confess the Lord in the true faith, turn their eyes to the most holy Roman Church and to her confession and faith, as to a sun of eternal light. … For since the beginning, when the Word of God came down to us, being made man, all the Churches of the Christians have received one only firm basis and foundation, the great Church that is there (at Rome), against which, according to the Saviour's promise, the gates of hell shall never prevail, and which holds the keys of the true faith in him, which gives the true and only piety to those who come to her devoutly, which shuts the mouth of all heretics."[1] And he writes of Pyrrhus, the Monothelite Patriarch of Constantinople (638–655): "If he wants to neither be considered, nor to really be a heretic, he need not try to please first this one and then that one—to do this would be superfluous and unreasonable, because just as all are scandalized at him because one is scandalized, so if he satisfies this one, without doubt all will be satisfied. So let him hasten above all to satisfy the Roman See. If he agrees with her, every one will in all places call him pious and orthodox. Indeed, he is talking in vain if he tries to persuade people like myself before he has satisfied and begged forgiveness of the most blessed Pope of the holy Church of the Romans, that is, of the Apostolic See, which in all things and through all things commands and has authority and power of binding and loosening over the holy Churches of God all over the world, given by the very Word of God made man, as well as by all holy synods according to the sacred Canons."[2] Since then this agreement with the Roman Church is to all these Greeks the standard of orthodoxy, since she is the foundation and basis of the faith, and since our Lord cannot ever make it a condition of true belief to agree with heresy, Pope St. Agatho (678–681) is right in telling Constantine III: "The Apostolic Church of Christ (he means the Roman Church) by the grace of Almighty God, will never be shown to have wandered from the path of Apostolic tradition, nor has it ever fallen into heretical novelties; but as it was founded spotless at the time of the beginning of the Christian faith by its founders, the Princes of
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THE ORTHODOX EASTERN CHURCH
