ABSTRACT
The conflict over the 'Oecumenical Patriarch' title dominated Pope Gregory's relations with the church of Constantinople, and highlights the considerable insecurity that Rome still felt about its position, and the tenacity with which the popes defended their primacy against attack. At the time of Gregory's election in 590, the patriarch of Constantinople was John IV, 'the Faster', who had been appointed patriarch while Gregory was apocrisiarios. Gregory dispatched to him his synodica announcing his election to the papacy and professing his orthodoxy. It is clear from the examination of Gregory's relations with both East and West that there was no policy of bifurcation, no intensification of activities with Gaul or Spain, no abdication of primatial authority. Gregory's aims in East and West were the same: the preservation of the faith, the maintenance of good relations with the state, and the defending of Rome's existing pre-eminence.
