See CHRONOLOGY, No. 26.

GREGORY the Great, was born at Rome of a patrician family. He discovered such abilities in the exercise of the senatorial employments, that the emperor Justin the younger appointed him prefect of Rome. Pope Pelagius II. sent him nuncio to Constantinople, to demand succour against the Lombards. When he thought of enjoying a solitary life, he was elected pope by the clergy, the senate, and the people of Rome. Besides his learning and diligence in instructing the church, both by writing and preaching, he had a very happy talent in winning over princes in favour of the temporal as well as spiritual interest of religion. He undertook the conversion of the English, and sent over some monks of his order, under the direction of Augustin their abbot. His morality with respect to the chastity of churchmen was very rigid, afflicting that Gregory, a man who had ever known a woman ought not to be admitted to the priesthood; and he always caused the candidates for it to be examined upon that point. He likewise vigorously exerted himself against such as were found guilty of calumny. However, he flattered the emperor Phocas, while his hands were yet reeking with the blood of Mauritius, and of his three children, who had been butchered in his flight. He likewise flattered Brunehaut, a very wicked queen of France. He is accused of destroying the noble monuments of ancient Roman magnificence, that those who visited the city might not attend more to the triumphal arches than to holy things; and burnt a multitude of heathen books, Livy in particular. He died in 604.

GREGORY of Nazianzen, surnamed the Divine, was one of the most illustrious ornaments of the Greek church in the fourth age. He was made bishop of Constantinople in 379; but finding his election contested by Timotheus archbishop of Alexandria, he voluntarily resigned his dignity about 382, in the general council of Constantinople. His works are extant, in two volumes, printed at Paris in 1609. His style is said to be equal to that of the most celebrated orators of ancient Greece.