Quote:
Originally Posted by MitzaLizalor
Those records probably include where the "pope" idea came from and when it started. Obviously what they say will in no way reflect actual history.
|
It would have been around Anno Domini 1000, give or take. During the first millennium after Christ, it was widely accepted that the bishops of the original five dioceses were equals. This pentarchy included Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome. After the Muslim disease broke out in 622, the events which followed changed the political map, making Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria practically meaningless, while Constantinople and Rome rose to the top of political, social, economic, and religious power in the East and West, respectively.
The Bishops of Constantinople never had any doubts that equality of bishops is what God intended. The Bishops of Rome, however, began to have impure thoughts of their own superiority. It was more of a long process than a single event, but if we want to find a single event as the final straw, that would be the secession of the Roman Catholics from the Orthodox Church, which occurred in 1054.