Referring to the doctrine of Papal Supremacy the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes in paragraph 882, “the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered." Paragraph 937 states, “"The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, 'supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls.'” The name Catholic Church can mean a visible organization that refers to itself as Catholic, or the invisible Christian Church, viz. ...

Creation of papal supremacy

Catholics claim that Papal Supremacy was instituted by Christ and that Papal succession can be traced back to Peter the Apostle. The Church insists that this authority was conferred on the occassion when, after Peter acknowledged Jesus' divinity, Jesus said: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death [gates of hell] shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." [Mt 16:17-19]

Critics claim the creation of the term papal supremacy dates back to the 6th century, which was the beginning of the rise of the papacy to the position of not just religious power, but the power to be the ultimate ruler of the kingdoms within the Christian Community which it has since retained. In the complex development of papal supremacy, two broad phases may be emphasized.

First phase of papal supremacy

Cited evidence about the supremacy of the pope in the earliest days of the church is a matter of dispute. Most scholars recognize that he was given unique esteem as the successor to St. Peter. Catholics maintain that the the unique authority of the Petrine seat was given deference, but non-Catholic Christians argue that the bishop of Rome held greater esteem, not greater authority than the other bishops. The Catholic Church cites to a Papal succession which runs unbroken back to Peter who it claims was invested with the "keys of the kindom of heaven". Saint Cyprian of Carthage in 251 A.D. noted Petrine Supremacy: "And again He says to him [Peter] after His resurrection: 'Feed my sheep' (John 21:17). On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all our shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the Apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that his is in the Church?" Popes buried in St. ... This page does not concern Cyprian, Metropolitan of Moscow. ...

Saint Innocent I who served in the Papacy from 401 to 417 was champion of papal supremacy in the entire Church. Saint Gelasius I who served from 492 to 496, in a controverys with Anastasius, the Bysantine emperor, likewise fought to maintain the doctrine of papal supremacy. This dispute was an incipient point of conflict between the Holy See and the Empire. ... Gelasius I was Pope (492 - 496). ...

From the late 6th to the late 8th century there was a turning of the papacy to the West and its escape from subordination to the authority of the Byzantine emperors of Constantinople. This phase has sometimes incorrectly been credited to Pope Gregory I, whose reign lasted from 590 AD – 604 AD, who, like his predecessors, represented to the people of the Roman world a church that was still identified with the empire. Unlike some of those predecessors, Gregory was compelled to face the collapse of imperial authority in northern Italy. As the leading civilian official of the empire in Rome, it fell to him to take over the civil administration of the cities and to negotiate for its protection with the Lombard invaders threatening it. Another part of this phase occurred in the 8th century, after the rise of the new religion of Islam had weakened the Byzantine Empire and the Lombards had renewed their pressure in Italy. The popes finally sought support from the Frankish rulers of the West and received from the Frankish king Pepin The Short the Italian territory later known as the Papal States. With the crowning by Pope Leo III of Charlemagne, first of the Carolingian emperors, the papacy also gained his protection. The Byzantine Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... Emperor is also a Norwegian black metal band; see Emperor (band). ... Constantinople[1] was the name of the modern-day city of Ä°stanbul, Turkey over the centuries that it served as the second capital of the unified Roman Empire, and after its division into East and West, of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire (from the city... This is the current Article Improvement Drive collaboration! CAST YOUR VOTE for next weeks article For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). ... The Lombards or Longobards or Langobards were the Germanic tribe who gave their name to Lombardy, an administrative entity in Northern Italy. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ) is a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the Quran. ... Pepin III (714 - September 24, 768) more often known as Pepin the Short (French, Pépin le Bref; German, Pippin der Kleine), was a King of the Franks (751 - 768). ... Charlemagne (742 or 747 – 28 January 814) (also Charles the Great[1]; from Latin, Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus), son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, was the king of the Franks from 768 to 814 and king of the Lombards from 774 to 814. ...

