of Hadrian to Tarasius, Bishop of Constantinople, were read and approved. In those letters Hadrian says, 'Whose (Peter's) See shines forth in primacy over the whole Church, and is Head of all the Churches of God. Wherefore the same Blessed Peter the Apostle, governing the Church by the command of the Lord, left nothing uncared for, but held everywhere, and holds, supreme authority (ἐκράτησε πάντοτε καὶ κρατεῖ τὴν ἀρχήν).' Hadrian then requires Tarasius to adhere to our 'Apostolic See, which is the Head of all Churches of God, and in profound sincerity of mind and heart to guard the sacred and orthodox form' [of faith]. The whole Synod cried out in acclamation, 'The Holy Synod so believes, so is convinced, so defines.'[1]
18. The African Bishops, in 646, addressed a Synodical letter to Pope Theodore, which letter was read and approved in the Lateran Council of 649, under Martin I. 'No one can doubt,' they say, 'that there is in the Apostolic See for all Christians a fountain, great and unfailing, abundant in its waters, from which the streams go forth copiously to irrigate the whole Christian world; to which [See], also in honour of Blessed Peter, the decrees of the Fathers gave special veneration in searching out the things of God, which ought by all means to be carefully examined; and, above all, and justly by the Apostolic Head of Bishops, whose care from of old it is, as well to condemn evils as to commend the things which are to be praised. For by the ancient discipline it is ordained that whatsoever be done,
- ↑ Labbe, Concil. tom. viii. p. 771, 5. Ed. Ven. 1729.
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