dained, to George, bishop of Alexandria, to be tried, or instructed; and requires that the people and clergy should become Arians, and if any disobey, they must be put to death. If this be the same Frumentius, Abyssinia was the India in this history, for Auxumis is a city eastward from the head of the Nile, and towards the sea. But there are reasons against that supposition. Admitting that a colony of the Indi settled in Africa, and were still called by that name; yet the country to the south-east of Persia at the period of those writers was, and still is, India.k kk Also, the youths appear to have gone from Tyre unto, and returned from, India by land. Neither of the historians mention Auxumis, or appear to have thought of Abyssinia. They allege, there was a king in India not subject to the Romans, but the letter of Constantius is addressed to two governors, and requires them to act in a style suitable to their being his subjects, conferring upon them the dignity of Roman citizens. Socrates speaks of the India to which Bartholomew came, and evidently had on his mind the account given by Eusebius," who says, that Pantænus had visited the place to which Bartholomew went, and had found a Hebrew copy of Matthew's gospel there; nevertheless, Socrates asserts that the Christian religion did not enlighten them before the time of Constantine. Also, Sozomen testifies, that the priesthood had this its beginning in India.m The two first of these historians discriminate between a nearer and an ulterior India, and evidently confine these occurrences to the nearer; also, according to Socrates, Meropius visited the same region of the Indies, which Metrodorus had then lately traversed. But Metrodorus was, on his return, robbed, or feigned himself to have been robbed, by Sapor, king of the Persians, which act Constantine

mm

kk Athanasii Opera. p. 20.

11 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. v. c. 20.

mm ή μεν δη παρα Ινδοις ιερωσύνη ταυτην εσχεν αρχην. Sozom.lib. ii. c. 24.

resented and made it a matter of accusation, which continued such in the reigns of Constantine and Julian. The return of Metrodorus from India must therefore, have been through Persia; and the route of the young men being the same, the India, here mentioned, certainly lay in the East, and was not Abyssinia. These and other reasons seem conclusive, that the accounts are of two Frumentius's, and if so, then the period of the commencement of episcopacy in India, is fixed to have been in the fourth century; when episcopacy, as established by the canons of the council of Nice, was prevalent every where.

nn

-"Expeditionem parans in Persas-ad ultionem præteritorum vehementer elatus est."-Scil. Julianus Ammian Marcell. lib. xxxii. c. 12. Non Julianum, sed Constantium ardores Parthicos succendisse cum Metrodori mendaciis avidius acquiiscit.-Idem. lib. xxv. c. 4.

2 s

SECTION XXI.

Leo at

Leo succeeded Sixtus; his claim of Roman superiority because they possessed the ashes of Peter; and might expect his favor still. tempted as civil authority failed to view the ecclesiastical power founded upon divine right, and having argued Peter's higher commission, supposed his apostolical authority still to remain, and to be devolved on the bishop of Rome. But the first councils established the dignity and authority of the sees by those of the cities in which they were. To secure the canons of the council of Nice against the repeal attempted in later councils, he supposed them inspired. His claim of appellative jurisdiction rejected by the bishops of Africa. Actuated by pride and intolerance, his high talents and popularity gave him great advantages in establishing the papal throne, which it was his chief aim to accomplish by every means, wrong and right. Although he failed in the East and Africa, yet he succeeded in bringing the heathen invaders of the Empire in Europe all under the spiritual power of the bishop of Rome.

LEO, denominated the Great, after having exercised the office of archdeacon of Rome during the term of twenty years, was elected successor to Sixtus the third, A. D. 440. His works are in the finest style of Latin; of the Greek his knowledge was defective. a Possessing unusual qualifications in point of knowledge, influence, experience and eloquence, he evinced by his uniform conduct a disposition to extend the papal jurisdiction, equally by courtly address or daring enterprise, truth or falsehood, right or wrong, to the

utmost extreme.

