A History of the Papacy
by Fr Nicholas Schofield
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Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 2. From Christ to Charlemagne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 3. The Medieval Papacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 4. Exile and the Great Schism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 5. Reformation and Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 6. The Modern Papacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
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Introduction When the Pope appears at his study window each Sunday to pray the Angelus with pilgrims, he is given many reminders that he is the Successor of St Peter. To his right is the great basilica built over the Apostle’s tomb. In front of him the obelisk which once stood in Nero’s circus and may have witnessed St Peter’s martyrdom. In the distance, perched on the Janiculum hill, is San Pietro in Montorio, an alternative site of his crucifixion. Finally, below him, are the crowds filling the piazza, surrounded by Bernini’s colonnade, which open like a pair of arms to embrace the world. The Petrine ministry involves acting not only as bishop of Rome but as ‘Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church’. However, the story of the papacy begins not in the Vatican but the village of Caesarea Philippi. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, where he would be put to death, and asked His disciples, ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter made his sublime confession of faith: ‘You are the Christ, the son of the living God’. The Lord replied, ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church’ (Mt 16: 13-20). Peter, the simple fisherman from Galilee, far from perfect, was chosen as the leader of the Apostles, the
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visible head of the Church. There are many signs in the Gospels that Peter was given special prominence: he is named first in lists of the Twelve (e.g. Mt 10:1, Mk 3: 16) and in the group of three disciples who witnessed the Transfiguration (Mk 9: 1-7) and Jesus’ agony in the garden (Mk 14: 37). On several occasions he asked questions on behalf of the others (e.g. Lk 12: 41) and, although John reached the empty tomb first, he allowed Peter to enter first (Jn 20: 3-10). On the day of Pentecost Peter was the first to speak to the crowds – in effect the first papal utterance (Acts 2: 14-41) The Acts of the Apostles give many details of the first pontificate. St Peter is shown curing a lame man at the ‘Beautiful Gate’ of the Temple (Acts 3: 1-26), investigating the fraud of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5: 1-11) and answering Simon Magus, who tried to ‘purchase’ the Holy Spirit (Acts 8: 9-24). Initially reluctant to baptise uncircumcised Gentiles, he spoke in their favour at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15: 7-11) and worked as a missionary in Gentile areas. An early tradition records him as first bishop of Antioch and up until the 1960s there was a feast in the universal calendar of St Peter’s Chair at Antioch (22 February). Together with St Paul, St Peter is remembered as the founder of the Roman Church – the two Apostles acting as a Christian version of Romulus and Remus, the mythical
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founders of the city. There is no explicit mention in Scripture of St Peter living and dying in Rome. However, the Apostle’s first letter mentions ‘Babylon’, a codename used for Rome by early Christians (1 Pet 5: 13), and the Gospel written by St Mark, thought to be one of St Peter’s assistants, was written for the Christians of Rome. Moreover, the testimony of early Christian writers such as St Clement, St Ignatius of Antioch and St Irenaeus all link Rome with the closing years of St Peter’s life. A number of Roman traditions suggest the fisherman’s presence at the heart of the Empire. He is said to have lived with Aquila and Priscilla (mentioned in Acts 18: 2) on the Aventine, near the site of the church of Santa Prisca, and with the Senator Pudens, who may have had a British wife, ‘Claudia Britannica’. The altar that he supposedly used in this house is enshrined at the Lateran. His converts included the martyrs St Nereus and St Achilleus and during times of persecution he often hid in the catacombs of Sant’Agnese, where a seat carved out of the rock was long venerated as his throne and where he is said to have baptised. A small chapel on the Appian Way marks the spot where St Peter is said to have met Christ as he was trying to flee from Rome one day. The astonished apostle asked: Domine, quo vadis? (Lord, where are you going?), to which the answer came, Eo Romam iterum crucifigi (I go to Rome to be crucified
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anew). St Peter was thus given the strength to return to the city and face crucifixion during the persecution of Nero around the year 64.
