The Roman Papacy (as an institution)

• General:
  • Fr. Vladimir Guetée: The Papacy: Its Historic Origin and Primitive Relations. Probably the 1866 Coxe translation. --- T. R. Valentine

• Evolution of Papal Claims:
  • The Donation of Constantine: A forged document making the pope effectively Emperor of the West.

  • W. Ernest Beet: The Rise of the Papacy, AD 385-461, (1910). London: Kelly, 1910.

• Orthodox Views of the Papacy:
  • Francis Dvornik: Byzantium and the Roman Primacy, (1964). New York: Fordham, 1966.

• Some Orthodox popes whose policies shaped later developments:
  • Pope St. Gelasius I: First to be called "Vicar of Christ"; author of a famous letter to Emperor Anastasius asserting the superiority of spiritual over temporal power. Late V Century.

• Should Roman practice supercede all local custom?
  • Orbis major est urbe: No one city, not even the capital, can claim that its idiosyncratic practices are correct and the rest of Christendom's custom is in error.
    • St. Jerome, Ep. 146, i;

• In what sense is the Pope first among bishops?
  • The bishop of Rome and of the most obscure rural diocese are equally successors of the apostles:
    • St. Jerome, Ep. 146, i;

• Is it the Pope who guarantees the Church's catholicity?
  • Fr. Andrew Phillips: The Unity of the Orthodox Church. --- OA