THE FIRST POPE by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 14, 1876

THE FIRST POPE.

By Uriah Smith

J. B. GOODRICH: Having consulted the best authorities within reach here, in regard to the first election of a pope, the following conclusions appear:—

Peter is claimed by the Catholics as the first pope; but Bower says that there is no evidence that he ever was in Rome at all. His successor, Linus, they claim to have been appointed by St. Peter. In regard to those that followed, Clement, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, Telesphorus, &c., there is much confusion among authors both as to the succession and the identity of the persons. It is not till we come down to Eleutherius, twelfth bishop of Rome, A. D. 176, that Bower uses the word election.

The American Encyclopedia says: “Pope (Gr. papa, father), a title applied by the eastern Christians to all priests, and in the West originally given to all the bishops, but now restricted to the bishop of Rome. The Roman Catholics regard the pope as the legitimate successor of St. Peter, and the visible head of the church, the invisible head being Christ. He was anciently elected by the people of his diocese, but is now chosen by the cardinals, a vote of two-thirds being required to elect. On account of the union of temporal and ecclesiastical power in his person, it has long been an understood condition that he should be an Italian.”

In reference to the cardinals, and when the college of cardinals which elects the pope was instituted in its present form, the Encyclopedia further says:—

“Cardinal, originally any clergyman bearing an official appointment in a principal church. By degrees, however, the title became the exclusive designation of the principal clergy of the Roman Church, who, as the natural counsellors of the pope, acquired an influence and consideration of a superior kind. Thus, in process of time an ecclesiastical senate was formed to advise and assist the sovereign pontiff in the government of the church; and the constitution of this body was continually perfected, until it was ultimately fixed in its present form by Pope Sixtus V.”

The date of the pontificate of Sixtus V. is 1585. It will thus be seen how gradually this work has grown up. And when the first pope was installed by a formal election, it would be difficult to determine. U. S.