No More Learning

The primacy in northern Africa, except the proconsular province,
where the bishop of Carthage was primate, belonged to the senior bishop,
apart from the dignity of his see or the merits of his personal life; and
it was claimed that the rule went back to the time of St Peter the
Apostle and had been continued ever since. Gregory accepted the
historic account of the origin of the African episcopate, as is shewn by
a letter to Dominicus, bishop of Carthage. On it he based an impres-
sive demand for stedfast obedience, and he appointed a bishop named
Columbus to act as his representative, though he was not formally entitled
Vicar Apostolic. A council in 593 received his instructions; but they
do not seem to have been carried out. A long correspondence shews the
urgency of the need for action against the Donatists, and the difficulty
of getting anything done. By the toleration of the imperial government
they had been enabled to keep their churches and bishops; they
conducted an active propaganda, they secured the rebaptism of many
converts. For six years, from 591 to 596, Gregory^ letters shew the
vehemence of the contest in which he was engaged. In 594 a council
at Carthage received an imperial decree stirring Church and State to
action; but the State did not abandon its tolerant attitude: still there
was great slackness, and Gregory wrote urgently to the Emperor on the


## p. 253 (#285) ############################################

591-596] The Church in Africa 253
subject. It would seem that some measures were taken, and that the
law was in some districts enforced; but Donatism if it died down did
not become extinct. It was largely through his constant interventions
in the matter of heresy that Gregory was able to establish on so firm a
basis the papal authority in the exarchate of Africa. He concerned
himself no less with the surviving pagans, urging Gennadius to wage
war against them " not for the pleasure of shedding blood but with the
aim of extending the limits of Christendom, that by the preaching of the
faith, the Name of Christ should be honoured among the subject tribes. '1
Constant in urging the secular officials to action, Gregory was still more
urgent with the bishops. A continual correspondence was maintained
with the African episcopate: everyone who had a grievance applied to
him: no important decision was arrived at without his consent. He
claimed to defend with unchanged determination "the rights and
privileges of Saint Peter. " Paul of Numidia applied to him for justice
against the Donatists, and the patrician Gennadius, who persecuted him,
bishop though he was. With stedfast persistence the Pope insisted on
securing the trial of the case himself, and sent the bishop back to Africa
assured of the imperial protection. Almost insensibly his persistence
and the moral grandeur of his character told on the independence of the
imperial officials. They began to listen to his advice, and then to admit
his authority; and it was soon hard to distinguish their respect for the
man from their obedience to the See. And at the same time, amid the
chaos of administrative disorder, the people put their trust in the Church:
they took the bishops for their defenders, and most of all the Bishop of
Rome. Gregory exercised the authority then bestowed upon him partly
through Hilarus, whom he sent to be overseer of the patrimony of the
Church, and partly through the Numidian bishop Columbus, if protest
was made—as it seems to have been made by a Numidian primate
Adeodatus and by Dominicus of Carthage—it was overruled: Rome, said
Gregory, was the mother church of Africa, and her authority must be
respected. Such a pope was one to make it respected, whether he
advised and exhorted in regard to the decay of spiritual life in monas-
teries, or reproved administrators and judges for unjust exaction of
tribute. No better illustration of the way in which the papal claims
attained acceptance could be found than is afforded by the history of
Africa in the time of Gregory the Great.
While Donatism died hard in Africa, nearer home the controversy of
the Three Chapters was not yet concluded. In Istria the Church was in
schism, for it had not submitted to the decision of East and West.
Gregory invoked (with but small success) the secular arm against Severus,
patriarch of Aquileia, and summoned him to Rome. The bishops of the
province protested and adjured the Emperor to protect them, professing
no obedience to Rome and threatening to acknowledge the ecclesiastical
authority of Gaul. Maurice commanded Gregory to stay his hand, which
CH. VIII. (b)



## p. 254 (#286) ############################################

254 Istria: Gaul [595-696
he did very reluctantly. He had long before intervened in the matter
as the secretary of Pelagius II: he distrusted the Istrian bishops as
schismatics and as assertors of independence, and when he became pope
had again addressed them in lucid theological arguments. He received
individual submissions, and he used every kind of pressure to heal the
schism; but when he died his efforts had not been entirely successful.
With Milan too he had similar difficulties. Defective theology was
combined with provincial independence in resistance to papal power.
In Dalmatia and Illyria other difficulties needed other treatment.
An archbishop whose manner of life did not befit his office was rebuked,
ironically exhorted, pardoned: when he died a strong attempt was made
to fill his place by a man of austere life whom the Pope had long
honoured. The attempt was a failure, and a very long and bitter
struggle ensued in which Maximus, the imperial candidate, was refused
recognition, summoned to trial at Rome and only at last admitted to
his see as lawful prelate when he had lain prone in penance at Ravenna,
crying "I have sinned against God and the most blessed Pope Gregory. '''
Over Illyria generally, in spite of the creation of Justiniana Prima as a
patriarchate by the Emperor who had given it his name, he exercised
the power of a patriarch. He forbade the bishops to attend a synod at
Constantinople without his leave. He made it plain that Illyria belonged
to the West and not to the East.
And in the West he was ever eager to enlarge the boundaries of the
Church. Already as a young man he had set his heart on the conversion
of the English. As pope he had the means to undertake it. It may
be that he planned it, as Bede says, as soon as he came to discharge
the office of pontiff, and also, as one of his letters suggests, that he
prepared for it by ordering the purchase of English slave boys to be
trained in Gaulish monasteries. It was probably in 595 that he first
sent forth the monk Augustine and his companions to journey through
Gaul to Britain for the conversion of the English. When, daunted by
anticipated dangers, the monks sent Augustine back, Gregory ordered him
to return as their abbot, and furnished him with letters to the bishops
of Gaul, and notably to Vergilius of Aries, the bishop of Aix and the
abbot of Lerins, as well as to Theodebert of Austrasia and Theodoric of
Burgundy, children of nine and ten, under the guardianship of Brunhild
their grandmother. To Brunhild herself, "queen of the Franks," who
went with him, he was sure, "in heart and soul," the Pope said that the
English nation, by the favour of God, wished to become Christian, and
he was sending Augustine and other monks to take thought—in which
he bade her help—for their conversion. He considered that the bishops
of Gaul had been remiss, in doing nothing for the conversion of those
English tribes whom he regarded as their neighbours: but when in 596
he set the new mission in motion, he was able, as his letters shew, to
rely upon personal kindness from the queen towards the missionaries



