The true copies of the letters between the reverend father in God John Bishop…The true copies of the letters betwene the reuerend father in God Iohn Bisshop…

Even so when John the Bishop of Constantinople had taken upon him to be called universal Bishop of the whole Church, which title afterward the bishop of Rome began to usurp to him self, & for the maintenance of y• same, hath oftentimes disquieted and shaken the whole world, but when the Bishop of Constantinople first began to use this title, Gregory being then Bishop of Rome, confounded him only with the negative. Nemo, said he, decessorum meorū hoc profano vocabulo uti voluit. None of my predecessors (which had continued from Peter downward, for the space of sir hundred years after Christ) would ever use this unchristianlike & lewd name. ⟨p. 48⟩Lib. 4. Epist. 80. And again. Epist. 9• ▪ Sancti ante •eg•m, Sancti in •ege, Sancti sub gratia, omnes perficientes corpus domini in membris sunt constituti. The holy men before the Law, the holy men under the law, the holy men under the grace of y• Gospel, altogether making up one body of the Lord, are placed amongst his men bers. But none of them would ever suffer him self to be called universal. I have chosen me specially these examples, because they seem to serve me to double purpose Thus Gregory reasoned then, as we do now, only upon the negate: and if the Bishop of Constantinople had ben able to prove but one affirmative, y• any Bishop of Rome afore time had used that title, or that ever any man other before the law, or under the law, or under the Gospel had suffered him self to be called universal bishop, then had Gregory been confounded.