rival patriarchates, and the Mohammedan conquests of the seventh century cast them down to a still lower plane of power and influence. Thus Constantinople approached to that solitary eminence in the East which Rome enjoyed in the West.

4. THE POPE. The question whether the Church of this era acknowledged a pope, in the later Roman sense, is by no means to be confounded with the question of the original constitution of the Church. The compact monarchy of France under Louis XIV. is no proof against the dominant influence of the feudal system in that country a few centuries prior to the reign of that great autocrat. In like manner the existence of a full-blown papacy, three or five centuries after the founding of the Church, would be no valid disproof of the limited prerogatives and constitutional equality of all the primitive bishops. Tendencies toward centralization may work in the ecclesiastical as well as in the civil sphere. And what theory allows here, undeniable facts confirm. Centralizing tendencies confined the franchise to the clergy, as opposed to the primitive participation of the laity in the choice of ecclesiastical officers. Centralizing tendencies raised the bishop of Constantinople above all the ancient superiors in his neighborhood, and made him, so to speak, the ecclesiastical monarch of the East. Centralizing tendencies have added even to the theoretical position of the popes of the Middle Ages; and the ecumenical council, which once assumed to anathematize a pope for heresy, and in another instance emphatically declared its own superiority to the Roman pontiff, has been humbled (as

appears from the Vatican council of 1870) to the position of a helpless instrument in the hands of his Holiness. With such an array of facts before us, even should we find a real pope between Sylvester and Gregory the Great, we should sin unpardonably against the historic sense in concluding from this that the papacy was any part of the original constitution of the Church. Such a pope might reasonably be regarded as a culminating product of the centralizing tendencies which had long been at work. The Protestant apologist has no real interest to minify the significance of any tributes to the Roman see in this era; the Romish apologist cannot, by any amount of vigor and industry in magnifying those tributes, establish any original supremacy of the Roman see. Flattering utterances of interested parties, at the end of the fourth and during the fifth and sixth centuries, are not even a trustworthy index of what existed at that date; much less are they an index of the type of constitution which preceded the intervening centuries of tendency and struggle towards centralized power.

As already noted, it resulted inevitably, from the conditions of the case, that a movement in the direction of ecclesiastical monarchy should centre in the bishop of Rome, rather than in any other dignitary. Rome was emphatically the centre of the world during the first Christian centuries, and, after its relative decline in actual governing power, it was still able to claim associations with universal empire such as no other city. ever enjoyed. Added to this was the fact that it was the sole apostolic seat in the whole West, the reputed scene of the labors and martyrdom of the two greatest

apostles. This latter item, apart from the secular greatness of Rome, would never have secured the ascendency of the Roman bishop, as may be judged from the fortunes of other apostolic seats. Still, backed up, as it was, by the prestige of the imperial city, it was made a factor of no mean influence. If the repeated assertions of the Roman bishops themselves could be trusted, their pre-eminence was due entirely to their connection with the apostles. They were at great pains to assert that their power was an inheritance from Peter, the prince of the apostles; not at all an offshoot from the political importance of Rome. But the reason of this is perfectly evident: they hardly needed ordinary shrewdness to prompt them to such a course. To allow that the greatness of Rome was the source of their pre-eminence, was to allow that their pre-eminence was the product of outward circumstances, and so without any positive authorization by the original constitution of the Church. Moreover, it was easy for them to see that such a sanction left no safeguard to their pre-eminence, since the political importance of Constantinople might become such as to assign them the second rank. The misty region of an apostolic bequest, which, if no one could prove, no one could absolutely disprove, was plainly the safer ground by far upon which to rest.

After these two causes - namely, the imperial greatness of Rome and the apostolic connections of the Roman see had acquired a certain pre-eminence for the Roman bishop, that very pre-eminence naturally became a cause of its own increase. In proportion to his prestige and influence, his patronage became desirable. Suffering or contending parties had a strong impulse to appeal to

him, apart from any consideration of his constitutional authority, since he was a peculiarly powerful and influential champion. In the disturbed age of polemics, this turned greatly to his advantage. Eastern bishops who had been dispossessed of their sees, or who were seeking the overthrow of a rival, could think of no single prelate who would be likely to assist them so effectually as the Roman. The securing of his support was reckoned as the sure means, or at least as the necessary antecedent, of securing the support of the entire West. While bidding for his patronage, the less considerate were of course inclined to use terms very flattering to Roman prerogatives; terms which, despite their evident rhetoric and exaggeration, could not fail of being turned into Roman capital. The advantage which accrued to the Roman bishops, in this era of controversies, from their position as patrons, was made especially great by the fact that they shared in the conservative temper which very generally characterized the West, rejected the Arian and other novelties, and supported the cause which was ultimately victorious. Their ranks, it is true, were not wholly free from weak and vacillating characters; but there was a sufficient exhibition of steadfastness to bestow a certain prestige upon the Roman see.

1 Romish apologists are often over-hasty in their inferences from such appeals. Supposing the supreme power to be vested in co-ordinate dignitaries, the tendency would be to appeal to the one who was practically most powerful and influential. That an aggrieved bishop, in the absence of other resource, should go to Rome, is no decisive proof that the Church, or that even he himself, acknowledged an ecclesiastical monarch there. The only necessary inference is, that he recognized there a more powerful colleague, who might be especially serviceable to his cause.

As a result of these several developments, the Roman bishop secured an advance in power and influence, not only within his patriarchate, but to some extent beyond its bounds. Still, he was not constituted a genuine pope within the present period. Taking the whole Church into view, we find that the position conceded to, and enjoyed by, him was that of a leading patriarch, not that of a constitutional head and governor of Christendom. This will appear from an unbiassed canvassing of the verdicts of different parties.

(1) Individual Fathers and Historians. It cannot be denied that here and there very emphatic language was used respecting the prerogatives of the Roman bishop. Optatus of Mileve furnishes a prominent instance in the second half of the fourth century. "You cannot affect ignorance," he says to an opponent, "of the fact that the episcopal chair was first established by Peter in the city of Rome, in which Peter sat, the head of all the apostles, in which one chair unity should be maintained by all; that the other apostles should not each set up a chair for himself, but that he should be at once a schismatic and a sinner who should erect any other against that one chair." It is to be observed, however, that Optatus was arguing against the formidable and schismatic Donatists, and had a strong motive to magnify the importance of communion with Rome; since the greater the necessity of communion with Rome, the stronger would be the case for his party and against his opponents. His statement is to be regarded as the one-sided plea of a controversialist. It may be doubted

1 De Schis. Donat., ii. 2.