in a letter of Marcian to Leo (Ep. 110, torn. i. p 1182 sq.). § 65. THE ECUMENICAL COTINCILS. 339 question -^hich of tlie two is above tlie other, is still a point of controversy between the curialist or ultramontane and the episcopal or Gallican schools. Apart from this predominance of the emperor and his commissioners, the character of the ecumenical councils was thoroughly hierarchical. In the apostolic council at Jerusa- lem, the elders and the brethren took part with the apostles, and the decision went forth in the name of the whole congre- gation.' But this republican or democratic element, so to call it, had long since given way before the spirit of aristocracy. The bishops alone, as the successors and heirs of the apostles, the ecclesia docens^ were members of the councils. Hence, in the fifth canon of J^ice, even a provincial synod is termed "the general assembly of the hishops of the province." The pres- byters and deacons took part, indeed, in the deliberations, and Athanasius, though at the time only a deacon, exerted proba- bly more influence on the council of Nice by his zeal and liis gifts, than most of the bishops ; but they had no votwn deci- sivian, except when, like the Roman legates, they represented their bishops. The laity were entirely excluded. Yet it must be remembered, that the bishops of tliat day were elected by the popular voice. So far as that went, they really represented the Christian people, and were not seldom called to account by the people for their acts, though they voted in their own name as successors of the apostles. Euse- bius felt bound to justify his vote at iJs^ice before his diocese in Caesarea, and the Egyptian bishops at Chalcedon feared an uproar in their congi'egations. Furthermore, the councils, in an age of absolute despotism, sanctioned the principle of common public deliberation, as the best means of arriving at truth and settling controversy. They revived the spectacle of the Roman senate in ecclesias- tical form, and were the forerunners of representative govern- ment and parliamentary legislation. ' Acts XV. 22 : Tore tSo^e to7s airofrroAois /cai ro7s irpeaffuTtpois a I) v o \ti TJ) e/cKATjaia; and v. 23 : Ol a-tSffToKot Kal q i irpecr $ur e po i koi o i a.Se^<pol Tols . . . oSeA^oTs, k. t. A. Comp. my Hist, of the Apostolic Church, § 69, and 8 128. 340 THIRD TEEIOD. A.D. 311-590. In matters of discipline the majority decided ; but in matters of faith unanimity was required, though, if necessary, it was forced by the excision of the dissentient minority. In the midst of the assembly an open copy of the Gospels lay upon a desk or table, as a symbol of the presence of Christ, whose infallible word is the rule of all doctrine. Subsequently the ecclesiastical canons and the relics of the saints were laid in similar state. The bishops — at least according to later usage