of Eastern rites he is not Patriarch, but only Pope. It is true that the Papal dignity is so enormously greater than any of the others that it tends to overshadow them; it is also true that one cannot always say exactly in which capacity the Pope acts—in earlier ages especially Popes were probably often not explicitly conscious themselves. On the other hand, as soon as we begin to discuss the relations of the Eastern Churches to the Pope, the distinction between his positions as Western Patriarch and as universal Pope becomes very important. We shall hear of fierce disputes as to the limits of the Roman Patriarchate carried on by people who entirely admitted the Pope's universal jurisdiction as Pope:[1] and now that the "Orthodox" Churches no longer acknowledge him as Pope they still recognize him as Patriarch of the West—indeed, still count him as the first of the great Patriarchs.
The Roman Patriarchate, then, as distinct from the Papacy, covered, at the time of the Council of Nicæa, the same territory as has always since been conceded to her by every one, namely, first Italy, and then all the undefined Western lands where Latin was spoken officially, all the tribes of barbarians who came immediately under the influence of Rome, whom she had converted or would convert in future. At Nicæa the Papal Legate, Hosius, Bishop of Cordova, signs the decrees in the name of "the Church of Rome, and the Churches of Italy, Spain, and all the West."[2] It was only on the Eastern side, where the Roman Patriarchate touched the others (or, rather, the new one of Constantinople), that in after years her boundaries were disputed. We shall hear of the questions of Illyricum and the Bulgarian Church. Not only as universal Pope, but also because of his enormously largest territory, as successor of the Prince of the Apostles, as Bishop of the mighty
- ↑ E. A. Freeman ("The Eastern Church," Edin. Rev. 1858) thought that one of these disputes (about Illyricum) is an argument against the Papacy. The Pope was fighting for a limited jurisdiction (whether Illyricum belonged to him or to Constantinople); how, then, says Freeman, could he have been claiming an unlimited one, as he does now? Of course, the limit of his Patriarchate no more affects the question of his rights as Pope than do the limits of the diocese of Rome.
- ↑ Mansi, ii. 882, 927.
