ABSTRACT
The structure of the Christian church hinged on territorial responsibility and jurisdiction: the bishop had a paternal jurisdiction over his see, he was grouped with other bishops in a province under the metropolitan, and the metropolitans looked for guidance in emergency to some see which had converted that region by its missionaries. The claim of the church of Constantinople to apostolic foundation was but tenuous: but from the time of its building in 336–339 and Constantine’s removal of his capital thither, it was in fact New Rome, the seat of government, and a great missionary church. The church was the body of Christ and co-extensive with the whole body of Christians who were not accepted as Christians at all. The Christian faith was the apostolic teaching, passed on verbally. Christianity took its rise in a province near the limes of the Roman empire, and could easily pass that limes and expand outside the empire to the east and south.
