The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

;18 RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL SUPREMACY.empire !If the occupant of the temporal throne had beena king of kings, why should not the occupant of the spiritualchair be a bishop of bishops I That the bishops of Rome-reasoned in this way is a historical fact. The Council ofChalcedon established the superiority of the Roman see onthis very ground. " The fathers," say they, " justly conferredthe dignity on the throne of the presbyter of Rome,because that was the imperial city."* The mission of thegospel is to unite all nations into one family. Satan presentedthe world with a mighty counterfeit of this union,when he united all nations under the despotism of Rome,that thus, by counterfeiting, he might defeat the reality.The rise of Provincial Ecclesiastical Councils wrought inthe same way. The Greeks, copying the model of theirAmphictyonic Council, were the first to adopt the plan ofassembling the deputies of the churches of a whole provinceto deliberate on affairs of consequence. The plan in a shorttime was received throughout the whole empire. The Greekscalled such assemblies Synods ; the Latins termed themCouncils^ and styled their laws or resolutions Canons.'\- Inorder to temper the deliberations and to execute the resolutionsof the assembly, it was requisite that one should bechosen as president ; and the dignity was usually conferredon the presbyter of greatest weight for his piety and wisdom.That the tranquillity of the Church might not be disturbedby annual elections, the person raised by the suffrages of hisbrethren to the presidential chair was continued in it for* Can. xxviii., Harduini Collectio Conciliorum, torn. ii. p. 613Parisiis, 1715. The words of the canon are remarkable, and we shallhere quote them :— Ka; ya.^ nu (l^ovto tyis ^^nrfiun^as '^t-'l^ytS, S/a TO fiairiXiviifT'/iv voXtv ix.iivnv, 01 -rxTi^i; tixoras aTiiSs^axairi ra v^i(rjiiia. We find anothertestimony to the same fact in the Tractate of the Monk Barlaam, prefixedto Salmasius De :— Primatu Papse " Sed longe sujira coeteris Jletropoleaemicuit iirbium toto orbe maxiraarum eminentia, quae et suis episcopistribucrunt eandem supra cajteros totius ecclesiaj Episcopos u!r£g«;^;>i».(BarlaJimi Tractatus, p. 278 ; Lugd. Batav. anno 1G45.)t Gibbon, vol. ii. chap. ii. : Moslieim, cent. ii. chap, ii.