The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

S8PROGRESS OF ECCLESIASTICAL SUPREMACY.rThus have we traced thehistory of the Papacy, from itsrise in primitive times, to its formal though but partial developmentin the sixth century. Aided by the various influenceswe have enumerated,—the prestige and rank ofRome,—the institution of the order, first of metropolitan,and next of patriarch,—the edicts of emperors,—the referenceof disputed questions by other Churches to the Bishop ofRome,—and, most of all, the pretence that the occupant ofthe Roman see was the successor of Peter and the Vicar ofI Christ,—together with that crafty, astute, and perseveringpolicy which enabled the Roman bishops to make the mostof apparent concessions to them of pre-eminence and authority,—thepastors of Rome were now supreme over the greatbody of the clergy of the west ; and thus the ecclesiasticalsupremacy was attained. They were now in a fair ^vay^'inTo,oTbecomhig the superiors of kings, for there was no usurpationof prerogative, no exercise of dominion, temporal orspiritual, which the claim now put forth by the Romanbishop to be Christ's Vicar would not cover. We are nowto follow the several steps by which the Papacy graduallyrose to the height of power in which we find it shortly beforethe breaking out of the Reformatioij.