OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

301

fused the spirit of ecclesiastical discipline and chap.

legislation through the hundred and twenty_ ^

provinces of the Roman world* The arch-bishop or metropolitan was empowered, by thelaws, to summon the suffragan bishops of hisprovince; to revise their conduct, to vindicatetheir rights, to declare their faith, and to exa-mine the merit of the candidates who were elect-ed by the clergy and people to supply the va-cancies of the episcopal college. The primatesof Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage , andafterwards Constantinople , who exercised amore ample jurisdiction, convened the nume-rous assembly of their dependent bishops. Butthe convocation of great and extraordinary sy-nods, was the prerogative of the emperor alone.Whenever the emergencies of the church re-quired this decisive measure, he dispatched aperemptory summons to the bishops, or the de-puties of each province, with an order, for theuse of post horses, and a competent allowancefor the expences of their journey. At an early pe- A ' D ‘ 314riod, when Constantine was the protector,rather than the proselyte, of Christianity , he referredthe African controversy to the council of Arles ;in which the bishops of York, of Treves, of Mi-lan, and of Carthage , met as friends and brethrento debate in their native tongue on the common

k The Council of Nice in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh, ea*sons, has made some fundamental regulations concerning synods, me-tropolitans, and primates. The Niceue canons have been variously tor-tured, abused, interpolated, or forged, according to the interest of theclergy. The Suburbicarian churches, assigned (by Rufiuus) to thebishop of Rome , have been made the subject of vehement controversy.

(See Siimond. Opera torn, iv, p. 1-238).