Re: Questions...

[Dave Montuori <damont@wolfstar.com>]

Poster: Dave Montuori <damont@wolfstar.com>


Scripsit Tristan:
> When was the position of "Pope" created, and was it known by something
> else before it was called "Pope"?

"Blessed are you, Simon bar-Jona!... I tell you, you are Rock, and on this
rock I shall build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail
against it." Matthew 16, 17-18. Simon Peter was the leader of the early
church; he eventually went to Rome and is recognized as the first Bishop
of Rome. But according to Maurice Keen, the primacy of the see of Rome was
for centuries a metter largely of honor, of being "first among equals"
among the patriarchs. As much of the Mediterranean world fell under the
influence of Islam, by the early 700's there were only two infleuntial
patriarchates left: Rome and Constantinople. These both claimed primacy,
not only of honor, but of authority in the whole Church. Pope Gregory I
claimed that "The apostolic see [i.e. that of Rome] is the head of all the
Churches." So the papacy, while created by Jesus, spent a looooong time
evolving into its role as effective head of the whole Roman church.

> And wasn't there something about a "Holy Roman Emperior" that ruled over
> the Catholic faith in period??

The Holy Roman Emperor was a secular office. Granted, there was a lot more
overlap between secular and religious authority then, but the Emperor
never claimed dominion over matters of doctrine. The back-and-forth
struggle for control between the Papacy and the Empire from the mid-1000's
on is one the most tangled soap operas in history. Check it out.

Evan

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