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The convention of calling the Latin Church "Catholic" and the Eastern Churches "Orthodox" obscures the circumstance that katholikê, καθολική, "universal," signifies the Church of the Roman Empire, whose Patriarch in Constantinople the Bishop of Rome (through his representative) excommunicated in 1054 AD (although the Pope had just died and the representative no longer had any authority). The diagram at right gives some impression of how the One Catholic Church has broken up - setting aside the Protestant fragmention of the See of Rome in the West, which of course would require a complex diagram in its own right.
#DESPOTISM 3K THE GATE FULL#
The Papacy, of course, claims that its full authority and its position as the head of whole Church existed from the beginning. The Patriarch of Constantinople was made second in rank, although this was a bit resented by the other, older Patriarchates. At the time of Justinian, the Pope was regarded as primus inter pares, first among equals of the Patriarchs, but that was all. The last Emperor in any position, and with any need, to call a Council, Charles V, deferred to the Pope - who then was the one to call the Council of Trent, 1545-1563.
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To resolve the Great Schism, the Council of Constance, 1414-1418, was called by the Emperor Sigismund but once a single line of Popes was secure in Rome again, they denied that the Emperor had any authority to call Councils. The first Council called by a Pope, and regarded by him as Ecumenical, was the Lateran Council I in 1123. Indeed, he had already called a Council at Arles in 314 to deal with the Donatist controversy in North Africa, a production carried out, apparently, without any reference to the Bishop of Rome. The red shoes of the Popes, which recent Popes have begun to avoid, are part of "caesaro-papism."Ĭhief among the powers of the Emperor - the "Equal to the Apostles," ἰσαπόστολος, isapóstolos, always portrayed with a halo, - was that of calling Church Councils, as Constantine had called the Council of Nicaea in 325. The last legitimate red shoes were on Constantine XI on May 29, 1453, as he died defending Constantinople against the Ottoman Turks. Roman Emperors wore red shoes, not prelates of the Church. Part of that act of play-acting a Roman Emperor are actually the famous "red shoes" of the Popes. It is thus much less anarchonistic to characterize the claims of later Popes, not the Emperors, as the "caesaro-papism," i.e. However, the Emperor had exercised his powers since Constantine I, while the familiar powers of the Pope were much later claims and inventions. The role of the Emperor in governing the Church is now called "caesaro-papism," i.e. The One Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, Una Sancta Romana Catholica et Apostolica Ecclesia, is governed through the Emperor and the Patriarchs, namely the Patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, in that order of precedence. The capital, of course, is Constantinople, with the recovered western areas ruled from Ravenna (Italy, the Exarchate of Ravenna) and Carthage (Africa and Spain, the Exarchate of Carthage). On the map we have the Roman Empire as it was partially restored at the death of Justinian I. The Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Armenia, and the East Archbishops of Canterbury and Prince Archbishops of Mainz, Trier, Cologne, and Salzburg Popes & Patriarchs, Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, etc.