## p. 255 (#287) ############################################

596-601] Mission to the English 255
and upon the aid of Gaulish priests as interpreters of the barbarous
English tongue. The mission was, vaguely, to "the nation of the
English," for Gregory knew no difference between the men of Deira
and the men of Kent; and Augustine would learn at Paris, if not
before, that the wife of Aethelberht of Kent was daughter of a Frankish
king.
The tale of the landing, the preaching, and the success will be told
elsewhere. Here it belongs only to note that Gregory continued to
take the keenest interest in the venture he had planned. He instructed
Vergilius of Aries to consecrate Augustine as bishop, and spread over
Christendom the news of the great work that was accomplished. To
Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria, he told of the conversion, due, as he
said, to their prayers, and he warmly thanked Syagrius, bishop of Autun,
and Brunhild for their aid. To Augustine in 601 he sent the pallium,
a mark of favour conferred by pope or emperor, not, it would seem, as
conferring metropolitan authority, which Augustine had already exercised,
but as recognising his position as a special representative of the Roman
see. To the queen Berhta, whose somewhat tardy support of the
Christian faith in her husband's land he was able now to eulogise and to
report even to the Emperor at Constantinople, he wrote words of exhorta-
tion to support Augustine, and to Aethelberht her husband admonition
and praise with his favourite eschatological reference. To the end
Gregory remained the trusted adviser of the Apostle of the English.
He sent special reinforcements, with all manner of things, says Bede,
needed for public worship and the service of the Church, commending
the new missionaries again to the Gaulish bishops and instructing them
especially as to the conversion of heathen temples into Christian churches.
And he gave a very careful reply, written with characteristic breadth
and tact, to the questions which Augustine addressed to him when the
difficulties of his work had begun to be felt. The authenticity of these
answers, it is true, has been doubted, but the evidence, external as well
as internal, appears to be sufficient1. The questions related to the
support of the mission clergy, the liturgical use of the national Church
now formed in England, the co-operation necessary in the consecration of
bishops, and to matters touching the moral law about which among a
recently heathen nation a special sensitiveness was desirable. Gregory's
answers were those of a monk, even of a precisian, but they were also
eminently those of a man of affairs and a statesman. "Things," he said,
"are not to be loved for the sake of places, but places for the sake of
good things," and the claim of Rome herself depended on such an
assertion. As a monk he dealt firmly with morals: as a statesman he
sketched out the future organisation of the English Church. London
1 See Mason, Mission of St Augustine, pp viii, ix. Ewald does not decide against
them.
ch. vni. (b)


## p. 256 (#288) ############################################

256 Gregory and Gaul
was to be one metropolitan see, York the other, each with the pallium
and with twelve suffragan sees. Neither bishop was to be primate of all
England by right, but the senior in consecration was to be the superior,
according, it seems, to the custom of the Church in Africa of which he had
experience, but restricted as his wisdom shewed to be desirable. It may
be that Gregory had already heard of the position of the British Church:
if so, he provided for its subjection to a metropolitan. Certainly he
judged acutely according to the knowledge he possessed.
The beginnings of the English mission had brought the Pope into
closer observation than before with the kings and bishops of peoples but
recently converted to the faith. In Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy
reigned a race of kings whose wickedness was but slightly tempered by
the Christianity they had accepted. In Spain there was more wisdom
and more reality of faith.
From Britain we pass naturally to the country through which
Gregory's envoys passed on their way to new spiritual conversion: from
Gaul we may pass to Spain. So far did Gregory's interests extend: of
his power it may not be possible to speak with so much certainty. In
truth the Church in Europe was not yet a centralised body, and local
independence was especially prominent among the Franks. Even in
doctrine there are traces of divergence, though these were kept in check
by a number of local councils which discussed and accepted the theological
decisions which came to them from East and West. But the real power
resided in the bishops, as administrators, rulers, shepherds of men's
souls. Christianity at this period, and notably Frankish Christianity,
has been described as a federation of city churches of which each one
was a little monarchy in itself. If no one doubted the papal primacy, it
was much further away than the arbitrary authority of the kings, and in
nothing were the Merovingians more determined than in their control of
the Church in their dominions. If in the south the bishop of Aries, as
vicar of the Gauls, maintained close relations with the Roman see, the
episcopate as a whole/held aloof, respectful certainly but not obedient.
The Church in Gaul nad been engulfed in a barbarian conquest, cut off
from Italy, severed from its ancient spiritual ties. The conversion of
Clovis gave a new aspect to this separation. The kings assumed a
powerful influence over the bishops, and asserted their supremacy in
ecclesiastical matters. Whatever may have been the theory, in practice
the interference of Rome in Gaul had become difficult, and was
consequently infrequent: it had come to be considered unnecessary:
the Church of the Franks had outgrown its leading-strings. But in
practice? The special privileges of the see of Aries are evidence of a
certain submission to the Papacy on the part of the Merovingian kings,
though the monarchs were autocrats in matters of religion as well as in
affairs of state, and did not encourage resort to the Holy See. It fell to
Gregory, here as elsewhere, to inaugurate an era of defined authority.


