To the Empress Constantina, Against the Title of Universal Bishop

Gregory to Constantina, and so on. [a]

Almighty God, who holds the heart of your piety in his right hand, both protects us through you and prepares for you the rewards of eternal recompense for your deeds in time. For I have learned from the letters of the deacon Sabinianus, my representative, how justly your serenity has taken up the cause of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, against certain persons who are proudly humble and falsely kind. And I trust in the bounty of our Redeemer that for these good offices of yours with the most serene lord and his most pious sons you will receive a reward in the heavenly homeland as well. Nor is there any doubt that you will receive eternal blessings, loosed from the chains of your sins, if in the cause of his church you have made him your debtor to whom the power of binding and loosing has been given. So I still beg you to let no one’s hypocrisy prevail against the truth. For there are some who, as the excellent preacher says, by sweet words and fair speeches lead astray the hearts of the innocent: men who are mean in their clothing but puffed up in heart. They make a show of despising everything in this world, and yet they seek to get for themselves everything that belongs to this world. They confess themselves unworthy before everyone, but they cannot be content with particular titles, since they crave the one by which they may seem more worthy than all. So let your piety, whom Almighty God has appointed with our most serene lord to be over the whole world, by your support of justice render service to him from whom you have received the right to so great a dominion, so that you may rule the world committed to you the more securely, the more truly you serve the Author of all things in carrying out the truth. [c]

Furthermore, I tell you that I have received a letter from the most pious lord desiring me to be at peace with my brother and fellow priest John. And indeed it was fitting for the religious lord to give such instructions to priests. But this brother of mine, with new presumption and pride, calls himself Universal Bishop. In the time of our predecessor of holy memory he had himself designated by this most proud title in a synod, though all the acts of that synod were annulled, being disallowed by the Apostolic See. And yet the most serene lord gives me a somewhat distressing message: he has not rebuked the one who is acting proudly, but tries to bend me from my purpose, though in this cause I stand for the truth of the Gospels and the canons, for humility and for what is right; while my brother and fellow priest is acting against the principles of the Gospel, and also against the blessed apostle Peter, against all the churches, and against the ordinances of the canons. But the Lord, in whose hands all things are, is almighty; of him it is written, “There is no wisdom, nor prudence, nor counsel against the Lord.” And indeed my most holy brother, so often mentioned, tries to persuade my most serene lord of many things; but I know well that all those prayers and all those tears of his will not let my lord be talked by anyone into anything against reason or against his own soul. [d]

Still, it is very distressing and hard to bear patiently that my brother and fellow bishop, despising all others, should try to be called sole bishop. But what else is shown by this pride of his than that the times of Antichrist are already near at hand? For truly he is imitating the one who, scorning the joy of fellowship with the legions of angels, tried to rise to a summit of singular eminence, saying, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven; I will sit on the mount of the testament, in the sides of the north; I will go up above the heights of the clouds, and I will be like the Most High.” So I beg you by Almighty God not to let the times of your piety be defiled by the pride of one man, nor in any way to give any assent to so perverse a title; and in this case let your piety by no means despise me. For though the sins of Gregory are so great that he deserves to suffer such things, the apostle Peter has no sins for which he should deserve to suffer this in your times. So again and again I beg you by Almighty God that, just as the princes your ancestors sought the favor of the holy apostle Peter, you too take care both to seek it for yourselves and to keep it, and that his honor among you be in no way lessened on account of the sins of us who unworthily serve him. For he is able both to be your helper in all things now and to forgive your sins hereafter. [f]

Moreover, it is now fully seven years that we have been living in this city among the swords of the Lombards. How much this church spends on them every day, so that we can live among them, cannot be told. But I point out briefly that, just as in the region of Ravenna the Piety of my lords has a paymaster for the first army of Italy, to meet the daily expenses as needs arise, so in this city I am their paymaster for such purposes. And yet this church, which at one and the same time spends so much without ceasing on the clergy, the monasteries, the poor, the people, and on the Lombards besides, is still weighed down by the affliction of all the churches, which groan greatly over this one man’s pride, though they do not dare to say anything. [g]

Further, a bishop of the city of Salona has been ordained without the knowledge of me and my representative, and a thing has been done that never happened under any earlier princes. When I heard of it, I at once sent word to that offender, who had been irregularly ordained, that he must on no account dare to celebrate the solemnities of mass unless we had first learned from our most serene lords that they had ordered this to be done; and I commanded this under pain of excommunication. And yet, scorning and despising me, and backed by the boldness of certain secular persons, to whom he is said to give many bribes, impoverishing his church, he has dared up to this time to celebrate mass, and has refused to come to me as my lords ordered. Now I, obeying the instruction of their piety, have forgiven this same Maximus from my heart for his presumption in passing over me and my representative in his ordination, which was done without my knowledge, just as though he had been ordained with my authority. But his other wrongdoings, that is, the sins of the body I have heard of, his election through bribery, and his having dared to celebrate mass while excommunicated, I cannot, for God’s sake, pass over without inquiry. Yet I hope, and I beg the Lord, that no fault may be found in him in the things that are reported, and that his case may be brought to an end without danger to my soul. Nevertheless, before this has been found out, my most serene lord, in the order he has sent, has instructed me to receive him with honor when he comes. And it is a very serious thing that a man of whom so many such things are reported should be honored before they have been inquired into and sifted, as they ought to be first of all. And if the cases of the bishops committed to me are settled before my most pious lords under the patronage of others, what shall I, unhappy man, do in this church? As for my bishops despising me and turning to secular judges against me, I thank Almighty God that I put it down to my sins. This much, however, I point out briefly, because I am waiting a little while; and if he long delays coming to me, I will not hesitate at all to exercise strict canonical discipline in his case. But I trust in Almighty God that he will give long life to our most pious lords, and will order things for us under your hand, not according to our sins but according to the gifts of his grace. These things, then, I put before my most tranquil lady, since I know with how great a zeal for what is right the most pure conscience of her Serenity is moved. [h]