Calvin's Institutes.4.7.4: Gregory the Great, Anti-Christ, and the Bishop of Rome

Some observations on Calvin’s Institutes, 4.7.4

1. Contention over the term “universal bishop” did not arise until Gregory the Great’s time (540-604 A.D.)

2. The ambition of John of Constantinople was the occasioning incident; he was trying to make himself the “universal bishop.”

3. Gregory’s position is that this is sacrilegious, profane, and anti-christ in spirit.

4. Calvin quotes Gregory 1[1]:

a. “The whole church falls from its condition if anyone who calls `universal’ falls.”

b. “For our brother and fellow bishop to take the name of sole bishop, despising all others, is a very sad thing to bear patiently. But what else does this pride of his signify except that the times of Antichrist are already at hand? For he is obviously imitating him who, spurning fellowship with the angels, tried to climb to the pinnacle of uniqueness!”

c. In another letter to Eulogius of Alexandria and Anastasius of Antioch: “None of my predecessors every wished to use this profane word. For clearly if one patriarch is called `universal,’ then the name `patriarch’ is taken away from the rest. But let this be far from the Christian mind, that anyone should wish to claim for himself an advantage to threaten the honor of his brethren in the slightest degree.”

d. “To consent to the wicked word is nothing less than to destroy the faith.”

e. “It is one thing that we should preserve unity of faith; another, that we ought to repress self-exaltation. But I say it, confidently, because whoever calls himself `universal bishop,’ or wishes to be so called, is in his self-exaltation Anti-Christ’s precursor, for in his swaggering he sets himself before the rest.”

f. In another letter to Anastasius of Alexandria: “I have said that he cannot have peace with us unless he correct his pride over a superstitious and proud word which the first apostate invented. And (that I may forbear to speak of the injury to your honor) if one bishop is called `universal,’ the universal church goes down when that universal bishop falls.”

5. The terms used by Gregory, here and elsewhere, for this self-exaltation are: wicked, profane, abominable, proud and sacrilegious, invented by the devil, and published and advanced by the Anti-Christ.

These are Calvin’s observations. We bring our observations to Calvin's observations, followed by some applications.

1. Pride informs churchmanship today as much as yesterday. One-upmanship over brothers, on Gregory’s terms, is wicked, evil, profane, and demonic. It happens and is happening today in leadership positions. The term "Archbishop" and "Primate," having no foundation in Scripture or the early church, should be abolished.

2. Rome in Calvin’s day had claimed this supremacy; Rome has never reversed itself on this point and continues with its self-intoxicated and demonic lust and agenda for world supremacism. She calls everyone else "ecclesial communities." She can't bring herself to call them Churches of Christ. She, the adulteress with the devil, still says she is #1.

3. The recent gaggle in the ACNA and the grossest tepidity of responses from ACNA bishops has been tastelessly shallow and without the slightest sense of discernment. Words along these generic lines have been offered, “We thank the Holy See for this generous offer, but we have…” Gregory the Great, if alive today, would not be tepid like the moderns.

4. We witness triumphalism in many different garments today: Wesleyanism, revivalism, and other reform movements have said, “We’re better than thou.” This can be seen in the Reformed camp also. The Anglo-Romanists are one of the worst expressions of it; witness their "purple shirt" fever amidst 50-ish some continuuing jurisdictions. Southern Baptists have talked about "numbers" like gunslingers "putting notches on their belts." We shall have this impulse to dominion and pompophilia today and into the future, as we’ve had in this past.

5. Gregory’s objection to `universal bishop’ entails this consequence. If that universal bishop falls, the church falls. That is, if Rome is truly the universal bishop and subsequent doctrine--false doctrine--arises and dominates (e.g. Trent), the church has fallen. Yeah, it has become a fallen church following a fallen leader following a fallen angel, Lucifer. That is exactly what the English and Continental Reformers believed…with Gregory the Great.

Applications:

1. Steer clear of ACNA Bishops; they are not sound on their views towards Rome. They have been trained in TEC and Anglo-Romewardizing schools.

2. Steer clear of Canterbury and Anglicanism, as a whole, since, as an aggregate body, they are unsound. Listen, read and learn, but keep an healthy distance.

3. Steer clear of Dr. James Innes Packer, in terms of his statesmanship (not all of his theology), because he failed with ECT. He does not share Gregory the Great's or Calvin's views. He a "child of his times," a softee.

4. Study Federal Vision in the Reformed world, because it has slipped “works-salvation” in the back door. Note the "one-up-manship" so evident in so many of the FV-leaders in the past in blog forums and email lists.

5. Steer clear of Arminianism and Wesleyanism, with its manifold offshoots (Pentecostals, charismatics, etc.), because it is Romanism at its base.

6. Continue reading and working with those with ears to hear. Encourage others of like mind.

7. Hesitate not to say with Gregory 1 and John Calvin (and all the Reformers) that the bishop of Rome is profane, wicked, arrogant, repressive, and dominionist, following the fallen angel of heaven, Lucifer.

8. Encourage Lutheran brethren to remain steadfast, Confessionally, on their position that Rome is Anti-Christ.

9. Work with the Anglican remnant that are serious about doctrine and history. Men who aren't on "paid staffs," but men and women who are free of the "system."

10. Encourage Reformed and Presbyterian leaders to use the term “Anti-Christ.”

11. If Satan did not hesitate to attack Christ, Mt.4, he has no compunction about attacking it today...as he did in the days of Gregory the Great.
[1] Gregory 1, Letters V.37.39,41, 44, 45, inter alia.