Rise of the Papacy

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 8, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 18.

Rise of the Papacy.

THE church was in the beginning a community of brethren. All its members were taught of God; and each possessed the liberty of drawing for himself from the divine fountain of life. John 6:45. The epistles, which then settled the great questions of doctrine, did not bear the pompous title of any single man, or ruler. We find from the holy Scriptures that they began simply with these words: "The apostles, elders, and brethren, to our brethren." Acts 15:23.

But the writings of these very apostles forewarn us that from the midst of these brethren, there shall arise a power which shall overthrow this simple and primitive order. 2 Thess. 2.

Let us contemplate the formation and trace the development of this power alien to the church.

Paul of Tarsus, one of the chiefest apostles of the new religion, had arrived at Rome, the capital of the empire and of the world, preaching the salvation that cometh from God only. A church was formed beside the throne of the Cæsars. Founded by this same apostle, it was at first composed of converted Jews, Greeks, and some inhabitants of Rome. For a while it shone brightly as a light set upon a hill, and its faith was everywhere spoken of. But ere-long it declined from its first simplicity. The spiritual dominion of Rome arose as its political and military power had done before, and was slowly and gradually extended.

The first pastors or bishops of Rome employed themselves in the beginning in converting to the faith of Christ the towns and villages that surrounded the city. The necessity which the bishops and pastors felt of referring in cases of difficulty to an enlightened guide, and the gratitude which they owed to the metropolitan church, led them to maintain an intimate union with her. As is generally the consequence in such circumstances, this reasonable union soon degenerated into dependence. The bishops of Rome regarded as a right the superiority which the neighboring churches had voluntarily yielded. The encroachments of power form a large portion of all history; the resistance of those whose rights are invaded forms the other part; and the ecclesiastical power could not escape that intoxication which leads those who are lifted up to seek to raise themselves still higher. It felt all the influence of this general weakness of human nature.

Nevertheless the supremacy of the Roman bishop was at first limited to the overlooking of the churches in the territory lawfully subject to the prefect of Rome. But the rank which this imperial city held in the world offered to the ambition of its first pastors a prospect of wider sway. The consideration which the different Christian bishops enjoyed in the second century was in proportion to the rank of the city over which they presided. Rome was the greatest, the richest, and the most powerful city in the world. It was the seat of empire, the mother of nations. "All the inhabitants of the earth are hers," said Julian, and Claudian declares her to be the "fountain of laws."

If Rome be the queen of cities, why should not her pastor be the king of bishops? Why should not the Roman church be the mother of Christendom? Why should not all nations be her children, and her authority be the universal law? It was natural to the heart of man to reason thus. Ambitious Rome did so.

Hence it was that when heathen Rome fell, she bequeathed to the humble minister of the God of peace, seated in the midst of her own ruins, the proud titles which her invincible sword had won from the nations of the earth.

The bishops of the other parts of the empire, yielding to the charm that Rome had exercised for ages over all nations, followed the example of the Campagna, and aided the work of usurpation. They willingly rendered to the bishop of Rome something of that honor which was due to this queen of cities; nor was there at first anything of dependence in the honor thus yielded. They acted towards the Roman pastor as equals toward an equal, but usurped power swells like the avalanche. Exhortations, at first simply fraternal, soon became commands in the mouth of the Roman pontiff. A chief place amongst equals appeared to him a throne.

The bishops of the West favored this encroachment of the Roman pastors, either from jealousy of the Eastern bishops, or because they preferred subjection to a pope to the dominion of a temporal power.

On the other hand, the theological sects which distracted the East, strove, each for itself, to gain an interest at Rome, hoping to triumph over its opponents by the support of the principal of the Western churches.

Rome carefully recorded these requests and intercessions, and smiled to see the nations throw themselves into her arms. She neglected no opportunity of increasing and extending her power. The praises, the flattery, and exaggerated compliments paid to her, and her being consulted by other churches, became in her hands as titles and documents of her authority. Such is the heart of man exalted to a throne; flattery intoxicates him, and his head grows dizzy. What he possesses impels him to aspire after more.

The doctrine of "the church," and of "the necessity for its visible unity," which had gained footing as early as the third century, favored the pretensions of Rome. The great bond which originally bound together the members of the church, was a living faith in the heart, by which all were joined to Christ as their one Head. But various causes ere-long conspired to originate and develop the idea of a necessity for some exterior fellowship. Men, accustomed to the associations and political forms of an earthly country, carried their views and habits of mind into the spiritual and everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ. Persecution, powerless to destroy, or even to shake the new community, compressed it into the form of a more compacted body. To the errors that arose in the schools of deism, or in the various sects, was opposed the truth "one and universal" received from the apostles and preserved in the church. All this was well, so long as the invisible and spiritual church was identical with the visible and outward community.

But soon a great distinction appeared; the form and the vital principle parted asunder. The semblance of identical and external organization was gradually substituted in place of the internal and spiritual unity which is the very essence of a religion proceeding from God. Men suffered the precious perfume of faith to escape while they bowed themselves before the empty vase that had held it. Faith in the heart no longer knit together in one the members of the church. Then it was that other ties were sought; and Christians were united by means of bishops, archbishops, popes, mitres, ceremonies, and canons. The living church retiring by degrees to the lonely sanctuary of a few solitary souls, an exterior church was substituted in place of it, and installed in all its forms as of divine institution. Salvation no longer flowing forth from that word which was now hidden, it began to be affirmed that it was conveyed by means of certain invented forms, and that none could obtain it without resorting to such means! No one, it was said, can by his faith attain to everlasting life; Christ communicated to the apostles, and the apostles to the bishops, the unction of the Holy Spirit; and this Spirit is found only in this order of communication. In the beginning of the gospel, whosoever had received the spirit of Jesus Christ was esteemed a member of the church; now the order was invented; and no one, unless a member of the church, was counted to have received the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

As soon as the notion of a supposed necessity for a visible unity of the church had taken root, another error began to spread, namely, that it was needful that there should be some outward representative of that unity. Though no trace of any primacy of St. Peter above the rest of the apostles appears in the gospels; although the idea of a primacy is at variance with the mutual relations of the disciples as "brethren," and even with the spirit of the dispensation which requires all the children of the Father to minister one to another (1 Pet. 4:10), acknowledging but one Master and Head; and though the Lord Jesus had rebuked his disciples whenever their carnal hearts conceived desires of pre-eminence,—a primacy of St. Peter was invented, and supported by misinterpreted texts, and men proceeded to acknowledge in that apostle, and in his pretended successor, the visible representative of visible unity—and head of the whole church.—D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation.