ouncil, save as to the absolution of Gregory,
and ordered his deacon, the Nuncio, not to attend the mass with John. But
he left the contest about the name Ecumenical, or Universal, Bishop or
Patriarch, to his successor Gregory. We have many letters of Gregory on the
subject, of which I will give extracts. The Pope foresaw the great danger
there was that the Patriarch of Constantinople would reduce completely
under him the other three Eastern Patriarchs, and perhaps attempt to gain
the Primacy of the whole Church; for this, among other reasons, neither St.
Leo, nor any of his successors, had ever allowed in the West the 28th Canon
of Chalcedon, giving him the next place to Rome. And now this title of
Ecumenical, combined with the fact that the Bishop of that See was, from
his position, the intermediary between all the Bishops of the East and the
imperial power, seemed to point directly to such a consummation. He was the
natural president of a Council continually sitting at Constantinople, which
might be said to lead and give the initiative to the whole East.
Accordingly St. Gregory appears in this matter the great defender of the
Patriarchal equilibrium. "Gregory to Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria, and
Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch."[135]... "As your venerable Holiness is
aware, this name Universal was offered by the holy Synod of Chalcedon to
the Pontiff of the Apostolic See, a post which by God's providence I fill.
But no one of my predecessors ever consented to use so profane a term,
because plainly, if a single _Patriarch is called Universal, the name of
Patriarch is taken from the rest_. But far, far be this from the mind of a
Christian, that any one should wish to claim to himself that by which the
honour of his brethren may seem to be in any degree diminished. Since,
therefore, we are unwilling to receive this honour when offered to us,
consider how shameful it is that any one has wished violently to usurp it
to himself. Wherefore let your Holiness in your letters _never call any one
Universal, lest in offering undue honour to another you should deprive
yourself of that which is your due_.... Let us, therefore, render thanks to
Him, who, dissolving enmities, hath caused in His flesh, that in the whole
world there should be one flock and one fold under Himself the one
Shepherd.... For because he is near of whom it is written, 'He is king over
all the children of pride,' what I cannot utter without great grief, our
brot