Sabinian

Sabinian, a Tuscan from Blera, had been Gregory the Great's envoy in Constantinople and had been recalled for giving too much ground to the patriarch; as pope he gave ground to no one and was hated for it. He was elected after Gregory's death in March 604 and consecrated on 13 September, and within months the Lombards were raiding again and the harvest had failed. Gregory had fed Rome from the church's granaries for nothing. Sabinian opened the same granaries and sold the grain, at a price the Liber Pontificalis records as a solidus for thirty bushels, and the city never forgave him.

His reign was the reaction against Gregory that Gregory's own clergy had wanted: an end to the monks' influence, a return to the diocesan career men, and a treasury run by a treasurer. A later tradition credited him with ordering church bells rung at the canonical hours, which no early source supports. He was buried in Saint Peter's, and the see stayed empty for nearly a year while the emperor Phocas considered whom to confirm.