Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 381

Gregory to Eulogius bishop of Alexandria and Anastasius bishop of Antioch. Since the excellent preacher says: 'Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will honor my ministry' (Rom. 11:13); and who again elsewhere says: 'We were made as little ones in the midst of you' (1 Thess. 2:7) — he doubtless shows us who follow him an example, that we should both hold humility in mind and yet preserve the dignity of our order in honor, so that neither may humility in us be timid, nor our exaltation be proud.

Now some eight years ago, in the time of my predecessor Pelagius of holy memory, our brother and fellow bishop John, seeking an occasion from another cause in the city of Constantinople, held a synod in which he attempted to call himself universal. As soon as that same predecessor of mine learned of this, he by letters, by the authority of the blessed Apostle Peter, annulled the acts of that synod. Copies of these letters I have taken care to send to your Holiness. But the deacon who, according to custom, attended upon the steps of your most pious lords to render the responses of the Church, he forbade to celebrate the solemnities of the Mass with our aforesaid fellow priest.

Following his judgment also, I sent similar writings to our aforesaid fellow priest, copies of which I have thought fit to forward to your Beatitude, chiefly aiming at this: that concerning this matter, by which through a new pride the whole inward parts of the universal Church are disturbed, we should first strike the mind of our oft-mentioned brother with a modest earnestness. And if he should be in no way willing to be bent from the rigor of his self-exaltation, then what ought to be done may, with the consolation of Almighty God, be subtly considered. For, as your venerable Holiness knows, this name of universality was offered, through the holy Synod of Chalcedon, to the pontiff of the Apostolic See, whom by God's disposing I serve.

But none of my predecessors ever consented to use this so profane a title, because, of course, if one patriarch is called universal, the name of patriarch is taken away from the rest. But far be it, far be it from a Christian mind, that anyone should wish to seize for himself that whereby he might seem in any degree, however small, to diminish the honor of his brethren. When therefore we are unwilling to accept this honor when offered, consider how ignominious it is for anyone to have wished to usurp it for himself by violence. Therefore let your Holiness in your letters never name anyone universal, lest you detract what is due to yourself when you offer to another an honor undue.

Nor in this matter let any sinister suspicion gnaw at your mind concerning our most serene lords, since he fears the Almighty Lord and in no way consents to do anything against the evangelical statutes, against the most sacred canons. As for me, although I am separated from you by long stretches of land and sea, yet I am wholly joined to you in heart. And of your Beatitude toward me I am in every way confident of this: that, since you love me in turn, you are not far from me. Wherefore we render the greater thanks to that grain of mustard seed (Matt.

13:31-32), because from the appearance of a small and despicable seed it has so spread abroad on every side, with branches rising from the same root and stretching themselves out, that in them all the birds of heaven may nest. And thanks be to that leaven which mingled the mass of the whole human race into unity with three measures of meal (Matt. 13:33); and to that little stone which, cut without hands from the mountain, occupied the whole face of the globe of the earth (Dan. 2:35). Which stone extended itself everywhere to this end: that, the human race being reduced to unity, the body of the whole Church might be perfected, and thus this partial distinction of members might pertain to the good of the whole frame.

Whence we too are not far from you, because in Him who is everywhere we are one. Let us therefore give thanks to Him who, having dissolved enmities, in His own flesh brought it about that in all the world there should be one flock and one fold under Himself the one shepherd; ever mindful of what the preacher of truth admonishes us, saying: 'Being careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace' (Eph. 4:3). And: 'Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see God' (Heb. 12:14). Who also says to other disciples: 'If it be possible, as much as is in you, having peace with all men' (Rom. 12:18). For He saw that the good cannot have peace with the wicked; and therefore, as you know, He premised, 'If it be possible.'

