Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

MISSION OF ST. GREGORY.
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how was he to treat the different customs which he
found in different places One mass liturgy prevailed
in the Roman Church and another in Gaul. Probably
Queen Bertha followed the Gaelic use.
Gregory, writh that f great breadth of mind as to details
which is inspired by unity of dogma, bade Augustine
to cherish any such customs just in proportion as
the} contributed to the greater glory of God.
" Things are not to be loved for the sake of places,
but places are to be loved for the sake of the good
they offer."
" How," asked Augustine, " am I to deal with the
bishops of Gaul and of Britain " Gregory answered :
" We have given you no authority over the bishops
of Gaul, because since early times the Bishop of
Aries has been wont to receive the pallium from our
predecessors. We cannot therefore take from him
the authority he has already enjoyed. . . . But,"
Gregory concluded, " we commit all the bishops of
Britain to your fraternity, that the ignorant may be
taught, the weak strengthened by counsel, and the
i
perverse corrected by authority."
The priesthood, which Pope Gregory thus committed
to Augustine, was to be severed from the ties
and cares of married life. "If there are any I le rid
not in sacred orders who cannot practise continence,
they must marry and receive their salary apart from
the altar."
Clerics were of two kinds : sacerdotal and those
1 Hist. Eccles., lib. i. cap. xxvii.