## p. 257 (#289) ############################################

595] Gregory and Gaul 267
When he became pope the royal power of the Merovingians was at
its height: in a few years it would totter to its fall, but now the clergy
were submissive and the bishops for the most part the creatures of the
court. When he died the claims of Rome to supremacy were established,
even if they were not fully admitted. With Gaul throughout his ponti-
ficate he maintained close relations. Gregory of Tours tells with what
joy his namesake's election was received by the Franks, and from the first
sets himself to tell his doings and sayings with an unusual minuteness.
Within a year of his accession the new Pope was called upon to judge
the bishops of Aries and Marseilles, whom Jewish merchants accused to
him of endeavouring forcibly to convert them: Gregory reproved and
urged the bishops rather to preach and persuade than to coerce. Again,
he reproved Vergilius of Aries and the bishop of Autun for allowing the
marriage of a nun, commanding them to bring the woman to penitence,
and exhorting them with all authority. He intervened in the affairs of
monasteries, granting privileges and exemptions in a manner which
shews the nature of the authority he claimed. By his advice the
difficult questions raised by the insanity of a bishop in the province of
Lyons were settled. He claimed to judge a Frankish bishop and restore
him to his see, though here he felt it necessary to explain and justify
his conduct to the masterful Brunhild. He is found reproving the icono-
clastic tendencies of Serenus of Marseilles, and ordering him to replace
the images which he has thrown down. He gave directions as to the
holding of church councils, he advised bishops as to the administration of
their dioceses and the enforcement of ecclesiastical discipline. His corre-
spondence with bishops and monks was constant, the requests to him to
intervene in the affairs of the Gallican Church were frequent. Thus
he prepared himself to inaugurate in Gaul a decisive and necessary
reform.
Here he came into direct relations with the kings. In 595
Childebert of Austrasia applied to him for a recognition of the powers,
as papal representative, of the bishop of Aries—evidence of the survival
of the traditional idea of dependence on the Roman Church. In granting
the request Gregory took occasion to develop his scheme of ecclesiastical
discipline. Simony, interference with the election of bishops, the nomina-
tion of laymen to the episcopate, were crying evils: and the kings were
responsible for them. He believed that the Frankish monarchy, the
purity of whose faith shone by comparison with the dark treachery of
other peoples, would rejoice to carry out his wishes; and in the notorious
Brunhild he strangely found a deep religious sense and good dispositions
which should bear fruit in the salvation of men: to her he repeated the
desires which he had expressed to Childebert and urged her to see that
they were carried out. He applied to her to put down crime, idolatry,
paganism, to prevent the possession by Jews of Christian slaves—with
what success we do not know. Unsuccessful certainly he was when he
C. SIM). H. VOL. II. CH. VIII. (b) 17



## p. 258 (#290) ############################################

258 Gregory and the Franks [595-599
urged Theodoric and Theodobert to restore to the bishop of Turin
the parishes which he had lost during the barbarian invasion and which
the Frankish kings were by no means willing should be under the control
of a foreign bishop. But with Brunhild he seems always to have held
the most cordial relations: she asked his advice and assistance in
matters of religion and politics, in regard to a question of marriage law
and to the relation of the Franks with the Empire in the East. And
throughout his pontificate the attitude of the kings was one of deep
respect, that of the Pope that of father by counsel which easily wore
the cloak of authority.
It was thus that early in his pontificate Gregory warned Childebert
and Brunhild, as he warned Vergilius and the bishops of Childebert's
realm, of the need of instant action against the gross simony which was
eating away the spiritual life of the Church. Young men, evil livers,
laymen snatched from the business or pleasures of the world, were
hurriedly ordained or hurriedly promoted and thrust into the high
places of the Church. In 599 he addressed the bishops of Aries, Autun,
Lyons and Vienne in vigorous protest, laying to their charge at least
the acquiescence which made gross abuses possible. Ready though
he was to submit to lawful exercise of the royal power in nomination,
he utterly forbade the ordination of laymen in high office, as inexcusable
and indefensible. The Church was to be strengthened against the world
by total prohibition of marriage to the clergy and by the summoning of
yearly councils for the confirmation of faith and morals. In the councils
everything was to be condemned which was contrary to the canons; and
two prelates should represent him and inform him of what was done.
The abbot Cyriacus was sent on a special mission, with letters to bishops,
to kings, and to the queen Brunhild, to bring discipline to the Gallican
Church. But the murderous uncertainty of dynastic intrigues set every
obstacle in the way of a reform which might make the bishops less the
creatures of the kings. To Theodoric at one moment thanks were given
for his submission to papal commands, and he was directed to summon
a council. At another a special envoy was sent to indicate and insist
on reform. At another letter after letter in vehement exhortation was
addressed to Brunhild, apparently the real ruler of the distracted realm.
Bishops were again and again reproved, exhorted, reproached. But it is
difficult, perhaps through the scanty nature of the historical materials of
the period, to discover cases of definite submission to the papal authority.
It was asserted with all the moral fervour and all the sagacious prudence
which belonged to the great man who sat in the papal chair. It was not
repudiated by Frankish kings and bishops: rather the assertion was
received with judicious politeness and respect.
But beyond this the evidence does not carry us. That the policy of
the Frankish State was affected, or that the character of the kings, the
ministers of the Crown, or even the bishops, was moulded by the influence


