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now restricted in the western church to the bishop of Rome as an assertion
of that bishop's primacy over all others. |
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St.
Peter depicted as pope with emblems of office: chair, Bible, crown
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This title was originally
used for any bishop in the West and
for the bishop of Alexandria and other dignitaries in the East. Since the
eleventh century the bishop of Rome has claimed exclusive use of this title,
although the bishop of Alexandria,
for example, never conceded the use of this title to the bishop of Rome
alone. From the first century the church of Rome occupied a prominent place
as one of the oldest churches in the West and both the church in Rome and
its pope increasingly claimed preeminence in honor and primacy of right
over other churches. The fall of
the Roman Empire in 476 and the gradual separation of the eastern and
western churches permitted the bishops of Rome to increase their prerogatives
in the West. Eventually the pope ruled a territorial entity on the Italian
peninsula, the papal states, and claimed primacy over the entire church.
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