Chapter X

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[114] Migne 75, 76.

[115] Migne 77, col. 149-430. The second book is devoted to Benedict of Nursia.

[116] For illustrations see Dudden, _o.c._ i. 321-366, and ii. 367-68. Gregory’s interest in the miraculous shows also in his letters. The Empress Constantine had written requesting him to send her the head of St. Paul! He replies (_Ep._ iv. 30, _ad Constantinam Augustam_) in a wonderful letter on the terrors of such holy relics and their death-striking as well as healing powers, of which he gives instances. He says that sometimes he has sent a bit of St. Peter’s chain or a few filings; and when people come seeking those filings from the priest in attendance, sometimes they readily come off, and again no effort of the file can detach anything.

[117] _Moralia_ xvi. 51 (Migne 75, col. 1151). Cf. Dudden, _o.c._ ii. 369-373.

[118] _Mor._ ix. 34, 54 (Migne 75, col. 889). Cf. Dudden, _o.c._ ii. 419-426.

[119] _Dialogi_, iv. caps. 39, 55.

[120] A better Augustinianism speaks in Gregory’s letter to Theoctista (_Ep._ vii. 26), in which he says that there are two kinds of “compunction, the one which fears eternal punishments, the other which sighs for the heavenly rewards, as the soul thirsting after God is stung first by fear and then by love.”

[121] _Ep._ iv. 21; vi. 32; ix. 6.

[122] See _post_,