The Rise of the Papacy
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Introduction
Papacy started gaining power when there were serious political gaps in the Western Roman Empire. The empire was strong, had conquered many states, and expanded its territories. Unfortunately, the success was short-lived due to various factors, which led to the collapse, and it was not able to rebuild again. The bishop of Rome took the responsibility to build the empire again. Christianity was gaining ground in Rome; more scholars intervened to help in the development of the canon. The papacy started sending missionaries out of Rome to go and preach the word of God and Christianity spread very fast in Europe.
The fall of Roman Empire
It was a powerful kingdom with great strengths and authority. It was also referred to as the Western Roman Empire. The fearful king who came to power contributed to the fall. He could not confidently exercise his power and guard his kingdom against external attackers or foreign invaders. In addition, the nation was faced with internal conflicts, which splinted the kingdom into several groups due to successor politics (Gibbon, 1847).
There are factors, which led to the success of the great Roman Empire. Emperor Trajan spearheaded the Empire in 98-117. To begin with there was a unifying culture of Greek and Roman literature which acted as a reference point and center of cultural heritage for the people. Secondly, there was strong and competent army that was well organized to defend the kingdom from both internal and external attacks. The armies were voluntary, but they were well remunerated. They also run the public taxes kitty.
Religion also played a great role in building and strengthening the Roman Empire. The popes and the church bishops played a great role using diplomatic skills to soothe barbarians and foreign attackers to withdraw troops from attacking the empire. Lastly, the kingdom was well structured which ensured efficient civil and political administration with few hiccups.
The empire experienced superiority of other neighboring kingdoms for such an extended period. The following are the factors, which led to the fall of the great Western Roman Empire: An invasion by a foreign barbarian who influenced the citizens negatively. Secondly, the king became weak, and he could not effectively administrate his authority.
In addition, cases of corruption among the army affected administration negatively, and religious leader had to intervene since they felt that was interference of rights and freedoms of the poor. Corruption was mainly witnessed in the training centers and recruitment of the police. Finally, the rise of Sassinid Empire posed threat to the Roman Empire army and attacked the kingdom several times. On the other hand, new communities invaded Rome for example, the Franks from Germany who settled in Rome. They joined the army and helped Rome military to conquer and expand its territory.
Early church in Rome
The early church continued spreading Christianity, which led to rising of papacy rule and orthodoxy. It started in the early third century. There was excessive use of power by the army. The Constantine intervened by introducing Orthodoxy and declared total tolerance to Christianity. He threatened pagans and all those who did not uphold practice orthodoxy. All his predecessors spearheaded further spread of Christianity. This continued to affect the top rulers who pursued religion for them to lead the Roman kingdoms. As Christianity grew, the Roman Empire weakened. The church started playing some administrative responsibilities of the government. This made the church more powerful and influential. They were able to fill the void left by the emperor.
The rise of Papacy
The name is derived from Greek word papa, which refers to a fatherly figure. The pope is the supreme bishop of the Rome state and church. He is seen as a father figure by Christian faithful who believe Jesus appointed Apostle Peter to build the church. He was referred to as the rock and had gone in Rome. This makes it the epicenter of Christianity and early the church.
Most early popes in Roman Empire became victims of persecution because of Christian discord and religious arguments with other Bishops in Ad .312-337. There was an emergency of the first church with Christian community found in Rome. They worshiped at home and other private hidden places. It could not be done in public due to victimization and fear of persecution. Early churches included Giovanni e polo. The Constantine built three churches in western Rome Empire, which included the cathedral, which was intended to be the residence for the pope. The church was named St, Johns (Brown, 2012).
Later on, two more churches were built in honor of Apostle Paul and Peter the fallen martyrs. They were built in St. Paolo le muoro and Vatican.
Role of Bishop of Rome
The primary functions of the bishop were to guard the Christian teaching and help the missionaries to spread the word. The pope occasionally doubles up as an administrator of the Roman Empire. In addition, they played a role in communion, conciliatory, and authority. He was also involved in charity work, I ecumenism, interfaith dialogs and defense of human rights. The bishop could send the nuns and a young priest to visit the poor, donate food, and give medical care to the sick. These acts of gratitude and helping the poor enabled the Papacy to gain trust from the community. More people converted to Christianity.
Achievement of the papacy
The bishop was a symbol of unity and very influential in the western kingdom empire. There are several accomplishments and milestones, which were spearheaded by the papacy. To begin with, he was able to drive the foreign barbarians who introduced heretic teachings. In addition, they destroyed the beautiful city gates build by the Emperor. After fall of the empire in middle ages, the Pope was able to bring together several portions of peninsula together, which were referred to as Papal States (Harries, 1994).
In 440-461 AD there was an emergency of the famous Pope Leo, who served for 21 years. There are remarkable developments associated with Pope leo. He rose up as papal and Rome administrator. He was able to redefine Catholic Church orthodoxy and was among the early scholars who developed the modern canon, which led to the development of newsstands.
He believed the pope was given the keys to succeed Jesus and preaches the right message to the world. There was a close link between Peter, Jesus, and the Pope. Leo was in charge of temporal affairs in the Roman Empire. He was able to restore the kingdom, and he reformed the army. That happened after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Though he did not manage to restore the kingdom, he was able to prevent further destruction by the Hun empire army, Visigoths, Vandans, and Hunslet's who had started moving around the territory at their will and destroying property and making people live in fear (Schatz, 1996).
Pope Leo demonstrated how a bishop could double up as spiritual father and emperor. He is remembered for using diplomatic tactics to confront Roman enemies. That is evident when Emperor Attila of Hun Empire attacked Roman Empire in neighboring China in 452 and Gaiseric of the vandal in 455. He was able to negotiate with them peacefully to leave the Roman Empire. That made people trusts the bishop more with political leadership.
In addition, Pope Gregory did remarkable work that came up in the 6th century. He was given the responsibility to guide the lambards gates of Rome, which faced the significant threat of destruction from the foreign barbarians. He fostered unity in Rome by choosing 40 men to start serious ministry work across the Rome Empire. The missionaries spread Christianity beyond Roman Empire (Van, 1999).
Negative impact
Some of the papal teachings started contradicting and this lead to conflict in the early church. The conflict was between the church leaders in the Holy Roman Empire. That resulted in east-west schism dividing the church in the western and Eastern Church. The pope did not embrace dialogue with heretics and the conflicting team. He went ahead to excommunicate the rebels from the church. That led to serious divisions in the church. People lost hope with Papacy and started seeking for other religious intervention from other religion for example Islam, Buddha, and Bhai.
Conclusion
Pope is a very influential religious leader in the world. After the church had gone through several attacks from heretics and barbarians, there was a renaissance of the papacy, which started influencing politics in Europe and affecting people morals and values. He has cultural and diplomatic influence, which he uses to solve conflicts, preach peace and bring people together.