Sabinian Pope, 604–606

Owing to a delay in the election of a successor to the Papacy, the chair of Peter remained vacant for half a year after Gregory's death. The new Pope, Sabinian of Volterra, previously deacon and Nuncio of the Roman Church at Constantinople, entered upon his office under the most disastrous circumstances, Rome and the whole of Italy being visited at the time by as terrible famine. The Pope, it is true, threw open the granaries of the Church, but the supplies thus provided by no means sufficed to meet the needs of the populace, who asserted that Gregory had squandered the ecclesiastical revenues, and heaped denunciations on the memory of the dead. Legend related that the angry spirit of the former Pope appeared to his successor, and, overwhelming him with reproaches, struck him on the head, and that Sabinian died shortly after from the effects of the blow. In the opinion of many of his contemporaries, Sabinian was undoubtedly hostile to the memory of his great predecessor, and envious of his renown. Himself dying in 606, apparently during a revolt of the populace, it was feared that his remains might fall a prey to the fury of the famished mob, and it was therefore deemed advisable to have his coffin conveyed from the Lateran to S. Peter's by a circuitous route round the walls.