R&I – FS
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Apostolic Succession Part II
Part II: was Apostolic Succession a divine intervention and the wish of the Christian God? Well, if you believe that each Bishop of Rome was chosen on his godly merits and his pious disposition, then you must believe Hey Diddle Diddle the Cat and the Fiddle. I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but that is a load of nursery rhymes and myths for children of what the Papacy and others claim and would have us believe on Apostolic Succession. In the real world, nothing like God or Jesus picked their supposed Vicor on earth through the supposed illiterate apostles.
Clement to the (1) Corinthians
Writing to the Corinthians Clement of Rome (91-101) wrote: Let us take the noble examples furnished in our generation. Through envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars [of the church] have been persecuted and put to death. Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours; and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience. [Clement Letter to the corinthians, ch. 5, The Martyrdom of Peter and Paul, New Advent.]
Clement does not imply or say where Peter was martyred. One would think if it was Rome, Clement would have said. On Paul who is also claimed by the Papacy to of been martyred in Rome. However, Clement is more precise where Paul met his end; martyred in the extreme limits of the West. One could hypothesize that it was probably Gaul or even Britain as it was first breached by the Romans in the year 43, but fighting was still going on in 78 according to Tacitus’ The Life of Agricola. Also, see the book https://archive.org/details/stpaulinbritain01morggoog published in 1861.
At the time of Christ, the Roman Empire hailed Antioch as the new capital of the East over that of Alexandria. It became a pivotal city, one favoured by the emperors of Rome and a vital part of the Empire.https://www.britannica.com/place/Antioch-modern-and-ancient-city-south-central-Turkey
Initially, in the earliest time bishops of Rome were chosen by the local clergy with approval from nearby bishops. “A newly elected bishop was installed in office and given his authority not by his predecessor, but by the bishops who supervised the election and performed the ordination.
The surviving evidence indicates that Cornelious (251-53) was consecrated by sixteen bishops, Novatian (251-58) by three, and Fortunatus by five. No bishop or Christian community, therefore, was autonomous; each was necessarily part of a local network of bishops and their churches. [J. Patout Burns, Cyprian the Bishop (Psychology Press 2002), p. 91] the brackets ( ) and emphases are mine.
In practice, neither the people nor the cardinals or other clergy were always able to elect the candidate they wanted. Sometimes Roman mobs took matters into their own hands. In 896 for example a rioting mob forced the election of Boniface VI, despite his having been twice degraded for immorality and defrocked. More often popes were appointed by whoever exercised the most power at the time. An Ostrogoth king had terrorised the electorate into choosing a Subdeacon, Silverius, as pope in the sixth century. Empress Theodora wanted a more sympathetic bishop of Rome, so Silverius was arrested and deposed, and the Emperor forced through the election of Pope Vigilius. At the beginning of the tenth century, the Western Emperor Otto took a dislike to the rightful pope, Benedict IV. Benedict grovelled at the Emperor’s feet, declared himself to be an impostor and claimed that the Emperor’s man was the true pope. So it was that the Emperor’s man became Pope Leo V in 903. A nobody, not even a Roman clergy, however after 30 days, he was overthrown and imprisoned by the Roman cleric Christopher who had himself made pope. However, Christopher (antipope) did not last long either and he was overthrown by Sergius III (904-911) who had Leo V and Christopher murdered.[J.N.D. Kelly (1986), The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, pp. 118-19, Oxford University Press, London, and New York]
In the early days after the inaugural debut of 380 onward, the job of picking a successor for the See of Rome was done by the Emperor, and when the Western Empire ceased to be, that honour went to the Eastern or Byzantine emperor. Then the leaders of ruling families of Rome, such as the family of Theophylact I (c. 864-925) who was a medieval count of Tusculum and the effective ruler of Rome from around 905 through to his death in 924. Theophylact’s wife (with whom he had two children, Theodora and Marozia) Theodora the Elder aka Theodora of Rome (875-925) played a huge part in choosing who would be Pope! Not only that it is said Pope John X (914 and deposed 928, d. 929 it is supposed was murdered) was Theodora’s Lover. Theodora the Elder (c. 870 – d. after 916) was a powerful senatrix (woman senator) in Rome, her fifteen-year-old daughter Marozia gave birth to a boy, who one day would become pope John XI (931-c. 35/6), who was sired by and according to the Liber Pontificalis (Book of popes), by Pope Sergius III (c. 870-911). There are very many popes whose accession to the papacy came about by powerful family connections, bribery, murder, etc., and were a far cry from what is termed ‘Apostolic Succession.’ Their eventual heirs of the Theophyact’s were the Colonna family still powerful in 16th-century Rome. Nepotism, simony and murder played a large part in choosing who would be the pope.
Whatever you think of religion, church history to me is like an addiction with its highs and lows but forever intriguing that supposedly men of God were willing to commit atrocities. Even to do murder to achieve success as Pontifex Maximus—title still in use today by popes. A title that was taken from the Chief Pagan Priest of Rome. Taken as a trophy by Damasus I (366-384) the first-ever Catholic Pontiff who took the See of Rome by hiring thugs to kill 137 clerics belonging to his rival for the office of the Bishop of Rome. What do you say?
Cofion
Jero Jones
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/