ascribed this to the Roman see, although that see had protested against the decrees of the œcumenical councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon, which had given that Church the second rank in spite of Rome. It was thus that the Papacy in the middle ages distorted history to find proofs in support of its pretensions.
The Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, John Camaterus, resigned and retired to Thrace. He was succeeded by Michael Autorian, who crowned Theodore Lascaris Emperor of the Greeks. They both fixed their residence at Nicea in Bithynia.
The French and Venetians quarreled about the new Latin Patriarch and the division of the ecclesiastical property. Thomas applied to the Pope, who replied in a long letter, from which we will quote an extract: "Of the four beasts which are about the throne Ezekiel put the eagle above the others, because, of the four Patriarchal Churches, represented by the four beasts, which surround the holy see as its servants, the Church of Constantinople has the preëminence."
Thus Rome was the throne. The imperial eagle, the type of Constantinople, was to be the first of the symbolic beasts that adored it. Such was Innocent's modest notion of his authority. He thus gives a divine origin to the preeminence of Constantinople, because it had come from the holy see — God's organ. After this preämble the Pope gives Thomas some instructions, among which we will notice the following: "You ask me how you should arrange the bishoprics in those countries where there are only Greeks, and in those where they are mixed with Latins. In the first you must consecrate Greek bishops, if you find any, who will be faithful to you, and are willing to receive consecration from you. In mixed bishoprics you will ordain Latins, and give them preference over the Greeks. ... If you cannot bring the Greeks to the Latin ritual, you must suf-
