iv PREFACE. It may be worth while, howeNrer, to give a slight sketch of the remaining parts of his history. He was the son of Gor- dianus and Silvia, Romans of a good family, and devoting his early life to civil affairs, he became first a senator, and after- wards (A.D. 581. Cave, 574. Ben.) Prefect of the City. At this time, however, he was already longing to devote himself entirely to religion, and gave up a large portion of his property to the founding of six Monasteries in Sicily, and another in Rome. Into this last he finally entered, whilst it was under the government of Valentius, and there submitted himself to the ' Rule of St. Benedict,' which prescribes a total renunciation of property, and very strict obedience to the Abbot, besides a certain order of devotions, and regula- tions of abstinence. Pope Pelagius, however, (or, as some say, his predecessor,) shortly drew him from his retirement, ordained him Deacon, and sent him as his Apocrisiarius, or representative, to the Emperor Tiberius at Constantinople. To this period he refers in the opening of his Morals. He remained there three years, till A.D. 586, during which time he is said to have recovered Eutychius, Patriarch of Con- stantinople, from the error of denying the Resurrection of a real palpable body. After the death of Tiberius,he returned to his monastery, of which he became Abbot, and had leisure for reviewing his writings, and composing some fresh treatises. But on the death of Pelagius, A.Dr ^90, he was chosen to succeed to the Papacy, though against his own will. He is said to have been compelled to consent by a Divine interference, and his own letters, (Ep. 1. 21. ad Natal, and vii. 4. ad Cyriac.) confirm this, though the miracle re- lated by his Biographers is hardly consistent with con- temporary accounts. He bore this burdeu thirteen years, under the pressure of severe bodily disease and suffering, but with great benefit to the Church. His Epistles, in twelve books, shew the variety and extent of the relations in which he was called upon to act, and the important services he was enabled to render to the Church in various countries. The Emperor Mauricius was a liard n)aster to the Church, and