106 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE who "looked on Christ and the sun as almost equally good symbols of the Supreme, " and others who regarded astrol- ogy as the truth back of all religions. Synesius of Cyrene, previously a Neo-Platonist, suddenly became a Christian bishop at the beginning of the fifth century, apparently without surrendering his belief that man could read the future in dreams and in the stars, and certainly without giving up either his wife or his Neo-Platonism. When the emperors legalized and favored Christianity and legislated against heresy, one might fear that they Growth of would make themselves heads of the Church, the Papacy Constantine had been responsible for the calling of the first general council, and he came to be known in the East as one of the apostles. A Western Christian apolo- gist during the reigns of Constantine's sons — the same Firmicus whose book on astrology we have already quoted — addresses them as "most sacred emperors," setting them above the rest of mankind and closely associating them with the celestial bodies and "the Supreme God," at the same time that he urges them to eradicate pagan cults. In 429 the Patriarch of Alexandria called the emperor the "image of God on earth." But the emperors in the West seem for the most part to have preferred to leave religious matters to the Church itself to settle, and in the East the emperors often failed to control the strife of religious parties when they did try to interfere. Councils were now held with in- creasing frequency and at the same time the Bishop of Rome appears to have increased in importance and power. One would naturally expect, especially after the fall of Jerusa- lem in 70 A.D., that the leading early Christian community would develop at Rome, the center and the greatest city of the Empire. Moreover, it was believed from an early date that both Peter and Paul had suffered martyrdom there. In the Gospels Jesus often addresses Peter as the leader among the disciples, and in one passage says: "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. . . . And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in