## p. 259 (#291) ############################################

585-586] Gregory and the Visigoths 259
of the Papacy it would be impossible to say. Tyrannous and fratricidal,
the Merovingian kings lived their evil lives unchecked by more than
a nominal regard for the teaching of Christian moralists. But Gregory's
continual interest in the Frankish Church was not in vain. He had
established a personal relation with the barbarous kings: he had created
a papal vicar in the kingdom of the South: in granting the pallium to
the bishop of Autun he had at least suggested a very special authority
over the lands of the Gauls: he had claimed that the Roman Church was
their mother to whom they applied in time of need. If the practical
result was small; if the Frankish Church maintained a real independence
of Rome, and Aries never became a papal vicariate; yet Frankish monks,
priests, poets, as well as bishops and kings, began to look to Rome as
patron and guide. Venantius Fortunatus, Columbanus, Gregory of Tours,
in their different ways, shew how close was the relation of Gregory the
Great to the religion of the Franks.
Brighter was the prospect when Gregory turned from the moral
chaos of Gaul to the growing unity of Spain. The Visigothic race had
produced a great warrior in Leovigild, whose power, as king of all the
Goths, extended from Seville to Nimes. He obtained for his son
Hermenegild, Ingundis the daughter of Brunhild (herself the child of
Athanagild, Leovigild's predecessor as Visigothic king) and the Frankish
king Sigebert. From Gregory's letters we learn a story of martyrdom
as to which there is no reason to believe that he was deceived. Ingundis,
beset by Arian teachers who had obtained influence over Leovigildf not
naturally a persecutor, a tyrant or a fanatic, remained firm in her faith,
and when her husband was given rule at Seville she succeeded with the
aid of his kinsman Leunder, bishop of Seville and friend of Gregory, in
converting him to the Catholic belief. * War was the result. Leovigild
attacked his son, says John of Biclar, for rebellion and tyranny.
Hermenegild sought the aid of the Catholic Sueves and "the Greeks "—
the imperial garrisons which had remained since the partial reconquest
of Spain by Justinian. But Leovigild proved the victor: the Suevic
kingdom was extinguished, and Hermenegild was thrown into prison.
Ingundis escaped with the Greeks and died at Carthage on her way to
Constantinople. "Hermenegild was killed at Tarragona by Sigisbert"
is the simple statement of John of Biclar, Catholic bishop of Gerona.
Gregory in his Dialogues tells the tale more fully. On Easter Eve 585
he was offered communion by an Arian bishop, and when he refused to
receive it at his hands he was murdered by the order of his father. He
was regarded as a martyr and 18 April was observed throughout all
Spain- His blood proved the seed of the faith.
A year later his brother Recared became king and accepted Catholicism.
*<~So wonder," says Gregory, "that he became a preacher of the true faith,
for his brother was a martyr, by whose merits he is aided in bringing back
many souls to the bosom of God. " Nor could this have happened had
CE, VIII. (b) 17—2


## p. 260 (#292) ############################################

260 Conversion of the Visigoths [589-603
not Hermenegild the king laid down his life for the truth. So one
Visigoth died that many might live. In a great synod at Toledo
Recared abjured Arianism, and in May 589 was summoned the council
which was to confirm the Catholicism of Spain. Leander preached the
sermon which concluded the assembly, and reported to the Pope the
orthodox speech of Recared, the acceptance of the creeds and decisions
of the four general councils and the enactment of canons to regulate the
lives and professions of the now Catholic people. Leander's letter was a
veritable song of triumph for a victory to civilisation as well as religion,
and as such Gregory accepted it with delight. In later years the
Pope corresponded with Recared himself, wisely refraining from mixing
himself up in the Visigothic relations with Constantinople, where
Athanagild, son of the martyred Hermenegild, was being brought up,
but praising him warmly for his devotion, and pointing him, as was his
wont, for warning and encouragement, to the day of doom which was
always in his own thoughts. To Leander he wrote frequently to the
end of his life. He had sent him a pallium, through King Recared, as
a recognition of ancient custom and of the merits of both king and
prelate. He advised him, as he advised Augustine, in important matters
of doctrine and practice. He gave him his Pastoral Care and his
Moralia: and he remained his friend to the end of his life. At the
exercise of authority over the Spanish Church Gregory made no
attempt. He was content to recognise the great miracle, as he called it
to Recared, of the conversion of a people, and to leave to their kings
and bishops the direction of their Church. But outside the Gothic
dominions his letters dealt with a case, in which he believed that
injustice had been done to a bishop of Malaga, with great explicitness
and claimed an authority which was judicial and political as well as
ecclesiastical. If the documents are genuine, as is probable, they shew
that Gregory was prepared not only to use to the full the powers of the
Empire, when it was in agreement with him, for the redress of injustice
in Church as well as State, but to extend by their means the jurisdiction
and authority of the papal see. But equally clear is it that when he
did so it was justice he sought to establish, not personal power: Spain
for a long while remained to a considerable extent apart from the
general current of life in the Western Church.
In June 603 the long agony with which the great Pope had so bravely
struggled came to an end. The Romans to whom he had devoted his life
paid no immediate honour to his memory: but a legend in later days,
based perhaps on a statement of his archdeacon Peter, attributed to him
a special inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and gave rise to his represen-
tations in art with a dove hovering over his head. His enormous
energy had bequeathed to the Church a mass of writings which placed him
among her four great doctors and exercised a powerful influence on the
theology of the following centuries. For long Gregory was regarded as


