[Footnote 77: Another of them, Gelasius (492-496), is, or was until recently, regarded as the author of the first canon of Scriptures and the first list of prohibited books. But this so-called "Gelasian Decree" does not bear the name of Gelasius in some of the older manuscripts, and is now much disputed. Father Grisar thinks that "we may take it as certain that it did not emanate from him" (_History of Rome and the Popes_, iii., 236). The canon is probably due to Damasus (see p. 36) and the rather loosely written list of books which follows it is ascribed to the later age of Hormisdas (514-523). Gelasius was an able and vigorous Pope, and would hardly issue so poor a decree.] [Footnote 78: Lives of Gregory must be read with discretion. The best and most ample source of knowledge is the stout volume of his letters, but there are early biographies by Paul the Deacon and John the Deacon. Paul wrote about 780, but his fairly sober sketch--into which miracles have been interpolated--does not help us much. John wrote about a century after this, and his fantastic and utterly undiscriminating work is almost useless. The best biography of Gregory is the learned and generally candid work of W.F.H. Dudden (_Gregory the Great_, 2 vols., 1905).] [Footnote 79: _Ep._, ix., 69.] [Footnote 80: See Dudden's _Gregory the Great_, i., 264-276.] [Footnote 81: _Ep._, vi., 54.] [Footnote 82: Dr. H.A. Mann (_The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages_, 1902, etc.) would show that Gregory had a regard for culture by quoting much praise of secular learning from the _Commentary on the First Book of Kings_. This is not a work of Gregory at all. Even the Benedictine editors of the Migne edition claim only that it was written by an admirer who took notes of Gregory's homilies, and they admit that it frequently departs from Gregory's ideas.] [Footnote 83: See John of Salisbury, _Polycraticus_, ii., 26. It is difficult to conceive that so unflattering a tradition was entirely an invention.] [Footnote 84: _Ep._, ix., 6, etc.] [Footnote 85: _Ep._, ii., 32.] [Footnote 86: _Ep._, vii., 1.] [Footnote 87: III., 56.] [Footnote 88: V., 11.] [Footnote 89: V., 15.] [Footnote 90: XIII., 33.] [Footnote 91: II., 46; v., 36.] [Footnote 92: V., 36.] [Footnote 93: It is first found in the unreliable Continuer of Prosper's _Chronicle_, and seems to be founded on the meeting of Leo and Attila. Neither Gregory nor Paul, the Deacon speaks of a meeting with the Lombard king.] [Footnote 94: V., 36.] [Footnote 95: V., 40.] [Footnote 96: IX., ii.] [Footnote 97: IV., 26.] [Footnote 98: IX., 65.] [Footnote 99: I., 84.] [Footnote 100: I., 74.] [Footnote 101: See _Ep._, vii., 5, 50, 59 etc.] [Footnote 102: XI., 35.] [Footnote 103: XI., 47.] [Footnote 104: III., 53.] [Footnote 105: V., 43.]