Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Pope Gregory I
Well, most folks know I am not a fan in any way, shape or form of the papacy. But today, thought a quote by Pope Gregory I seemed appropriate. He was a powerful man, as the pope but the office then had nowhere near the power it wielded in later years.
These were Pope Gregory I words when a guy named John in Constantinople wanted to claim for himself the title of the Universal Bishop.A word the papacy has used for a long time now. Pope Gregory didn'trefute and rebuke this guy John because he wanted the title for himself, he refuted and rebuked him,because he could see how wrong it was. Please note carefully Pope Gregory's usage of the term Anti-Christ, to anyone who takes and uses the name The Universal Bishop of the Church. I don't have a source for this quote, as I heard it during a sermon.
"The whole church falls from its condition if anyone who is called universal falls. For our brother and fellow Bishop to take the name of sole Bishop, despising all others is a very sad thing to bear patiently. But what else does this pride of his signify except that the times of Anti-Christ are already near at hand. For he's obviously imitating Him, who spurning fellowship with the angels tried to climb to the pinnacle of uniqueness. None of my predecessors ever wished to use this profane word. For clearly, if one Patriarch is called universal then the name patriarch is taken away from the rest. But let this be far from the Christian mind that anyone should wish to claim for himself an advantage by which to threaten the honor of his brethren in the slightest degree. To consent to this wicked word is nothing less than to destroy the faith. Its one thing that we should preserve unity of faith, another that we ought to repress self-exaltation, but I say it confidently, because whoever calls himself universal Bishop or wishes to be called so, is in his self-exaltation Anti-Christ's precursor. For in his swaggering he sets himself before the rest. I have said the church cannot have peace with us unless he corrects his pride over superstition and proud words which the first apostate invented. And if one Bishop is called universal the universal church goes down, when the universal bishop falls."
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