Gregory to John, bishop of Constantinople. Your Fraternity recalls how great was the peace and concord of the Churches which you found at the time when you were promoted to the priestly honour. But by what boldness, or by what swelling of pride I know not, you have attempted to seize for yourself a new name, whereby the hearts of all the brethren might be brought to scandal. In this matter I greatly marvel, for I remember that you wished to flee, that you might not even attain to the episcopate. Yet, having attained it, you desire so to exercise it as though you had run to it with ambitious longing. For you who confessed yourself unworthy to be called a bishop have at last been brought to this, that, despising the brethren, you strive to be called the sole bishop.
And indeed concerning this matter grave writings were sent to your Holiness by my predecessor of holy memory, Pelagius. In these he dissolved the acts of the synod which had been gathered among you concerning the cause of our sometime brother and fellow bishop Gregory, on account of the abominable word of arrogance; and he forbade the archdeacon, whom according to custom he had sent to the feet of his lords, to celebrate the solemnities of the Masses with you. But after his death, when I, unworthy, was brought to the governance of the Church, both formerly through my other envoys and now through our common son the deacon Sabinianus, I took care to address your Fraternity, that you might restrain yourself from such presumption, not indeed by any letter of my own, but by a bare admonition.
And when you would not amend, I forbade him to celebrate the solemnities of the Masses with your Fraternity, that I might first strike at your Holiness under a certain reverence of shame, so that, if this abominable and profane swelling could not be shamed into amendment, then those measures might be reached which are strict and canonical. And because wounds that must be cut away must first be handled with a gentle hand, I ask, I beseech, and with all the sweetness I can I entreat, that your Fraternity contradict all who flatter you and confer upon you the name of error, and consent not to be called by that foolish and proud title.
For truly, weeping, I say, and out of the inmost grief of my heart I impute it to my sins, that this my brother has been unable until now to be brought back to humility, he who has been set in the grade of the episcopate for this very purpose, that he should bring back the souls of others to humility; that he who teaches others the truth has consented not to teach himself, even though I entreat him. Weigh, I beg, that in this rash presumption the peace of the whole Church is disturbed, and grace, which is poured out in common upon all, is contradicted. In which grace, assuredly, you will yourself grow only so far as you determine within yourself. And you will be made the greater the more you restrain yourself from the usurpation of a proud and foolish title. And you advance in so far as you take pains not
to arrogate to yourself by disparaging the brethren. Love humility, therefore, dearest brother, with all your heart, through which the concord of all the brethren and the unity of the holy universal Church may be preserved. Surely the apostle Paul, when he heard some say: I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I indeed of Cephas (1 Cor. 1:12), most vehemently shuddering at this rending of the Body of the Lord, whereby its members were in a manner joining themselves to other heads, cried out, saying: Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (Ibid., 13).
If, therefore, he avoided subjecting the members of the Lord's Body in a partial manner to certain heads outside of Christ, and even to the apostles themselves, what will you say in the examination of the last judgment to Christ, the Head, that is, of the universal Church, you who, by the appellation of 'universal,' strive to bring all His members into subjection to yourself? Who, I ask, is set forth for imitation in so perverse a title, save he who, despising the legions of angels set up in fellowship with himself, strove to break forth to the summit of singularity, that he might seem to be subject to none and alone to preside over all? He also who said: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will exalt my throne. I will sit upon the mount of the covenant, on the sides of the north.
I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High (Isa. 14:13-14). For what are all your brethren, the bishops of the universal Church, but the stars of heaven? whose life and speech together shine amid the sins and errors of men as amid the darkness of night. When you desire to set yourself above them by an exalted title, and to trample their name by comparison with yourself, what else do you say but: I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will exalt my throne? Are not all the bishops clouds, who both rain down the words of preaching and glitter with the light of good works? When your Fraternity, despising them, strives to press them beneath yourself, what else do you say but that which is said by the ancient enemy:
I will ascend above the height of the clouds? When I behold all these things with my mind, and dread the hidden judgments of God, my tears are increased, the groans in my heart cannot contain themselves, that so most holy a man, the lord John, of such great abstinence and humility, has, through the seduction of familiar tongues, burst forth into such great pride, that in the craving for a perverse name he strives to be like him who, when he proudly wished to be like God, lost even the grace of the likeness that had been granted him; and therefore he lost true blessedness, because he sought a false glory. Surely Peter, first of the apostles, a member of the holy and universal Church, Paul, Andrew, John — what else are they than the heads of particular peoples?
