'212 ORIGIN OF METROPOLITAN DIGNITY. may be duly executed, such a charge then naturally would devolve itself upon the prelate of the metropolis, as being supposed con- stantly present on the place, as being at home inhis own seat of presidence, and receiving the rest under his wing, as incontestably surpassing others in all advantages, answerable to the secular advan- tages of his city; for that it was unseemly and hard, if he at home should be postponed in dignity to others repairing thither: for that, also, commonly he was in a manner the spiritual father of the rest (religion being first planted in great cities, and thence propagated to others) ; so that the reverence and dependence of colonies to the mother city was due from other churches to his see.1 Wherefore, by consent of all churches, grounded on such obvious reason of things, the presidency in each province was assigned to the bishop of themetropolis, who was called the " first bishop," the "me- tropolitan ;" in some places the " primate, ' the " archbishop," the "patriarch," the "pope" of theprovince. TheApostolical Canons call him the "first bishop, ' which shows the antiquityof this institution. The African synods appointed that name to him as most modest, and calling him primate in that sense.' Other ancient synods style him the "metropolite ;" and to themetropolites of the principalcities they gave the title of "archbishop." The bishops of Rome and Alex- andria peculiarlywere called " popes," although thatname was some- times deferred to [conferred upon] any other bishop. During this state of things the whole church consisted of so many provinces, being airexépccaor, independent on each other in ecclesias- tical administration,each reserving to itself the constitution of bishops, the convocation of synods, the enacting of canons, the de- cisionof causes, the definition of questions, yet so that each province held peaceful and amicable correspondence with others, upon the like terms as before each crccpmxfa, or episcopal precinct, held inter- course with its neighbours. And whoever, in any province, did not comply with or submit to the orders and determinations resolved upon in those assemblies was deemed a schismatical, contentious, and contumacious person,' with good reason; because he thwarted a discipline plainly conducible to ' Ad hoc divinm disperisationis provisio gradus et diversos constituit ordines in se distinctos, ut duna reverentiam minores potioribus exhiberent, et potiores minoribus diligentiam impenderent, una concordise fieret a diversitate contentio et recteofficiorum gereretur administratio singulorum. Joh. VIII., Ep. acv. "To this end divine Pro- vidence has appointed degrees and diverse orders, distinct from one another, that while the less reverence thegreater, and the greater take care of the less, from this diversity there might ariseone frame of concord, and all offices be duly administered." 2 Primas provinciæ.Cod. Afr. can. xix. 3 Toi4 iorrazórrous [zá, r,,' 7hovc tlírat xpii 71)r it aicoir apmror. Can. Apost. xxvii " The bishops of each nation ought to know who is chief among them." t Cod. Afr., can. xxxix. ; Dist. xcix. cap. 3. 3 IIapár44.Syn. Nic., Can. xviii.
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