In 588 the acts of a synod of Constantinople were declared by Pelagius II. to be invalid be-cause the patriarch used the title _oikoumenikos_ or _universalis_. Just as at the Council of Chalcedon the Alexandrine representatives styled the pope "oecumenical archbishop and {66} patriarch of the Great Rome," so the patriarch of Constantinople used the style and dignity of "oecumenical patriarch." It was one that had been employed at least since 518, and it seems to have been commonly used. From the use of this title came grave controversy. In 588 the acts of a synod of Constantinople were declared by Pelagius II. to be invalid because the patriarch used the title _oikoumenikos_ or _universalis_: and in 595 Gregory the Great strongly condemned the use of such a phrase, at the same time repudiating its use for his own see. "The Council of Chalcedon," he wrote, "offered the title of universal to the Roman pontiff, but he refused to accept it, lest he should seem thereby to derogate from the honour of his brother bishops." [6] And to the emperor Maurice he said still more distinctly, "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." But the patriarchs continued to use the title, and before a century had elapsed, the popes followed their example. [Sidenote: The province of Illyricum.] The relation of Gregory with the Church of Illyricum gives opportunity for mention of that anomalous patriarchate. Somewhat apart from the general Church history of the early Middle Age stands the province of Illyricum. Its ecclesiastical status was even more ambiguous than its political. On its borders, or within its limits, the patriarchate of Rome touched that of {67} Constantinople, and the claims of the two, sometimes at least conflicting, were complicated by the privileges given by Justinian to his birthplace. In the tenth century it was undoubtedly under the jurisdiction of Constantinople, in the seventh it appears to have been under that of Rome. In the Councils at Constantinople in 681 and 692, the Illyrian bishops appeared as attached exclusively to Rome; and so, it has been noticed, did those of Crete, Thessalonica, and Corinth. In the sixth century there are instances, though not numerous ones, of papal interference, in the nature of the exercise of judicial power, in the province of Illyricum; and at the end of the century Gregory the Great was especially active in his correspondence with the bishops. It would seem from one of his letters that he counted even Justiniana Prima as under his authority, though the intention of the emperor was certainly not to make it so. This edict--for so it practically is--is interesting also because it appears to deal with all the ecclesiastical provinces of the empire which depended immediately on the Roman patriarchate. It omits Africa,