History
Position within the Church
The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus personally appointed Peter as leader of the Church, and the Catholic Church's dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium makes a clear distinction between apostles and bishops, presenting the latter as the successors of the former, with the pope as successor of Peter, in that he is head of the bishops as Peter was head of the apostles.[28] Some historians argue against the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, noting that the episcopal see in Rome can be traced back no earlier than the third century.[29] The writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD 180 reflect a belief that Peter "founded and organized" the Church at Rome.[30] Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peter's presence in the early Roman Church. Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96,[31] about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the "struggles in our time" and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, "first, the greatest and most just columns", the "good apostles" Peter and Paul.[32] St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did.[33]
Given this and other evidence, such as Emperor Constantine's erection of the "Old St. Peter's Basilica" on the location of St. Peter's tomb, as held and given to him by Rome's Christian community, many scholars agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero, although some scholars argue that he may have been martyred in Palestine.[34][35][36]
The New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy, nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome.[37] Some theologians argue, using Peter's own words, that Christ intended himself—and not Peter—as the foundation of the church.[38][39] Others have argued that the church is indeed built upon Jesus and faith, but
also on the disciples as the roots and foundations of the church on the basis of Paul's teaching in Romans and Ephesians, though
not primarily Peter.[40][41]
Early Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches. Gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas.[42] Antioch
may have developed such a structure
before Rome.[42] In Rome, there were many who claimed to be the rightful bishop, though again Irenaeus stressed 'the validity' of one line of bishops from the time of St. Peter up to his contemporary Pope Victor I and listed them.[43]
Some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view,
Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, but not necessarily monarchical bishops.[29]
Documents of the 1st century [?} and early 2nd century [?] indicate that the bishop of Rome had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, as even a letter from the bishop, or patriarch, of Antioch acknowledged the Bishop of Rome as "a first among equals",[44] though the detail of what this meant is unclear.[45]
Early Christianity (c. 30–325)
It seems that at first the terms "episcopos" and "presbyter" were used interchangeably.[46] The consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable.[47] Some say that there was probably "no single 'monarchical' bishop in Rome before the middle of the 2nd century...and likely later."[48] ...
... In the Ravenna Document of 13 October 2007, theologians chosen by the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches stated: "41. Both sides agree ... that Rome, as the Church that 'presides in love' according to the phrase of St Ignatius of Antioch,[51] occupied the first place in the taxis, and that the bishop of Rome was therefore the protos among the patriarchs. Translated into English, the statement means "first among equals".
What form that should take is still a matter of disagreement, just as it was when the Catholic and Orthodox Churches split in the Great East-West Schism.
They also disagree on the interpretation of the historical evidence from this era regarding the prerogatives of the Bishop of Rome as protos, a matter that was already understood in different ways in the first millennium.
In the late 2nd century AD, there were more manifestations of Roman authority over other churches. In 189, assertion of the primacy of the Church of Rome may be indicated in Irenaeus's
Against Heresies (3:3:2): "With [the Church of Rome], because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree ... and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition."
In AD 195, Pope Victor I, in what is seen as an exercise of Roman authority over other churches, excommunicated the Quartodecimans for observing Easter on the 14th of Nisan, the date of the Jewish Passover, a tradition handed down by John the Evangelist (see Easter controversy). Celebration of Easter on a Sunday, as insisted on by the pope, is the system that has prevailed (see computus).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope#History
29 O'Grady, John. The Roman Catholic church: its origins and nature. p. 146. ISBN 0-8091-3740-2.
30 Stevenson, J. A New Eusebius. p. 114. ISBN 0-281-00802-7.
31 "Letter to the Corinthians (Clement)". Catholic Encyclopedia: The Fathers of the Church. New Advent. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
32 Gröber, 510
33 "Letter of Ignatius of Antioch to the Romans". Crossroads Initiative.
34 O'Connor, Daniel William (2013). "Saint Peter the Apostle". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. p. 5. [M]any scholars… accept Rome as the location of the martyrdom and the reign of Nero as the time.
35 Zeitschr. fur Kirchengesch. (in German), 1901, pp. 1 sqq., 161 sqq.
36 The Secrets of the 12 Disciples, Channel 4, transmitted on 23 March 2008.
37 O'Grady, John. The Roman Catholic church: its origins and nature. p. 143.
38 Was Peter in Rome, Catholic Answers. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
39 Scofield. "Scofield Reference Notes on Matthew 16". Scofield Reference Notes (1917 Edition). Retrieved 1 August 2011.
40 Proof and Reason for the Papal Office, About Catholics. http://www.aboutcatholics.com/worship/p ... al_office/
41 "Matthew 16:18 – Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible – Commentaries". StudyLight.org. retrieved 18 February 2013.
42 O'Grady, John. The Roman Catholic church: its origins and nature. p. 140.
43 Stevenson, J. A New Eusebius. pp. 114–115.
44 Template:The Early Christian Church by Chadwick
45 "From an historical perspective, there is no conclusive documentary evidence from the 1st century or the early decades of the second of the exercise of, or even the claim to, a primacy of the Roman bishop or to a connection with Peter, although documents from this period accord the church at Rome some kind of pre‑eminence" (Emmanuel Clapsis, Papal Primacy, extract from Orthodoxy in Conversation (2000), p. 110); and "The see of Rome, whose prominence was associated with the deaths of Peter and Paul, became the principle center in matters concerning the universal Church" (Clapsis, p. 102). The same writer quotes with approval the words of Joseph Ratzinger: "In Phanar, on 25 July 1976, when Patriarch Athenegoras addressed the visiting pope as Peter's successor, the first in honor among us, and the presider over charity, this great church leader was expressing the essential content of the declarations of the primacy of the first millennium" (Clapsis, p. 113).
46 Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1997 edn, rev. 2005, p.211: "It seems that at first the terms 'episcopos' and 'presbyter' were used interchangeably".
47 Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 1, 2006, "The general consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the first and second centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable."
48 Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. 1, 2006, p.418