The Emergence of the Catholic Papacy from St. Peter - Essay Example

180111 Early Christianity was born and survived mainly in the Roman world. Aversion to Christianity was rampant and to make a mark, missionaries had to set their house in order and papal power emerged as a consequence. "Christianity was a contemporary stream of intensely powerful moral and religious life; that is an influence which always sets currents agoing, even in regions where it is repudiated," Rainy (1902, p.7). The Pope, who is the bishop of Rome, became the central figure of Christianity. The word Pope is derived from Greek word Pappas meaning father and Pope became the father figure of not only the Church, but also for all the followers of the religion. The legend goes on to say that Jesus selected St. Peter to be the rock on which the Church would be built and St. Peter was martyred in Rome and thus making Rome the very symbol where Catholicism was focussed. The first century saw St. Peter as the first pope and since then, the continued line of popes goes on unabated, some of them obscure, some unknown to history, some ineffective, some power hungry to the extent of shaming the princes and a few, real serene father figures. In the beginning, it was a period of fighting for religion, being condemned, and persecuted and even being killed. The spirit of Christianity and its doctrines were yet to be established as nothing much had been done in that direction during the short life span of Christ. To the followers, everything was new guesswork and there was a dire necessity of creating principles and doctrines, much needed for any organised religion. Most of the initial popes quietly melted into the pot of history without being mentioned much. We come to know that Miltiades (311 - 314) held an open Council in Rome's Lateran Palace and was instructed to do so by the Emperor himself thus marking the beginning of interaction between Church and State. This interaction created many problems in later centuries and brought more difficulties than good. Before the roman church attained prominence worship was told to be conducted in houses rather secretly dreading persecution against the new religion. Emperor Constantine established three very important churches in Rome, making it obvious that the royal accent is granted to Christianity, especially so, because of the cathedral, now St. John Lateran, next to the emperor's Lateran palace while the other two in honour of two martyrs, Peter and Paul. Leo the Great (440 - 461) was the first Pope to wield certain powers and had an undisturbed reign of 21 years and was an admired and very effective pope who could control heretics and lay down role regulations to his successors. Hen defined Catholic Orthodoxy in the form of Tome and said it was Jesus' wish that Pope had to control other bishops and this wish was passed on to St. Peter by Jesus through the 'Power of Keys'. This worked well and was accepted by the other bishops and Christianity came under one papal umbrella and was honoured under the dictum: 'I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. What you forbid on earth shall be forbidden in heaven, and what you allow on earth shall be allowed in heaven." In 410 came the sack of Rome by Alaric and his Visigoths while Emperor Honorius and Pope Innocent I were at Ravenna. Buildings were not destroyed and Alaric was happy with the booty. Huns, Vandals and Visigoths continued to undermine the royal power and slowly the power diminished giving an opportunity to Ambrose in Milan to almost control the imperial authority. In 452, Attila the Hun was the biggest threat to Christianity and Papacy and Gaiseric the Vandal was not far behind. Leo had to take diplomatic steps to negotiate with both and to some extent achieving a deal, papacy has now clearly stepped into the political arena. Gregory the Great (590 - 604) was another milestone in the development of papal power and authority. In 592, he accepted the papal responsibility for Rome while facing Lombards and persuaded them by agreeing to pay an annual sum. "Rome's relations with the Lombards were dictated by the traditional desire to eradicate heresy and by the pressing practical need to keep them sweet to avoid its own extinction," Richards (1979, pp. 36-37). In 596, he sent 40 monks to England and remained virtually the ruler of Rome in the absence of imperial power and he used his tenure in spreading Christianity in Europe. The power of Papacy was accepted in Anglo-Saxon England and this became a precedent to other European countries to do the same. Rome encouraged the collaboration between Frankish empire-builders and English missionaries laying another milestone in increasing its power. The young monk Willibrord went to Ireland while another missionary Bonface continued his efforts and most of the Europe became Christian soon. During the papacy of Gregory II a prominent incident happened when Pope refluxed to execute the taxation decrees of Emperor Leo III, which at that time was a risky thing to do, and from that point, popes tried hard to keep out of the imperial power. Stephen II, Pope in 753 went to Alps to visit Frnakish King, Pepin III seeking his help to curb the Lombards' power and Pepin drive back the Lombards from Ravenna, but donates the large region to Pope instead of to Byzantine emperor making papacy a temporal power and Rome continues under Papal rule, though Lombards continue to trouble till Charlemagne completely finished their power. This was followed by the unfortunate incident of Pope Leo III being physically attacked by his opponents and Charlemagne had to come to the rescue of Rome once again. In the historical confusion that prevailed later, Charlemagne was crowned as the Emperor in place of the emperor in Constantinople and this cemented the relationship between papacy and Holy Roman Empire and papacy became more powerful under the protection of the Emperor and Charlemagne became "Charles, most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire." Some scholars are of the opinion that crowning of Charles was not accidental. "That all this must have been carefully arranged, goes without saying; these previous arrangements, however, appear in the official papal accounts as the spontaneous inspiration of the Romans," says Ullmann (1955, p.98). In the 11th century, Henry III and Henry IV questioned the papal power successfully. When Henry III deposed three rival popes and selected next five, Pope Nicholas had to look for reforms within the Church order. After being challenged by imperial power further, Nicholas II grants land to the new recruitees and connects the feudal relationship with them, Pope and his power remaining the feudal lords and Normans were given territorial rights in Italy and Cecily. Gregory VII dismissed all imperial selection to the ecclesiastical posts clearly relegating the imperial power into the background. The investiture controversy of 1075 found kings and emperors questioning the papal power on one side, and feudal wealth, political and religious ambition on another side both dwindling into two separate regions of spirituality and secularity. It also locked Gregory VII and Henry IV in a struggle for supremacy and Gregory VII came to be known as power-mongering Pope, not without reason. Henry's ex-communication, public penance, civil war, another ex-communication which enraged Henry enough to depose the Pope and march to Italy, while Gregory was practically confined into his own papal fortress. Even though repulsed by Normans, Henry had taught a much needed lesson to Papacy while Rome revolted against the Normal subjugation and cruelty making Gregory to take shelter in Sicily and Clement III, the Pope who was appointed by Henry becomes the next Pope. Perhaps the most controversial period of papacy ends there. During this period, Papacy was very powerful, but showed that it had drifted away from its spiritual path. It had tried to control the rulers, excommunicated emperors, challenged political systems, indulged in feudal rights and carried on military activities by involving itself in campaigns for power. Slowly as the emperors became weaker in Europe, Papacy lifted its head again and became the centre of wealth, power, strength, influence and unlimited corruption. It harassed the kings, scarcely allowing them to rule their countries and became unpopular. Till the advent of this political papacy, it should not be forgotten that the earlier popes worked for the religion and rose from humble status influencing people to convert; trying to protect the converted and most of them remained the papal monks all their life with humility, service imbibing the doctrine of gentle life of the apostolic creed. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Richards, Jeffrey ((1979), The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, Routledge and Kegal Paul, London. 2. Rainy, Robert (1902), The Ancient Catholic Church, T & T Clark, Edinburgh. 3. Ullmann, Walter (1955), The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London. Read More