The Bishops of Rome

After Innocent, Zosimus governed the Roman church for two years, and after him Boniface presided over it for three years. He was succeeded by Celestine. This Celestine also took the churches away from the Novatians at Rome, and forced Rusticula their bishop to hold his meetings secretly in private houses. Until this time the Novatians had flourished greatly in Rome. They had many churches there, attended by large congregations. But envy attacked them too, as soon as the Roman bishopric, like that of Alexandria, reached beyond the limits of church authority and sank into its present state of secular rule. For from then on the bishops would not allow even those who agreed with them in matters of faith to enjoy the right of meeting in peace. They stripped them of everything they had, while giving them nothing but praise for agreeing with them in the faith. The bishops of Constantinople kept themselves free from this kind of conduct. Not only did they tolerate the Novatians and allow them to hold their meetings inside the city, as I have already said; they also treated them with every mark of Christian regard. [a]