Roman primacy and the development of the synodal institution in the period of the Arian controversy

The object of this study is process of evolution of church organization in the 4th century, especially the relationships between Roman primacy and synodal institution in the epoch of the Arian controversy. The author examines evolution of the institution of the Roman synod and practice of participation of the Roman See in church councils outside Rome, focusing on the unsuccessful attempt to convene the general council in Rome in 382. Analysis of historical data shows that the ability of the Roman see to organize in a short time a representative council (mainly of the Italian bishops) allowed Rome to claim for a special status within the church communion. In the same time the Roman See did not become in the 4th century the center of conciliar activity at the universal level. Participation of Rome in Ecumenical and Western councils was quite passive. In the second part of the paper the author attempts to reconstruct various models of church organization, which were typical for the western and the eastern episcopate in the 4th century. The author concludes that the real initiator of the development of universal primacy of Rome was not originally the pope, but the western episcopate (council of Serdica, 343). In the second part of the 4th century pope Damasus developed this conception, putting the principle of primacy of the Roman See as the chair of Peter above principle of synodal consensus. At the same time eastern bishops considered the Roman chair as the center of the West, rather than the head of the whole Church. Sometimes they invited bishop of Rome and other western bishops to act as arbiters in the eastern conflicts, but more often they defended the idea of full autonomy of the East.