Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/110

84 than fall back on the decision of "the 318," now fifty-six years old, and treated with growing veneration as an inspired oracle. That decision was to be the stamp and seal of orthodoxy for all time. There remained to do nothing more in the matter than to safeguard it against the attacks of heresy, which in the meantime had risen up to assail it on all sides. Already the keynote of Eastern Christianity was sounded. This was to be orthodoxy—fixed, settled dogma, with no encouragement for widening views or the exploration of new realms of truth.

Having determined this point, the council only had to proceed to certain practical decisions in its later canons. The object of one of these was to confine a bishop's authority to his own district. Another, the third, declared that "the bishop of Constantinople shall have the privilege of rank next after the bishop of Rome; because Constantinople is new Rome" —a decision of great significance in view of the subsequent division of the Church.