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Council of Nicea I

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EXCURSUS ON THE EXTENT OF THE JURISDICTION OF THE 
BISHOP OF ROME OVER THE SUBURBICAN CHURCHES.
 
Although, as Hefele well says, "It is evident that the Council has not in 
view here the primacy of the Bishop of Rome over the whole Church, 
but simply his power as a patriarch," yet it may not be unimportant to 
consider what his patriarchal limits may have been.
 
(Hefele, Hist. Councils, Vol. I., p. 397.)
The translation of this [VI.] canon by Rufinus has been especially an 
apple of discord. Et ut apud Alexandriam et in urbe Roma vetusta 
consuetudo servetur, ut vel ille Egypti vel hic suburbicariarum 
ecclesiarum sollicitudinem gerat. In the seventeenth century this 
sentence of Rufinus gave rise to a very lively discussion between the 
celebrated jurist, Jacob Gothfried (Gothofredus), and his friend, 
Salmasius, on one side, and the Jesuit, Sirmond, on the other. The 
great prefecture of Italy, which contained about a third of the whole 
Roman Empire, was divided into four vicariates, among which the 
vicariate of Rome was the first. At its head were two officers, the 
proefectus urbi and the vicarius urbis. The proefectus urbi exercised 
authority over the city of Rome, and further in a suburban circle as far 
as the hundredth milestone, The boundary of the vicarins urbis 
comprised ten provinces--Campania, Tuscia with Ombria, Picenum, 
Valeria, Samnium, Apulia with Calabria, Lucania and that of the 
Brutii, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. Gothfried and Salmasius 
maintained, that by the regiones suburbicarioe the little territory of the 
proefectus urbi must be understood; while, according to Sirmond, 
these words designate the whole territory of the vicarius urbis. In our 
time Dr. Maasen has proved in his book,(2) already quoted several 
times, that Gothfried and Salmasius were right in maintaining that, by 
the regiones suburbicarioe, the little territory of the proefectus urbi 
must be alone understood.
 
Hefele thinks that Phillips "has proved" that the Bishop of Rome had 
patriarchal rights over places outside the limits of the ten provinces of 
the vicarius urbis; but does not agree with Phillips in thinking Rufinus in error. As a matter of fact the point 
is a difficult one, and has little to do with the gist of the meaning of the 
canon. One thing is certain: the early Latin version of the canons, 
called the Prisca, was not satisfied with the Greek wording and made 
the Canon read thus: "It is of ancient custom that the bishop of the city 
of Rome should have a primacy (principatum), so that he should 
govern with care the suburban places, AND ALL HIA OWN 
PROVINCE."(1) Another interesting reading is that found in several 
MSS. which begins, "The Church of Rome hath always had a primacy 
(primatum)," and as a matter of fact the early date of this addition is 
evinced by the fact that the canon was actually quoted in this shape by 
Paschasinus at the Council of Chalcedon.
 
Hefele further on says, "The Greek commentators Zonaras and 
Balsamon (of the twelfth century) say very explicitly, in their 
explanation of the Canons of Nice, that this sixth canon confirms the 
rights of the Bishop of Rome as patriarch over the whole West," and 
refers to Beveridge's Syodicon, Tom. I., pp. 66 and 67. After diligent 
search I can find nothing to warrant the great amplitude of this 
statement. Balsamon's interpretation is very vague, being simply that 
the Bishop of Rome is over the Western Eparchies 
( tpn    esperiwn   
 eparkiwn  ) and Zonaras still more vaguely says that 
 tpn    esperiwn   
 arkein    eqos   
 ekrathse  . That the whole West was in a general way 
understood to be in the Roman Patriarchate I have no doubt, that the 
Greek scholiasts just quoted deemed it to be so I think most probably 
the case, but it does not seem to me that they have said so in the 
particular place cited. It seems to me that all they meant to say was 
that the custom observed at Alexandria and Antioch was no purely 
Eastern and local thing, for a similar state of affairs was found in the 
West.
 
 



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