The Vicar of Saint Peter

The Pope is the Vicar of Saint Peter. In the West, no one doubted that all the powers Saint Peter held over the Church resided in the Pope. In AD 34, Saint Peter became the Bishop of Antioch. In AD 40, he moved his seat to Rome, introduced Advent and Lenten fasting in 57, and ordained his successors in 59. Saint Peter and his successors governed the Church, introduced rituals, established rules, and founded dioceses. In Rome, his physical presence was a pivotal reality: from the 7th to the 9th century, Saint Peter's tomb served as one of Christianity's most significant testimonies. His heavenly presence formed a link between the earthly Church and the divine. His physical presence was thought to endow him with the continued ability to bless, curse, heal, and protect. People regarded him as still present in Rome. Saint Peter was believed to act even from the grave, while his earthly authority was transferred to the Pope. Papal letters of this era frequently invoked Saint Peter's name. Disobedience to the Pope equated to disobedience to Saint Peter. For centuries, the Apostle's presence in Rome was the source of unity in the West.

Rome exerted minimal direct control over Church affairs. Each bishop acted as an independent custodian of faith and ecclesiastical discipline, and most papal letters simply affirmed these actions. Although Rome was the center of Christianity, this status was not due to papal governance but rather to spontaneous devotion that drew people to Saint Peter. This piety alone sufficed to sustain the papacy.

The Pope adopted imperial concepts of governance, becoming not only a living holy icon but also an active and independent ruler in a pragmatic world. Many popes of the 9th and 10th centuries and the early 11th century possessed solid political acumen, although circumstances often rendered them weak. The archbishops served as the sole link between the Pope and the local churches. An archbishop could not exercise his high priestly functions without first receiving the pallium in Rome. He had to formally declare his fidelity to the faith, elevating the Pope to the role of arbiter of orthodoxy. Archbishops demanded similar professions of faith from the bishops under their jurisdiction, creating a unified chain of belief and obedience. This system upheld the principle of the Pope as the ultimate judge of faith, even during times when papal legates were rare, councils were not convened, and papal letters offered little in the way of directives.

The grand claim of the Donation of Constantine—that of supreme secular authority—did not meet with universal acceptance in the West. By crowning Charlemagne, the Pope sought to demonstrate that, according to the Donation of Constantine, he could confer imperial power upon whomever he wished. However, Charlemagne did not accept this interpretation of his position. The idea that a Western empire could serve as an extension of papal power was clearly flawed. When the Pope elevated someone to emperor, he created not a subordinate but a rival. The Pope's practical supremacy over the emperor ended the moment the coronation was complete.

The emperors learned to see themselves not only as protectors of the papacy but also as its judges and overseers. This was expressed in the Ottonian Privilege of 962 by Emperor Otto I, which confirmed the papacy's control over its Italian territories. Imperial authority secured the right to prevent any papal election contrary to the emperor's wishes. Otto and his successors viewed their relationship with the Pope as analogous to that of the Byzantine emperor with the Patriarch of Constantinople.

R.W.Southern " A nyugati társadalom és az egyház a középkorban", Gondolat kiadó, Budapest, 1987