One of the tendencies we have is to take what we know today of the Papacy and read it back into history as if it were always just this way.
That isn’t really possible.
Also, we can see much justification for the Papacy in biblical and early Christian (Patristic) writings, but we might overlook the fact that the Papacy could have developed somewhat differently and still be justified by those scriptural and Patristic references.
For instance we know today the Pope names bishops around the world, he will transfer them from one diocese to another as well (he also occasionally removes bishops without reassigning them). This never happened in the church in the first millenium and probably not much even 300 years ago. It’s a new thing.
Today bishops from southern India, Ethiopia and Pittsburgh have regular Ad Limina vists to Rome, to make a report to the Pope about the goings on in their churches. This couldn’t happen until the advent of modern transportation. Regular Ad Limina visits were not possible until recent times in church history.
When St Peter was still with us he knew all of the Apostles, but chose none of them. We know Matthias was chosen by a council of Apostles, not Peter alone. In the time before his own martyrdom Peter must have known most of the bishops personally, that was to be expected as much as they were still a small group and most of them had travelled together at some point, but he did not name them all or install them all. Later as the church grew it was impossible for Rome to know who all of the bishops were, they were usually chosen by the local synods and frequently by the local princes or kings. The bishop of Romes absolute control was limited to his immediate diocese, except when he could get the political authorities to support him.
In this sense the Patriarch of Constantinople must have had far more real authority in his own region (from the fourth century until the tenth) than the Pope had in his own region in the comparable time period.
Eventually we reached a historical period when concordats could be negotiated with modern civil authorities in various countries, this was a major source for the power the Papacy enjoys today. These concordats were sometimes negotiated after a period of persecution, when the local church was in a weakened state and discredited because of it’s connections to the previous regime. I would like to see a list of all the concordats currently in force, they are as important in church history (in their own way) as church councils but seldom discussed.
The invention of steam power and the telegraph made it possible to communicate more rapidly, and the highly centralized Papacy we have come to know was born.
+T+
Michael
…see the movie!