Gregory to Maurice Augustus. Our most pious lord, established by God, amid the other cares of the imperial burdens, keeps watch also with the uprightness of a spiritual zeal for the preservation of priestly charity, piously and truly considering, namely, that no one can rightly govern earthly things unless he knows how to handle divine things, and that the peace of the commonwealth hangs upon the peace of the universal Church. For what human strength, most serene lord, and what force of the arm of flesh would presume to raise irreligious hands against the summit of your most Christian empire, if the concord of the priests, in accord with itself, were to strive to entreat their Redeemer for you with the tongue, and, as was fitting, with merits?
Or would the sword of a most ferocious nation rage with such great cruelty in the slaughter of the faithful, unless our life, we who are named priests and are not, were burdened with most depraved works? But while we leave to ourselves the things that befit us, and think for ourselves the things that do not befit us, we ally our sins with barbaric forces, and our fault sharpens the swords of the enemies which burdens the strength of the commonwealth. But what shall we say, we who oppress the people of God, over whom we unworthily preside, with the burdens of our sins, we who destroy by our example what we preach by our tongue, who teach iniquitous things by our works and hold forth by voice alone the things that are just? Our bones are worn away by fasts, and we swell in mind.
The body is covered with despised garments, and in the arrogance of the heart we surpass the purple. We lie in ashes, and despise lofty things. Teachers of the humble, leaders of pride, with a sheeplike face we hide wolfish teeth. But what is the end of these things, save that we persuade men, but to God we are manifest? Wherefore, most providently, the most pious Lord seeks the peace of the Church for the checking of warlike commotions, and deigns to lead back the hearts of the priests to its cohesion. Which indeed I desire, and, as far as pertains to me, I offer obedience to the most serene commands.
But because it is not my cause, but God's, and because not I alone, but the whole Church is disturbed, because the pious laws, because the venerable synods, because even the very commands of our Lord Jesus Christ are disturbed by the invention of a certain proud and pompous word, let the most pious Lord lance the place of the wound, and bind the resisting sick man with the bonds of imperial authority. For by binding these things you raise up the commonwealth; and while you cut away such things, you treat of the length of your reign. For to all who know the Gospel it is clear that by the voice of the Lord the care of the whole Church was committed to holy Peter, prince of all the apostles. For to him it is said: Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep (John 21:17). To him it is said:
Behold, Satan has sought to sift you as wheat; and I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith fail not. And you, being once converted, confirm your brethren (Luke 22:31-32). To him it is said: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Matt. 16:18-19).
Behold, he received the keys of the heavenly kingdom, the power of binding and loosing is bestowed upon him, the care and principate of the whole Church is committed to him, and yet he is not called the universal apostle; and my most holy fellow priest John strives to be called universal bishop. I am compelled to cry out and to say: O times, O manners! Behold, all things in the parts of Europe are handed over to the jurisdiction of the barbarians, the cities destroyed, the fortresses overthrown, the provinces depopulated, no husbandman inhabits the land, the worshippers of idols rage and lord it daily in the slaughter of the faithful, and yet priests, who ought to have lain weeping on the pavement and in ashes, seek for themselves names of vanity, and glory in new and profane titles.
Do I, in this matter, most pious lord, defend my own cause? Do I vindicate a special injury? Nay, the cause of Almighty God, the cause of the universal Church. Who is this, who against the evangelical statutes, against the decrees of the canons, presumes to usurp for himself a new name? Would that even without the diminishment of others there were one who desires to be called universal! And certainly we know that many priests of the Church of Constantinople have fallen into the abyss of heresy, and have become not only heretics but even heresiarchs. Thence indeed Nestorius, who, esteeming Jesus Christ, the Mediator of God and men, to be two persons, because he did not believe that God could become man, burst forth even into Judaic perfidy.
Thence Macedonius, who denied that the Holy Spirit, consubstantial with the Father and the Son, is God. If, therefore, anyone seizes for himself that name in that Church, which it has done in the judgment of all good men, the whole Church therefore, which God forbid, falls from its state, when he who is called universal falls. But far be from Christian hearts that name of blasphemy, in which the honour of all priests is taken away, while it is madly arrogated by one to himself. Surely, for the honour of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, it was offered by the venerable synod of Chalcedon to the Roman pontiff.
But none of them ever consented to this name of singularity, lest, while something private was given to one, all priests should be deprived of their due honour. What is it, then, that we do not seek the glory of this title even when it is offered, and another presumes to seize it for himself even when it is not offered? He, therefore, is the more to be bent by the command of the most pious lords, who scorns to offer obedience to the canonical precepts. He is to be coerced, who does injury to the holy universal Church, who swells in heart, who desires to rejoice in a name of singularity, who sets himself even above the honour of your empire by a private title. Behold, we all suffer scandal in this matter.
Let the author of the scandal, therefore, return to a right life, and all the quarrels of the priests will cease. For I am the servant of all priests, in so far as they live in a priestly manner. But he who against the Almighty Lord, through the swelling of vainglory, and against the statutes of the Fathers, raises up his neck, I trust in the Almighty Lord that he will not bend my neck to himself even with swords. But what was lately done in this city from the hearing of this title, I have indicated more minutely to the deacon Sabinianus, my envoy.
Therefore let the devotion of my lords consider me as their own possession, one whom they have always specially cherished and sustained above all others; who both desire to render obedience to you, and yet dread to be found guilty through my negligence in the supreme and dread judgment. And in accordance with the petition of the aforesaid deacon Sabinianus, let my most pious lord deign either to judge this matter himself, or to bend the oft-named man to cease at last from this endeavour. If therefore by the most just judgment of your devotion, or by your merciful commands, I may find rest, we render thanks to Almighty God, and we rejoice at the peace granted to the whole Church through you.
But if he shall persist longer in the same contention, we hold in this matter the sure sentence of Truth, which says: Everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled (Luke xiv, 11; xviii, 14). And again it is written: Before ruin the heart is exalted (Prov. xvi, 18). But I, rendering obedience to the commands of my lords, have both written sweetly to my aforesaid fellow-priest, and have humbly admonished him to amend himself from this craving for empty glory. If therefore he shall be willing to hear me, he will have found a devoted brother. But if he persists in his pride, I already perceive what shall follow, for he has found that adversary against himself of whom it is written: God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble (James iv, 6).