Peter was not the first Pope. How did we get this anyhow

[FireDragon76]

People give Constantine more credit than he deserves. I honestly believe the guy probably wasn't a confessing Christian until his last breath, if even at all.

He actually did convert to Christianity at the end of his life, facing an illness. He gave up the purple royal robes after his confession and conversion. But most of his life he was only an advocate of Christianity, not a catechumen (student) or baptized. Before then, he was an "intellectual Christian", he studied the Scriptures on his own but he refused to listen to the bishops or to be made a catechumen.

At any rate, he was not a pope and his influence on Christianity is debatable. Stanley Hauerwas and John Yoder seem to think he seriously distorted the Christian church's hierarchy and practice, but most other Christian historians seem him being a very complex figure, a mixture of human faults and genuine religious piety.