oman emperor and Christian prince?
Putting aside the embassy, which even in the case of the Apostle Peter was
disregarded, be assured at least by these letters that the see of the
Apostle Peter has never granted communion, and will never grant it, to that
Alexandrian Peter long ago justly condemned, and again by synodal decree
suppressed. But as you have not regarded the words of exhortation I
addressed to you, I leave it to your choice to select which you will have,
the communion of the blessed Apostle Peter or that of the Alexandrian
Peter. You will know by the letters of this man's abettor, Acacius, to my
predecessor of holy memory, copies of which I enclose, how even in your own
judgment he was condemned. But this Acacius, who has committed many
atrocities against the ancient rules, and has come to praise one whom he
affirmed to be condemned, and whose condemnation he obtained from the
Apostolic See, has been severed from apostolic communion. But I believe
that your piety, which prefers to comply even with its own laws rather than
to resist them, and which knows that the supreme rule of things human is
given to you on condition of admitting that things divine are allotted to
dispensers divinely assigned, I believe that it will be undoubtedly of
service to you if you permit the Catholic Church in the time of your
principate to use its own laws, nor allow anyone to stand in the way of its
liberty, which has restored to you the imperial power. For it is certain
that this will bring safety to your affairs, if in God's cause, and
according to His appointment, you study to subdue the royal will and not to
prefer it to the bishops of Christ, and rather to learn holy things by them
than to teach them; to follow the form traced out by the Church, not after
human fashion to impose rules on it, nor wish to dominate the commands of
that power to whom it is God's will that your clemency should devoutly
submit, lest, if the measure of the divine disposition be overpast, it may
end in the disgrace of the disponent. And from this time I absolve my
conscience as to all these things, who have to plead my cause before
Christ's tribunal. It will be well for you more and more to reflect that
both in the present state of things we are under the divine examination,
and that after this life's course we shall according to it come before the
divine judgment."

St. Gregory the Great, writing his _Dialogues_[42] about one hundred and
ten years