ADVANTAGES GAINED BY THE ROMAN BISHOP. 219 Now, things standing thus in Christendom, we may, concerning the interest of the Roman bishop in reference to them, observe, - 1. In all these transactions about modelling the spiritual discip- line, there was no canon [that] established any peculiar jurisdiction to the bishop of Rome; only the 2. Synod of Nice supposed that he, bycustom, enjoyed some autho- ritywithin certain precincts of the west, like thatwhich it confirmed to the bishop of Alexandria in Egypt, and the countries adjacent thereto. 3. The synods of Constantinople allowed him "honorary pri- vileges," or precedence before all other bishops, assigning the next place after him to the bishop of Constantinople.' 4. la other privileges the synod of Chalcedon equalled the see of Constantinople to the Roman. 5. The canons of the two first and fourth general synods, ordering all affairs to be despatched and causes to be determined in metro- politan or diocesan synods, exclude the Roman bishop frommeddling in those concerns. 6. The popes (out of a humour natural to them, to like nothing but what they did themselves, andwhich served their interests) did not relish those canons, although enacted by synods which themselves admitted for oecumenical : " That subscription ofsome bishops, made above sixty years since, as you boast, does no whit favour your per- suasion; a subscription never transmitted to the knowledge of the apostolic see by your predecessors, which, from its very beginning be- ing weak, and long since ruinous, you endeavour now too late and unprofitably to revive."' So does Pope Leo I. treat the second great synod, writing to Ana- tolius; and Gregory, speaking of the same, says, "That the Roman church has not the acts of that synod, nor received its canons. "' 7. Wherefore, in the west they obtained no effect, so as to estab- lish diocesan primacies there. The bishops of cities, which were heads of dioceses, either did not know of these canons (which is probable, because Rome smothered the notice of them, or were hindered from using them), the pope tuum cathedras, vel ecclesiarumcujuslibet ordinis dignitates instituit Romana ecclesia. P. Nis. IL, Dist. xxii. cap. 1. t IIpgdCgia Trpcñt. Can. iii. Tá orpo,Sïa sai ilaí,sTas 2 u,í. 2 Syn. Chal., Act. xvi. "Ida vrpsdtsïa. 3 Persuasioni enim tus in nullo penitus suffragatur quorundam episcoporum ante sexaginta, ut jactas, anuos facta subscriptio, nunquamque a praedecessoribus tufs ad apostolicaa sedis transmissa notitiam, cui ab initio sui caducas, dudumque collaps sera nunc et inutilia subjicere fomenta voluisti, &c. P. Leo, Ep. liii. adAnatol. Vid. Ep. liv. lv. lxi. 4 Romano auteur ecelesia eosdem canones vel gesta synodi illius hactenus non habet, nec accepit. Greg. M., Ep. vi. 31, ad Eulog. Alsx.
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