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From Christ to Charlemagne The First Popes The first successors of St Peter were often obscure figures. The majority are honoured as saints and five of them appear in the First Eucharistic Prayer (Roman Canon): SS Linus (c.66-c.78), Cletus or Anacletus (c.79c.91), Clement (c.91-c.101), Sixtus (that is, the sixth Pope after St Peter, c.116-125) and Cornelius (251-53). For many of these early popes our main source is the sixth century Liber Pontificalis, which lists their names in chronological order but often with inaccurate dates. The papacy had not yet developed the bureaucratic structures of later centuries. However, there is little doubt that Christians recognised the bishop of Rome as having a unique authority. St Clement I (c.91 – c.101) wrote a famous letter to the church in Corinth around 95, the first surviving example of the bishop of Rome intervening in affairs beyond his own city. St Ignatius, himself a successor of St Peter as bishop of Antioch, spoke a few years later of the Church of Rome ‘presiding’ over the other churches. Another early Church Father, St Irenaeus, wrote at the end of the second century that with the
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Roman church, ‘because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world, and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition’. Together with the rest of the Christian community, the first popes belonged to a religion that was officially proscribed and faced persecution, although this tended to be sporadic and often local in character: it would be an exaggeration to imagine the first Christians spending all their lives hiding in the catacombs. But imprisonment and death remained a constant threat and several Popes are honoured as martyrs. St Clement is said to have been exiled to the Crimea and thrown into the sea with a heavy anchor, while St Sixtus II (257-58) was beheaded along with his deacons. During this period the popes did much work organising the Roman Church. St Fabian (236-50), for example, divided the city into seven districts, placing a deacon in charge of each. The prestige of the papacy also grew as it battled heresy and addressed theological debates. St Pius I (c.142 – c.155) condemned Marcion of Pontus, who rejected the Old Testament and claimed that Christ was the son of ‘the good God’ as distinct from the God of the Jews. The first Latin pope, St Victor I (189–98), insisted that the whole Church should observe Easter on the Sunday
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following Passover, as was the custom in Rome, rather than on Passover Day itself (the so-called Quartodeciman date), as was the usage in the East. Any churches that refused to do this would be excluded from communion, earning the pontiff the rebuke of St Irenaeus. Like his predecessors he also condemned various heretics and even secured the release of Christians condemned to the mines of Sardinia by writing to Marcia, the Christian mistress of the Emperor Commodus. The papacy was growing in influence, even if it was not formally accepted by the Roman Empire. St Callistus I (217-22) had to deal with the negative effects of this rising profile. He faced the first anti-pope, St Hippolytus (217-35), and was murdered in Trastevere by a pagan mob that resented the Church’s power. The Conversion of Constantine The fourth century started off badly for the Church, with the bloody persecution sparked off by the Emperor Diocletian’s Edict against Christians (303), during which over half of the martyrs of the early Church suffered. However, the status of Christians within the Empire was to dramatically improve within a decade. Realising that the Roman Empire had grown too large for one man to rule effectively, Diocletian created four administrative regions to be governed by two Caesars and two Augusti
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(deputy emperors). The Empire was further divided into sections called dioceses, a term which would later be used by the Church. As might be expected, disagreements soon arose among the different emperors. In 312 Constantine attributed victory against his rival Maxentius to Jesus Christ, who appeared in a dream and then in the sky through the sign of the cross. Although Constantine was only baptised years later on his deathbed, the Church immediately benefited from his favour. Constantine sponsored the building of a basilica over the shrine of St Peter on the Vatican hill and apparently helped dig the foundations himself, filling twelve baskets with earth to symbolise the apostles. He also gave to St Miltiades (311-14) the former palace of the Laterani family, which became the official papal residence and the site of his cathedral, St John Lateran. Other churches were erected and the Christian community began to rely increasingly on the income from its property and benefactions. Constantine’s conversion also added a new dimension that would dominate subsequent centuries – the relationship between the Church and State, between Pope and Emperor. The potential for conflict became immediately apparent when Constantine took upon it himself to call a Council at Nicaea to examine the teachings of Arius, who denied Christ’s Divinity. Pope St
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Silvester I (314-35) was invited but, given his old age, sent two representatives in his place. The resulting profession of faith, which stressed that the Son was ‘consubstantial’ (homoousios) with the Father, is still recited at Sunday Mass. However Arianism continued to cause great divisions. In an effort to restore peace and unity, Constantine was persuaded to exile St Athanasius of Alexandria, the great scourge of the Arians. The papacy soon got involved and in 355 Constantius (one of Constantine’s sons) exiled Pope Liberius (352-66) and appointed the anti-pope Felix II (355-65) in his place. For several years two popes were present in Rome, one at the Lateran (Liberius), the other on the Via Aurelia (Felix), each claiming to have imperial sanction as bishop of Rome. Constantine had also moved his capital to Constantinople, which he declared to be the ‘new Rome’ and a rival centre of ecclesiastical power. A Council was held there in 381 and tried, amongst other things, to establish that the bishop of Constantinople should be second only to the bishop of Rome. In response, St Damasus I (366-84) underlined that the Roman primacy was based on St Peter. With the absence of the emperor, Rome lost its political centrality but it could now truly become the city of the popes.