other · 315 · Seleucia-Ctesiphon
Papa bar Aggai was bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon in the early fourth century and claimed authority over the other bishops of Persia, on the ordinary logic that the church of the capital should head the church of the empire — the same logic that made Rome, Antioch and Alexandria what they were. The other bishops did not agree. A synod deposed him; he appealed westward to the bishops of the Roman side, who supported him; and he was eventually restored, reportedly after a stroke left him unable to continue in office. The quarrel is badly documented and some of the record is later special pleading, which this page does not hide. What matters is the outcome: the see of Seleucia-Ctesiphon did become the head of the Persian church, its holder took the title catholicos and later patriarch, and the synod of 410 — which is in this dataset — formalised exactly the arrangement Papa had been deposed for asserting a century before. He is here because a succession is a structure as much as a list, and this is where that structure was decided for the largest church outside the empire.
How does a church without an emperor get a structure?
By a bishop claiming it, being deposed for it, and being proved right afterwards.