Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/196

 160 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE against the practice of secular medicine, nor did he think that asceticism and zeal for religious observances should be carried to extremes. When a bishop had a hemorrhage, Gregory consulted every doctor in Rome and sent hiai a written statement of the diagnosis and prescription of each one. He also urged him to drop all fasting, vigils, and public speaking until his health should improve. When certain zealots wished to observe the Sabbath so strictly as not to wash at all on that day, Gregory made the astute reply that he did not approve of bathing as a pleasure or luxury on any day, but that washing as a physical necessity he did not for- bid even on the Lord's day. When his missionaries began their labors of converting England, Gregory warned them that the heathen barbarians could not at once be entirely weaned from their old ways; that they should not destroy the old temples, but only the idols in them, in order that the barbarians might the more readily worship God in places to which they were accustomed; and that the Anglo-Sax- ons might continue "to the praise of God" the religious feasts at which they had been wont to sacrifice oxen to demons. In short, Gregory invariably showed plenty of common sense in dealing with any practical problem of the present. Gregory was the first monk to become pope, and he is largely responsible for the general adoption of the Bene- Spread of dictine Rule throughout the monasteries of the dictineRule West ' Indeed ' almost a11 that we know of Bene- dict himself is what Gregory tells us. St. Bene- dict of Nursia (480-543) came, like Gregory, of a noble Roman family. After three years of hermit life he gained so many followers that he organized them into communities, but his Rule was not promulgated until about 529 at Monte Cassino. It does not seem to have become widely Known until the time of Gregory, when Lombard attacks drove the monks from Monte Cassino to Rome. Gregory gave his hearty approval to the Rule and it was spread to England by his missionaries. It did not reach Gaul, however, until the seventh century, and no trace of it is