the Fathers, he will send his Legates to the synod. This letter he gives to the Archpriest Peter and to the Abbot of St. Saba at Rome, also named Peter, who are to represent him. These Legates preside throughout the council; the Acts always name them first, then Tarasius.[1] But Tarasius opened the proceedings with a speech and conducted most of the business. The Empress sent two representatives, who, as usual, have the place of honour, but do not interfere. About three hundred bishops were present. The Pope's letter is read out, containing the words: "The See of Peter shines as holding the Primacy over the whole world and stands as head of all the Churches of God"; also, "Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, who first sat on the Apostolic throne, left the Primacy of his Apostleship and of his pastoral care to his successors, who shall always sit on his most sacred chair, to whom he, by divine command, left the power of authority given to himself by God our Lord and Saviour."[2] And "the holy synod answered: The whole most sacred synod so believes, is so convinced, so teaches."[3] Adrian soon after writes to Charles the Great, telling him how the council had condemned Iconoclasm as he had directed, and adding, "Therefore we accepted the synod";[4] he also had the Acts translated into Latin.
Our eighth general council, the Fourth of Constantinople (869), was as papal in its feeling as any council could be. It signed the formula of Hormisdas (cf. pp. 85–86); nor are the facts that it was summoned by the Pope, presided over by his Legates, and confirmed by him, in dispute. Unfortunately, when the Orthodox speak of the eighth general council they mean, not this one, but Photius' synod, held ten years later (879), that was as anti-papal as ours was papal. The ways had already parted. The story of these rival synods is part of that of the great schism (p. 156). There remain the two irregular councils, the second and the fifth. We have already seen that the second council (Constantinople I, in 381) was not œcumenical as summoned nor in its sessions. It was a small local synod of Eastern bishops, presided over successively by three Patriarchs of Constanti-
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