speetive  districts,  of  the  churches  of  The  opinion  of  the  Roman  see's  suprem-
Roine,  Antioch,  and  Alexandria.  De  acy,  though  apparently  rather  a  vague
Marca,  de  Concordantia  Sacerdotii  et  Im-  and  general  notion,  as  it  still  continues
peril,  1.  i.  c.  8.  At  a  much  earlier  period,  in  those  Catholics  who  deny  its  infalli-


C32  PATRIARCHATE  OF  ROME.      CHAP.  VII.  PART  I

had  a  tendency  to  prevent  the  bishops  of  Rome  from  aug-
menting their  authority  in  the  East,  and  even  to  diminish
that  which  they  had  occasionally  exercised ;  the  institution
of  patriarchs  at  Antioch,  Alexandria,  and  afterwards  at  Con-
stantinople, with  extensive  rights  of  jurisdiction  ;  the  differ-
ence of  rituals  and  discipline ;  but,  above  all,  the  many
disgusts  taken  by  the  Greeks,  which  ultimately  produced  an
irreparable  schism  between  the  two  churches  in  the  ninth
century.  But  within  the  pale  of  the  Latin  church  every
succeeding  age  enhanced  the  power  and  dignity  of  the
Roman  see.  By  the  constitution  of  the  church,  such  at  least
as  it  became  in  the  fourth  century,  its  divisions  being  ar-
ranged in  conformity  to  those  of  the  empire,  every  province
ought  to  have  its  metropolitan,  and  every  vicariate  its  ecclesi-
astical exarch  or  primate.  The  bishop  of  Rome  presided,  in
the  latter  capacity,  over  the  Roman  vicariate.  comprehending
southern  Italy,  and  the  three  chief  Mediterranean  islands.
But  as  it  happened,  none  of  the  ten  provinces  forming  this
division  had  any  metropolitan  ;  so  that  the  popes  exercised
all  metropolitical  functions  within  them,  such  as  the  consecra-
tion of  bishops,  the  convocation  of  synods,  the  ultimate
decision  of  appeals,  and  many  other  sorts  of  authority.