Second phase of papal supremacy

The second great phase in the process of papal supremacy's rise to prominence began, one that extended from the mid 11th to the mid 13th century. It was distinguished, first, by Gregory VII's bold attack after 1075 on the traditional practices whereby the emperor had controlled appointments to the higher church offices, an attack that spawned the protracted civil and ecclesiastical strife in Germany and Italy known as the Investiture Controversy. It was distinguished, second, by Urban II's launching in 1095 of the Crusades, which, in an attempt to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim domination, marshaled under papal leadership the aggressive energies of the European nobility. Both these efforts, although ultimately unsuccessful, greatly enhanced papal prestige in the 12th and 13th centuries. Such powerful popes as Alexander III (r. 1159 - 81), Innocent III (r. 1198 - 1216), Gregory IX (r. 1227 - 41), and Innocent IV (r. 1243 - 54) wielded a primacy over the church that attempted to vindicate a jurisdictional supremacy over emperors and kings in temporal and spiritual affairs. The Investiture Controversy was the most significant conflict between secular and religious powers in medieval Europe. ... This article is about historical Crusades . ... The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by hanging their Banners and exposing their Coats-of-arms at the door of the Lodge of the Heralds. ...

Early in this phase, defense of Papal supremacy was voiced by the likes of St. Anselm of Canterbury and Saint Thomas Becket. St. Anselm (1093-1109) testified to the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff in his writings (relating to Matthew 16) and by his acts. When pressed to surrender his right of appeal to Rome, he answered the king in court: "You wish me to swear never, on any account, to appeal in England to Blessed Peter or his Vicar; this, I say, ought not to be commanded by you, who are a Christian, for to swear this is to abjure Blessed Peter; he who abjures Blessed Peter undoubtedly abjures Christ, who made him Prince over his Church." Saint Thomas Becket in 1170 famously shed his blood in defense of the liberties of the Church against the encroachments of the Norman King Henry II who ordered his murder in Cantebury Cathedral. Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033 or 1034 - April 21, 1109), a widely influential medieval philosopher and theologian, held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. ... St Thomas Becket (December 21, 1118 – December 29, 1170) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170. ... Henry II of England (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189) ruled as Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, and as King of England (1154–1189) and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland, eastern Ireland, and western France. ...

Gallicanism

Gallicanism refers to a certain group of religious opinions for some time peculiar to the Church of France, or Gallican Church, and the theological schools of that country. These opinions, in opposition to the ideas which were called in France Ultramontane (ultra montes - "beyond the mountains" , that is, beyond the Alps—generally referring to the Pope in Rome), tended chiefly to a restraint of the pope's authority in the Church in favour of that of the bishops and the temporal ruler. It is important, however, to remark at the outset that the warmest and most accredited partisans of Gallican ideas by no means contested the pope's primacy in the Church, and never claimed for their ideas the force of articles of faith. They aimed only at making it clear that their way of regarding the authority of the pope seemed to them more in conformity with Holy Scripture and tradition. Gallicanism is the belief that monarchs authority over the Roman Catholic Church is comparable to that of the Popes. ... Ultramontanism literally alludes to a policy supporting those dwelling beyond the mountains (ultra montes), that is beyond the Alps - generally referring to the Pope in Rome. ...

The dispute between Pope Innocent XI and Louis XIV led to the "Four Gallican Articles," drafted by the French episcopacy for Louis. The Articles state that monarchs are not subject to the Papacy, that eclesiastic councils supersede the Papal authority, that the Papacy must defer to regional church custom, and that papal decrees are not obligatory unless the entire church adopts them. The Blessed Innocent XI, né Benedetto Odescalchi (May 16, 1611 – August 12, 1689) was pope from 1676 to 1689. ... Louis XIV King of France and Navarre By Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701) Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638–September 1, 1715) reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ...

Examples of papal supremacy

• Urban II's launching in 1095 of the Crusades, which, in an attempt to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim domination, marshaled under papal leadership the aggressive energies of the European nobility.
• The Papacy determined who they wished to be king of various lands by the crowning by Pope Leo III of Charlemagne, first of the Carolingian emperors, rather than a man claiming himself to be king.
• Pope Clement VII rejected the King of England, Scotland and Wales, King Henry VIII right to divorce from his wife, and excommunicated him when the King disobeyed his command.

This article is about historical Crusades . ... Charlemagne (742 or 747 – 28 January 814) (also Charles the Great[1]; from Latin, Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus), son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, was the king of the Franks from 768 to 814 and king of the Lombards from 774 to 814. ... Henry VIII King of England and Ireland by Hans Holbein the Younger His Grace King Henry VIII (28 June 1491–28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 22 April 1509 until his death. ... Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse, which can be contrasted with an annulment, which is a declaration that a marriage is void, though the effects of marriage may be recognized in such unions, such as spousal support, child custody... Excommunication is religious censure which is used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. ...

See also

• Papal infallibility