The Rise of the Papacy

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire to pagans, Rome was left to defend itself and its faith against outside forces. By the administration of the office of the Bishop of Rome, this great city and the Church continued to grow in power and influence regardless of the crumbling empire around them. This paper will seek to give a brief review of the history of the papacy as it grew in power during the period of medieval Christianity. Setting the stage for the future papacy, there were four Bishops of Rome who would assist with the rise of the papacy prior to its increase in power under the reign of Gregory the Great in the sixth century.
The first of these individuals is Damasus I, Bishop of Rome from AD 366-384. Damasus developed a papal theology which established the idea of papal authority as coming directly from Christ to Peter as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. With this idea, the office of the Bishop of Rome included an understanding of papal succession as well. This passage, in chapter 16 verses 18 and 19, states the following:
“18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom
of heaven , and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Protestants understand Christ’s play on words here between petros (Peter/a small stone) and petra (a large boulder), as well as the context of this passage, as MacArthur points out, “Since the NT makes it abundantly clear that Christ is both the foundation (Acts 4:11,12; 1Co 3:11) and the head (Eph 5:23) of the church, it is a mistake to think that here He is giving either of those roles to Peter.” In spite of this helpful clarification reestablished after the Reformation, Damasus is known as the individual “who made the theory about Peter an essential part of papal doctrine. He was the first pope to refer consistently to the church of Rome as the ‘apostolic see’ and to address bishops of other churches as ‘sons’ rather than as ‘brothers’.” Damasus was also endorsed by the eastern emperor Theodosius I who issued a famous decree in AD 380 requiring “all peoples to adhere to ‘the religion that is followed by Pope Damasus and Peter, bishop of Alexandria’.” We should be familiar with the influence of Damasus as he is the Pope who commissioned Jerome to complete the translation used by the Roman Catholic Church to this very day: The Latin Vulgate.
The second of these individuals is Siricius, successor of Damasus I. Siricius (AD 384-399), following in the influence of his predecessor, was the first Bishop of Rome to apply the term “pope” specifically to himself. This term meant “father” and had originally applied to the bishops of any of the great apostolic sees (Rome, Jerusalem, and Antioch).1 Siricius further demonstrated his authority by the first papal use of the ‘decretal’. This was “a letter of instruction modeled on the Emperor’s decree sent to provincial governors. In using this kind of letter the pope was claiming the same kind of binding authority for himself in the church as the Emperor had in secular affairs.”4
The third of these individuals is Leo I, who reigned as pope from AD 440-461. Leo’s leadership was desperately needed during a period of barbarian attacks on the empire. With the edict of Valentinian III in AD 445 compelling the attendance of all bishops who otherwise refused to attend the papal court, an emperor’s edict had turned the pope’s claim into law. As Leo combined both a spiritual and political role of leadership in Rome, he also made clear “the concept that the papacy was Peter’s own office, not only as founder but also as present ruler of the church through his servant, the pope.”6 Leo is also famous for demonstrating imperial power as he negotiated peace for Rome with Attila the Hun in AD 452. His arguments persuaded Attila to “retire beyond the Danube, on condition of receiving Honoria with a rich dowry as his wife.”
The last of these four individuals is Gelasius I. During his reign as Bishop of Rome, an important synod held at Rome in AD 495 was the first known to hail the pope as “the Vicar of Christ.”1 Gelasius clearly announced the principle that from the decisions of the chair of Peter there is no appeal. In his own words, “Nobody at any time and for whatever human pretext may haughtily set himself above the office of the pope who by Christ’s order was set above all and everyone and whom the universal church has always recognized as its head.”
Looking at the foundation built by these four bishops of Rome, the path had been prepared for the rise of the papacy influencing the transition between the ancient world and medieval Christianity with Gregory the Great in AD 590. Gregory began life in a rich noble family and even served as prefect of Rome in AD 573. After this, he gave up his wealth and estates to become a monk, founding seven monasteries. During this time, Gregory was chosen abbot and later became secretary to Pope Pelagius. After the death of Pelagius, despite Gregory’s efforts to the contrary, “the nobles, the clergy, and the people of Rome all agreed in choosing Gregory to succeed him.” Although Gregory accomplished much in service to the Roman Catholic Church in general and the papacy specifically, as he took charge of Rome’s finances, food and water supply, policing, and was an accomplished diplomat and great helper of the poor1, it seems that he is most famous for two things: His relationship with the Lombards to achieve peace and his ordering of missionaries to pagan Britain.
The last Germanic tribe to enter the Roman Empire was the Lombards, arriving in Italy in AD 568. Because the governor at Ravenna was incompetent to quell this invasion, the work was given to the papacy to help in the matter. Gregory attempted to accomplish the conversion of the invaders to catholic Christianity as one possible solution. He supported Theodelinda, a catholic Christian and Lombard Queen, which helped to eventually turn the Lombards away from Arianism toward Catholicism.
A famous story is recounted where Gregory, as a monk prior to becoming pope, saw some attractive young children with light skin and hair in the slave market. Gregory learned these pagan youth were Angli from England. “He replied that these young lads were not ‘Angles’ but ‘Angels’!” This particular interaction is famed to have led to his future missionary zeal to England, as pope, although he was never able to participate in these missions himself.
Having established the preparation for the rise of he papacy by Damasus, Siricius, Leo, and Gelasius, as well as the far-reaching power and character of Gregory, there is one last subject to mention which helped to move the consolidated power of the papacy beyond the borders of the ancient Roman empire. This subject is missions and one great individual is Boniface (Wynfrith of Crediton), an English missionary who was converted as a result of the earlier missionary efforts of Gregory. Boniface became the bishop of the German church under papal authority and began evangelizing the Hessians of Bavaria and Thuringia, later becoming Archbishop of Mainz. “He is justly known as the ‘Apostle to the Germans’. He brought Germany into Christian Europe under papal leadership.” Boniface was also a personal emissary of Pope Gregory III, playing a key role at an AD 742 council in Francia which ruled priests were subject to their bishops and not allowed to fight in war or hunt, as well as the standardization of monasticism. With the establishment of the papacy through the influence of the individuals mentioned, as well as the furthering of Roman Catholic Christianity throughout Europe by means of missions, the papacy had grown greatly in power and influence as it continued to exist during the period of medieval Christianity.

