the first councils are clear that patriarchs are heads of their particular churches. cardinals are not as old an institution as the patriarchates.
Ok, but those particular churches are/were then in Schism and NOT part of the Catholic Church.
the church itself held them non ecuмenical as i pointed out this position not ratifying 4 Const. until 200 years later,
how then could its decisions have been retroactively infallible? as i pointed out the bishops of France and Spain refused to confirm the acts of the last Lateran council,how could they do this if those councils were truly ecuмenical?
Of course it this was true, a corollary would be that the Catholic Church
is defective and incomplete, and does not coincide with the Church of Christ, as NewChurch informally recognises.
Basic "Christian Unity" (the original Church) could only be reached with reconciliation with the other 4 patriarchates.