one see." From this it was an inevitable step to use titles which Rome used. The pontiff of Constantinople claimed to be oecumenical (οἰκουμενικός or universalis) patriarch.
In 588 Pelagius declared the acts of a synod at Constantinople to be invalid because the patriarch had used the phrase. Very likely Gregory himself had been the adviser of this course. Now in 595 he pursued the protest. John the Faster had written to him and had employed the offensive title "in almost every line." Gregory wrote, as he describes it, "sweetly and humbly admonishing him to amend this appetite for vain glory." He forbade his envoy to communicate with the patriarch till he had abandoned the title. At the same time he repudiated any wish to assume it for himself. "The Council of Chalcedon," he said, "offered the title of universalis to the Roman pontiff but he refused to accept it, lest he should seem thereby to derogate from the honour of his brother bishops." He saw indeed that political interests were complicating the ecclesiastical claim . His envoy had been commanded by the Emperor to adjure him to live in peace with the patriarch, who seemed to him to be as hypocritical as he was proud. Then either he must obey the Emperor and encourage the proud man in his vanity, or he must alienate the Emperor, his lord and the natural defender of Rome. He did not hesitate. He wrote to the Emperor, tracing the misfortunes of the Empire to the pride of the clergy. When Europe was given over to the barbarians, with cities ruined, villages thrown down, and provinces without inhabitants; when the husbandman no longer tilled the soils and the worshippers of idols daily murdered the faithful, the priests, who should have abased themselves in sackcloth and ashes sought for themselves empty names and titles novel and profane. Peter was never called Universal Apostle, yet John strove to be Universal Bishop. "I confidently affirm that whosoever calls himself sacerdos universalis, or desires to be so called by others, is in his pride a forerunner of Antichrist." What he said to the Emperor he reinforced to the Empress. There should be no peace with the patriarch so long as he claimed this outrageous designation. On the other side the argument became no attitude of aggression, hardly a claim for equality. The patriarchs did not assert that they were above the popes, and they constantly declared that they had no wish to lessen the authority of the other patriarchs. But whatever the Greeks might say, the Latins saw that words represented ideas; and universality could not be predicated of Constantinople in any sense which was not offensive to the venerable see and city of Rome. The bitterness of the strife abated when John the Faster died on 2 September 595, it may be before Gregory's severe judgment had reached him. Cyriacus, his successor, was a personal friend of the pope, and a man of no personal pride. Gregory welcomed his accession and thanked the Emperor for his choice. But in spite of friendly letters the claim was not abandoned. The patriarchs continued
