How the Precedence Was Fixed, and Who Objected

The rank rests on two canons and on a reason that was frankly political. The third canon of the Council of Constantinople in 381 gave the bishop of Constantinople the privileges of honour after the bishop of Rome, because Constantinople is New Rome. The twenty-eighth canon of Chalcedon in 451 restated that and added jurisdiction over the dioceses of Pontus, Asia and Thrace, together with the bishops among the barbarians in those regions.

Rome objected to both, and the objection was consistent: if the standing of a see derives from its apostolic foundation rather than from the standing of its city, then no council can promote a bishopric by promoting a capital. Pope Leo refused to confirm canon 28. That disagreement about what a see rank is grounded in is one of the long fault lines between East and West, older than the events usually cited as the schism.

Alexandria and Antioch, which lost their relative position by the change, had reason to resent it as well. What settled the matter in practice was the imperial capital itself: the emperor was there, the standing synod of visiting bishops met there, and appeals travelled there. The see outlived the empire that had produced its rank by more than five centuries, and the argument about whether the rank survives its reason has never entirely stopped.