To Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria, on the Angles and the Title of Universal Pope

Gregory to Eulogius, and so on. Our common son who brings this letter found me sick when he brought your holiness’s letters, and he has left me sick. So it has come about that the scanty water of my short letter has hardly been able to trickle out to the great fountain of your blessedness. But it was a gift from heaven that, while I was in bodily pain, I received your holiness’s letter, which lifted me up with joy over the instruction of the heretics of the city of Alexandria and the harmony of the faithful, so much so that the very joy of my mind eased the severity of my suffering. And indeed we rejoice with fresh gladness to hear of your good works, though at the same time we by no means suppose that it is anything new for you to act so perfectly. For that the people of holy church is growing, and that spiritual harvests of grain for the heavenly barn are multiplying, we never doubted came from the grace of Almighty God, which has flowed out abundantly to you, most blessed ones. So we give thanks to Almighty God that we see fulfilled in you what is written: “Where there is much increase, there the strength of the oxen is plain to see” (Proverbs 14, verse 4). For if a strong ox had not drawn the plow of the tongue over the ground of its hearers’ hearts, so great an increase of the faithful would never have sprung up.

But since I know that in the good things you do you also rejoice with others, I repay you for your kindness and bring you news not unlike your own. The nation of the Angles, set in a corner of the world, remained until now in false belief, worshiping wood and stones. Helped by your prayers for me, I decided to send to it, with God’s help, a monk of my monastery to preach. With my permission he was made a bishop by the bishops of Germany, and, with their help as well, he went on to the end of the world, to that nation. Already letters have reached us telling of his safety and his work. They say that he and those sent with him shine with such great miracles among that nation that they seem to imitate the powers of the apostles in the signs they show. Moreover, at the feast of the Lord’s Nativity that fell in this first indiction, more than ten thousand Angles are reported to have been baptized by this same brother and fellow bishop of ours. I have told you this so that you may know what you are accomplishing among the people of Alexandria by speaking, and what at the ends of the world by praying. For your prayers are in the place where you are not, while your holy works are seen in the place where you are. [b]

Next, as to the person of Eudoxius the heretic, about whose error I have found nothing in the Latin language: I am glad that your blessedness has satisfied me most fully. For you have brought forward the testimony of strong men, Basil, Gregory and Epiphanius, and we acknowledge that the man at whom our heroes have hurled so many darts lies plainly slain. And as to the errors that are shown to have arisen in the church of Constantinople, you have answered on every point most learnedly, and as it became you to speak the judgment of so great a see. So we give thanks to Almighty God that the tablets of the covenant are still in the ark of God. For what is a priest’s heart but the ark of the covenant? And since spiritual teaching keeps its vigor there, the tablets of the law are without doubt lying within it. [d]

Your blessedness has also taken care to declare that you no longer use proud titles, which have sprung from a root of vanity, in writing to certain persons. And you address me, saying, “As you have commanded.” This word “command” I beg you to take away from my hearing, since I know who I am and who you are. For in position you are my brothers, in character my fathers. I did not command, then, but wished to point out what seemed to be profitable. Yet I do not find that your blessedness has been willing to remember perfectly the very thing I brought to your mind. For I said that you ought not to write anything of the kind either to me or to anyone else. And look: in the preface of the letter you have addressed to me, the very one who forbade it, you have seen fit to use a proud title, calling me Universal Pope. But I beg your most sweet holiness not to do this any more, since what is given to another beyond what reason requires is taken away from yourself. For my part, I do not seek to prosper by words but by my conduct. Nor do I count that an honor by which I know my brothers lose their honor. For my honor is the honor of the universal church. My honor is the solid strength of my brothers. I am truly honored when the honor due to each and all is not denied them. For if your holiness calls me Universal Pope, you deny that you are yourself what you call me universally. But far be this from us. Away with words that puff up vanity and wound love. [e]

And indeed your holiness knows that this title was offered to my predecessors at the Synod of Chalcedon, and afterward by later fathers. And yet not one of them would ever use it, so that, by having regard for the honor of all priests in this world, they might keep their own before Almighty God. Finally, as I give you the greeting that is due, I beg you to be so good as to remember me in your holy prayers, so that the Lord, at your intercession, may absolve me from the bonds of my sins, since my own merits cannot help me. [f]