The Pope

[Tonks]

At the end of the 6th century Gregory I was the first Pope to employ "Pontifex maximus" in a formal sense, in a broader program of asserting Roman primacy. It has remained one of the titles of the popes to this day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifex_Maximus

Ah...but then again I accept that in the early - wild & wooly - beginnings of Christianity the office of the Bishop of Rome (much like the Bible) didn't fall from the sky fully intact. It is quite similar to the 1st Ecumenical Council and the 4th - what is the deal with that Nestorian dude anyway?

The point being that at the very moment of Christ's death the Pope didn't start pope-ing. That being said, any *honest* reading of the Patristics will show that the Bishop of Rome was not merely some "first among equals." As they paraphrase....Roma locuta est, causa finita est....

 

[freespiritchurch]

Any *honest* reading of the Patristics will show that the Bishop of Rome was not merely some "first among equals." As they paraphrase....Roma locuta est, causa finita est....

Do you think you could find another way to put this? I've read patristics, and I don't see evidence that bishops, much less a primate among bishops, were found in all Catholic churches before the mid-2nd century. I started out as a Catholic, and my study of patristics convinced me that the Catholic (and Orthodox) churches were not making accurate historical claims. And yet by your definition, I'm dishonest.

 

[Trento]

Do you think you could find another way to put this? I've read patristics, and I don't see evidence that bishops, much less a primate among bishops, were found in all Catholic churches before the mid-2nd century. I started out as a Catholic, and my study of patristics convinced me that the Catholic (and Orthodox) churches were not making accurate historical claims. And yet by your definition, I'm dishonest.

Chapter II.—The First Ruler of the Church of Rome.
1. After the martyrdom of Paul and of Peter, Linus was the first to obtain the episcopate (Bishop) of the church at Rome. Paul mentions him, when writing to Timothy from Rome, in the salutation at the end of the epistle. Eusebius, Church History