Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/281

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 259 to Rome ; I will break in pieces the image of St. Peter ; and Gregory, like his predecessor Martin, shall be transported in chains, and in exile, to the foot of the Imperial throne. Would to God that I might be permitted to tread in the footsteps of the holy Martin ; but may the fate of Constans serve as a warn- ing to the persecutors of the church ! After his just condemna- tion by the bishops of Sicily, the tyrant was cut off, in the fulness of his sins, by a domestic servant ; the saint is still adored by the nations of Scythia, among whom he ended his banish- ment and his life. But it is our duty to live for the edification and support of the faithful people ; nor are we reduced to risk our safety on the event of a combat. Incapable as you are of defending your Roman subjects, the maritime situation of the city may perhaps expose it to your depredation ; but we can remove to the distance of four-and-twenty stadia j^*^ to the first [«a3 muei] fortress of the Lombards, and then you may pursue the winds. Are you ignorant that the popes are the bond of union, the mediators of peace, between the East and West } The eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility ; and they revere, as a God upon earth, the apostle St. Peter, whose image you threaten to destroy.^ The remote and interior kingdoms of the West present their homage to Christ and his vicegerent ; and we now prepare to visit one of their most powerful monarchs, who desires to receive from our hands the sacrament of baptism.^*^ The barbarians have submitted to the yoke of the gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice of the shepherd. These pious barbarians are kindled into rage ; they thirst to avenge the persecution of the East. Abandon your rash and fatal enter- prise ; reflect, tremble, and repent. If you persist, we are innocent of the blood that will be spilt in the contest ; may it fall on your own head." ■* EtKotri Te<r<7apa trraSta u7ro)(iup)jo-ei 6 'Apxiepeu? 'Pm/j.t); eis t»)>' ;^..jpai' t>)S KafiTravCai, Ka'i i/Tro-ye 6i'o)|oi' Toi)? arc/iou? (Epist. i. p. 664). This proximity of the Lombards is hard of digestion. Camillo Pellegrini (Dissert, iv. de Ducatu Beneventi, in the Script. Ital. lorn. v. p. 172, 173) forcibly reckons the twenty-four stadia, not from Rome, but from the limits of the Roman duchy, to the first fortress, perhaps Sora, of the Lombards. I rather believe that Gregory, with the pedantry of the age, employs stadia for miles without much inquiry into the genuine measure. Ov at nacraL ^aat'Aiftat ttJ; 5u(reu)s (05 @eov ejrtyetoi' eov(rt, ^^'Atto Tijs "eo-a'Tepou Siierews Tou Keyo/ievov Sen-TeVou (p. 665). The popC appears tO have imposed on the ignorance of the Greeks ; he lived and died in the Lateran ; and in his time all the kingdoms of the West had embraced Christianity. May not this unknown Septetus have some reference to the chief of the Saxon Heptarchy, to Ina king of Wessex, who, in the pontificate of Gregory the Second, visited Rome, for the purpose, not of baptism, but of pilgrimage? (Pagi, a.d. 689, No 2, a.d. 726, No. 15). [Schenk adopts this explanation, in his art. on Leo IIL, Byz. Ztsch. v. p. 289.]