CONSTANTINOPLE, PATRIARCHATE OF

CONSTANTINOPLE, PATRIARCHATE OF. At the opening of the 4th c. the three leading sees of the Christian world were, in order, Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch (q.v.)-not coincidentally, the largest cities of the Roman Empire. With the establishment of Constantinople (qq.v.) as the new capital, the latter’s size and importance came quickly to rival its three older sisters. Accordingly, the importance of its bishops also grew, particularly as they were in immediate proximity and had access to the emperor and his court. Recognizing this fact, the Second and Fourth Ecumenical Councils (q.v.), in 381 and 451, elevated Constantinople’s bishop to the rank second only to Rome’s, according him in the process jurisdiction over broad areas of the East.

The popes of Rome, notably Damasus and Leo the Great (q.v.), reacting to the councils in 381 and 451, respectively, protested what they saw as a concession to worldly criteria of importance, i.e., what is usually referred to as eastern “accommodationism.” The popes began to oppose the latter with their own idea of “apostolicity,” meaning that only a church founded by an apostle-more specifically, by Peter-could lay claim to the first rank among Christian communities. This difference of opinion over the origins of authority (q.v.), although long overlooked by both halves of Christendom in the interests of maintaining Church unity, ran on for centuries beneath the niceties of ecclesiastical and imperial diplomacy. It would flare up on occasion, for example during the “Photian schism” of 867 (see Photius) or the “Acacian schism” from 482 to 519, only to subside again until the final rupture conventionally dated at 1054.