But the dignity of “universal patriarch” being assumed by the bishop of Constantinople, “Gregory the Great” denounced it as a “_profane_,” “proud,” “antichristian” title; as “impious,” “execrable,” “blasphemous,” “infernal,” “diabolical.” On this occasion, Gregory assumed the title of affected humility, ever since retained by the Popes, “SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD!” Still that lofty title, which he condemned in his ambitious brother John, he sought for himself, as is evident from his adulatory letter to those monsters of wickedness, Phocas and his wife Leontia. Phocas had opened a passage to the imperial throne, by the murder of Mauricius and his six sons; and afterwards, most barbarously, of the empress Constantia, and her three daughters, dragging them from their refuge in one of the churches of Constantinople. Mauricius is commended as a prince of many virtues, and of but few vices; and Gregory, in his letters to him, hypocritically declares, that “his tongue could not express the good he had received of the Almighty, and his lord the emperor; and that he thought himself bound, in gratitude, to pray incessantly for the life of his most pious and most Christian lord; and that, in return for the goodness of his most religious lord to him, he could do no less than love the very ground on which he trod.” Mauricius, however, favouring the title assumed by the patriarch John, Gregory was offended; and, like many a courtier, congratulated the murderer, Phocas, on his being proclaimed emperor; saying, with the most consummate hypocrisy, “Let the heavens rejoice! let the earth leap for joy! let the whole people return thanks for so happy a change!” In the same strain he wrote, in reply to the first letter of Phocas, and to the Empress Leontia he says, “What tongue can utter, what mind can conceive, the thanks we owe to God, who has placed you on the throne, to ease us of the yoke with which we have hitherto been so cruelly galled? Let the angels give glory to God in heaven! let men return thanks to God upon earth! for the republic is relieved, and our sorrows are banished!” Mr. Bower, in his “Life of Gregory,” asks, “Who would have expected such letters from a Christian bishop to a usurper! a tyrant! a murderer! a regicide? Who would not have thought Gregory, of all men, the least capable of becoming his panegyrist, of applauding him in his usurpation, murder, and tyranny? Gregory, I say, whose manners and whole conduct have hitherto appeared irreproachable! But what virtue can be proof in a Pope against the jealousy of a rival?”