alse principle which was at the root
of the ecumenical patriarch's arrogance. Thus the strongest word used by
Gregory of John the Faster's assumption, that it was "a name of blasphemy,
of diabolical pride, and a forerunner of Antichrist," received its exact
verification within a generation after Gregory had spoken it.

But Gregory's charge and Principate were of divine creation, and did not
exclude the proper power and jurisdiction either of every bishop or of the
whole episcopate, at the head of which it stood, and through which it
worked, carefully maintaining what had been from the beginning, preserving
the rank and place of each, consolidating all in the one structure.[194]
The intruder set up by the imperial power deposed Alexandria and Antioch to
make them subject to himself; the lawful shepherd maintained Alexandria and
Antioch because they grew upon the tree of which he was the trunk. His
charge did not exclude, but did indeed include them. The reasoning of St.
Gregory in his letter to the emperor of the day, and his very words in his
letter to the patriarch Eulogius, have become a matter of faith by their
enrolment in the decree of the Vatican Council. That decree defines the
Principate to be an episcopal power of jurisdiction, which is immediate,
over the whole Church. By it the whole Church becomes one flock, under one
shepherd. And it further defines that, "It is so far from being true that
this power of the Supreme Pontiff is injurious to the ordinary and
immediate power of episcopal jurisdiction, by which bishops placed by the
Holy Spirit have succeeded the Apostles, and as true pastors feed and rule
the flocks severally assigned to them, each his own, that this jurisdiction
is asserted, strengthened, and maintained by the supreme and universal
pastor, according to St. Gregory's words: 'My honour is the honour of the
universal Church; my honour is the solid strength of my brethren; then am I
truly honoured when his due rank is given to each'."[195]

It may be observed that Gregory's position against the assumption of John
the Faster is the same as St. Leo's position against Anatolius. In both
cases the Popes discerned the hostile power located in the see of Nova Roma
which was at work against the original order of the Church, and the Pope
who was at the head of it. The only difference lies in the great advance
which the hostile power had made on one hand, and on the other hand the
excessively difficult temp