Having claimed and held an unscriptural superiority to the presbyters of Rome, and thereby the closest in

a-injungo-ut universa facias-in Latinum translata, ut in nulla partè actionum (scil: concilii Chalcedonensis) dubitare possimus. Leon: ep. 90.

b Etius, ab officio archidiaconatus per speciem provectionis (scil.

THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &c.

199

timacy with the pontificate, through a term of twelve years prior to the elevation of Sixtus, his talents being also occasionally had in requisition by the Emperor, in promotion of the public weal, he must have concurred in the craft and violence displayed by that bishop in retaining the diocess of Illyricum, contrary to a canon of the council of Ephesus of 441.

Because Rome was declining, the empire divided into two, and the enemies of both increasing in numbers, power, and military skill, it was attempted by Leo to render the claim of ecclesiastical precedence more permanent, by founding it on sacred authority. The superior dignity of the Roman see was therefore alleged to have arisen from a higher commission given to the Apostle Peter, whose bones, left in that metropolis, perpetuated the right of supreme authority, whatsoever might be the diversity of the merits of the bishops in the seat itself. Peter being ever an apostle, and still having by an ubiquity of presence the pastoral care of the whole church, has a more special regard for his favorite church where his body sleeps, and intercedes for them by his prayers in heaven.d And therefore the representative of Peter has precedence of all bishops in the church universal. Such dialectical skill had not been attained by the bishops of the first general council of Nice, for they confirmed by their canons the jurisdiction of the bishops of Alexan

ad presbyteratum) amovetur. Leon. op. 133. Qui primus fuerit ministrorum et à Pontificis latere non recedit, injuriam putat si presbyter ordinetur. Hieron. ez. 48.

c Council Ephes. can. vii.

d-cui ter dixit "pasce oves meas:" quod nunc procul dubio facit, & mandatum Domini pius pastor exequitur, confirmans nos cohortationibus suis, et pro nobis orare non cessans. Leon. op. p. 4. Si autem hanc pietatis suæ curam omni populo Dei, sicut credendum est, ubique prætendit, quanto magis nobis alumnis suis opem suam dignatur impendere, apud quos, in sacro beatæ dormitionis thoro requiescit. Ibidem. Etsi enim diversa nonnunquam sint merita præsulum, tamen jura permanent sedium. Idem. p, 137. e-cunctis ecclesiæ rectoribus Petri forma praeponitur. Leon. opp. 3.

dria, Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem, over the same regions respectively, which they had gained by ancient custom. Nevertheless higher objects than the heresy of Arius convened the first oecumenical council; and their decrees, established by Constantine as the supreme law of the empire, effected, as he had designed, a Christian establishment instead of the Pagan, and conformed to its features; in which the diocesses of the empire had their patriarchs, the capitals of the provinces their metropolitans, and the cities their suffragan bishops; the grade of civil authority in each of the cities becoming the standard of the jurisdiction of their bishops; which hierarchy has been, as far as the revolutions of the nations would allow, continued into this day. The second general council did therefore decree, "that the bishop of Constantinople should have the birthright of honor, next to the bishop of Rome, because she is New Rome." Also the council of Chalcedon, in number the fourth, which consisted of more than six hundred bishops, and in which Leo appeared by his legates, have shown this same ancient opinion of the origin of the dignity of the church of Rome, alleging that the precedence given to that church had been because the city was imperial, and that they, for the same reason, gave equal privileges to the holy see of New Rome, that is of Constantinople. The councils of Nice, Constantinople, and Chalcedon, had consequently no idea of the divine right which the bishops of Rome have claimed, to sustain an authority likely to decay with the declension of the dignity of their city. The jurisdiction given to the See of Constantinople by the council of Chalcedon, over Pontus, Asia, and Thrace, and the bishops of those diocesses, who were among the Barbarians, was violently resisted by Leo, but ineffectually, because

f Conc. Nic. can. vi. and vii. g Conc. Chalced. can. xviii. h Conc. Chalced. can. xviii. πρεσβεία. απενέμαν.

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τῷ αὐτῷ σχοπῳ κινουμενοι-ισα