every province there should be
one, whose sentence should be considered the first among his brethren; and
others again seated in the greater cities should undertake a larger care,
through whom the direction of the Universal Church should converge to the
one See of Peter, and nothing anywhere disagree from its head."[72]

I think it fair to admit that the germ of something very like the present
papal system, without, however, such a wonderful concentration and
absorption of all power, is discernible in these words. I shall give
further on, Bossuet's interpretation of their most remarkable expression.
But it is also certain that such is not the view of the Church's government
set before us by St. Cyprian, St. Augustin, St. Vincent of Lerins, and the
Fathers generally, nor the one supported by the acts of the ancient Church.
There is a very distinct tone in the teaching and acts of St. Leo, and the
other Popes generally, from that of the contemporary Bishops and Fathers
who had not succeeded to St. Peter's own see. It consists in dwelling on
the Primacy so strongly, as quite to throw out of view the apostolic powers
of other Bishops; whereas these latter dwell upon the apostolic powers of
the episcopate generally; and, while they admit St. Peter's Primacy and
that of the Roman see, place the government of the Church in the harmonious
agreement of all. St. Leo's view, rigorously carried out, as it has been by
the later Roman Church, substitutes St. Peter singly, for St. Peter and his
brethren; and this usurpation, I repeat, we have to admit afresh, or else
be accounted heretics and schismatics.

Now, as to the government of which St. Leo had the ideal before him, I must
first remark that it was _new_. He says himself to the Bishop of
Thessalonica: "The government of Churches in Illyricum, which we commit in
our stead to your affection, following the example of Siricius of blessed
memory, who to your predecessor Anysius of holy memory _then first
committed with a certain charge_ the supporting of the Churches of that
province, which he desired to be maintained in discipline."[73] That is, it
was scarcely sixty years since Pope Siricius had selected the Bishop of the
Metropolis to keep a watch over the maintenance of the canons. And now Pope
Leo was already requiring the Metropolitans to consecrate no Bishop without
first consulting the Bishop of Thessalonica as his vicar.

Secondly, this proceeding on the part of the Popes