Note 205 — Front matter (continued 3)

Das Papstthum (1892), ch. ii., § 2. See also F. Roquain's La Papauté au moyen âge. Roquain observes, leniently, that Gregory was "not entirely exempt from reproach in the use of means to attain his ends" (p. 127) and fell into "excesses unworthy of his great soul" (p. 131). In his famous letter to the Bishop of Metz (viii., 21) Gregory omits an essential part of a passage which he quotes from Gelasius and materially alters its meaning. When we further find him writing (ix., 2) that "even a lie that is told for a good purpose in the cause of peace is not wholly free from blame," we fear that he was not far from the maxim that the end justifies the means.