## p. 261 (#293) ############################################

Character and Influence of Gregory 261
the great Christian philosopher and moralist, the interpreter of Holy
Scripture, the teacher of the rulers of the Church. His sermons, his
music, his dogmatic theology and his method of interpretation were for
long the models which the Western Church followed unquestioningly.
But the historical importance of his life would be as great as it is
had he never written a single theological treatise. The influence ol
his career came from his personal character, the intense power of
the active Christianity which radiated from his sick bed as from his
throne.
Gregory emerges from the darkness of his age as a figure whom men
can plainly see. His letters reveal him as few other heroes of the
Middle Age are revealed: hardly any great ecclesiastics save Bernard
and Becket are so intimately known. We recognise him as a stern
Roman, hating the barbarians as unclean, despising the Greeks as un-
worthy of their share in the Empire which had sheltered them with its
name. He was a passionate advocate of justice between man and man, a
guardian of men's rights, a governor set to repress wrong and to preserve
the stability of the ancient State. He was eminently practical, as a
builder, an administrator, a philanthropist and a patriot. No doubt his
fame is due partly to the weakness of his predecessors in the Papacy and
partly to the insignificance and wickedness that followed. But his
fame is due still more to the real achievement of his life. He gave
to the Papacy a policy and a position which were never abandoned
or lost.
The primacy of the see of Rome was by him translated into a
practical system as well as a theory and a creed. His personal character,
and that passion of his for a justice more righteous even than that of
the old Roman law, made his claim to hear appeals, to be judge as well
as arbiter, seem more than tolerable, even natural and inevitable. In the
decay of old civilisation, when the Empire, East and West, could scarce
hold its own, there remained in Rome, preserved through all dangers, a
centre of Christian authority which could exercise, in the person of
Gregory, wisely, loyally, tactfully, the authority which it claimed.
Gregory was indeed, as John the Deacon calls him, Argus luminosissimus.
He could admonish princes, and rebuke tax-gatherers: nothing seemed
too small or too great for the exactness of his survey.
And, after the
example of all great rulers, he founded a tradition of public service
which could be passed on even by weak hands and incompetent brains.
He made Christian Rome a centre of justice. He gave to the Papacy a
policy of attracting to itself the best in the new nations which were
struggling for the sovereignty of Italy. If it was impossible for the
Empire to fight the barbarians, peace must be made with them, and if
peace, a lasting peace. In any case the Church should be their home,
and tyranny should be turned into love. This was his ideal for Italian
and Lombard alike. And his principles, of even-handed justice, of
in. Till, (b)


## p. 262 (#294) ############################################

262 The Work of Gregory
patriotism, of charity, were the bases on which he endeavoured to erect
a fabric of papal supremacy. From his letters, as from a storehouse of
political wisdom, there came in time rules in the Canon Law, and powers
were claimed far beyond what he had dreamed of. Where he was
disinterested lesser men were greedy and encroaching: where he strove
to do justice others tried to make despotic laws. All over the Christian
world Gregory had taught men to look to the Pope as one who could
make peace and ensue it. On this foundation the medieval Papacy was
founded. Not long was it contented^) to rest.


## p. 263 (#295) ############################################

263
CHAPTER IX.
THE SUCCESSORS OF JUSTINIAN.
With the death of Justinian we enter on a period of transition.
The magnificent dream of extending the Roman Empire to its ancient
limits seemed all but realised, for by the campaigns of Belisarius and
Narses, Africa, Spain and Italy had been recovered. But the triumph
had crippled the conqueror: already ruinous overdrafts had anticipated
the resources which might have safeguarded the fruits of victory. Rome
relaxed her grasp exhausted. Time was ringing out the old and ringing
in the new. The next century was to fix in broad outlines the bounds
within which for the future the empire was to be contained. Now, if we
will, the Roman world becomes Byzantine. The secular struggle with
Persia ends in the exaltation of the Cross over the worship of the sacred
fire, the Sassanids fall before the Arab enthusiasts, and in the East
Constantinople must meet changed conditions and an unexpected foe.
In the West, while Spain is lost and but a harassed fraction of Italy
remains, the outstanding fact is the settlement of the Slav tribes in the
lands south of the Danube and their recognition of the overlordship of
the Empire. A new Europe and a new Asia are forming: the period
marks at once a climax and a beginning.
During his lifetime Justinian had clothed no colleague with the
purple, but he had constantly relied upon Justin's counsel1, and his
intended succession was indicated by his appointment to the post
of curopalates. Even on his lonely death-bed the Emperor made no
sign, but the senators were agreed. It was their secret that Justinian's
days were numbered, and they kept it well, prepared to forestall every
rival. Through the long winter night Justin and his consort Sophia,
seated at their window, looked over the sea and waited. Before the dawn
the message came: the Emperor was dead and the Roman world expected
a new monarch. The court poet paints Justin's tears as he refused the
throne which the senators offered him—Ibo paternas tristis in exsequias,
1 Nil ille peregit Te (=Justino) sine. Corippus, In Laudem Juttini, I. 140.


## p. 264 (#296) ############################################

264 Accession of Justin II [ses
regalia signa recuso; the formalities satisfied, he was easily overpersuaded,
and walked through the silent city to the palace which was closely guarded
by the household troops under the future emperor Tiberius (14 Nov. 565).
Later, with the purple over his shoulders and wearing the gems which
Belisarius had won from the Goths, Justin was raised aloft on the shield
as the elect of the army; then the Church gave its approval: crowned
wifh the diadem and blessed by the patriarch, he turned to the senate—
during the old age of his uncle much had been neglected, the treasury
exhausted and debts unpaid: all Justinian's thought and care had been
set upon the world to come: the Empire shall rejoice to find the old
wrongs righted under Justin's sway. In the company of Baduarius his
son-in-law, newly appointed curopalates, and escorted by the senate,
the Emperor then entered the circus where gifts were distributed,
while the populace acclaimed their chosen ruler. The proceedings
appear to have been carefully planned: Justin met the debts of those
who had lent money to his uncle, and set free all prisoners. At midday
he returned to the palace. The last honours to the dead had yet to be
paid; in solemn procession, with candles burning and the choir of
virgins answering to the chanting of the priests, the embalmed body of
Justinian was bome through mourning crowds to its golden sepulchre in
the church of the Twelve Apostles. Forthwith the city gave itself to
rejoicing in honour of the Emperor's accession; amidst greenery and
decorations, with dance and gaiety, the cloud of Justinian's gloomy
closing years was dispelled, while Corippus sang, "The world renews its
youth. "
The In Latidem Justini of this poet laureate is indeed a document
of great interest, for it paints the character and policy of Justin as he
himself wished them to be portrayed. His conception of his imperial
duty was the ideal of the unbending Roman whom nothing could
affright. This spirit of exalted self-possession had been shewn at its
height when the senate was leader of the State, and it was not without a
definite purpose that the role of the senate is given marked prominence
in the poem of Corippus. Unfortunately for this lofty view of the
Empire's task and of the obligations of the nobility, it was precisely in
the excessive power of the corrupt aristocracy that the greatest dangers
lay. Office was valued as an opportunity for extortion, and riches
gained at the expense of the commonwealth secured immunity from
punishment. When all the armies of the Empire were engaged in the
struggle with Persia, the government was forced to permit the mainte-
nance in the European provinces of bodies of local troops; this was
apparently also the case in Egypt, and again and again we see from the
pages of John of Nikiou that the command of such military force was
employed as an engine of oppression against helpless provincials. An
unscrupulous captain would openly defy law and authority, and had no
hesitation in pillaging unoffending villagers. While freely admitting


