a of the middle ages. For on the truth of this latter view
depends the charge, that the Church of England is in schism.

What follows may perhaps assist our solution of the question. At this very
Council of 630 Bishops, the largest ever held in ancient times, and where
the credit of the Roman Pontiff was so great, a very celebrated Canon was
enacted concerning the rank of the Bishop of Constantinople. The Pope's
legates attempted, by absenting themselves, to prevent its being enacted,
but that only led to its being confirmed the next day, in spite of their
opposition. The circumstances were as follows, and they seem to deserve our
most stedfast consideration, from their bearing upon the great subject we
are considering, the Papal Supremacy.

"On the same day, being the last of October, the fifteenth session was
held, at which neither the magistrates nor legates were present: for after
the formula of faith had been agreed to, and the private business brought
before the Council had been despatched, the Clergy of Constantinople asked
the legates to join them in discussing an affair concerning their Church.
This they refused, saying, that they had received no instructions about it.
They made the same proposal to the magistrates, and these referred the
matter to the Council. When the magistrates and legates therefore had
retired, the rest of the Council made a Canon respecting the prerogatives
of the Church of Constantinople."[94] To make the scope of this clear we
must observe, that the See of Constantinople had been now for at least
seventy years the chief See of the East: at the second Ecumenical Council,
held in 381, at Constantinople, it is declared in the third canon, that
"the Bishop of Constantinople shall have the primacy of honour after the
Bishop of Rome, because that Constantinople is New Rome." It seems that in
the interval that Bishop had not only taken precedence of Alexandria and
Antioch, and reduced under him the Exarchs of Pontus, Thrace, and Asia, but
that his authority was very great throughout all the East. Theodoret
says,[95] that St. Chrysostom governed twenty-eight provinces. Accordingly,
in its famous 28th Canon, the Council of Chalcedon only confirmed an
authority to the Bishop of Constantinople which he had long enjoyed and
often exceeded. It ran thus: "We, following in all things the decisions of
the holy Fathers, and acknowledging the Canon of the 150 most religious
Bishops which has just been rea