And yet all are members under one Head. And, to bind together all things in a brief girdle of speech: the saints before the Law, the saints under the Law, the saints under grace, all these, completing the Body of the Lord, are constituted among the members of the Church, and none of them wished to be called universal. Let your Holiness therefore acknowledge how greatly you swell within yourself, in that you desire to be called by that name by which no one who was truly holy ever presumed to be called. Did not, as your Fraternity knows, the prelates of this Apostolic See, which by God's disposing I serve, receive from the venerable Council of Chalcedon, by an honour offered them, the title of 'universal'?
But yet no one ever wished to be called by such a title, no one seized for himself this rash name, lest, if he arrogated to himself the glory of singularity in the grade of the pontificate, he might seem to have denied it to all the brethren. But this I know, that these things arise for your Holiness from those who serve you with a deceitful familiarity; against whom I ask that your Fraternity keep skilful watch, and offer not yourself to be deceived by their words. For they are to be believed the greater enemies the more they flatter with praises. Leave such men; and if they mean utterly to deceive, let them at least deceive the hearts of earthly men and not of priests. Let the dead bury their own dead (Luke 9:60). But do you say with the Prophet:
Let them be turned back at once and put to shame, who say to me: Aha, aha (Ps. 69:4). And again: Let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head (Ps. 140:5). Whence too a certain wise man well admonishes: Let those who are at peace with you be many, but let your counsellor be one of a thousand (Sir. 6:6). For evil communications corrupt good manners (1 Cor. 15:33). For the ancient enemy, when he cannot break through a stout heart, seeks out the weak persons joined to it, and, as it were against strong walls, mounts by ladders set against them (Gen. 3). Thus he deceived Adam through the woman joined to him.
Thus, when he slew the sons of blessed Job, he left the weak woman (Job 2:9-10), that he who could by no means penetrate his heart by himself, might at least, if he could, penetrate it through the woman's words. Whosoever, therefore, near you are weak and worldly, let them ever be broken in their own persuasion and flattery, because thereby they beget the eternal enmities of God, whence they themselves, perverse lovers, seem to be loved. Surely of old it was proclaimed through the apostle John: Little children, it is the last hour (1 John 2:18); according to what Truth foretold. Pestilence and the sword rage throughout the world, nations rise up against nations, the globe of the earth is shaken, and the earth, gaping, is dissolved with its inhabitants. For all the things that were foretold are coming to pass.
The king of pride is near, and — what it is impious to say — an army of priests is prepared for him, since they do soldier for the neck of arrogance, who had been set for this purpose, that they should furnish a leadership of humility. But in this matter, even though our own tongue should in no way contradict it, the power of Him rises up against arrogance unto vengeance, who by His very self especially opposes the vice of pride. For hence it is written: God resists the proud, but to the humble He gives grace (Jas. 4:6). Hence again it is said: He is unclean before God who exalts his heart (Prov. 16:5). Hence against the proud man it is written: Why is earth and ashes proud? (Sir. 10:9). Hence through His very self Truth says: Everyone
who exalts himself shall be humbled (Luke 14:11). And that Truth might lead us back to the way of life through humility, it deigned in its very self to demonstrate what it admonishes us, saying: Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:29). For unto this the only-begotten Son of God took upon Himself the form of our infirmity: unto this He appeared not only visible but even despised, He who is invisible; unto this He endured the mockeries of insults, the reproaches of illusions, the torments of sufferings, that the humble God might teach man not to be proud. What, then, is the virtue of humility, for the sake of which alone that One, truly to be taught, who without measure is great, was made small even unto suffering and death?
For because the pride of the devil offered itself as the origin of our perdition, the humility of God was found as the instrument of our redemption. Our enemy indeed, created among all things, wished to be exalted above all things; but our Redeemer, remaining great above all things, deigned to become small among all things. What, then, do we bishops say, we who have received his place here with the humility of our Redeemer, and yet imitate the pride of that very enemy? Behold, we know that our Creator descended from the summit of His loftiness, that He might give glory to the human race, and we, created from the lowest, glory in the diminishment of our brethren.
