The word "writing" in Greek (h epistolh) is feminine.

19

This is not the place to explain this letter by the circumstances of the time of his time—yes, it must be confessed—and it is not easy to do so. A detailed account of the controversies about the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of which we are speaking here, as well as the attempts to unite the Greek Church with the Latin, are to be found in Fleury (Historie eccles., t XII. Paris, 1781) or in Schreck (Christ. Kirchengeschkhte Fh. XXIX). The agitation of minds against Gregory, caused mainly in the lower clergy of his Τόμος, received both by the emperor Andronicus the elder and by the higher clergy, is told by Pachymerus II. I. John Veccus, who had been the Patriarch of Constantinople before Gregory, but in 1283 was exiled to Prusa, and from 1284 was kept under guard in the castle of St. Gregory, immediately wrote a sharp work against Τόμος–a (S. Fabric. Bibl Graeca XI, § 347 Harl) and this work, which was extremely widespread in Constantinople, caused a great stir among the public there (Pachym. II. 2). For the same purpose he wrote the encyclical referred to here, which, however, is quoted only from Fabricius, who borrowed it from the work of Nicolaus Comnenus Papodopolis, Praenotiones mystagogicae ex jure canonico n. s. w. Patav. 1696. It seems to me that this ἐγκύκλιος ἐπιστολη appeared in the autumn of 1288; it could have contributed not a little to the abdication of Gregory from the throne, which followed in 1289 (note - Mattie).

20

If the above Assumption regarding the appearance of gramata (Vecca) in the autumn of 1288 is correct; then Veccus, at least from 1284, was in a better economic position than it appears to be in Pachymer 1. 35 (note — Mattie).

For our part, in addition to this, we must add that the testimony of Pachymer quoted by Mr. Matthier about the sad economic situation of Veccus belongs to a later time, namely, to the time of the first patriarchate (1289-1293) of Gregory's successor Athanasius, who generously helped with a considerable sum of money the mendicant — in the literal sense of the word — ex-patriarch.

21

Probably, the main image of the Arsenites is meant.

22

Mount Gan, which lay on the other shore of the Sea of Marmara (Propontis), is mentioned by Pachymer (Audion. sén. VII. II. p. 409. I. 424 A), its name has survived to this day, at least in the town of Gan. In one of the caves there lived the successor of Grigirius, Athanasius, who had been a hieromonk here before his elevation to the patriarchate (Ibid. I. 38, p. 66, 13) (Note — Matthie).