Bibliography
Hill, Jonathan. Zondervan Handbook to the History of Christianity. Zondervan: Grand
Rapids, 2006.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles: Wheaton, 2001.
MacArthur, John F. The MacArthur Study Bible. Thomas Nelson: La Habra, 2006.
Dowley, Tim, ed. Eerdmans’ Handbook to the History of Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987.
Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church, Volume III: Nicene and Post-Nicene
Christianity, Fifth edition, revised. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. 2008.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc3.iii.viii.xvii.html#iii.viii.xvii-p9.1.
Schaff, Philip. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian
Church, Second Series, Volume XII (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand
Rapids), http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212.ii.iii.i.html.
Robertson, J.C. Sketches of Church History. The Tract Committee: London, 1904.
http://bible.christiansunite.com/sch/sch01-31.shtml

The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon

In a post-modern culture, truth is viewed by many as subjective opinion, rather than as objective fact. This is difficult for the orthodox Christian believer in sharing the Gospel, as the authority for which our conviction lies is found in the pages of Scripture. So then, now more than ever, the question of what books make up the canon of Scripture and how we can know that these books are authoritative as compared to others is of utmost importance. Considering this, we shall review a brief history of the canon, specifically the New Testament, and how it came to be recognized as authoritative.
Looking to the first half of the second century AD, an important individual arose on the scene by the name of Marcion. Although Marcion was branded a heretic, his contribution to the necessity of recognizing an official canon was of infinite value. After being convicted of heresy and excommunicated in AD 144, Marcion spread his heresy throughout large sections of the Roman empire. This was highly detrimental to the progress of orthodoxy as Marcion could not reconcile what he believed to be the “angry God of the Old Testament with the loving and sacrificial God of the New Testament, represented in the person of Jesus.”1 This means that he did not recognize God as a Trinity, nor did he accept the Old Testament as Scripture and the God communicated therein. In spite of his heresy, Marcion was one of the first “Christians” to argue for a particular list of New Testament books that should be recognized as Scripture. As stated earlier, his contribution was recognizing the necessity of an official canon, and this in particular as he heretically rejected books otherwise viewed as authoritative by orthodox Christians.
In the second half of the second century AD, a problem arose from the opposite side of the heretical spectrum. This time, rather than the limiting of the canon of Scripture to specific books and their modified forms to support the heresies of individuals such as Marcion, the recognition of a plethora of writings began to gain support with the influence of Montanus. The problem here was that Montanus and his followers were prone to ecstatic outbursts which were written down and identified as prophetic oracles on the same level of authority as Scripture. Coupled with the apocalyptic, yet unfulfilled, nature of many of these outbursts, this “forced the Church to argue that the canon of Scripture should be limited to those books with apostolic and eye-witness authority, for the writings and practices of the Montanists had clearly exceeded the theological boundaries represented by those apostolic authorities.”1 Because of these two major influences in the second century, being the discrediting of authoritative books and the elevation of non-authoritative writings, the Church had been backed into a corner requiring the standardized acknowledgement of the authoritative books of Scripture to be recognized by an official canonization. That is not to say that these books would then become official after this recognition, but rather that canonization would set limits upon the already generally recognized Scriptures by the majority of orthodox believers.
Not all agree that these two individuals impacted the canon as much as has been stated. The comment has been made that, “Marcion, various gnostic groups and the Montan-ists were not, as is usually asserted, catalysts that led to a second century closing of the canon of Christian scriptures…but [rather] there was no second century closing of the scripture collection at all.” While the sentiment here regarding the closing of the canon may be partially true, as there were other influences toward the close of the canon over time, it is necessary to define terms. If “canon” does in fact mean “scripture collection,” then this statement is true, but only as the “canon” was closed much earlier, not much later; that is, as soon as God had inspired the last book of the Bible. The important point to note is that “Scripture” and “Canon” are not generally equivalent terms. It seems that for all the argument of the early Church, inspiration had been overlooked. While it is true that today’s canon does contain the collection of inspired Scripture, the authority of the Scripture comes by means of the Holy Spirit Who inspired it, not the Church who collected and canonized it.
