ABSTRACT
Pope Gregory evolved a policy of 'bifurcation' - speaking humbly to the emperor in the East and seeking to avoid confrontation, while addressing Western rulers in the language of a Roman governor who expected to be obeyed and making concrete the papal primatial claims in the West. We begin with those parts of the West still under imperial rule. On the evidence of Gregory's letters there was a revival of Donatism in Numidia, the least Romanized of the ecclesiastical provinces of North Africa, with which Gregory had dealings. The established view is to take the evidence at face value and argue that Donatism survived the Vandal occupation, was revived in Numidia, was successfully combated by Gregory, and was finally extinguished by the Arab conquest. Gregory duly granted it to Vergilius and used the opportunity presented to fire the opening shot in his campaign against the prevalent abuses in the Gallic church.
