Pope, such as whether cousins may marry, whether spouses who have had intercourse the previous
night may come to church (yes, if they have washed, says Gregory), and so on. The mission, as we
know, prospered, and that is why we are all Christians at this day.
The period we have been considering is peculiar in the fact that, though its great men are inferior
to those of many other epochs, their influence on future ages has been greater. Roman law,
monasticism, and the papacy owe their long and profound influence very largely to Justinian,
Benedict, and Gregory. The men of the sixth century, though less civilized than their predecessors,
were much more civilized than the men of the next four centuries, and they succeeded in framing
institutions that ultimately tamed the barbarians. It is noteworthy that, of the above three men, two
were aristocratic natives of Rome, and the third was Roman Emperor. Gregory is in a very real
sense the last of the Romans. His tone of command, while justified by his office, has its instinctive
basis in Roman aristocratic pride. After him, for many ages, the city of Rome ceased to produce
great men. But in its downfall it succeeded in fettering the souls of its conquerors: the reverence
which they felt for the Chair of Peter was an outcome of the awe which they felt for the throne of
the Caesars.
In the East, the course of history was different. Mahomet was born when Gregory was about thirty
years old.
-387-Part II. The SchoolmenCHAPTER VII The Papacy in the Dark AgesDURING the four centuries from Gregory the Great to Sylvester II, the papacy underwent
astonishing vicissitudes. It subject, at times, to the Greek Emperor, at other times to the Western
Emperor, and at yet other times to the local Roman aristocracy; nevertheless, vigorous popes in
the eighth and ninth centuries, seizing propitious moments, built up the tradition of papal power.
The period from A.D. 600 to 1000 is of vital importance for the understanding of the medieval
Church and its relation to the State.
The popes achieved independence of the Greek emperors, not so much by their own efforts, as by
the arms of the Lombards, to whom, however, they felt no gratitude whatever. The Greek Church
remained always, in a great measure, subservient to the Emperor, who considered himself
competent to decide on matters of faith, as well as to appoint and depose bishops, even patriarchs.
The monks strove for independence of the Emperor, and for that reason sided, at times, with the
Pope. But the patriarchs of Constantinople, though willing to submit to the Emperor, refused to
regard themselves as in any degree subject to papal authority. At times, when the Emperor needed
the Pope's help against barbarians in Italy, he was more friendly to the Pope than the patriarch of
Constantinople was. The main cause of the ultimate separation of the Eastern and the Western
Churches was the refusal of the former to submit to papal jurisdiction.
After the defeat of the Byzantines by the Lombards, the popes had