Gregory to Constantina Augusta. Almighty God, who holds the heart of your devotion in the right hand of His majesty, both protects us through you, and prepares for you eternal rewards of recompense in return for temporal deeds. For when Sabinianus my deacon and representative wrote to me, I came to know, in the causes of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, against certain men proudly humble and feignedly flattering, how great a justice your serenity expends. And I trust in the bounty of our Redeemer, that this good which you do in our most serene lord and most pious sons, you shall receive as recompense also in the heavenly homeland.
Nor is there doubt that you, loosed from the bonds of your sins, will receive good things in turn, who in the causes of His Church have made Him your debtor, to whom the power of binding and loosing has been given. Wherefore I still beg that you permit no man's hypocrisy to prevail against the truth; for there are certain men who, according to the voice of that excellent preacher, by sweet words and blessings seduce the hearts of the innocent; who are indeed despised in dress, but swollen in heart; and who, as though despising all things in this world, yet seek to obtain at once all the things that are of the world; who confess themselves unworthy of all men, yet cannot be content with private titles, because they crave that whereby they may seem worthier than all.
Therefore let your devotion, whom Almighty God, together with our most serene lord, has appointed to preside over the whole world, render its service, through favour to justice, to Him from whom it received the right of so great a power; that the more truly it serves the Author of all in the execution of truth, the more securely it may hold sway over the world committed to it. Moreover I make known that I have received the writings of my most pious lords, that I ought to be at peace with my brother and fellow-priest John. And indeed it became a religious lord thus to enjoin these things upon priests.
But since with a new presumption and pride this same brother of mine calls himself universal bishop—so that in the time of my predecessor of holy memory he had himself inscribed in a synod with this proud title, although all the acts of that synod, the Apostolic See contradicting, were annulled—something troubling has my most serene lord intimated to me, in that he did not rebuke him who is proud, but rather strove to make me swerve from my purpose, who in this cause defend the truth of Gospel and canonical humility and rectitude. In which matter my aforesaid brother and fellow-priest acts against the Gospel sentence, against blessed Peter the apostle also, and against all the Churches, and against the statutes of the canons.
But there is an Almighty Lord, in whose hand are all things, of whom it is written: There is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is no counsel against the Lord (Prov. xxi, 30). And indeed the aforesaid most holy brother often attempts to persuade my most serene lord of many things, but I well know that those great prayers of his and his tears permit nothing to be filched from him by anyone against reason or against his soul. Yet it is very grievous that it should be patiently borne that, all others being despised, my aforesaid brother and fellow-bishop should strive to be called the sole bishop. But in this pride of his, what else is signified than that the times of Antichrist are now near? For plainly he imitates that one
who, spurning the legions of angels in their fellowship of joy, attempted to break forth to a pinnacle of singularity, saying: I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven, I will sit upon the mount of the covenant, in the sides of the north, and I will ascend above the height of the clouds, and I will be like the Most High (Isa. xiv, 13). Wherefore, by the Almighty Lord, I beg that you not permit the times of your devotion to be stained by the arrogance of one man, nor in any way lend any assent to so perverse a title; nor in this cause let your devotion in the least despise me; for even if the sins of Gregory are so great that he ought to suffer such things, yet the sins of Peter the apostle are none, that in your times he should deserve to suffer these things.
Wherefore again and again, by the Almighty Lord, I ask that, as your former forefathers the princes sought the favour of Saint Peter the apostle, so you also may take care both to seek this favour for yourselves and to preserve it; and that on account of our sins, who serve him unworthily, his honour may in no wise be diminished among you—he who both is able to be your helper in all things now, and afterwards to remit your sins. Now we have already passed twenty-seven years since we have lived in this city amid the swords of the Lombards. How many things are daily expended upon them by this Church, that we may be able to survive among them, need not be recounted.
But briefly I make known that, just as in the region of Ravenna the devotion of my lords keeps a treasurer with the chief army of Italy, who may meet the daily expenses of matters arising, so also in this city in such matters I am their treasurer. And yet this Church, which at one and the same time expends so much unceasingly upon clergy, monasteries, the poor, the people, and moreover upon the Lombards, behold, is still further pressed by the affliction of all the Churches, which groan much over the pride of this one man, even if they presume to say nothing. Moreover, the bishop of the city of Salona was ordained without my knowledge and that of my representative, and a thing was done which under no former princes has occurred.
Hearing which, I straightway sent to that same transgressor, who was irregularly ordained, that he should by no means presume at all to celebrate the solemnities of the Mass, until I should first learn from my most serene lords whether they themselves had commanded this to be done—which I charged him under the interposition of excommunication. And, despising and scorning me, in reliance on the audacity of certain secular men, to whom, having stripped his own Church, he is said to give many rewards, he presumes even until now to say Masses, and has refused to come to me according to the command of my lords.
But I, obeying the command of their devotion, have so remitted from the heart to this same Maximus, who was ordained without my knowledge, this matter—that in his ordination he presumed to pass over me or my representative—as if he had been ordained on my authority. But the other perverse deeds of his, namely the bodily evils which I have come to know, whether that he was elected with money, or that being excommunicated he presumed to say Masses, for God's sake I cannot pass over uninvestigated. But I hope, and I beseech the Lord, that nothing of these things which have been said may be found in him, and that his cause may be concluded without peril to my soul.
Yet before these things are examined, my most serene lord, by a command in circulation, has ordered that I receive him with honour when he comes. And it is very grievous that a man of whom such and so great things are reported should be honoured, when he ought first to be inquired into and examined. And if the causes of bishops committed to me are disposed before my most pious lords by the patronage of others, unhappy I, what am I doing in this Church? But that my bishops should despise me, and against me have recourse to secular judges, I give thanks to Almighty God, I attribute it to my sins. This, however, I briefly suggest: that I wait a little while; and if he shall long delay coming to me, I shall in no way cease to exercise canonical discipline upon him.
But in the Almighty Lord I trust, that He will grant long life to my most pious lords, and will dispose for us under your hand, not according to our sins, but according to the gifts of His grace. These things therefore I suggest to my most tranquil lady, because I am not ignorant with how great a zeal for rectitude and justice the most upright conscience of her serenity is moved.