Rise of the Papacy
How the Bishop of Rome became the Pope
“You, Peter, are the
Rock upon which I will
build my Church”
It all begins with St. Peter
• Jesus had Twelve Disciples
• Simon Peter, however, was the leader among the disciples
• After the Resurrection, the Disciples acknowledged that
role by accepting him as the leader of the new Christian
community
Twelve Disciples
• Its not known when
Peter went to Rome
• He was not the
founder of the Church
there
• But he was martyred
there during Nero’s
persecution c. 68
Peter in Rome
• From that point on the Bishop of Rome had a certain
importance compared to other bishops
• But he was not the most important nor did he have
authority over other bishops
By the fourth century,
there were five
Patriarchs in the
Christian Church:
• Jerusalem
• Antioch
• Alexandria
• Rome
• Constantinople
Each was equal to the
others
Patriarchs
• With the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the
Bishops of Rome took over much of the authority once
held by the Roman government
• Gradually, they became not just religious leaders, but
political leaders in Italy
• The first pope to claim
authority over the entire
Church
• Wrote “Leo’s Tome”
which argued against the
Monophysite heresy
• Persuaded Attila the Hun
not to attack the city of
Rome
• First pope to take the title
“Pontifex Maximus”
Pope Leo I
• Used his own money to
rebuild Rome and support
the poor there
• Ruled Rome as governor
before and after becoming
pope
• Sent missionaries to
England and Germany
• Organized the Gregorian
chants and wrote prayers for
the Mass that are still used
Pope Gregory I
Pope Leo I and Pope Gregory I are the
only two popes in the history of the
Catholic Church to be given the titles of
“The Great”
• Pepin was King of the Franks and the most powerful
monarch in Europe in the mid 9th century
• After defeating the Lombards who threatened Italy, he
donated the land he conquered to the papacy This
“donation” forms the basis of the Papal States
• The popes will rule the Papal States as a monarch from
756 until 1870
Donation of Pepin (756)
• Charlemagne =
“Charles the Great”
• Son of Pepin
• On Christmas Day,
800, Pope Leo III
crowned him the first
Holy Roman Emperor
Coronation of Charlemagne
• Importance: the pope is saying that he has the authority to
decide who shall rule the nations of Europe
• As the popes became more powerful, both religiously and
politically, there was more competition to become pope
• By the late 9th century, several families in Rome sought to
control the papacy because of the power and wealth that it
could bring to their families
• By the mid 10th century the pope had become so corrupt
that the Holy Roman Emperor deposed him and chose a
new pope
• For the next 100 years the HRE’s will appoint the popes
Problems and Decline
• Pope Leo IX (appointed by HRE Henry III) begins
reforms of the papacy
• Pope Nicholas II in 1059 solves the problem of how
popes should be selected by deciding that in the future the
pope will be elected by the cardinals in a procedure called
a conclave
Reform
• Innocent III ruled at the
height of the power of the
Medieval popes
• He was able to control the
monarchs of Europe, called
the Fourth Lateran Council
to rule on Church practices
and the sacraments and
approved the foundation of
the Dominican and
Franciscan religious orders
Innocent III
By the 12th century, the pope:
• Was the undisputed head of the Church in the West (the
Roman Catholic Church)
• Was elected by the college of cardinals and was usually a
cardinal himself
• Ruled as political ruler over the Papal States (central
Italy) from his palace of the Lateran in Rome