were the bounds of his proper patriarchate; there his authority was direct
and immediate; but in Africa, the Gauls, Spain, Illyricum, and the West
generally, it was only properly exercised in matters beyond the range of
the Bishops and Metropolitans. We suppose it is impossible to define a
power which was to correct and restore in emergencies. The Bishops of the
province of Aries afterwards besought Pope Leo to restore the primacy to
Arles, and render, A.D. 450, this undoubted testimony to the Primacy of the
Roman Church, and to the connexion between the rights of the Metropolitan
and the Patriarch:--

"By the Priest of this Church (Arles) it is certain that our predecessors,
as well as ourselves, have been consecrated to the High Priesthood by the
gift of the Lord; in which, following antiquity, the predecessors of your
Holiness confirmed by their published letters this which old custom had
handed down concerning the privileges of the Church of Arles, (as the
records of the Apostolical See doubtless prove;) believing it to be full of
reason and justice, that as through the most blessed Peter, Prince of the
Apostles, the holy Roman Church holds primacy over all the Churches of the
whole world, so also within the Gauls the Church of Arles, which had been
thought worthy to receive for its Priest St. Trophimus, sent by the
Apostles, should claim the right of ordaining to the High Priesthood."[70]

The view on which St. Leo acted in these proceedings against St. Hilary is
very plainly set forth in certain of his letters. Thus, "To our most
beloved Brethren, all the Bishops throughout the province of Vienne, Leo
Bishop of Rome.... The Lord hath willed that the mystery of this gift (of
announcing the Gospel) should belong to the office of all the Apostles, on
the condition of its being chiefly seated in the most blessed Peter, first
of all the Apostles; and from him, as it were from the head, it is His
pleasure that His gifts should flow into the whole body, that whoever dares
to recede from the rock of Peter may know that he has no part in the divine
mystery. For him hath He assumed into the participation of His indivisible
unity, and willed that he should be named what He himself is, saying, 'Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church:' that the rearing of
the eternal temple by the wonderful gift of the grace of God might consist
in the solidity of Peter, strengthening with this firmness His Church, that
neith