## p. 265 (#297) ############################################

56&-572J Policy of Justin II 265
that these accounts of the condition of affairs in Egypt hardly justify
inferences as to the character of the administration in other parts
of the Empire, yet stories related by chroniclers who wrote in the
capital suggest that elsewhere also the ordinary course of justice was
powerless to prevent an aristocracy of office from pursuing unchecked its
own personal advantage. Justin, who scorned to favour either of the
popular parties amongst the denies, looked to the nobles to maintain his
high standard—and was disappointed. Similar views underlay all his
foreign policy: Rome could make no concessions, for concessions were
unworthy of the mistress of the world before whom all barbarian tribes
must bow in awe. "We will not purchase peace with gold but win it at
the sword's point":
Justini imtu gentes et regna tremescunt,
Omnia territicat rigid us vigor. . .
—Fast us lion patimus.
Here lies the poignant tragedy of his reign. He would have had Rome
inspired anew with the high ardours of her early prime; and she sank
helpless under the buffets of her foes. For himself his will was that men
should write of him:
Est virtus roburque tibi, praestantior actas,
Prudens consilium, stabilis mens, sancta voluntas,
and yet within a few years his attendants, to stay his frenzied violence,
were terrifying him, as a nurse her naughty child, with the dread name
of a border sheikh upon the Arabian frontier. It is in fact of cardinal
importance to realise that Justin at first shared the faith of Shakespeare's
Bastard, "Come the three corners of the world in arms, and we shall shock
them. "
But if this policy were to be realised there must be no internal
dissension and the theological strife of Justinian's last years must be set
at rest. In concert with John, his courtier patriarch1, Justin strove long
and anxiously for union. John the patrician, on his embassy to Persia,
was charged with the reconciliation of the Monophysites; exiled bishops
were in due course to return to their sees, and Zechariah, archdeacon and
court physician, drew up an edict which should heal the divisions
between the friends and foes of the Council of Chalcedon. But the
fanaticism of the monks at Callinicum defeated John's diplomacy, and
the renewed efforts of the Emperor were rendered fruitless when Jacob
Baradaeus refused to accept an invitation to the capital. Justin's
temper could no longer brook opposition, and in the seventh year of his
reign (571-572) he began in exasperation that fierce persecution of
the Monophysites which is depicted for us by one of the sufferers in
the pages of John of Ephesus.
1 Cf. J. Haury, "Johannes Malalas identisch mit dem Patriarchen Johannes
Scholastikos? " B. Z. ix. (1900), pp. 337-356.
CH. IX.


## p. 266 (#298) ############################################

266 Negotiations with Persia [561-566
Such then were the aims and policy of the new monarch. With the
haughty pride of a Roman aristocrat, with his ill-timed obstinacy and
imperious self-will, Justin flung defiance at his enemies; and he failed to
make good the challenge.
Seven days after his accession he gave audience to Targasiz, an Avar
ambassador, who claimed the annual payment which Justinian had
granted. Did they not merit a reward, the envoy argued, for driving-
from Thrace the tribes which had endangered the capital ? —would it
not indeed be perilous to refuse their request? Plea and threat were alike
of no avail. Surrounded by the gorgeous pageantry of a court reception,
Justin offered the barbarians the choice of peace or war: tribute he would
not pay; it were prodigality to lavish on barbarians the gold which the
Empire could ill spare. He met their murmurs with immediate action,
shipped the Avars across the strait to Chalcedon, and only after six months
dismissed them—three hundred strong—to their homes. For a time
indeed the Emperor's proud words appeared to have had their effect, but
in truth the Avars were busy in Thuringia waging successful war with
the Frankish Sigebert; their revenge for Rome's insult was perforce
postponed, and Justin was free to turn his attention to the East.
John Comentiolus, who bore to the Persian court the news of
Justinian's death and of his nephew's accession, was given instructions to
raise the question of Suania. Under the terms of the Fifty Years' Peace
which had been concluded between the two empires in 561, Chosroes
had agreed to evacuate Lazica; the Romans contended that Suania was
part of Lazica and must also be relinquished. Persia had not admitted
this construction of the agreement, and the question still remained
undecided. Suania indeed was in itself of no particular value; its
importance lay in its strategic situation, for through it the Persians could
attack the Roman frontier in Colchis. The possession of Suania would
secure Rome's position in the east of the Euxine. The embassy was
detained upon its journey and John found that Saracen tribesmen who
acknowledged Persia's overlordship had arrived before him at the court
of Madain; Justinian had granted them money payments on condition
that they should not ravage the Roman frontiers, but these payments
Justin had discontinued, contending that they were originally voluntary
gifts or that, even if they had been made under a binding engagement,
the obligation ceased with the death of the giver. The unwisdom of
the dead, even though he were an emperor, could not bind the living, and
the days of weakness were now past. The Saracen claims were supported
by Chosroes, but the matter was allowed to drop, while the Emperor by
his envoy expressed his strong desire for peace with Persia and for the
maintenance of the treaty between the two peoples. John casually
remarked that, if Lazica was evacuated, Suania by right should also
fall to Rome. The king apparently accepted this view, but professed
himself bound to refer the question to his ministers. The latter were


