tholic faith he knew, while he probably knew but
little of her personal character, he wrote to with paternal affection,
granted the pallium at her request and that of Gallican bishops to S.
Syagrius, Bishop of Autun, and appealed to her as one who had the will
as well as the power to reform abuses, remove scandals, and destroy
paganism. He set himself determinedly to work against the taint of
money which hung over the whole Church. He earnestly pleaded for the
expulsion of "these detestable evils," for the summoning of a synod
which should reform the whole Church. He pleaded in vain; but his work
was not without lasting results. He founded the alliance between the
papacy and the Frankish kings which was to be so fruitful in later
history. And he founded it not with a political but with an entirely
religious object. Through the court he hoped to reform the Church. He
saw how closely Church and State were {50} linked together, and he
thought that he could make the kings act as rulers who set the Church's
interest always first. It has been well said that his work, though the
Church long remained corrupt, was not in vain. "He succeeded in
establishing a regular intercourse between himself and the churches of
Gaul, especially in the cities of the east and south; he fixed a
tradition of friendship between the apostolic see and the Frank
princes; he held up an ideal of Christianity before a savage and
half-pagan people; and he caused the name of bishop to be once more
reverenced in a land where it had grown to be almost synonymous with
avarice, lawlessness, and corrupt ambition. If Gregory did no more
than this he accomplished enough. Though his work was not rich in
definite results at the moment, yet afterwards, in the reign of
Charlemagne, its effects became manifest." [8]

[Sidenote: Relations of the Frankish Church with Rome.]

At the same time the Frankish Church undoubtedly maintained a position
distinctly independent of Rome. Arles never really became a papal
vicariate. Gregory's endeavours were fruitless in practical result.[9]
The Gallican churches continued to be governed by their bishops, with
every degree of local variety, not by the pope. Gregory rather set
forth an ideal than established a subordination. His influence was
personal not constitutional, and it was not strong. Yet in the days
between Gregory and Charles the Great the links connecting Rome with
Gaul were not weakened. Later on they w