Stylesjl said:
I'm not asking how the pope is selected i'm asking how the title and authority of pope came into being
A little History.
The cannonisation of law, the creation of Codex vaticanus, church and state power, taxes and whealth.
Lets go first:
Cannonisation of law. basicly the christian faith was fragment as well as serious differences in belief were "definded" and "offical" in the first eccemenical councile passing the nisinian decree in 325AD, making christainity the state religon (think civ IV)
latter councile i.e the 5th definied iconist (crisis) laws for statues, icons, painting and so forth as well as the cross becoming to offical symbol of christanity
Codec vaticanus was the first offical state bible, part of the decree in which the faith was defined. example would be declaring the bible as "closed" no additional text would be added. Thus cementing the Authoruity of the church, as certain belief were declared "heretic" and state santioned "inquisition"
Church and state were as one. Remember this is the roman empire where religon and state were very very close. One could hold a state title such as a general and also be a priest or high ranking religous offical. pagan followers were as such denied offical placement in the government. thus the authority of the church would be enforced by the state
Whealth and taxes. Pretty ovious here.
Money = power and the church had become both wealthy and powerful in this sense. The church would and could buy land, estates and business thus creating a powerful economic enity.
IIRC it was empoeror Jusiatine whom first tapped into church money to finance the Byaztine military and help revive the empire.
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We could go onto such things as papual armies, crusades, divine authority, how religon expanded and so on.
but I think you get the idea.
