Pope (title)

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Pope (from ancient Greek πάππας pappas childlike name for 'father', Latin papa ) is an honorary title for bishops known from early Christianity, especially in the Eastern churches, and was used synonymously in antiquity and also referred to other high clergy such as abbots .

The oldest known use is in Eusebius of Caesareas church history (beginning of the 4th century) in relation to the Patriarch of Alexandria Heraclas of Alexandria (232-248).

In the Western Church, the first known connection between the title Pope and the Bishop of Rome comes from the time of Marcellinus († 304), who is so named in the epitaph of the deacon Severus. Pope Siricius (term of office 385–399) was the first to use the name papa .

Since the fifth and sixth centuries, perhaps already under Leo the Great , the title in the Western Church was increasingly limited to the Bishop of Rome as head of the Roman Catholic Church , who, according to the Catholic understanding, through the papal primacy, the head of the college of bishops and the highest authority of the Church. The term of Gregory I (590 to 604) was established as the official title for the Bishop of Rome . By the 11th century at the latest, it was predominantly related to the Bishop of Rome in the Western Church, and Gregory VII limited it exclusively to this. The name is retrospectively transferred to all Roman bishops, including those from the first two centuries.

In Eastern Christianity, too, the designation as a general honorary title for bishops disappeared over the centuries and is usually only associated with individual bishoprics. Both the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and All of Africa also bear the title Pope or Pope of Alexandria . Both see themselves as successors of Heraclas of Alexandria. The Bishop of Rome is also referred to as the Pope of Rome in Eastern Christianity for differentiation .

The English equivalent "pope" is first used in the middle of the tenth century in relation to Pope Vitalian , in an Old English translation of Beda's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Liddell and Scott. Retrieved February 18, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Pope . In: Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church . Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3 .
  3. ↑ a b Enrico Mazza: The Eucharistic Prayers of the Roman Rite . Liturgical Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-8146-6078-2 , pp. 63 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ Eusebius of Caesarea : Historia Ecclesiastica . Book VII, Chapter 7 ( German translation by Philipp Häuser in the library of the church fathers - 4th century).
  5. ↑ John W. O'Malley: A History of the Popes . Government Institutes, 2009, ISBN 978-1-58051-227-5 , pp. xv ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  6. ↑ pope, n.1 . In: Oxford English Dictionary . Oxford University Press, 2011.