According to the Roman Catholic tradition of apostolic succession, Peter was the first pope appointed by Christ. The line of leadership, according to this view, has been unbroken and continuous from Peter to the current Pope Leo XIV. Catholic tradition also holds that Christ placed the care of the church in the hands of Peter, and by extension, the successors of Peter, who are the popes. By divine right, the popes would then exercise supreme authority over the Universal Church: papal supremacy. So, what is the extent of this supremacy and how did it manifest in doctrine and practice throughout history?
The Context for Papal Supremacy
To sensibly discuss the doctrine of Papal Supremacy, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of other Catholic doctrines such as apostolic succession and papal primacy. Once this foundation has been established, papal supremacy will make more sense.
Apostolic succession is the belief that authority was handed down from the apostles’ time to successive generations of church leaders. The bishops of later times, therefore, had the authority of the apostles to perform certain functions. Peter, having been appointed leader among the disciples, passed that role on to successive generations. The pope is in the direct line of succession from Peter and inherited unique authority and responsibility handed to Peter by Christ. The biblical foundation referenced for this view comes from Matthew 16 when Jesus asked the disciples who they said he was, and Peter gave a profound answer:
Matthew 16:16-19
“Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’”
Catholics hold that Peter had primacy among the apostles and carried over to the bishop of Rome. The bishops of Rome were the foremost bishops within the Christian Church. The pope is, therefore, the spiritual leader of the church and has a position of honor in addition to being responsible for maintaining unity within and guiding the Church. In the hierarchy of the Church, he has the ultimate position of leadership.
The Catholic Doctrine of Papal Supremacy
Closely related to and building on apostolic succession and papal primacy, is papal supremacy. Where papal primacy focuses on the place of the pope within the hierarchy of the Church, papal supremacy focuses on the entire Church, not just its structures. It highlights the comprehensive nature of the pope’s jurisdiction and authority.
In addition to the authority Peter received in Matthew 16, the interaction between him and Jesus in John 21 is also relevant. After asking Peter three times whether he (Peter) loved him and hearing his response, Jesus gave three instructions “Feed my lambs,” “Tend my sheep,” and “Feed my sheep” respectively. From this, Catholics glean that Peter served as the first vicar of Christ. Vicar means representative or substitute.
In John 21, Jesus refers to “my sheep,” retaining ownership but appointing Peter as the one responsible for the care of believers as Christ’s representative and substitute. Based on apostolic succession, that responsibility is passed on to every successive pope. The pope, it would follow, is the individual ultimately responsible for caring for the “flock” and has authority over them by divine right.
History of Papal Supremacy
In early Christian history, several cities became prominent centers of the fledgling faith. Rome was one of them and was the capital of the Roman Empire as well. Within the first centuries of the Church era, the prominence of Rome as a seat of leadership over the Church increased. Irenaeus, in his 2nd-century work Against Heresies, wrote: “With [the Church of Rome], because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree … and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition.”
The prominence of the bishop of Rome increased when Christianity was legalized under Emperor Constantine in 313 CE, and Nicene Christianity became the state religion in 380 CE under the reign of Emperor Theodosius I with the Edict of Thessalonica. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Papacy provided a sense of continuity and authority.
They, however, depended on the Byzantine Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire’s approval for episcopal consecration. Scholars refer to this period, which lasted from 537 to 752 CE, as the Byzantine Papacy. During this time, no pope except for Pope Martin I questioned the authority of the Eastern Roman Empire’s serving emperor to unilaterally appoint the pope.
When the Byzantine Empire was weakened by the invading forces of Islam, the Papacy turned to the Frankish monarchy for support and received it from King Pepin the Short. He awarded the first territory that would later become the Papal States to the Papacy. When Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Emperor, he also received his protection, and the precedent was set that in Western Europe, for several centuries, no emperor would ascend the throne without the pope placing the crown.
During this time, the emperor was involved in the appointment of church leaders into higher office. That changed with the Investiture Controversy of the late 11th and early 12th centuries which resulted in the Pope retaining authority over spiritual matters and the emperor, while still having significant influence on the appointment of bishops, focusing on royal concerns. The emperors did, however, wield considerable power over and influence on the Church.
The Crusades, which started during that era, further established the authority, status, and prestige of the Papacy. The papal institution rose to become a significant force in Europe and believed itself to have authority across the globe.
From the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, the following declaration emerged: “The pope is … not responsible to any earthly tribunal or power. He is the judge of all, can be judged by no one, kings, priests, or people. He is free from all laws, and cannot incur any sentence or penalty for any crime … He is all in all, and above all, so that God and the pope, the Vicar of God, are but one … He hath all power on earth, purgatory, heaven, and hell, to bind, loose, command, permit, dispense, do, and undo. Therefore it is declared to stand upon necessity of salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff. All temporal power is his; the dominion, jurisdiction, and government of the whole earth is his by divine right.”
During Vatican I (1869-1870), in Pastor Aeternus, papal supremacy was held as dogma. Vatican II (1962-1965) reaffirmed the teaching on papal supremacy established during Vatican I. Vatican II taught that the college of bishops, as successors of the apostolic college, “have supreme and full authority over the Universal Church; but this power cannot be exercised without the agreement of the Roman Pontiff.” The pope, then, wields supreme authority over the Universal Church. The Catholic Catechism reaffirms the scope of Papal jurisdiction from the Roman Catholic perspective: “937 The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, ‘supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls.’”
Arguably the strongest expression on papal supremacy comes from Concerning the extent of Papal dignity, authority, or dominion and infallibility:
“Moreover the superiority and the power of the Roman Pontiff by no means pertains only to heavenly things, but also earthly things, and to things under the earth, and even over the angels, whom he is greater than. So that if it were possible that the angels might err in the faith, or might think contrary to the faith, they could be judged and excommunicated by the Pope. The Pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief of kings, having plenitude of power.”
(Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica, Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica Volume V. Paris: J. P. Migne, 1858)
Opposition to Papal Supremacy
The Roman Catholic view on Papal Supremacy has not gone unchallenged in history. Especially during the Reformation, many notable reformers challenged papal authority. Most of the reformers went as far as identifying the pope or Papacy as the Antichrist. One of the clearest challenges comes from the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) when it states:
“There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalts himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.”
History also attests to socio-political opposition to the authority of the Papacy. For example, when the pope refused to grant Henry VIII a divorce from Catherine of Aragon, the king set in action a series of events that resulted in the establishment of the Church of England. It was a challenge to papal supremacy which saw the king installed as “Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England.”
