Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 476

The provident piety of our lords, lest perchance any scandal might have been engendered in the unity of the holy Church from the dissension of priests, has deigned once and again to admonish me that I should kindly receive the representatives of my brother and fellow-priest Cyriacus, and release them to return the sooner. And although, most pious lord, you command all things aptly and providently, I nonetheless find that by their judgment I am reproached, from such an admonition, as being indiscreet.

Could it be that, if my mind is not a little wounded by a proud and profane title, I could be of such great indiscretion as not to know what I owed to the unity of faith, what to ecclesiastical concord, and should refuse to receive the representatives and synodical letter of my brother because of the bitterness of some cause intervening? Far be it! It would have been too foolish of me to be so wise. For it is one thing that we owe to the preserving of the unity of faith, and another that we owe to the restraining of arrogance. The times therefore were to be distinguished, lest the novelty of my aforesaid brother be thrown into confusion by any point. Whence I also received his representatives with great affection.

Whatever of charity I owed, I displayed, and I honored them better than the ancient custom had been, and I made them celebrate with me the sacred solemnities of the Mass; for just as my deacon ought not to minister at the celebration of the holy mysteries to him who has either committed the fault of arrogance, or does not himself correct it when committed by others, so his ministers ought to be present with me at the celebration of Masses—I who, God guarding me, have not fallen into the error of pride. But that same brother and my fellow-bishop I took care earnestly to admonish, that if he desires to have the peace and concord of all, he should restrain himself from the appellation of a foolish title.

Concerning which matter the piety of our lords commanded me in your instructions, saying that scandal ought not to be engendered among us over the appellation of a frivolous name. But I beg that your imperial piety may weigh that some frivolous things are altogether harmless, while others are vehemently harmful. Will it not be, when the Antichrist comes and calls himself God, altogether frivolous, yet nonetheless exceedingly pernicious? If we attend to the quantity of the utterance, they are but syllables; but if to the weight of iniquity, it is utter perdition. But I say confidently that whoever calls himself universal priest, or desires to be so called, in his self-exaltation goes before the Antichrist, because by pride he sets himself above the rest.

Nor is he led into error by a dissimilar pride; for just as that perverse one wishes to seem God above all men, so whoever this one is who craves to be called sole priest, extols himself above the remaining priests. But since Truth says: Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled (Luke 14:11; 18:14), I know that any self-exaltation is burst the more swiftly, the more it is inflated. Let therefore your piety command those who have fallen into the mark of pride, that they may not beget scandal through the appellation of a frivolous name. For I, a sinner, who by God's authorship hold humility, am not to be admonished unto humility.

But may Almighty God guard the life of our most serene one, both for the peace of the holy Church and for the benefit of the Roman commonwealth, through long ages. For we are certain that if you live, you who fear the Lord of heaven, you will permit no proud things to prevail against the truth.