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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