Re: Questions...

["Brett W. McCoy" <bmccoy@lan2wan.com>]

Poster: "Brett W. McCoy" <bmccoy@lan2wan.com>

On Sun, 11 Apr 1999, Michael Jeffrey Looney wrote:

> When was the position of "Pope" created, and was it known by something
> else before it was called "Pope"? And wasn't there something about a
> "Holy Roman Emperior" that ruled over the Catholic faith in period?? I
> was talking to a freind of mine, and he brought that up, and I didn't
> know.

My reference books are packed away right now, but if memory serves me, the
Holy Roman Emperor was the *secular* ruler, while the Pope was the
spiritual ruler of Christendom.  The papal tradition, of course, derives
from the apostolic tradition (Throne of St. Peter) of early Christianity.
Of course, the eastern churches took a different view, and we all are
familiar with the controversy between Rome and Constantinople.

The idea of the two rulers, spiritual and secular, may also derive frm the
ancient Hebrew tradition of the houses of Abraham and David.  I think the
actual traditions of the Holy Roman Emperor began when the (Frankish)
Merovingian King Clovis converted to Christianity, and after the
Merovingian Dynasty fell out of power, this carried over to the
Carolingian Dynasty.


Istvan Dragosani
                                        http://www.lan2wan.com/~bmccoy/
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