Jun. Romae, Valentiniano A. _vi._ Consule_, A.C. 445. By this Edict the Emperor _Valentinian_ enjoined an absolute obedience to the will of the Bishop of _Rome_ thro'out all the Churches of his Empire; and declares, that for the Bishops to attempt any thing without the Pope's authority is contrary to antient custom, and that the Bishops summoned to appear before his judicature must be carried thither by the Governor of the Province; and he ascribes these privileges of the See of _Rome_ to the concessions of his dead Ancestors, that is, to the Edict of _Gratian_ and _Valentinian_ II. as above: by which reckoning this dominion of the Church of _Rome_ was now of 66 years standing: and if in all this time it had not been sufficiently established, this new Edict was enough to settle it beyond all question thro'out the _Western Empire_. Hence all the Bishops of the Province of _Arles_ in their Letter to Pope _Leo_, A.C. 450, petitioning for a restitution of the privileges of their Metropolitan, say: _Per beatum Petrum Apostolorum principem, sacrosancta Ecclesia Romana tenebat supra omnes totius mundi Ecclesias principatum_. And _Ceratius_, _Salonius_ and _Veranus_, three Bishops of _Gallia_, say, in their Epistle to the same Pope: _Magna praeterea & ineffabili quadam nos peculiares tui gratulatione succrescimus, quod illa specialis doctrinae vestrae pagina ita per omnium Ecclesiarum conventicula celebratur, ut vere consona omnium sententia declaretur; merito illic principatum Sedis Apostolicae constitutum, unde adhuc Apostolici spiritus oracula reserentur_. And _Leo_ himself, in [16] his Epistle to the metropolitan Bishops thro'out _Illyricum_: _Quia per omnes Ecclesias cura nostra distenditur, exigente hoc a nobis Domino, qui Apostolicae dignitatis beatissimo Apostolo Petro primatum, fidei sui remuneratione commisit, universalem Ecclesiam in fundamenti ipsius soliditate constituens_.