For in 599, Gregory wrote to Eusebius of Thessalonica and some other bishops, stating that he had heard they were about to be summoned to a council at Constantinople, and most urgently entreating them to yield neither to force nor to persuasion, but to be steadfast in their refusal to recognize the offensive title (ib.
Cyriacus II appears to have shared in that unpopularity of the emperor Maurice which caused his deposition and death (Theophanes the Confessor, Chronicle, A. M. 6094; Niceph.
He still, however, had influence enough to exact from Emperor Phocas at his coronation a confession of the orthodox faith and a pledge not to disturb the church (Theophanes Chronicle, A. M. 6094).
He also nobly resisted the attempt of Phocas to drag the empress Constantina and her daughters from their sanctuary in a church of Constantinople (ibid., A. M. 6098).
He built a church dedicated to the theotokos in a street of Constantinople called Diaconissa (Theophanes Chronicle, A. M. 6090; Niceph.