church of Rome is probably indebted to some old man or old w oman for one of the most lucrative articles of her whole creed. In this work Gregory observes that greater discoveries were made in his time concerning the state of departed souls than in all the preceding ages together, because the end of this world was at hand, and the nearer we came to the other the more we discovered it ! " H is liturgical worlvs are (1) Liber Sacramentorum ; (2) Bcnedictionak ; (3) Liber Antijjhonarins ; (4) Liber Pesponsalis. There have been more than twenty editions of his collected works. The best editions are the Benedictine (Paris, 1705, 4 vols, fol., and also Venice, 1768-7G, 17 vols. 4to), and in jNIigne's Patrol. (Paris, 1849, 5 vols. 4to). A recent edition of his Pastoral has been published by Westhof (De pastorali cura, Miinster, 18G0). Fuller accounts of Gregory and his times are given in Lau, Gregnr /, nach sehiem Leben and seiner Lthre (Lips. 1845) ; Margraff, De Grey. I i-ita, dissert, historica (Berl. 1845) ; Pfaiiler, Greg. d. Grosse (Frankf. 1852, 2 vols.). See also ]Maimbourg, Hist, de Saint G. le Grand (Par. 1686); Wiggers, Z>e Greyorio Mayno (Rostock, 1838 sq., 2 parts); 'iseandcr. Church History, vol. iii passim ; IMosheiui, Church Hist. cent, vi, part ii, ch. ii, note 29; Hase, Church History, § 130 ; Hook, Eccl. Bioy. v, 497 ; Clarke, Success'on of Sac. Lit. ii, 354 ; Bayle, Diction- ary, s. V. ; Dupin, Ecclesiasticcd Writers (7th century); Hoefer, Nonv. Biog_. Generale, xxi, 789 ; jlilman, Latin Christianiiy, i, 429-432 ; Bower, LJres of the Popes, vol. ii ; Neander, Hist, of Dogmas, p. 385, 413, 418 ; Meth- odist Quarterly Review, 1845, p. 524.
GREGORY
1001
GREGORY
II, Pope, was a Roman by birth, and of a patrician family. He was early set apart for the clerical life, and educated under the eye of Sergius I, in whose time he was librarian to the Roman see. Afterwards he went with Constantine as deacon to Constanti- nople, and succeeded to the pontificate on Constan- tine's death, A.D. 715. He was a strenuous sup- porter of the powers of the jiapal see, and did much to establish its supremacy. Himself a Benedictine, he restored the monastery at Monte Cassino, under the severest rule of St. Benedict, as an example to other monasteries. In the year 727 began the famous con- test between the emperor Leo Isauricus with the Icono- clasts, or Image-breakers, on one side, and Gregory II, with the Iconoduli, or Image-worshippers, on the other : the pope anathematized the emperor, and condemned the council he had held (to abolisii the worship of im- ages), abused his name, vilified his actions, and sum- moned the French to attack his authority in Italy. He died A.D. 731. His writings arc of no great ac- count: fifteen Letters, a Memorial, and a Liturgy are preserved in the Blhlioth. Patrum, vol. ix. See Mos- heim, Ch. Hist. cent, viii, pt. ii, ch. ii ; Cave, Uist. Lit. i, G20 ; Gieseler, Church IJisl. per. iii, div. i, ch. ii, § 4 ; Dupin, Eccles. Writers, cent. viii.
III, Pope, a native of Syria, succeeded Gregory II in 731. He was as great a favorer of image-wor- ship as his predecessor, and contended, with all weap- ons, against the Iconoclasts (q. v.), and against the Bj'zantine court. He found considerable difficulty in maintaining his ground against the warlike prince Luitprand, and had recourse to the stratagem of fo- menting discords among the Lombards themselves. His reign was an epoch in the temporal power of the popes: he was the first to rule the exarchate of Ra- venna as sovereign, and he obtained l)y his legates (the first sent to France) the homage of Charles Mar- tel, who, however, could not aid him with material force. He died Nov. 28, 741. Some of his Epistles re- main. See Dupin, Eccles. Wnters, cent. viii.