11. Constantine, fully aware of the pre-eminence and power of the Roman Church, took special pains to bestow upon it his imperial munificence. The Bishop of Rome was transferred from a humble dwelling to a spacious palace, possibly to the Lateran, owned to this day by the Pope. Confiscated property was restored and money donated. Splendid churches were erected.[175:1] With grateful hearts the Christians gladly accepted the sovereignty of the Emperor. As Roman citizens there was no conception in their minds of the spiritual government of the Church independent of the imperial power. When Constantine called councils like Arles and Nicæa, heard appeals, made appointments, and legislated for the Church it was all accepted as a matter of course. The Church of Rome gained obviously more than any other spiritual body-corporate of the Christian world. This advantage, coupled with the wide-reaching claims set forth for at least two centuries, carried her by a mighty leap far above all other churches and made her head, in theory and fact, if not in name, the Pope. Thus all the contentions of the Petrine claim of ecclesiastical government fell into a natural harmony with the plans of the Empire. The rise of provincial churches corresponded to the provincial system of the Empire. The elevation of the Bishop of Rome to a primacy over all churches created a counterpart to the Emperor. The union of the Empire and Papacy was not only easy and natural--it was inevitable. 12. No sooner did the Church rise from persecution to a great world power than the necessity was felt everywhere of some central authority to preserve its unity. The divisions in the Arian controversy clearly revealed that need. The Emperor, in a way, sought to meet the requirement, but, when he failed, he called the Council of Nicæa to serve that end. A universal council might be of great service in a crisis but it could not easily be in perpetual session. The Roman Church saw its chance at this juncture and embraced every opportunity to pose as the supreme unifying power in Christendom. It was a long and not always an easy struggle, but the effort was at length successful. It was not long after the day of Constantine that it may be said that the Church had gained control of the Empire. That conquest gave the Church an unprecedented pre-eminence. In this movement the Church of Rome played the leading role. The next great problem was to enable the Pope to get control of the Church and in this way wield absolute sway over the Christianised Empire, or, to state it the other way, over the imperialised Church.