To John, Bishop of Syracuse, on the Customs of the Roman Mass

Gregory to John, and so on.

Someone coming from Sicily has told me that some friends of his, whether Greeks or Latins I do not know, as though moved by zeal for the holy Roman church, are grumbling about my arrangements for the services. They say, “How can he be keeping the church of Constantinople in check, when he follows its usage in everything?” And when I asked him, “Which of its usages do we follow?” he replied: “You have had the Alleluia said at mass outside the season of Pentecost; you have arranged for the subdeacons to go forward without their vestments, and for Kyrie Eleison to be said, and for the Lord’s Prayer to be said immediately after the canon.” I replied to him that in none of these things have we followed another church. [a]

For as to our custom here of saying the Alleluia, it is said to have come from the church of Jerusalem through the tradition of the blessed Jerome, in the time of Pope Damasus of blessed memory. And so in this matter we have rather cut back the former usage, which had been handed down to us here from the Greeks. [d] Further, as to my having had the subdeacons go forward without vestments, this was the ancient practice of the church. But it pleased one of our pontiffs, I do not know which, to order them to go forward in linen tunics. For have your churches received their tradition from the Greeks in any respect? Where, then, do they get their present custom of the subdeacons going forward in linen tunics, except that they received it from their mother, the Roman church?

Further, we have not said, and do not now say, the Kyrie Eleison as the Greeks say it. Among the Greeks everyone says it together; but with us it is said by the clergy and answered by the people, and as often as it is said, Christe Eleison is said too, which is not said at all among the Greeks. Further, in daily masses we leave out some things that are usually said, and say only Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, so as to give ourselves a little longer to these words of supplication. But we say the Lord’s Prayer immediately after the prayer for this reason: it was the custom of the apostles to consecrate the host of the offering by that prayer alone. And it seemed to me very unfitting that we should say over the offering a prayer which a scholar had composed, and should not say over his body and blood the very prayer which our Redeemer composed. Also, among the Greeks the Lord’s Prayer is said by all the people, but with us by the priest alone. In what, then, have we followed the usages of the Greeks, when we have either amended our own old ones or established new and useful ones, in which, however, we are not shown to be imitating others? So let your love, when an opportunity presents itself, go to the church of Catania; or in the church of Syracuse teach those whom you believe or perceive may be grumbling about this matter, holding a conference there as though for some other purpose, and so do not cease to instruct them. For as to what they say about the church of Constantinople, who can doubt that it is subject to the Apostolic See, as both the most pious lord the emperor and our brother the bishop of that city continually acknowledge? Yet if this or any other church has anything good, I am ready in what is good to imitate even those beneath me, while I forbid them what is unlawful. For he is foolish who thinks himself first in such a way that he scorns to learn whatever good things he may see. [e]