A wave of persecution in Asia Minor had seen migration of Christians to the cities of Lugdunum (Lyon), and Vienne.

Similarly it is probable that Pothinus of Lyon had known Polycarp, who no doubt sent the immigrants out in the first place[2] The bishop of Lugdunum with such close ties to the disciples, a strong theological reputation and the fact that it was the oldest bishopric naturally assumed primacy in the expanding Church of Gaul.

In 875, the primate of the Gauls function was attached to the person of the archbishop of Sens (at the time of Anségise) by Pope John VIII at the Council of Ponthion.

[3] Pope Gregory VII confirmed the primacy of the bishop of Lyon through a bull on April 19, 1079, after a dispute in Council of Poitiers of 1078.

Completed in 1702, the trial before the court of the Kingdom of France eventually saw triumph the archbishop of Rouen, despite the legitimacy proven and demonstrated the primacy of Gaul and simply default possession.