n was read, appealed to the holy synod of the most holy Bishop of
Rome, and Alexandria, and Jerusalem, and Thessalonica."[76] Thus St.
Isidore of Spain, in the sixth century, says: "The order of Bishops is
fourfold; that is, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Metropolitans, and Bishops. In
Greek a Patriarch is called the first of the Fathers, because he holds the
first, that is, the Apostolic place, and therefore, because he holds the
highest rank, he has such an appellation, as the Roman, the Antiochene, and
the Alexandrine."[77] Accordingly Gieseler says, "At the end of this
period," (A.D. 451,) the four Patriarchs of the East "were held in their
patriarchates for ecclesiastical centres, to which the other Bishops had to
attach themselves for maintenance of ecclesiastical unity; and in
conjunction with their patriarchal synod they formed the highest tribunal
of appeal in all ecclesiastical matters of the patriarchate; whilst, on the
other hand, they were treated as the highest representatives of the Church,
who, through mutual communication with each other, were to maintain the
unity of the universal Church, and without whose concurrence no decrees
concerning the whole Church could be made."[78]

But no more certain proof of the independence of the Eastern Church can be
given than the Synodical Epistle of the Council of Constantinople to the
Pope and the Western Bishops. This was a Synod of purely Eastern Bishops,
held in 381, which afterwards, by the consent of the Western Church, became
Ecumenical. This Council "arranged, without any reference to the West, the
affairs of the Oriental Church, and was even quite openly on the side of
the party of Meletius, rejected by the Westerns; just so the interference
attempted by the Italian Bishops in the matter of Maximus, the
counter-Bishop of Constantinople, remained quite disregarded."[79] They
write thus: "To our most honoured Lords and pious brethren and
fellow-ministers, Damasus," of Rome, "Ambrosius," of Milan, "Britton,
Valerianus, Ascholius, Anemius, Basilius, and the other holy Bishops
assembled in the great city of Rome, the holy Synod of orthodox Bishops
assembled in the great city of Constantinople greeting in the Lord."[80]
Then after informing them what they had decreed concerning the highest
matters of the faith, they go on--"But as to the management of particular
matters in the Churches, both an ancient fundamental principle, ([Greek:
thesmos],) as ye know, hath prevailed