GROUND OF THE PRECEDENCE GIVEN TO ROME. 207 most large, flourishing, commanding city of the east; "which," as Josephus says, "for magnitude and for other advantages, had, without controversy, the third place in all the world subject to the Romans;"' and which St Chrysostom calls " the head of all cities seated in the east."' St Basil seems to call the church thereof the principal in the world ; for, " What," says he, " can be more opportune to the churches over the world than the church of Antioch? which, if it should happen to be reduced to concord, nothing would hinder but that, as a sound head, it would supply health to the whole body. "3 Upon the same account the bishop of Carthage obtained the pri- vilege to be standing primate of his province (although other prima- cies there were not fixed to places, but followed seniority), and a kind of patriarch over all the African provinces. Hence Csarea, as exceeding in temporal advantages, and being the political metropolis of Palestine, overtopped Jerusalem, that most ancient, noble, and venerable city, the source of our religion. It was, indeed, the general rule and practice, to conform the pri- vileges of ecclesiastical dignity in a proportion convenient to those of the secular government, as the synod of Antioch in express terms ordained, the ninth canonof which runs thus: " The bishops in every province ought to know that the bishop presiding in the metropolis undertakes the care of all the province, because all that have busi- ness meet together in the metropolis; whence it has been ordained that he should precede in honour, and that the bishops should do nothing extraordinary without him, according, to a more ancient canon holding from our fathers,"--that is, according to the thirty- fourth canon of the apostles. It is true that the fathers sometimes mention the church of Rome as being founded by the two great apostles, or the succession of the Roman bishop to them in pastoral charge, as a special ornament of that church, and a congruous ground of respect to that bishop, where- by they " honoured the memory of St Peter;"6 but even some of ' 'H {anrpóaoxíç iorr Tñç Evpíaç, l.asyi41ov; LOOS XIX; rñ; áxl.f7s sbaatpeavia; rpíron áá>l,iTWç ivti Tñs úa-á 'PW,aaiars aisaoupvinn; sxavva Tóvrav.--Joseph. de Bello Jud. iii. 2. 2 nóx+ta Oi+rWpcsyáxn, xa; róïv úvrò rñy `dW xstpsivav ñ xsQayn.Chrys., 'Anap. G'. 3 Ti a áv yévaro Ta%ç xa76 s%r oÌxoUpc:vn5 ilaxxnaÌal; sñç 'AyTroxsia; xatpefi'irspor; Y dew rig's vrpóç ó¡tóvotav ívravax41s7y, ollaa5 ixdaUEn, a°iavrsp xspaxi7v ippwpeivnv vravri Tey awlaaTr ivrrxa- pnysïv 742v uyiseav.Bas., Ep. xlvüi., ad Athanas. 4 Tob; iv ixácTn iaapxia isrtaxóvroOt sÌaivat f7 'CO iv Tñ xp panrpavráxst vrpasarWTa ia'ia zavrav, (zee;) Tñv ppavriaa ávaaixsc41a Taícns rñs ivrapxias atá rá iv rñ pasrpavráxst avvrpixsn 9reivra; roVç 72 9rpfGy(cara ËxaSraç Ü41s5 Ëa45 za; rn 7I145 9rponys7e41at abrÓr, f.tnaiv Ts vrpór- Tttv xsptTTÓS Tabç xatvrabç áartaxÓ9rovç üvEV abro; xaT6 7-1;11 eLpxatórypor xparrjcanTa ix rely vraripmv ñ,aWV xavóva.Syn. Ant., can. ix.; Syn. Chale. xvii. 5 Sedis apostolicæ primatum S. Petri meritum (qui princeps est episcopalis coronm), Romans) dignitas civitatis, sacrai etiam synodi firmavit authoritas.Valentin. Nov. xxiv., in fin. Cod. Theod.
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