Pastoral Rule, Dialogues & Letters 572

Gregory to Eusebius of Thessalonica, Urbicus of Dyrrachium, Andrew of Nicopolis, John of Corinth, John of Prima Justiniana, John of Crete, John of Larissa and Scodra, and to very many other bishops. We are constrained by the care of the government we have undertaken to extend vigilantly the solicitude of our office, and to instruct the minds of our brothers with the word of admonition; so that neither may wicked presumption deceive the ignorant, nor may a certain dissimulation avail to excuse those who know. Let your Fraternity know, then, that John, once bishop of the city of Constantinople,

against God, against the peace of the Church, in contempt and injury of all priests, has exceeded the bounds of his modesty and measure, and has unlawfully in a synod usurped for himself the proud and pestilential appellation of ‘ecumenical,’ that is, ‘universal.’ Which our predecessor Pelagius of blessed memory, recognizing, annulled by an altogether firm strictness all the acts of that same synod, except those matters which were there transacted concerning the case of Gregory, bishop of Antioch, of venerable memory, rebuking him with the most strict reproof, that he should restrain himself from the new and rash name of superstition; to such a degree that he forbade his deacon to proceed with him unless he amended so great a wickedness.

To the zeal of whose rectitude adhering in all things, we preserve his statutes without opposition, God protecting us, because it is worthy that he should walk with unstumbling steps in the right path of his predecessor, whom, from the same place, the tribunal of the eternal Judge awaits to render an account. In which matter, lest we should seem to omit anything that pertains to the peace of the Church, we approached that same most holy John by our writings once and again, that, the name of pride being removed, he should incline the exaltation of his heart to the humility which our Master and Lord taught. And since we have found that he neglected this, we have not ceased to admonish, in the zeal of concord, this same thing to our most blessed brother and fellow-priest Cyriacus, his successor.

But because now, as we see, with the end of this world drawing near, the enemy of the human race has appeared in his forerunning, so that he may have as forerunners priests those very men who ought to have contradicted him by living well and humbly—through this appellation of pride—I exhort and urge that none of you ever accept this name, that none consent to it, that none write it, that none, where it shall have been written, admit it, or add his own subscription; but, as befits the ministers of Almighty God, let him keep himself untainted from an infection of this poisonous kind, and give no place in himself to the cunning waylayer, since this is done to the injury and rending of the whole Church and, as we have said, to the contempt of you all.

For if one, as he supposes, is universal, it remains that you are not bishops. Moreover, it has reached us that your Fraternity has been summoned to the city of Constantinople.

And although our most pious emperor does not permit unlawful things to be done there, nevertheless, lest perverse men, having seized upon the occasion of your assembly, should either seek a place for surreption on account of the superstition of this name, or should devise to hold a synod for some other matter, so as to introduce this into it by cunning machinations—although, without the authority and consent of the Apostolic See, whatever things shall have been done have no force—yet nevertheless, before Almighty God I adjure and warn that none of you there be held to assent by any persuasions whatever, by any blandishments whatever, by any rewards whatever, by any terrors whatever; but, out of consideration of the eternal judgment, show yourselves salubriously and unanimously against wicked desires;

and, supported by pastoral constancy and apostolic authority, shut out the robber and the assailing wolf, and do not yield to the one raging for the rending of the Church; lest, by any surreption in this matter, you suffer a synod to be celebrated which is neither legitimate nor even to be called a synod. This too we likewise admonish, that if perchance nothing shall have been done about the mention of this perverse name, but a synod is perhaps gathered concerning some other matter, be altogether cautious, circumspect, watchful, and solicitous, lest anything there be decreed prejudicially or unlawfully against any place or person, or against the canons.

But if anything must be dealt with by reason of incidental utility, let the matter in question take such a form that it overturn none of the ancient statutes. Whence again, before God and His saints, we admonish that you preserve all these things with the utmost zeal and with the whole intention of your mind. For if anyone—which we do not believe—shall neglect the present writings in any part, let him know himself separated from the peace of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. Let your Fraternity therefore so act that, when the Shepherd of shepherds shall come in judgment, he may not be able to hold guilt concerning the place of governance which he has received.