St. Peter's successors carried on his office, the importance of which grew with the growth of the
Church. In 97 serious dissensions troubled the
Church of
Corinth. The Roman
Bishop, Clement, unbidden, wrote an authoritative letter to restore peace. St. John was still living at Ephesus, yet neither he nor his interfered with
Corinth. Before 117
St. Ignatius of Antioch addresses the
Roman Church as the one which "presides over charity . . . which has never deceived any one, which has taught others."
St. Irenæus (180-200) states the theory and practice of
doctrinal unity as follows:
With this
Church [of
Rome] because of its more powerful principality, every
Church must agree, that is the faithful everywhere, in this [i.e. in communion with the
Roman Church] the tradition of the
Apostles has ever been preserved by those on every side. (Adv. Haereses, III)
The
heretic Marcion, the
Montanists from Phrygia,
Praxeas from
Asia, come to
Rome to gain the countenance of its
bishops;
St. Victor,
Bishop of Rome, threatens to
excommunicate the
Asian Churches;
St. Stephen refuses to receive
St. Cyprian's deputation, and separates himself from various Churches of the East; Fortunatus and Felix,
deposed by
Cyprian, have recourse to
Rome;
Basilides,
deposed in
Spain, betakes himself to
Rome; the
presbyters of Dionysius,
Bishop of
Alexandria, complain of his
doctrine to Dionysius,
Bishop of Rome; the latter expostulates with him, and he explains. The fact is indisputable: the
Bishops of
Rome took over Peter's Chair and Peter's office of continuing the work of Christ [Duchesne, "The
Roman Church before Constantine",
Catholic Univ. Bulletin (October, 1904) X, 429-450]. To be in continuity with the
Church founded by Christ affiliation to the See of Peter is
necessary, for, as a matter of history, there is no other
Church linked to any other
Apostle by an unbroken chain of successors. Antioch, once the
see and centre of St. Peter's labours, fell into the hands of
Monophysite patriarchs under the Emperors Zeno and Anastasius at the end of the fifth century. The
Church of Alexandria in
Egypt was founded by
St. Mark the
Evangelist, the mandatory of St. Peter. It flourished exceedingly until the
Arian and
Monophysite heresies took root among its people and gradually led to its extinction. The shortest-lived
Apostolic Church is that of
Jerusalem. In 130 the Holy City was destroyed by Hadrian, and a new town, Ælia Capitolina, erected on its site. The new
Church of Ælia Capitolina was subjected to Caesarea; the very name of
Jerusalem fell out of use till after the
Council of Nice (325).
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01641a.htm
So much for the Jerusalem-as-centre theory.