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Rh Emperor began with Sicily. Already before the second Council of Nicæa (787), which put an end to Iconoclasm, he had made the See of Syracuse into an Archbishopric, as the Metropolitan See of the island. Tauromenion was also made an Archbishopric, but without suffragans. These two Archbishops were to be ordained at Constantinople. At the synod the Sicilian bishops sign as subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople; John of Tauromenion calls Tarasios of Constantinople (784-806) "our Œcumenical Patriarch." But there was still some ambiguity about the position of these bishops. Pope Nicholas I, as we have seen (p. 78) in 860, admits the title of Archbishop of Syracuse, but requires that he come to Rome to be ordained. Yet in 787 the Papal Legates do not refuse to acknowledge Sicilian bishops ordained at Constantinople. At the fourth Council of Constantinople (869) Gregory Asbestas of Syracuse is called Archbishop in the Greek acts, but only bishop in the Latin text. However, by this time the dependence of Sicily on Constantinople seems to be admitted. The Patriarch Ignatius sends Theodore of Syracuse to Rome as his Legate; and Nicholas I complains that Gregory Asbestas, in ordaining Photius, had rebelled against "his Patriarch," Ignatius.

Just at the time of the schism of Photius Sicily seems more Greek, its connection in various ways with Constantinople is more evident than ever. Methodios I of Constantinople (842-846), Ignatius' predecessor, was a Greek of Sicily. The originator of the trouble, Gregory Asbestas, who had already a quarrel with Ignatius and then ordained Photius, himself a Greek, was Archbishop of Syracuse.

After Sicily the Emperor began in the same way to detach Apulia and Calabria from Rome, and to join them to Constantinople. This further development seems to have some