But since peace cannot be firmly established save between two parties, when the wicked flee from it, the good ought to hold it from the very marrow. Whence also it is wonderfully said, 'As much as is in you' — that is, that it may remain in us, even when it is repelled by the mind of depraved men. And this peace we then truly hold, when we pursue the faults of the proud with charity and justice together pressing on; when we love them and hold their vices in hatred. For a man is the work of God, but a vice is the work of a man. Let us therefore distinguish what God has made and what a man has made; and let us neither hold a man in hatred on account of his error, nor love the error on account of the man.

With united mind, then, let us pursue in the man the evil of pride, so that the man himself may first be freed from his enemy, namely error. Our almighty Redeemer will supply strength to charity and justice; He will supply to us and to you, though placed far from us, the unity of His Spirit — He by whose craftsmanship the Church, constructed as it were in the manner of an ark with four sides, and with the joining of imperishable timbers, and bound with the pitch of charity, is disturbed by the adversity of no wind, by the swelling of no wave coming from without.

But just as, by His governing grace, we must pray that no wave coming upon us from without may throw us into confusion, so, most beloved brethren, we must beseech with our whole inmost being that the right hand of His providence may draw out the heap of filth within us. For the adversary the devil, raging against the humble, going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8), no longer, as we perceive, goes about the sheepfolds, but so mightily fixes his teeth in certain necessary members of the Church that it is doubtful to none that, unless the provident band of all the shepherds, with the Lord's favor, runs together in unity, he will quickly rend the whole fold — which God forbid.

Weigh well, most beloved brethren, who it is that follows close at hand, whose so perverse beginnings burst forth even among priests. For because near at hand is he of whom it is written: 'He is king over all the children of pride' (Job 41:25) — which, not without grievous sorrow, I am compelled to say — our brother and fellow bishop John, despising the Lord's commands, the apostolic precepts, the rules of the Fathers, while through self-exaltation he attempts to run before others in a name.

But may Almighty God make known to your Beatitude with what groaning of depraved contemplation I am tormented, that he who was once most modest toward me, he beloved by all, he who seemed occupied in alms, prayers, and fastings, from the ash on which he sat, from that humility which he preached, has taken up such vaunting that he attempts to ascribe all things to himself, and strives through the exaltation of pompous speech to subjugate to himself the members of that Christ which cleave to the one sole Head, namely Christ. Nor is it any wonder that that tempter, who knows the beginning of all sin to be pride, both then used it in the first man before all things, and now has placed it in certain men,

as it were at the end of their virtues; so that those of us who seemed in some measure by good pursuits to escape his most cruel hands, he might, at the very goal of a good work, and as it were at the very conclusion of perfection, lay a snare for. Wherefore we must earnestly pray, and Almighty God must be implored with assiduous prayers, that He may turn away this error from that man's mind, that He may remove this evil of pride and confusion from the unity and humility of the Church. And with the Lord's favor we must run together and take precaution with all our strength, lest by the venom of one man's word the living members in Christ's body should die. For if this be permitted licentiously to be said, the honor of all patriarchs is denied.

And when perhaps he who is called universal perishes in error, no bishop is any longer found to have remained in the state of truth. It behooves you therefore constantly and without prejudice to preserve, just as you received them, your Churches, and to let this temptation of diabolical usurpation ascribe nothing to itself among you. Stand firm, stand secure: presume never either to give or to receive writings bearing the falsehood of the universal name. Forbid all the bishops subject to your care from the defilement of this exaltation, that the whole Church may recognize you as patriarchs, not only in good works, but also in the authority of truth.

But if perchance any adverse things follow, we ought, persisting with one accord, even by dying, to show that in a harm done to the whole we love nothing specially for ourselves. Let us say with Paul: 'To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain' (Phil. 1:21). Let us hear what the first of all shepherds says: 'If you suffer anything for justice' sake, blessed shall you be' (1 Pet. 3:14). For believe me, that the honor which we have received for the preaching of the truth, if the cause of necessity should demand it, we would more securely relinquish for that same truth than hold. But pray for me, as it befits your most beloved Beatitude, that what I dare to say to you I may show forth in works.