ops."

In the laws just quoted we see three of the most important principles which
run through the acts of Justinian. The first is, that the emperor, having
the whole commonwealth committed to him by God, is the guardian both of
human and divine things in it, which together make up the whole
commonwealth; the second is, that there are Two Powers, the human and the
divine, both derived from God. The third is, that while the emperor is the
direct head of all human things, he guards divine things by accepting the
decrees of General Councils as the Holy Scriptures, and by giving to the
canons of the Church as descending from the Apostles, "the eye-witnesses
and ministers of God the Word," the force of law.

If in these laws we find Church and State greet each other as friends, and
offer each other a mutual support, because both aim at one object, and what
the holiness of the Church required, advanced no less the peace, the
security, and the welfare of the State, so a complete concurrence between
them might be shown in all other respects.[159] The State recognised and
honoured the whole constitution of the Church as it had been drawn in its
first lineaments by the author of the Christian religion, as in perfect
sequence it had formed itself out of the Church's inmost life, and that in
force and purity, because it had been free from the pressure of external
laws. The proper position of the Roman bishop as supreme head of the whole
Church, the relation of the patriarchs to each other, their privileges over
the metropolitans, the close connection of these with their several
bishops, were never for a moment unrecognised, because so clear a
consciousness of these showed itself in the whole Catholic world, that no
change was possible without a general scandal. Thus the laws of Church and
State kept pace with each other, when it could not but happen that the ties
between patriarch and metropolitan, between metropolitan and bishop, became
more stringent, as external increase was followed by decline in inward life
and the fervour of faith. Thus the regular course was that the metropolitan
examined the election of the bishop by the clergy and people, consecrated
him, introduced him to the direction of his charge, and by the _litterae
formatae_ gave him his place in the fabric of the Church. So the
metropolitan was consecrated by his patriarch, in whose own election all
the bishops of the province, but especially the metropolitans, took