466 MATTHEW OP WE8TMUTBTEB. A .D. 1274. eon, and afterwards, as he plainly shows, he will not depart from that claim, nor has he been the least changed from this first opinion which he still holds. On which account, we prelates have often reproved him, but up to this present time he has not at all agreed with us. But we, and. in conjunction with us, the most mighty emperor, enjoined him to yield up his patriarchal position, allowing all things belonging to the monasteries which are at Constantinople to remain in their existing state of unsettledness, till ambassadors could go to your holiness and hear your reply, and till you, if it should seem good to your highness, should send back certain ambassadors with our ambassadors when they returned. " And we, if we obtain this end of ours, in the meantime, meeting and agreeing together, will draw in our patriarch, so that if it shall happen that he abandons his existing disposition of mind, and inclines to us, and wins us over to regard him with favour, granting that, in times past, pre-eminent honour has been attributed to the throne of the Apostolic See, we may then have him for our pontiff spiritually, as we have hitherto had him for our president. But if he remains obstinately in his present opinion, then it will be absolutely necessary to depose him, and to deprive him of his patriarchal and princely authority. And then we will appoint and promote some one else, who shall be disposed to be of the same mind as ourselves, and to allow all proper precedence to the supremacy of your holiness. " This, therefore, 0 Lord, honoured by God, is what we propose, we, whom, being the chief pontiffs of the patriarchal diocese of Constantinople, you have united to yourself by this our writing, in conjunction with all the venerable clergy around us ; so that if only your highness admits those things which belong to the embassy, there is no reason why time should be wasted ; and we at once do incline to, and in fact do submit to your great highness, and we very cheerfully assert all such statements as belong to entire spiritual subjection, and we deny none of those things which before the schism our fathers used to allow to those who ruled the Apostolic See, but we also ourselves do at once allow the same. And our ambassadors will seal otìier documents, and will notify them to your glorious holiness. " Finally, as in spiritual things our most mighty emperor, and we the college of pontiffs, have given charge to the bishops, as