A former slave, who later became the Bishop of Rome (217-222). He was the first to accept repentant sinners as a matter of policy. He argued that the church is like Noah's ark. In it unclean as well as clean beasts can be found. He defended his actions by insisting that the Church of Rome was heir to Peter and that the Lord had given keys to Peter to bind and to loose the sins of men. This marks the first time a bishop of Rome claimed this special authority.

[tags]BlogRodent, Callistus, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, history, Peter[/tags]

With the rising authority of the bishops, especially Leo, who provided the biblical and theological basis for the papal claims, and their growing links of power with the Roman Emperors, the Church in Rome gradually became the Church of Rome. Up until the time of Constantine, history provides no real precedents for the Roman bishops exercising authority outside the boundaries of Rome. But with the conversion of Constantine, and subsequent convening of church councils to dispute heresy, bishops and the Church of Rome steadily grew in power and influence. A major threshold of papal power came with the threat and fear of excommunication.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, Constantine, history, Rome, heresy, Pope[/tags]

(1801)

An agreement Napoleon forged with Pope Pius VII which restored the Church of Rome to a special place in France.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, Concordat, history, Napoleon, Pope-Pius-VII, Pope[/tags]

Constantine represents the passing of the Age of Catholic Christianity, and the beginning of the Age of the Christian Empire. Upon the death of Galerius, Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus, advanced across the Alps to dislodge his rival Maxentius from Italy and to capture Rome. When he came upon his militarily superior enemy at the Milvian Bridge just outside the walls of Rome, he turned for help to the God of the Christians. In a dream he saw a cross in the sky and the words, "In this sign conquer." This convinced him to advance. When on 28 October 312 he achieved his brilliant victory over the troops of Maxentius, Constantine looked upon his success as proof of the power of Christ and the superiority of the Christian religion. From the year 312, he favored Christianity openly. He allowed Christian ministers to enjoy the same exemption from taxes as

King of England from 1509-1547. Under King Henry, England rejected the authority of Rome. King Henry had no son born of his queen, Catherine of Aragon, who had delivered five children (the only survivor beyond infancy was the princess Mary). England was in no mood to accept a girl as heir to the throne because of the nation's only previous queen who had occasioned bloody wars of succession. As Catherine grew older, Henry grew more troubled. In 1525 the queen was forty and Henry pondered more and more the ways of God: "Am I under some curse of God?" (Catherine had been Henry's deceased brother Arthur's wife for several months.) In his mind was Le 10:21, "If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing, they shall be childless." The Church of Rome recognized the curse, but had granted the marriage for reasons of its own

Even before Luther posted his theses on the church door at Wittenberg a distinguished and aristocratic group at Rome had formed a pious brotherhood called the Oratory of Divine Love. Their guiding belief was that the reformation of the church and society begins within the individual soul. The Oratory was never large in number, perhaps 50, yet it had enormous influence. It stimulated reform in the older monastic orders and contributed leaders to the Church of Rome as it laid plans for a general council to deal with internal reform and the Protestant heresy. Among the members of the Oratory who later emerged as significant figures were Jacopo Sadoeto, who debated with Calvin; Reginald Pole, who tried under Bloody Mary to turn England back to Rome; and Gian Pietro Caraffa, who became Pope Paul IV.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, history, Oratory-of-Divine-Love[/tags]

(1534-1549)

The first pope to make a serious attempt at reforming the disorder in the Catholic Church. His reform started in the College of Cardinals, he appointed to the college a number of champions of reform, including leaders from the Oratory of Love: adoleto, Pole, and Caraffa. Also appointed a reform commission to study the conditions in the Church of Rome which issued a report in 1537. Called for a general council of the Church at Trent, Italy in 1545-53 decades after Luther's theses appeared. Instituted the Roman Inquisition and the Index of prohibited books. Approved the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) as an official order, spiritual soldiers in his service.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, history, Inquisition, Jesuits, Jesus, Pope-Paul-III[/tags]

For centuries the Church in England had been moving toward independence from Rome. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1474-1530) is probably the best symbol of the independence England had achieved even prior to Henry's break with Rome. Wolsey was the Archbishop of York, a Cardinal in the Church of Rome, and the chancellor of the English realm. So in his own person, he combined the Church in England, the Church of Rome and the Kingdom of England. Yet in all of these offices he was the king's henchman, subject to honor or disgrace at the royal whim.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, history, Thomas, Thomas-Wolsey[/tags]