Finally, it must be noted how much the development of the
Roman Church was aided by its attitude on disputed questions of belief. While
eastern Christendom was torn by theological controversies, the Church of Rome
stood firmly by the Nicene Creed. After the Arian, Nestorian, and other
heresies were finally condemned, orthodox Christians felt indebted to the Roman
Church for its unwavering championship of "the faith once delivered to the
saints." They were all the more ready, therefore, to defer to that church
in matters of doctrine and to accept without question its spiritual authority.
THE PETRINE SUPREMACY
The claim of the Roman bishops to supremacy over the
Christian world had a double basis. Certain passages in the New Testament,
where St. Peter is represented as the rock on which the Church is built, the
pastor of the sheep and lambs of the Lord, and the doorkeeper of the kingdom of
heaven, appear to indicate that he was regarded by Christ as the chief of the
Apostles. Furthermore, a well-established tradition made St. Peter the founder
of the Roman Church and its first bishop. It was then argued that he passed to
his successors, the popes, all his rights and dignity. As St. Peter was the
first among the Apostles, so the popes were to be the first among bishops. Such
was the doctrine of the Petrine supremacy, expressed as far back as the second
century, strongly asserted by many popes during the Middle Ages, and maintained
to-day by the Roman Church.
