THE POPE DID NOT PRESIDE IN EARLY COUNCILS. 251 In the synod of Nice, Constantine was the chief manager, director, and moderator of the transactions,' and under him other chief bishops presided ; but that the pope's legates had any considerable influence or sway there by no evidence appears, as we shall hereafter, out of history, declare. In the synod of Sardica (which in design was a general council, but in effect did not prove so, being divided by a schism into two great parts), Hosius, bishop of Corduba, presided, or, by reason of his age and venerableworth, had the first place assigned to him, and bore the office of prolocutor. So the synod itself implies. " All we bishops assembled," say they in their catholic epistle, " and especially themost venerable Hosius, who, for his age and for his confession, and because he has undergone so great pains, is worthy of all reverence. "' So Athanasius expressly calls him. " The holysynod," says he, " the prolocutor of which was the great Hosius, presently sent to them,"3 &c. The canons of the synod intimate the same, wherein he proposes matters, and asks the pleasure of the synod. The same is confirmed by the subscriptions of their general epistle, wherein he is set before Pope Julius himself: "Hosius from Spain, Julius of Rome, by the presbyters Archidamus and Philoxenus."4 In this all ecclesiastical his- tories agree, none speakingof thepop- e - e : = . -re by hislegates. In the second general synod Constantinople the pope had plainly no stroke. The oriental b 4 e ., e 4 - , . e resolved on mat- ters, " being headed," as Sozomen says, by their patriarchs of Alex- andria, Antioch, and Jerusalem; "being guided by Nectarius and St Gregory Naziamen,"s as the council of Chalcedon avers in its epistle to the emperor. 3 In the thirdgeneral synod . Ephesus, I il, bishop of Alexandria, presided, as Pope Leo himsel -stifi . e is called the "head of it"6 in the Acts? rlpo6Silau 4441 ñáyav 704 srpaapore.Eueeb. iii. 13. 4ÓV 2 ;11.4;11.4-4;4 ouvagóV4ay faax.44,,,,, x1.4M1ro4a 4.4 armora,ou'Oeou, 4oÓ 41 xpóvav, xprb 7474 ópaJayiav, xai S12 4óv 404.4Ú22' xC(carov Laop.46144444cÉar, Yráogç ,zaZe ágrov 4uyxaivoyroe, &c.Athan.. Apol. ii. p. 761. 3 Eútle ,i áyia dúvoln, 4c vrpoiyopoe flv ó ta[yaç "Oovaç, éypa¢6v a144o7ç, &c.Athan. ad Solit., p. 819. 'Apcéx6r "Ooraç, xai erpa4oyivne, of 7ó46 úañpxov äpx0v46ç 4mv áaó 4 c lóIMde iv Baplmxi OU40.0.4444o,4, &C.-80Z xii. 13. Tmv apru4aúoaç. Theod. ii. lb. Tmv p4év "Ooroe igñpxó One yv pope, &c. Syn. Ghetto. ad Imp. Marc., p. 468. 4 "OOloe hers M2'44v;444, 'Ioú%.roe `P44444 SÌ 'Apxr86ip4ou xai $rñ.ogíymv apóoßu4Ép4I, &C. Apúd Athan., p. 767. 3 Baron., ann. 553, § 224. 'Hyovveo. Soz. vii. 7. Tmv lì N6x4áprae 0411, rppyopíu Oñv ñ7,614014aY iipa4o. Cone. Chale., in Ep. ad Imp. Marc. p. 469. s Prioris Ephesime synodi, cui sanctaa memorim Cyrillus episcopus tune prmsedit. P. Leo L, Ep. xlvii. K66paX; 44/Y Y6r.6yI&ÇVdY áyramáev v i,rroxóawv Kúrrtxos.Relat. Act. .Eph. cap. lx. 7 Digression. We may note, that the bishop of the place where the synod was held bore a kind of presidency in all synods : so did St James, bishop of Jerusalem, in the first synod, as St Chrysostom notes ; so did Protogenes at Sardica, and Nectarius at Constantinople, and Memnon in this of Ephesus.
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