## p. 267 (#299) ############################################

566] The Saracen Claims 267
willing to yield the territory for a price, but added conditions so
humiliating to the Empire that John felt himself unable to accept
the proposed terms. The king's counsellors in fact sought by diplo-
matic delays to force Rome to take action in Suania, so that they
might then object that the people themselves refused to be subject to
the Empire. The plan succeeded, and John foolishly entered into cor-
respondence with the king of Suania. By this intervention Persia had
secured a subject for negotiation, and now promised that an ambassador
should be sent to Constantinople to discuss the whole situation. Justin
disgraced his envoy, and Zich, who, besides bearing the congratulations
of Persia, was charged with proposals as to Suania, was stopped at
Nisibis. Justin returned thanks for the greetings of Chosroes, but stated
that as to any other matters Rome could not admit discussion. On
Zich's death Mebodes was sent to Constantinople, and with him came the
Saracen chiefs for whom he craved audience. Justin shewed himself so
arbitrary and unapproachable that Mebodes, though abandoning his
patronage of the Saracens, felt that no course was open to him save to
ask for his dismissal. The question of Suania was not debated, and
Ambros, the Arab chieftain, gave orders to his brother Camboses to
attack Alamoundar, the head of the Saracen tribesmen who were allied
to Rome. From the detailed account of these negotiations given by
Menander the reader already traces in Justin's overbearing and irritable
temper a loss of mental balance and a wilful self-assertion which is
almost childish in its unreasoning violence.
Meanwhile the Emperor could not feel secure so long as his cousin
Justin, son of the patrician Germanus, was at the head of the forces on
the Danube, guarding the passes against the Avars; the general was
banished to Alexandria and there assassinated. It seems probable that
Justin's masterful wife was mainly responsible for the murder. About
the same time Aetherius and Addaeus, senators and patricians, were
accused of treason and executed (3 Oct. 5661)-
In the West the influence of the quaestor of the palace, Anastasius
(a native of Africa), would naturally direct the Emperor's attention to
that province. Through the praefect Thomas, peace was concluded with
the Berber tribesmen and new forts were erected to repel assaults of the
barbarians. But these measures were checked2 by the outbreak of
1 There is some doubt as to the precise date of the murder of Justin. Johannes
Biclarensis assigns it to the same year as the conspiracy of Addaeus and Aetherius
(i. e. 566, in John's reckonings Ann. n. Justini) and Evagrius clearly places it
before the trial of Addaeus and Aetherius (Evagr. v. 1-3). Theophanes, it would
appear wrongly, records it (p. 244, 3) under the year 670. —For the prominent
position occupied by Sophia, cf. Warwick Wroth, Catalogue of the Imperial Byzantine
Coins in the British Museum, London (1908), I. p. xix.
2 For three subsequent invasions by the Moors in which one praefect and two
magistri militum were killed, see Joh. Biol. , M. G. H. Chronica Minora (ed. Mommsen),
n. (1894), p. 212, and Diehl, L'A/rique byzantine, pp. 459-460.


## p. 268 (#300) ############################################

268 War with tJie Avars [565-568
hostilities in Europe between the Lombards and the Gepids. In the
war which ensued the Lombards gained the advantage, and the Gepids
then sought to win the alliance of Justin by the splendour of their
gifts. Baduarius, commanding in Scythia and Moesia, received orders
to aid Kunimund, and the Roman forces won a victory over Alboin.
The latter, looking around for allies in his turn, appealed to Baian, the
Khagan of the Avars, who had just concluded a peace with Sigebert.
The Lombards, Alboin urged, were fighting not so much against the
Gepids as against their ally Justin, who but recently had refused the
tribute which Justinian had conceded. Avars and Lombards united
would be irresistible: when Scythia and Thrace were won, the way would
be open for an attack upon Constantinople. Baian at first declined to
listen to the Lombard envoys, but he finally agreed to give his assistance
on condition that he should at once receive one-tenth of all the animals
belonging to the Lombards, that half the spoil taken should be his, and
that to him should fall the whole territory of the conquered Gepids.
The latter were accused before Justin by a Lombard embassy of not
having kept the promises which had been the price of the Roman
alliance; this intervention secured the neutrality of the Emperor.
We know nothing of the struggle save its issue; the Gepids
were defeated on the Danube and driven from their territory, while
Kunimund was slain. But his grandson Reptilanis carried the royal
treasure in safety to Constantinople, while it would seem that the
Roman troops occupied Sirmium before the Avars could seize the city.
Justin despatched Vitalian, the interpreter, and Komitas as ambassadors
to Baian. They were kept in chains while the Avar leader attacked
Bonus in Sirmium: this city, Baian claimed, was his by right; it had
been in the hands of the Gepids, and should now devolve upon him as
spoils of the victory. At the same time he offered conditions of peace
which were remarkable for their extreme moderation—he only demanded
a silver plate, some gold and a Scythian toga; he would be disgraced
before his allies if he went empty-handed away. These terms Bonus and
the bishop of Sirmium felt that they had no authority to accept without
the Emperor's approval. For answer Baian ordered 10,000 Kotrigur
Huns to cross the Save and ravage Dalmatia, while he himself occupied
the territory which had formerly belonged to the Gepids. But he was
not anxious for war, and there followed a succession of attempts at
negotiation; the Roman generals on the frontier were ready to grant the
Avar's conditions, but the autocrat in the capital held fast to his
doctrinaire conceptions of that which Rome's honour would not allow
her to concede. Targitius and Vitalian were sent to Constantinople to
demand the surrender of Sirmium, the payment to Baian of sums formerly
received from Justinian by the Kotrigur and Utigur Huns who were
now tributary to the Avars, and the delivery of the person of Usdibad,
a Gepid fugitive. The Emperor met the proposals with high-sounding


