The Limits of the Five Patriarchates is a
Greek text describing the five
patriarchates of Christianity in the Middle Ages. It is found appended to some manuscripts of the
New Testament. The text's sequence and validity of patriarchates is different from the traditional
Pentarchy established by
ecumenical councils,[1] with
Jerusalem moved to first. The order of the other four is unchanged:
Rome,
Constantinople,
Alexandria, and
Antioch.
The document probably was written in
Calabria, in the 9th or 10th century. It is found in some manuscripts of the New Testament:
69,
211, and
543 (in 543 one page of it is lost).[2][3] In minuscule 543 this document is titled "Γνώσις καὶ ἐπίγνωσις τῶν πατριαρχῶν θρόνων" (Knowledge and Cognition of the Patriarchate Sees).[4]
Translation
The first
See and the first patriarchate is of
Jerusalem,
James, the brother of God and apostle and eyewitness, and minister of the word and secrets of secrets and hidden mysteries, contains the whole
Palestine a country until
Arabia.
The second See is of the
Apostle Peter from Rome to the limits of mountains and French,
Spain and
France, and
Illyricum, until Gadiron and the
Pillars of Hercules and Ocean at the west end of the sun as are dead waters and properties as wooded the island as the edge of oceans populated areas. Christians ever crowd until Ravenna,
Lombardy, and Thessalonika, Slavic, and Scythians, and
Avars until
Danube river, the
ecclesiastical border, and
Sardinia,
Megara,
Carthage, and part of
Balearic Islands, and part of
Sicily and Calabria, where the winds blow nasty, from the north, from the south, from the west-south, and from the east-south.
The fourth See of
Alexandria, of
Mark apostle and evangelist, son of Peter the apostle, who took control over
Ethiopia until Africa and Tripoli and over all country of Egypt the limits of Palestine, the south container.
The fifth See of
Antioch of Peter, containing the area until to the East, the way of seven months, until to the
Georgia and Armenia and
Azerbaijan, and until to the internal desert of Persians, Medes, Chaldeans, until the Arab leadership, and Parthia and Mesopotamia Elamiton, and from the wind of sun rising, where the sun rises.[5]