ey
had before them neither the Papal Empire of St. Gregory the Seventh, nor
the maxims of the Reformation. They are unbiassed witnesses. Sozomen then
tells us, that when St. Athanasius, unjustly deposed, fled to Rome for
justice, together with Paul of Constantinople, Marcellus of Ancyra, and
Asclepas of Gaza, "the Bishop of the Romans, having inquired into the
accusations against each, when he found them all agreeing with the doctrine
of the Nicene Synod, admitted them to communion as agreeing with him. _And
inasmuch as the care of all belonged to him on account of the rank of his
See, he restored to each his Church_. And he wrote to the Bishops
throughout the East, &c., which they took very ill;"[85] so ill, indeed,
that they afterwards pronounced a sentence of deposition against the Pope
himself. Again, Pope Julius "wrote to them, accusing them of secretly
undermining the doctrine of the Nicene Synod, and that, contrary to the
laws of the Church, they had not called him to their Council. _For that it
was an hierarchical law to declare null what was done against the sentence
of the Bishop of the Romans._"[86] That is, in matters concerning the state
of the whole Church, as was this cause of Athanasius. So Socrates says, in
reference to the same matter, that Pope Julius asserted to the Bishops of
the East, that "they were breaking the Canons in not having called him to
their Council, _the ecclesiastical Canon ordering that the Churches should
not make Canons contrary to the sentence of the Bishop of Rome_."[87] These
passages mark the prerogative of the First See: yet are they quite
compatible with the general self-government of the Eastern Church. No
doubt, when the Patriarchs of the East were at variance, all would look for
support to him who was both the first of their number, and stood alone with
the whole West to back him.

And thus again in St. Leo's time a very extraordinary emergency arose,
which still further raised the credit of the Roman Patriarch. Dioscorus of
Alexandria, supporting the heretic Eutyches, had, by help of the Emperor,
deposed and murdered St. Flavian of Constantinople: Juvenal of Jerusalem
was greatly involved in this transaction. Dioscorus had then consecrated
Anatolius to be the successor of St. Flavian, and Anatolius had consecrated
Maximus to Antioch, instead of Domnus, who, too, had been irregularly
deposed after St. Flavian. Now, had Dioscorus been otherwise blameless, his
consecrating An