For I call upon Jesus as my witness for my soul, that I do not want to give anyone a reason to take offence, from the highest right down to the lowest of them. I want everyone to be great and honorable, provided their honor does not detract from the honor of almighty God. For whoever seeks to be honored contrary to God, is not honorable in my view.
But, so that you may know what feelings I have for your Beatitude, I have sent over my most beloved son and deacon, Anatole, to the feet of our most pious emperor, to give satisfaction to his piety and to your Fraternity, because I seek to harm nobody in this affair [of the (ab)use of the title oecumenical patriarch], but to defend a humility pleasing to God and the concord pleasing to the Holy Church.
And because Antichrist, the enemy of our almighty Lord, is near at hand, I keenly desire that he does not find anything of his either in the morals or even in the titles of our priests. And so, let those things that have been introduced in a new way be removed in the same way as they were brought in, and peace in the Lord will remain for us unimpaired.
Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II, 483
No comments:
Post a Comment