Thursday 15 August 2013

Frivolous and Ruin

Quote from Letter 7,30 to Maurice, augustus. June 597

(But) I beg your imperial Piety to realize that some frivolous matters are quite harmless, but others are extremely harmful. When Antichrist comes and says he is God, surely it will be extremely frivolous, but yet all to pernicious? If we consider the amout of letters, there are just two syllables, but if we consider their weight of wickedness, there is universal ruin. But I say confidently  that, whoever calls himself a 'universal' priest, and desires to be called so, anticipates Antichrist in his pride. For he puts himself above all others by being arrogant, and he is not being led into error by a different sort of pride. For just as that perverse man wants to appear as God above all human beings, even so, the man, whoever he is, who seeks to be called the only priest, wants to appear above all other priests. 
But since Truth says 'Whosoever exalts himself shall be humbled', I know that the more fully any pride is inflated, the more quickly it bursts.



Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), II, 486

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