to that of the older Rome, but
occupying in point of honour a secondary position, was recognised by
Church and State alike; and it was this that the Council _in Trullo_
reaffirmed. In another point it was divergent from Rome--that of the
marriage of the clergy. Subdeacons, deacons, and priests were
forbidden to marry, but those married before ordination were equally
forbidden, under pain of excommunication, to separate from their wives.

An attempt of the mad emperor Justinian II. to enforce the acceptance
of the decrees by Pope Sergius I. was a complete failure. Popes were
becoming much stronger in Italy than was the distant Caesar.

Rome was becoming independent of emperor and of exarch alike. In 711
the pope Constantine visited Constantinople as an honoured guest, where
he was treated with diplomatic politeness, and where, possibly after
they had undergone modification, he signed the {92} decrees of the
Trullian Council. On this point the papal biographer is silent, but he
asserts with enthusiasm the reverence of the emperor for the pope and
the latter's regret when the bloody tyrant met the reward of his crimes
a few weeks later. With this the ecclesiastical interest of Eastern
history is for a time in the background.

[1] This is spoken of by a recent Roman Catholic writer as "la
deplorable reponse de Honorius, ce monument de bonne foi surprise et de
naivete confiante." It does not support the notion of papal
infallibility.

[2] Given in Baronius, A.D. 689.

[3] See Procopius, _De Aedif._, iv. 1 (ed. Bonn., pp. 266, 267); and
_Novellae_, xi. (de privilegiis archiepiscopi primae Justinianae) and
cxxxi. (de ecclesiasticis canonibus et privilegiis), cap. 3. It is no
alteration of patriarchal powers, but rather the assertion of them.
Still patriarchal jurisdictions are not regarded as unalterable--as is
clear from the creation of the modern national churches of the Balkan
lands.

{93}

CHAPTER VIII

THE CHURCH IN ASIA

[Sidenote: The Church in Persia.]

In the East Christianity had spread to Persia from Edessa.[1] The
Parthians seem to have put no obstacle in its way, but when the
Persians came into conflict with the Roman Empire, now Christian, there
was long and bitter persecution. At last toleration was reached, after
Sapor II., and from the beginning of the fourth century the Church in
Persia was organised, and governed by many bishops; the primate took
the title of Catholicos and