Gregory

the name of sixteen popes.

GREGORY I became pope in 590. He introduced into cathedral music the melodies known as the Gregorian Chant. He also reformed the ritual, giving it the shape known as the Gregorian Liturgy, according to which mass is still celebrated. He was zealous in the conversion of heretics and in the advancement of the various orders of monks. He also did much to secure conformity to the rule forbidding priests to marry.

GREGORY VII became pope in 1073. He is known in history as Gregory the Great. His private name was Hildebrand. He was a native of Tuscany. While still a cardinal he was the power behind the papacy. He established the present method of selecting popes by a college of cardinals, excluding the people and the clergy of Rome from any voice in the election. As a pope he was active in reform. He was a pope of great determination. It was during his administration of the office that the Emperor Henry IV was obliged to humiliate himself at Canossa.

Among the ordinances of Gregory the Great are the following:

We understand that the price paid for corn to the peasant subjects of the Church is lowered in times of abundance; we desire that they shall always be paid according to the current price. We forbid that the farmers shall pay more than the rate fixed in their locality. . . . Every pagan or Jewish slave who desires to become a Christian should be freed at the cost of the Church. . . . We have learned also that in some farms of the Church there exists a most unjust system, namely, that out of seventy bushels, the farmers exact (from their tenants, or serfs) three and a half. . . . We wholly detest this custom. . . . Do you appoint . . . that they may pay in the whole two bushels in seventy; but that, beyond this, no shameful exaction be made.

GREGORY XIII became pope in 1572. He was a native of Bologna. Among his public acts was a zealous patronage of the Jesuits, a vigorous opposition to the Huguenots of France, and the support of Philip II of Spain in sending the Great Armada against England. The computation of time was reformed during his term of office. We still follow the Gregorian calendar.

Other Gregories of importance in theological history are St. Gregory, the founder of the Church of Armenia, surnamed Thaumaturgus, or miracle worker; St. Gregory, the great theologian, one of the fathers of the eastern church; and St. Gregory of Nyssa, born probably at Caeserea, Cappadocia, the opponent of Arianism.