Moving forward, the end of the fourth century provided a series of councils which would help to close the canon, and three lists were instrumental in influencing these councils toward a consensus. The first is the Muratorian Fragment. This eighty-five line document of Latin text contains “a listing of the books considered authoritative by the Church, accompanied by a number of historical and theological comments. The weight of scholarly opinion holds that the original document (probably written in Greek) dates from the end of the second century CE. The list contains four categories of Christian books. The first category is those works universally accepted as Scripture: the four Gospels, the Book of Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, Jude, two (or three) letters of John, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Apocalypse of John. A second category contains one disputed book: the Apocalypse of Peter. Third are those books that were rejected for public reading and worship but still remained acceptable for reading in private, such as the Shepherd of Hennas. Finally, the fragment lists a number of books which should be rejected altogether by the Church.”1 Although this fragment does not contain the exact representation of the canon as we know it today, it does promote a list of criteria in recognizing a work as Scripturally authoritative, especially being, “the public reading of a book in a service of worship and apostolic authorship.”1
The second of these lists is found in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea. In it, Eusebius, “categorized the books as those universally accepted: the four Gospels, the Book of Acts, the Pauline epistles (including Hebrews), 1 Peter, and 1 John. He noted some question as to whether the Apocalypse of John ought to be included in this category, and he chose to include it here as well as with those he concluded were to be rejected. The second category included those books that were disputed, yet familiar to most in the Church: James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John. Finally, in a somewhat overlapping category, Eusebius listed the books that were to be rejected because of serious doubts about their apostolic character or authorship: the Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hennas, Apocalypse of Peter, Epistle of Barnabas, Didache of the Apostles, and the Gospel According to the Hebrews.” This list plays an important role as Eusebius can be respected for his study of history and collection of works which would otherwise have been lost, although not necessarily his theology, as he was suspected of Arianism. This may make it harder to distinguish between him and Eusebius of Nicomedia (who was present at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 in support of Arius).
The third of these lists is that contained in Athanasius’ Festal Epistle of AD 367. “While he excluded the books of the Old Testament now considered deuterocanonical [recognized as Scripture by Roman Catholicism], his list of New Testament books contains the twenty-seven books now considered canonical (albeit in a slightly different order). Although the debate would continue for some years, this list of Athanasius would eventually establish the limits of the New Testament canon.”1 This list was very similar to the list accepted by the Western Church, and even more influential as Jerome’s translation of the Latin Vulgate gained popularity. Jerome’s translation contained the same books as found in the list of Athanasius.
Apart from heretical factions and supporting documentation, three Church councils around the turn of the fifth century “effectively ratified the choice of the twenty-seven books. As one of the Western Church's leading biblical scholars and theologians, Augustine threw his considerable support behind the acceptance of these limits at Hippo in 393, Carthage in 397, and again at Carthage in 419.”1 As most councils throughout Church history, it is evident that these three also existed to combat heresy.
In conclusion, several of Roger Nicole’s criteria are in common with history about how to deem whether or not a book is Scripture and should be canonized. These are Apostolicity (it should have been written by an apostle), Orthodoxy (any canonical book must be orthodox as God would not permit his Word to teach falsehood as well as truth), Church Authority (it is the prerogative of the Church to establish the canon), and the Witness of the Holy Spirit Given Corporately to God’s People and Made Manifest by a Nearly Unanimous Acceptance of the NT Canon in Christian Churches.



Bibliography
Sheeley, Steven M. 1998. "From "Scripture" to "Canon": The Development of the New
Testament Canon." Review & Expositor 95, no. 4: 513-522. ATLA Religion
Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed November 8, 2008).
Kalin, Everett R. 1988. "The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning." Currents
in Theology and Mission 15, no. 5: 446-446. ATLA Religion Database with
ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed November 8, 2008).
Nicole, Roger R. 1997. "The Canon of the New Testament." Journal of the Evangelical
Theological Society 40, no. 2: 199-206. ATLA Religion Database with
ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed November 8, 2008).