Demetrios Constantelos

Greek Orthodoxy - From Apostolic Times to the Present Day

Another Father of the Church, Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (248-258), points out that "the episcopal office and the organization of the Church have come down to us so that the Church is founded upon the bishops and every act of the Church is controlled by these same officers." He further emphasizes that all the bishops are equal in rank and authority. He adds that "neither does any of us [bishops] set himself up as a bishop of bishops, nor by tyrannical terror does any compel his colleague to the necessity of obedience…Our Lord Jesus Christ…is the only one that has the power of preferring us [the bishops] as the government of His Church." Cyprian’s views about the equality of the bishops in Church were shared by other writers of the first three centuries. Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea (c. 256) is another witness to this principle.

But even in the West each bishop was essentially independent of higher ecclesiastical authority, and only after the ninth century is there a strong tendency on the part of the bishop of Rome to assert himself over the rest of the bishops, who because of their weakness, needed protection from some strong political or ecclesiastical leader. Political circumstances contributed to the emergence of a supreme ecclesiastical authority in Western Christendom. Unification under effective head, who could exercise authority over all the clergy and protect them from secular lords, became desirable. The papacy, as it is understood today, appears essentially in the eleventh century, when it was strengthened especially by the activities of the Clunaic movement, which aspired to see the Church united and purified under a central bishop – the pope of Rome.

Cf.  Books for getting closer to Orthodox Christianity ||| Orthodox Images of the Christ ||| Byzantium : The Alternative History of Europe ||| The pulse of Ancient Rome was driven by a Greek heart ||| Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire ||| Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church ||| Videos about Byzantium and Orthodoxy ||| Aspects of Byzantium in Modern Popular Music ||| 3 Posts on the Fall of Byzantium  ||| Greek Literature / The New Testament

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Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-orthodox-history.asp?pg=16