3915—The Head of the Church Then
By Editor
I read that Constantine signed an edict enjoining the cities of the Roman Empire to refrain from work on Sunday in 321 A.D.; and in 364 A.D., at the Council of Laodicea, it was decided not to Judaize, and also to keep Sunday. Kindly inform me who was at the head of the church at that time, if it is known if there was a pope or not. The Roman Church claims popes all the way back to Peter; but we would hardly believe that the early fathers in the church would call themselves popes of Rome, or designate the bishop of Rome as the head of the church. In fact, in the early centuries the bishop of Rome was considered to be simply one of the bishops in the church, as was the bishop of Alexandria, the bishop of Ephesus, the bishop of Jerusalem, the bishop of Constantinople, etc. According to the Roman Catholic claim, the pope of Rome from 314 to 335 was Sylvester, and at the time of 364 was Liberius. The head of the church in 321 was Constantine, who arrogated that authority to himself, and who molded the church after the model of the Roman Empire to a great extent.