THE CHANGE NOT MADE BY THE EARLY SYNODS. 215 state. It does not pretend to innovate, but professes in its sanctions specially to regard " ancient custom, saving to the churches their privileges" of which they were possessed;1 it only mentions pro- vinces, and represents the metropolitans in them as the chief gover- nors ecclesiastical then being; it constitutes a peremptory decision of weightycauses inprovincial synods,which isinconsistent with the diocesan authority; it takes no notice of Constantinople, the princi- pal diocese in the east, as seat ofthe empire.' And the synod of An- tioch, insisting [treading] in the footsteps of the Nicene, touches only metropolitans (can. xix.); and the synod of Laodicea only sup- poses that order. In fine, that synod is not *corded by any old historian to have framed such an alteration; which, indeed, was so considerable that Eusebius, who was present there, could not well have passed it over in silence. Of this opinion was the synod of Carthage, in their epistle to Pope Celestine I., who understood no jurisdictionbut that of metropolitans to be constituted in the Nicene synod. Some think the fathers of the second general synod introduced it, seeing it expedient that ecclesiastical administrations should corre- spond to the political: for they innovated somewhat in the form of government; they expressly use the new word " diocese," according to the civil sense, as distinct from a province; they distinctly name the particular dioceses of the oriental empire, as they stood in the civil establishment; they prescribe to the bishops in each diocese to act unitedly there, not skipping over the bounds of it; they order a kind of appeal to the synods of thediocese, prohibiting other appeals. The historians expressly report of them, that they " distinguished and distributed dioceses," that they " constituted patriarchs," that they prohibited that any of one diocese should intrude upon another.' "Ovrvp 476 ó xavú,v, oúrt ñ çuyñie,a fardXSY, &C. -Can. %viii. Tá dpxaa 'An xpa- Ttirw. Can. vi. 'EatrSm çtrv»Aua xtzpdrnxt xai arapdSoç,ç dpxaia, &c. -Can. vii. 0/.4aiaç Si xai xarm Ti v 'Avrráxuav, xai iv TM; äxxa,ç 60-apxiarç Tá m ptaßiia çgEtIAar Taí'ç izzxn- oíarç. Ibid. 2 Toil iârexóraç zpiet Tmr pvs poarox,Tmv, xai Tmv ariprt iwrexóa'av zatgeraslu, &C. Syn. Laod., can. xii. "The bishops should be constituted by the judgment of the metropolitans and the neighbouring bishops." ? El Si ovizCaín áSuvarñça roúç ivrapvmraç rpóç S,ó;Aaç,v ivrrOipapaiy;ov iyxxn(L2TWV vq isrtoxóorrv, TóTt airoiç orpoerivrç, pvsí v, raíL, q v Tñç S70rx4776.4 iar,oxarrov ixtivnç ívip Táç alría; ratírnç ovyzaxouiciva,v, &c.-Syn. Coast., can. vi. "But if it so happen that the bishops of any province cannot rectify those things which are laid to the charge of a bishop, they shall then go to a greater synod of the bishops of that diocese, met together for that purpose." The fathers of Constantinople, in their synodic epistle, distinguish the province and diocese of Antioch : -02 Tt Tñç i"rapxíaç, xai Tñç áv,Taxrxñç ratzi]eta/ ovvSpapvóvrrç, &c.Theod. y. 9. Kai s'avp,rápxaç zariaTnçav S,avtyaáat,,, Tát iarap,'as. SoCr. v. 8. 'F.v ixtívn yáp Tv`, l3aerxtuotíçn s'xtr ouvtxAávrtç of paazdpra rsnipes ov vyvívaç Tois iv T% N,»aiá euvdpo,oido, Táç Smtxeieuç ldxpnav, zai lxáçrn Lo,z$utr Tá ia»Tñç dari- rt,¡aav, äv.r xpuç da'ayopttiovrtç trip', r,174 Lorxñetmç iripá K=.1 iariva,.Theod., Ep. lxxxvi., ad Elavianum. "For," says Theodoret, " the blessed fathers meeting together in the imperial city, distinguished dioceses, agreeably to what the Nicene fathers had
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