## p. 269 (#301) ############################################

568-570] The Turkish Embassy 269
words and Bonus was bidden to prepare for war. No success can have
attended the Roman arms, for in a second embassy Targitius added to
his former demands the payment of arrears by the Empire. Bonus was
clearly incapable, argued Justin, and Tiberius was accordingly sent to
arrange terms. After some military successes, it would seem, he con-
curred with Apsich in a proposal that land should be furnished by the
Romans for Avar settlement, while sons of Avar chieftains should be
pledges for the good faith of their fellow-countrymen. Tiberius went to
Constantinople to urge the acceptance of these terms, but Justin was
not satisfied: let Baian surrender his own sons as hostages, he retorted,
and once more despatches to the officers in command ordered vigorous
and aggressive action. Tiberius returned to be defeated by the Avars,
and when yet another mission reached the palace, the Emperor realised
that the honour of Rome must give place to the argument of force.
Peace was concluded, and the Avars retired (end of 570 ? ). The course
of the negotiations throws into clear relief the views and aims of Justin,
while the experience thus gained by Tiberius served to mould his policy
as emperor.
For the rest of the reign the East absorbed the whole energy of the
State. In order to understand clearly the causes which led to the war
with Persia it is necessary to return to the year 568, when Constantinople
was visited by an embassy from the Turks. This people, who had only
recently made their appearance in Western Asia, had some ten years
before overthrown the nation of the Ephthalites and were now themselves
the leading power in the vast stretch of country between China and
Persia. The western Chinese kingdom was at times their tributary, at
other times their ally; with a vision of the possibilities which their
geographical position offered they aspired to be the intermediaries
through whose hands should pass the commerce of West and East.
Naturally enough they first appealed to Persia, but the counsels of a
renegade Ephthalite prevailed: the Turks were, he urged, a treacherous
people, it would be an evil day for Persia if she accepted their alliance.
Dizabul however, Khan of the Western Turks under the suzerainty of
the great Mo-kan1, only relinquished the project when he discovered that
the members of a second embassy had been poisoned by Persian treachery.
Then it was that his counsellor Maniach advised that envoys should
be sent to the Roman capital, the greatest emporium for the silk
of China. It was a remarkable proposal; the emperors had often
sought to open up a route to the East which would be free from
Persia's interference—Justinian, for example, had with this object
entered into relations with the Ethiopian court—but no great success
had attended their efforts, and now it was a Turk who unfolded a scheme
whereby the products of East and West should pass and repass without
1 Silziboulos (Sil-Cybul-baya-qayan).


## p. 270 (#302) ############################################

270 Revolt of Persarmenia [568-572
entering Persian territory, while the Turks drew boundless wealth as the
middlemen between China and Rome. Obviously such a compact would
not be acquiesced in by Persia, but Persia was the common foe: Turk
and Roman must form an offensive and defensive alliance. Rome was
troubled in her European provinces by the raids of Avar tribes and these
tribesmen were fugitives from the Turk: Roman and Turk united could
free the Empire from the scourge. Such was the project. The attitude
of Rome's ministers was one of benevolent interest. They desired in-
formation but were unwilling to commit themselves; an embassy was
accordingly despatched to assure Dizabul of their friendship, but when
the Khan set off upon a campaign against Persia, Zemarchus with the
Roman forces began the long march back to Constantinople1. On the
journey he was forced to alter his route through fear of Persian ambushes
in Suania ; suspicions were clearly already aroused and it would seem that
for a time the negotiations with the Turks were dropped*. More than
this was needed to induce Chosroes to declare war.
In 571 Persian Armenia revolted and appealed to the Empire.
It would seem that Justin had been attempting to force upon his
Armenian subjects acceptance of the orthodox Chalcedonian doctrine,
and Chosroes in turn, on the advice of the magi, determined to impose
the worship of the sacred fire upon the whole of Persarmenia. The
Surena with 2000 armed horsemen was sent to Dovin with orders to
establish a fire temple in the city. The Catholicos objected that the
Armenians, though paying tribute to their Persian overlord, were yet
free to practise their own religion. The building of the temple was
however begun in spite of protests, but ten thousand armed Armenians
implored the Surena to lay the matter before Chosroes, and in face of
this force he was compelled to withdraw. Meanwhile, it appears, the
Armenians had secured from Justin a promise that they would be
welcomed within the boundaries of the Empire, and that religious
toleration would be granted them. On the return of the Surena in
command of 15,000 men with directions to carry into execution the
original design, 20,000 Armenians scattered the Persian forces and killed
the Surena, and his severed head was carried to the patrician Justinian
who was in readiness on the frontier at Theodosiopolis. At the same time
the Iberians, with their king Gorgenes, went over to the Romans. The
fugitives were well received; the nobles were given high positions and
estates, while the Roman province was excused three years' tribute.
It was just at this time (571-572) that a new payment to Persia fell
due under the terms of the peace of 561-562, Chosroes having insisted that
1 The embassy of Zemarchus is dated 572-573 by John of Ephesus, vi. 23.
1 The later embassy of Valentinus in 575-576 produced no lasting result. On the**
missions see J. Marquart, "Historische Glossen zu den altturkischen Inschriften,"
Vienna Oriental Journal, in. (1898), pp. 157-200.


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572-575] Justin determines on -war with Persia 271
previous instalments should be paid in advance.