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228 HISTORY OF THE FRANKS that he was believed second to none in the city. He strove ear- nestly to avoid this high office for fear that a certain pride at attain- ing the honor might sweep him back into the worldly vanities he had rejected. And so he sent a letter to the emperor Mauricius whose son he had taken from the holy font, adjuring him and en- treating him with many prayers never to grant his consent to the people to raise him to this place of honor. But Germanus, prefect of Rome, forestalled the messenger and had him arrested and the letter destroyed, and himself sent to the emperor the choice which the people had made. And the emperor on account of his friend- ship with the deacon thanked God that he had found a place of honor and sent his command to appoint him. . , . [Because of the plague Gregory makes an address to the people of Rome to meet it by prayer.] When he spoke these words bands of clergy gathered and he bade them sing psalms for three days and pray for God's mercy. Every three hours choirs of singers came to the church crying through the streets of the city ^'Kyrie eleison." Our deacon who was there said that in the space of one hour while the people uttered cries of supplication to the Lord eighty fell to the ground and died. But the bishop did not cease to urge the people not to cease from prayer. It was from Gregory while he was still deacon that our deacon received the rehcs of the saints as we have said. And when Gregory was making ready to go to a hiding place he was seized and brought by force to the church of the blessed apostle Peter and there he was consecrated to the duties of bishop and made pope of the city. Our deacon did not leave until Gregory returned from the port to become bishop, and he saw his ordination with his own eyes. 2. Grippo returned from the emperor Maurice and reported that in the preceding year he and his companions had taken ship and landed at an African port and gone on to Carthage the Great. While they were remaining there, awaiting the orders of the prefect who was in the city as to how they were to reach the em- peror's presence, one of the men belonging to Evantius, who had gone out with him, snatched an article of value from a trader's hand and took it to their lodging. The owner of the article fol- lowed him and demanded his property back. But the man put