which the Greeks translated : ttjs oIkovixsviktis iKKXrjcriai i-KtcrKoiTov. Hence probably arose the error of Gregory I. The popes wished to be papa uni- versalis ecclesise, not episcopi or patriarchm universales ; no doubt because the latter designation put them on a level with the Eastern patriarchs. Comp. Gieseler, i. 2, p. 192, not. 20, and p. 228, not. 72 ; and Hefele, ii. 525 sq. 286 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. inter pares, and lias nev' ei* exercised a papal supremacy over liis colleagues in tLe East, like that of the pope over the me- Q tro]iJ.itaiis of the West ; still less has he arrogated, like his rival in ancient Home, the sole dominion of the entire church. Toward the bishop of Rome lie claimed only equality of rights and coordinate dignity. In this long contest between the two leading patriarchs of Christendom, the patriarch of Rome at last carried the day. The monarchical tendency of the hierarchy was much stronger in the West than in the East, and was urging a universal monarchy in the church. The patriarch of Constantinople enjoyed indeed the favor of the emperor, and all the benefit of the imperial residence. New Rome was most beautifully and most advantageously situated for a metropolis of government, of commerce, and of culture, on the bridge between two continents ; and it formed a powerful bulwark against the barbarian conquests. It was never desecrated by an idol temple, but was founded a Chris- tian city. It fostered the sciences and arts, at a time when the West was whelmed by the wild waves of barbaristn ; it preserved the knowledge of the Greek language and literature through the middle ages ; and after the invasion of the Tm-ks it kindled by its fugitive scholars the enthusiasm of classic studies in the Latin church, till Greece rose from the dead with the New Testament in her hand, and held the torch for the Reformation. But the Roman patriarch had yet greater advantages. In him were united, as even the Greek historian Theodoret con- cedes,' all the outward and the inward, the political and the spiritual conditions of the highest eminence. In the first place, his authority rested on an ecclesiastical and spiritual basis, reaching back, as public opinion granted, through an unbroken succession, to Peter the apostle ; while Constantinople was in no sense an ajpostolica sedes, but had a purely political origin, though, by transfer, and in a measure by usurpation, it had possessed itself of the metropolitan rights ' Epist. 113, to Pope Leo I. * § 57. TUE KIVAL PATRIAECHS OF OLD AND KEW ROME. 287 of Ephesus.' Hence the popes after Leo appealed almost ex- clusively to the divine origin of their dignity, and to the primacy of the prince of the apostles over the whole clrarch. Then, too, considered even in a political point of view, old Rome had a far longer and grander imperial tradition to show, and was identified in memory