ne in this Council. 'When we
arrived,' said he, 'at the court of the Emperor, we found the See of
Constantinople usurped, contrary to the Canons, by Anthimus Bishop of
Trebisond. He even refused to quit the error of Eutyches. Therefore, after
having waited for his repentance, we declare him unworthy of the name of
Catholic and Bishop, until he fully receive the doctrine of the Fathers.
You ought likewise to reject the rest whom the Holy See has condemned. We
are astonished that you approved this injury done to the See of
Constantinople, instead of informing us of it; and we have repaired it by
the ordination of Mennas, who is the first of the Eastern Church ordained
by the hands of our See.'"[111] I find this Pope presently called by the
Easterns, 'Father of fathers,' 'Archbishop of ancient Rome,' 'Ecumenical
Patriarch.' This latter title is also given to Mennas. I shall have more to
say about it hereafter; but it is remarkable that it was first given, so
far as we have any record, to Dioscorus,[112] by a Bishop in some complaint
made to him at the Latrocinium of Ephesus; but Justinian gives to the
Patriarch of Constantinople the title, "to the most holy and blessed
Archbishop of this royal city, and Ecumenical Patriarch."[113]

The Pope shortly after dies at Constantinople, and a Council is held, at
which the Patriarch Mennas presides, the Bishops who had accompanied the
defunct Pope taking rank after him. He writes to the Patriarch Peter of
Jerusalem, and informs him of the acts of this Council. Peter assembles his
Council at Jerusalem: the procedure which took place at Constantinople was
there found canonical, and the deposition of Anthimus was confirmed. Here
the same facts which prove the Pope's Primacy refute his Supremacy: and
this is not an isolated incident, but one link in a vast and uninterrupted
chain of evidence.

I find in the laws of the Emperor Justinian just at the same time, looking
at them merely as facts, a full confirmation and recognition of the
Episcopal and Patriarchal constitution of the Church. In 538, the Emperor,
in an edict, addressing the Patriarch Mennas, says, "Wherefore we exhort
you to assemble all the Bishops who are in this imperial city ... and
oblige them all to anathematize by writing the impious Origen ... that your
Blessedness send copies of what you do on this subject to all the other
Bishops, and to all the superiors of monasteries.... We have written as
much to Pope Vigilius a