Friday, December 30, 2016

Origin of Roman Catholic Church - 34

Continued from previous post -

The pope is the bishop of Rome. The name derives from a Greek word pappas, meaning father, and Rome's bishop is seen as the father figure of the early church because of the link with St Peter. Jesus is 'believed' to have appointed Peter as the rock on which the church will be built; and Peter, believed to have been martyred in Rome. It is believed, based on one statement in Mathews' that says; Jesus has given keys to heaven in the hands of Peter (Mathew:16:19). As the capital of the empire, Rome is also a natural center for the growing church. This statement has given extra authority to Pope's office as being most authentic papal power amongst all Christian worlds. To exerciser that authority eventually Pope ordered his followers to destroy other Churches during crusades; Christian killing Christian! However, The legend surrounding victory of Constantine I, in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312 AD) relates his vision of the Chi Rho and the text in hoc signo vinces in the sky, and reproducing this symbol on the shields of his troops. The following year, Constantine and Licinius proclaimed the toleration of Christianity with the Edict of Milan, and in 325 AD Constantine convened and presided over the First Council of Nicaea, the "first ecumenical council". None of this, however, has particularly much to do with the pope, who did not even attend the Council; in fact, the first bishop of Rome to be contemporaneously referred to as "pope" (pappas) is Damasus I (366–84 AD). Moreover, between 324 and 330 AD, Constantine built Constantinople as a new capital for the empire, and—with no apologies to the Roman community of Christians—relocated key Roman families and translated many Christian relics to the new churches he built. This was the beginning of Eastern Orthodox Church. The "Donation of Constantine", an 8th-century forgery, used to enhance the prestige and authority of popes, places the pope more centrally in the narrative of Constantinian Christianity. The legend of "the Donation" claims that Constantine offered his crown to Sylvester I (314–35), that time pope, and even that Sylvester baptized Constantine. However, the available historical evidence shows that, Constantine was baptized (nearing his death in May 337) by Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian bishop, and not by Sylvester. Early historical evidence about establishment of Papal power is not clear due to loss of reliable evidence.

After the Lombard invasion of Italy, the city remained nominally Byzantine, but in reality, the popes pursued a policy of equilibrium between the Byzantines, the Franks and the Lombards. In 729, the Lombard king Liutprand donated to the church the north Latium town of Sutri, starting the temporal power of the church. In 756, Pepin the Short, after having defeated the Lombards, gave to the Pope temporal jurisdiction over the Roman Duchy and the Exarchate of Ravenna, thus creating the Papal States. Since this period, three powers tried to rule the city: the pope, the nobility, together with the chiefs of militias, the judges, the Senate and the populace; and the Frankish king, as king of the Lombards, patricius and Emperor. These three parties (theocratic, republican and imperial) were a characteristic of Roman life during the entire Middle Ages. On the Christmas night of 800, Charlemagne was crowned in Rome as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III: on that occasion, the city hosted for the first time the two powers whose struggle for the universal power was to be a constant of the middle Ages. After that, the Church began to be considered as Papacy.


Continues in the next post -
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