God humbled Himself even unto our dust, and set His mouth in heaven, and passed over the earth; yet man, who is dust, passes over the earth, and human rottenness is not ashamed, and the son of man, a worm (Job 25:6), does not fear to be exalted. Let us bring back to mind, dearest brother, that which is said by the most wise Solomon: Before thunder the lightning shall go forth, and before ruin the heart shall be exalted (Sir. 32:14). Where, on the contrary, it is subjoined: Before glory it shall be humbled. Let us therefore be humbled on the mountain, if we would come to the solid loftiness. Let not the eyes of the heart be darkened by the smoke of arrogance, which the more it swells, the more swiftly it vanishes. Let us weigh what the precepts of our Redeemer admonish us, when He says:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3). Hence too through the prophet He says: Upon whom shall my Spirit rest, but upon the humble and quiet, and him who trembles at my words? (Isa. 66:2). Surely, when the Lord would lead back to the way of humility the still-weak hearts of the disciples, He said: If anyone among you would be first, he shall be the least of all (Matt. 20:26-27). In which matter it is openly known that he is truly exalted who is humbled in his own thoughts. Let us dread, therefore, to be enrolled in the number of those who seek the first seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the marketplace, and to be called rabbi by men. Against which the Lord says to the disciples: But do not you be called rabbi.
For one is your Master; but you are all brethren. And call no man father to yourselves upon earth, for one is your Father (Matt. 23:8-9). What then, dearest brother, will you say in that terrible examination of the coming judgment, you who desire to be called not only father, but even the general father in the world? Let the wicked suggestion of evil men therefore be shunned, let every instigation of scandal be fled. It must indeed be that scandals come, but nevertheless woe to that man through whom the scandal comes (Matt. 18:7). Behold, from this abominable word of arrogance the Church is torn, the hearts of all the brethren are provoked to scandal. Has it perhaps slipped your mind, what Truth says: Whoever shall scandalize one of these little ones
who believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone of an ass be hung about his neck, and he be drowned in the depth of the sea (Matt. 18:6)? And it is written: Charity seeks not its own (1 Cor. 13:5). Behold, your Fraternity arrogates to itself even what belongs to others. Again it is written: In honour preferring one another (Rom. 12:10). And you strive to take away from all him whom you unlawfully desire to usurp for yourself alone. Where is it, dearest brother, that which is written: Have peace with all, and holiness, without which no one shall see God (Heb. 12:14)? Where is it that is written: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God (Matt. 5:9)?
It behoves you to consider, lest any root of bitterness springing up may hinder, and through it many be defiled (Heb. 12:15). But if we neglect to consider this, the judgments from on high will keep watch against the swelling of so great an arrogance. And we indeed, against whom by a wicked audacity so great a fault is committed, keep what Truth has commanded, saying: If your brother has sinned against you, go and correct him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not hear you, take with you still one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand. And if he does not hear them, tell the Church. But if he does not hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican (Matt. 18:15-17).
I, then, through my envoys once and with these humble words, took pains to correct this which is sinned against in the whole Church, and now I write through my very self. Whatever I ought humbly to have done, I have not omitted. But if in my rebuke I am despised, it remains that I must call upon the Church. Saying these things, therefore, may Almighty God make known to your Fraternity with how great a love I am bound toward you, and how greatly in this cause I mourn, not against you, but for you. In which, nevertheless, I cannot prefer to the evangelical precepts, the institutions of the canons, and the benefits of the brethren, the person even of him whom I love unavenged.
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Scriptaantemsanctitatisvestrae 1 dulcissimaatquesuavissimadecausapreshyterorumJoannisetAthanasiisuscepi, dequavobisinsubsequentibusDominoadjuvanterespoudcbo, quiasubtantistribulationibusmcircumfususbarbarorumgladiispreUtOr, IIInondicomultatractare, sedmihirespirarevixliceat. nDalaKalendisJanuarii, indictione 13. (Cf. Joan. Diuc. I. III, n. 54.)
But your Holiness's most sweet and most pleasant writings concerning the cause of the presbyters John and Athanasius I have received, to which, with the Lord's help, I shall reply in what follows; for, encompassed by such great tribulations, I am pressed on all sides by the swords of the barbarians, so that I may — I do not say deal with many matters — but scarcely be permitted to breathe. Given on the Kalends of January, in the thirteenth indiction. (Cf. John the Deacon, Book III, no. 54.)