Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/143

 THE CITY OF GOD 107 heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 1 The Bishops of Rome have therefore argued that Peter was the first Bishop of Rome and that they are his successors as chief of the apostles and as head of the Church. The pagan historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, tells of a fight at a papal election in 366 as a result of which one hundred and thirty-seven persons were killed ; but adds that the office was worth fighting for, since it brought with it a large income which enabled the bishop to dress elegantly and to ride in a carriage and to give banquets that outshone those of the emperor. Damasus, the very pope elected on that occasion, is the first to give us a definite statement of the papal claims and of the doctrine of the Roman Church. From his successor, Siricius, comes the first extant papal decretal or order issued to the Church at large. Since the popes consistently opposed Arianism, whereas the attitude of many Eastern bishops was wavering, when the orthodox Theodosian dynasty came into power the papal influence continued to increase. The last Western emperor of that family in 445 issued an edict ordering other churches to recognize as supreme the authority of the apostolic see at Rome, and Leo the justifying that supremacy by Rome's connection Great with Peter, by the majesty of the city itself, and by a decree of the Council of Sardika a century before. The Bishop of Rome at this time was Leo the Great (440-461), who is often regarded as the first to try to raise that office to something like the power of later times. He not only claimed to be sole head of the Church, but by his partici- pation in the embassy to Attila left a precedent for the political activity of his successors. During the fifth century several quarrels between the Patriarchs of Alexandria and i Constantinople prevented any single see in the East from acquiring an authority comparable to that of Rome in the 1 Matthew xvi, 18, 19; but two chapters later (Matthew xvm, 17, 18) the I same powers are given to the disciples and the Church in general. See also 'John xx, 22, 23. i!