atolius, of his own authority, to Constantinople, and
Anatolius then consecrating Maximus to Antioch, without the participation
of Rome, was an infringement of the just rights of the Primacy; as a
Patriarch could not be deposed without the concurrence of the First See.
Thus the whole East was in confusion. A heretic had been absolved; one
Patriarch murdered, two deposed; and of the other two, one was chief agent,
and the other not clear, in these transactions. No wonder that at the
Council of Chalcedon, the Bishop of Rome appeared at the head of the West,
both to vindicate his own violated rights, for Dioscorus had even deposed
him, and as the restorer of true doctrine, and the deliverer of the Church.

But I must now quote, at considerable length, the argument of Bossuet, and
his statement as to where the sovereign power in the Church resides. We
have already seen what he has said respecting the Council of Ephesus; and
his observations on that of Chalcedon and the four succeeding Councils are
equally important. His argument, which was intended for the justification
of the Gallican Church, really reaches to that of the Greek and English
Church also; and it is of the very utmost value, as it rests upon
authorities which are sacrosanct in the eyes of every Catholic--the
proceedings and decrees of Ecumenical Councils. Let it only be remembered,
that I quote no German rationalist, no one who denies either the doctrine
or hierarchy of the Church; but a Catholic prelate, the most strenuous
defender of the faith, and one who, in the great assembly of his brethren,
cried out, "If I forget thee, Church of Rome, may I forget myself; may my
tongue dry, and remain motionless in my mouth, if thou art not always the
first in my remembrance, if I place thee not at the beginning of all my
songs of joy."[88]

The question then at issue is, whether the Bishop of Rome be the first of
the Patriarchs, and first Bishop of the whole world, the head of the
Apostolic college, and holding among them the place which Peter held, all
which I freely acknowledge, as the testimony of antiquity; or whether he
be, further, not only this, but the source of all jurisdiction, uniting in
his single person all those powers which belonged to Peter and the Apostles
collectively: an idea which, however extravagant, is actually maintained at
present in the Church of Rome, is moreover absolutely necessary to justify
its acts, and to condemn the position of the Gre