To the Council of _Sardica_, acting under this Influence, the See of _Rome_ is indebted for the so much boasted Privilege of receiving Appeals; and _Julius_ was very thankful for it. [Sidenote: _The Popes claim as their original Right, what was granted them as a Favour._] But his Successors, looking upon such an Obligation as a Diminution of their pretended Sovereignty, have had the Assurance to claim it as their original Right: but that such a Right was unknown to their great Friend _Osius_, to the Fathers of the Council, nay, and to the Pope himself, and his Legates, is manifest, since what they now claim as their original and inherent Right, was by _Osius_ begged of the Council as a Favour, and, as such, granted by the Council, and accepted by the Pope and his Legates. This Power of receiving Appeals, only with respect to the judging and deposing of Bishops, has been extended by the Popes to all Causes; and great Encouragement has been given to such as recurred to their Tribunal on the slightest Occasions. _Concerning Appeals in the smallest Causes, we would have you to know, that the same Regard is to be had to them, for how slight a Matter soever they be made, as if they were for a greater_, says Pope _Alexander_ III. in his Letter to the Bishop of _Worcester_[699]. The scandalous and intolerable Abuse of this Power in the Popes has obliged several Princes, even when Superstition most prevailed, to restrain their Subjects by severe Laws from recurring to _Rome_. Nay, other Councils of far greater Authority than that of _Sardica_, finding no other Means to put a Stop to the daily Encroachments of the See of _Rome_, have thought it necessary to revoke the Privilege, which that Council had too rashly granted, as we shall see in the Sequel of the present History. [Sidenote: _Decrees of the Council of_ Antioch _revoked by the Council of_ Sardica.] It had been decreed but Six Years before, by the Council of _Antioch_, that, if the Bishops of the same Province disagreed in judging one of their Brethren, the Metropolitan might call in those of the neighbouring Province to judge with them; but if they agreed, and were unanimous either in condemning or absolving, their Judgment should be irreversible. Both these Decrees were revoked by the present Council, though intirely agreeable to the antient Practice and Discipline of the Church. [Sidenote: _The Pope has no Power to summon Bishops to_ Rome.] But yet this Council, however favourable to the Pope, did not grant him the Power of summoning Bishops to _Rome_, in order to be judged there by him. He was only impowered to examine the Judgment given in the Province; and, in case he found it to be wrong, to order another in the same Province, to invite to this new Synod the Bishops of the next Province, and to send his Legates to it as he thought fit. [Sidenote: Osius _did not preside at the Council of_ Sardica _as the Pope’s Legate_.]