Photios on His Reply to Pope Nicholas Concerning the Thrones

¹ Photios the most holy patriarch said: We long ago also answered in writing the most blessed Pope Nicholas, when he requested certain of the ⟦western⟧ thrones, thus: that the thrones which your Holiness seeks are comprehended within the principality of the imperial East. But if the breadth of my love in the Lord were not constrained by imperial necessities, nor any other canonical bond held me back, and if my own priestly body breathed together with me in this—not only those whom you say were once subject to the throne of Rome, but even those who were never under it, these too, being ready ⟦as I am found⟧, so far as belongs to a disposition of friendship, I would grant to you at your request. For true friendship does not seek its own, but to fulfill the will of one’s neighbor.