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294 tion as to the legitimacy of his election; but, according to the laws of the Church, that legitimacy did not depend upon the Papal will, but upon the judgment pronounced upon Ignatius, and the regularity of the election of Photius. A council of three hundred and eighteen bishops had publicly approved that election, and the deposition of Ignatius, The legates had witnessed the proceedings; they gave evidence to what they had seen and heard; it was certainly enough, it should seem, to decide Nicholas to grant his communion to one whose learning and honourable character made him well worthy of the episcopate. But in taking sides with Ignatius, Nicholas was doing an act of sovereign authority. This prospect flattered his tendencies too much to permit him to eschew it. He therefore assembled the clergy of Rome to solemnly disown his legates. He subsequently wrote to the Emperor, to Photius, and to the whole Eastern Church, letters which are monuments of his pride. We must give them, that the doctrine they contain may be compared with that of the first eight centuries, and that a conviction may thus be arrived at, that the Papacy had abandoned the latter, in order to substitute for it an autocratic system which the Eastern Church could not accept. At the beginning of his letter to the Emperor Michael, he takes it for granted that this prince has addressed himself "to the holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Roman Church, chief (head) of all the churches, which follows in all its acts the pure authority of the Holy Fathers," for the purpose of being informed what he should think in ecclesiastical matters.

Nicholas neglected no occasion of repeating these high-sounding phrases, which disprove themselves, for the Fathers were completely ignorant of them. Coming to the cause of Ignatius, he complains "that con-