Another Catholic deception - Papa!

Even the history preserved by Roman Catholicism does not support the idea that the Bishop of Rome was established as the Pope or there was any recognition by other Bishops the supremacy of the Roman Bishop for the first 600 years. The false decretals were responsible for this recognition of primacy rather than tradition or traditional understanding of Matthew 16:19.


1. That the name papa was common to all bishops, and signified no pre-eminence in those who bore it.

2. That the Apostolic Sees were all equally accounted matricies of unity, and the roots of other Catholic churches.

3. That, down to the Counsel of nicea,, the whole system of the Church was framed on this principle, and that these were the "ancient customs" which that council ordained to be perpetual.

4. That "because it was the old capital of the empire," and for no other reason (the Petrine idea never once mentioned), the primacy of honour was conceded to Old Rome, and equal honour to New Rome, becaue it was the new capital. It was to be named second on the list of patriarchates, but to be in no wise inferior to Old Rome; while the ancient and all-commanding patriarchate of Alexandria yeilded this credit to the partenu of Byzantium only on the principle of the Gospel "in honour preferring one another" and only because the imperial capital must be the centre of Catholic concourse. - Introductory Notice to the Decretals, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VIII, p. 602


1. From (A.D. 325) Sylvester to Gregory the Great, and his successor, who lived but one year, the Bishops of Rome were canoinical primates.

2. Boniface III, accepted the court title of "Universal Pope" (A.D. 606) from the Emperor Phocas, but it was not accepted by the Church.

3. From this time to Adrian I. many Bishops of Rome vied with those of Constantinople to augment their honour and power. The establishment of the Western Empire (A.D. 800) made their ambitious claims acceptable to the Latins; and they became primates of all Christendom in Western estimation, with extra-canonical and indefinite cliams as "successors of St. Peter."

4. Nicholas I (A.D. 863), by means of the False Decretals, gave shape to these extra-canonical claims, abroogated the Nicene Constitutions in the West by making these Decretals canon-law, and asserted a supremacy over the old patriarchutes, which they never allowed: hence the schism of the West from the Apotolic Sees of the East, and from the primitive discipline which established the Papacy, as now understood. - Ibid., p. 642