Pope

Pope, a title applied in the Eastern Church to all priests, and in the ancient Western Church to bishops, being however gradually appropriated in the Western Church to the Bishop of Rome. The position of the Pope par excellence, i.e. the Bishop of Rome, has for ages been a matter of hot controversy. In the 5th century the Pope was generally recognised as primus inter pares, and in 449 Leo the Great claimed supremacy upon Scriptural grounds. The question of supremacy caused the Great Schism in 1054. To give a history of the Popes would be to give a general political history of Europe. It must suffice to say that Gregory I. and Leo III. were greatly instrumental in building up the Papal power, while Innocent III. (1198-1216) put the final touches to the edifice. He it was who laid the foundations of the temporal power by claiming as lord paramount the title to lands the possession of which had its origin in a grant made by Pepin. The full claims of the Papacy are to a universal spiritual supremacy and to a large territorial sovereignty. Since the loss of the temporal power the Pope has confined himself to the Vatican. The doctrine of Infallibility, the force of which is greatly misunderstood, dates from 1870. Leo XIII. - 258th Pope - was born in 1810, and succeeded in 1878.