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44 first, as one of the patriarchates, and eventually even as the second. This same St. Gregory formally announced his election to the Bishops of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, although in his private correspondence he still cherishes the older system of three patriarchates only (Rome, Alexandria, Antioch). The second place was given to the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople by Innocent III (1198–1216) at the fourth Lateran Council in 1215. In 1439 the Council of Florence gave the same rank to the Greek Patriarch.

The territory over which they ruled went on growing after the "Œcumenical Patriarchs" had become the chief bishops of Eastern Christendom. Leo III, the Isaurian (Emperor, 717–741), separated his own fatherland Isauria (at the south of Asia Minor), with the Metropolis at Seleucia and twenty suffragan sees, from the Patriarchate of Antioch and gave it to Constantinople. But the greatest question of this kind was Illyricum. We have seen that the Roman Prefecture of Illyricum, together with Italy and Gaul, went to make up the great Western Patriarchate. But the Illyrians, at least the "Roman" inhabitants, spoke Greek. Illyricum covered Athens and Corinth, so the Patriarchs of Constantinople, who had become the chiefs of Greek-speaking Christians, greatly desired these lands. The Emperors were always ready to add to their jurisdiction; the more people looked to Constantinople in all affairs for guidance, the closer their interests were knit to the capital, the better, of course, for the central government. At the sixth general council (Constantinople III or Trullanum I in 680) and at the Quinisextum (Trullanum II in 692) the lllyrian bishops are still counted among those of the Roman