would bring. Pope Damasus reigning at the time (366–384) would only confirm the dogmatic decree against Macedonius,[1] not the Canons. St. Gregory the Great (590–604) says: "The Roman Church hitherto neither acknowledges nor receives the Canons and Acts of that Synod (Const. I), she accepts the same Synod in that which it defined against Macedonius."[2] Boniface I (418–422) complains of the "new usurpation which is contrary to the knowledge of the ancients." "Study the sanctions of the Canons," he says, "you will find which are the second and third sees after Rome. Let the great Churches keep their dignity according to the Canons, that is Alexandria and Antioch" (Ep. ad Rufinum Thessal.).[3] St. Leo the Great (440–461) writes to Anatolius of Constantinople: "You boast that certain bishops sixty years ago made a rescript in favour of this your persuasion. No notice of it was ever sent by your predecessors to the Apostolic See" (Ep. 106, ad Anat.).
The Canon was put by Gratian into our Corpus Iuris,[4] and the Roman correctors added to it the note: "This Canon is one of those that the Apostolic Roman See did not receive at first nor for a long time." So the first step in the advancement of the new patriarchate was by no means received without opposition. Nevertheless its bishops, under the protection of the Emperor, succeeded wonderfully in their career of aggrandizement. St. Gregory of Nazianzum (329–c. 390) had for a time administered the See of Constantinople. But there had been much friction while he was there. His enemies said that he was Bishop of Sasima, in Cappadocia, all the time, and that he could not be bishop of two places at once. So he left Constantinople, and afterwards wrote ironically to the bishops who succeeded him: "You may have a throne and a lordly place then, since you think that the chief thing; rejoice, exalt yourselves, claim the title of Patriarch; broad lands shall be subject to you."[5] The machinations he had seen among the Court prelates had not left a pleasant impression. Nectarius (381–397), who succeeded St. Gregory, already began to assert
