The Roman Catholic Church has not entirely denied apostolic succession to non-Roman churches. Rome recognizes the validity of orders in the Orthodox churches; this means that it recognizes the sacramental power of the priesthood but does not recognize the government of these churches as legitimate. The orders of the Anglican and the Lutheran churches, on the contrary, are not recognized by Rome, though negotiations aimed at resolving the differences between the churches in this regard have been held since Vatican II. Oriental churches in union with Rome (Eastern Catholics) are recognized as being in full apostolic succession. Luther and Calvin affirmed that apostolic succession had been lost in the Roman Catholic Church by doctrinal and moral corruption and that the true church was found only where the gospel was rightly preached and the sacraments were rightly administered. Thus, Protestant churches generally have not accepted the necessity of apostolic succession. John L. McKenzie The papacy The papal office
The word pope (Latin papa, “father”) was used as early as the 3rd century to refer to any bishop, and the word papacy (Latin papatia, derived from papa) is of medieval origin. In its primary usage, papacy denotes the office of the bishop of Rome, for whom the title of pope has been reserved in the West since the 9th century, and, hence, the system of ecclesiastical and temporal government over which he directly presides.
The hierarchical order of society. The pope enthroned as the supreme authority rules over the worldly powers and the laity (on his left) and the clergy and the religious (on his right). The white and black hounds are visual puns on Dominicans—Dominus canes (“hounds of the Lord”). Detail of The Church Militant and Triumphant, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.SCALA/Art Resource, New York
The multiplicity and variety of papal titles themselves indicate the complexity of the papal office. In the Annuario Pontificio, the official Vatican directory, the pope is described as bishop of Rome, vicar of Jesus Christ, successor of the prince of the Apostles, pontifex maximus (“supreme pontiff”) of the universal church, primate of Italy, archbishop and metropolitan of the Roman province, sovereign of the state of Vatican City, and servant of the servants of God. In his more circumscribed capacities as bishop of Rome, metropolitan of the Roman province, primate of Italy, and patriarch of the West, the pope is the bearer of responsibilities and the wielder of powers that have counterparts in the other episcopal, metropolitan, primatial, and patriarchal jurisdictions of the Roman Catholic Church. What differentiates his jurisdiction from these others and renders his office unique is the teaching that the bishop of Rome is also the successor to St. Peter, prince of the Apostles. As the bearer of the Petrine office, the pope is raised to a position of lonely eminence as chief bishop, or primate, of the universal church.
Basic to the claim of primacy is the Petrine theory, according to which Christ promised the primacy to Peter alone and, after the Resurrection, actually conferred that role upon him (John 1:42 and 21:15 ff. and, especially, Matthew 16:18 ff.).
St. Peter the Apostle, stained-glass window, 19th century; in St. Mary's Church, Bury St. Edmunds, England.© Ronald Sheridan/Ancient Art & Architecture Collection
And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
(Matthew 16:18–19) Feed my lambs.
…Tend my sheep.
(John 21:15–16)
Following an ancient tradition, Vatican I defined the Petrine primacy by citing these three texts, interpreting them to signify that Christ himself directly established St. Peter as prince of the Apostles and visible head of the church militant, bestowing on him a primacy not merely of honour but of true jurisdiction. The council maintained also that by Christ’s establishment the Petrine primacy was to pass in perpetuity to his successors and that these successors were the bishops of Rome. In stipulating further that the Roman pontiffs, as successors in the Petrine primacy, possess the authority to issue infallible pronouncements in matters of faith or morals, the council cited both Matthew 16:18 ff. and Christ’s promise to Peter at the Last Supper: But I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.
(Luke 22:32) Ancient and medieval views of papal authority
Of the Petrine texts, Matthew 16:18 ff. is clearly central and has the distinction of being the first scriptural text invoked to support the primatial claims of the Roman bishops. Although the exact meaning of this passage was debated by patristic exegetes (early Church Fathers who in their interpretation of the Bible used critical techniques), the tradition of Roman preeminence developed very early in the history of the church. In the late 4th and 5th centuries there was an increasing tendency on the part of Roman bishops to justify scripturally and to formulate in theoretical terms the ill-defined preeminence in the universal church that had long been attached to the Roman church and to its bishop. Thus, Damasus I, despite the existence of other churches of apostolic foundation, began to call the Roman church “the apostolic see.” At about the same time, the categories of Roman law were borrowed to explicate and formulate the prerogatives of the Roman bishop. The process of theoretical elaboration reached a culmination in the views of Leo I and Gelasius I (reigned 492–496), the former understanding himself not simply as Peter’s successor but also as his representative, or vicar. He was Peter’s “unworthy heir,” possessing by analogy with the Roman law of inheritance the full powers Peter himself had wielded—these powers being monarchical, since Peter had been endowed with the principatus over the church.
On a purely theoretical level, the distance between the claims advanced by Leo I and the position embodied in the primacy decree of Vatican I is not great. Medieval popes, such as Gregory VII, Innocent III, and Innocent IV, clarified in both theory and practice the precise meaning of that fullness of power (plenitudo potestatis) over the church to which, according to some scholars, Leo I himself had laid claim. In this they were aided not only by the efforts of publicists such as the 13th-century Italian theologian and philosopher Giles of Rome, also known as Aegidius Romanus, who magnified the pope’s monarchical powers in unrestrained and secular terms, but also by the massive development during the late 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries of canon law, which made increasing use of Roman law and legal practices. Gratian’s Decretum (c. 1140), the unofficial collection of canons that became the fundamental textbook for medieval students of canon law, laid great emphasis on the primacy of the Roman see, accepting as genuine certain canons that were based on long-standing tradition but were actually the work of 8th- and 9th-century forgers. Two such canons were restated by the 1917 Code of Canon Law as the principles “that there cannot be an ecumenical council which is not convoked by the Roman Pontiff” and that “the First See is under the judgment of nobody.”