t testimony against the Roman. It
runs thus: "The most beloved of God and our fellow-bishop Rheginus, and
Zeno and Evagrius, the most religious Bishops of the Province of Cyprus,
have declared unto us an innovation which has been introduced contrary to
the laws of the Church, and the Canons of the holy Fathers, and which
affects the liberty of all. Wherefore since evils which affect the
community require more attention, inasmuch as they cause greater hurt; and
especially since the Bishop of Antioch has not so much as followed an
ancient custom in performing ordinations in Cyprus, as those most religious
persons who have come to the holy Synod have informed us, by writing and by
word of mouth; we declare that they who preside over the holy Churches
which are in Cyprus, shall preserve, without gainsaying or opposition,
their right of performing by themselves the ordinations of the most
religious Bishops, according to the Canons of the holy Fathers and the
ancient custom. The same rule shall be observed in all the other Dioceses,
and in the Provinces everywhere, so that none of the most religious Bishops
shall invade any other Province, which has not heretofore from the
beginning been under the hands of himself or his predecessors. But if any
one has so invaded a Province and brought it by force under himself, he
shall restore it, that the Canons of the Fathers may not be transgressed,
nor the pride of secular dominion be privily introduced under the
appearance of a sacred office, nor we lose by little the freedom which our
Lord Jesus Christ, the deliverer of all men, has given us by His own blood.
The Holy and Ecumenical Synod has therefore decreed, that the rights which
have heretofore, and from the beginning, belonged to each province, shall
be preserved to it pure and without restraint, according to the custom
which has prevailed of old, each metropolitan having permission to take a
copy of the things now transacted for his own security. But if any one
shall introduce any regulation contrary to what has been now defined, the
whole Holy and Ecumenical synod has decreed that it shall be of no
effect."[63]

It must be allowed that De Maistre has very good reasons for disliking
General Councils.

Nine years after this Council, St. Leo the Great became Pope, whose long
and able Pontificate will afford us the best means of judging what the
legitimate power of the Roman See was, and how it tended to the
preservation and unit