Crises in the History of the Papacy: A study of twenty famous popes whose careers and whose influence were important in the development of the church and in the history of the worldMcCabe, Joseph
History
Crises in the History of the Papacy: A study of twenty famous popes whose careers and whose influence were important in the development of the church and in the history of the world
McCabe, Joseph
Catholic Church -- History; Papacy -- History
If, however, the Roman See made little impression in Rome, it made some
progress in the Church. As the fragments of Papias and Dionysius show,
Christians were saying, far away in the East, that it had been founded
by Peter; and the Gospels plainly made Peter the chief of the apostles.
The Roman See did not yet speak of having inherited the primacy of
Peter, and it had very little share in the prestige of Rome. It must
rise higher in the eyes of men, and at the end of the second century it
was rising. Marcia, the robust ex-slave who shared the brutal pleasures
of Commodus and was mistress of his harem of three hundred concubines,
had a grateful recollection of earlier Christian kindness, and she
secured peace and favour for the Church. Here it is that, for the first
time, a clear light falls upon the Christian community at Rome and upon
its bishops.
In the year 217 (or 218), Bishop Callistus succeeded Bishop Zephyrin,
who had followed Victor. From the fourth century he has been counted
one of the greatest of the early Popes. Two of the historic cemeteries
bore his name, and there were a Church of St. Callistus (or Calixtus,
as the Latins sometimes misspell it) and a Square of St. Callistus
in the Trastevere district. Martyrologies honoured him as a witness
to the faith, and (probably from the seventh century) the _Acta_ of
his martyrdom, including a most impressive account of his virtues
and miracles, might be consulted in the archives of Sta. Maria in
Trastevere. From these materials, Moretti composed an eloquent
biography of the saint, and even the Bollandists, more discreetly,
and with disturbing hints that Christian scholars were saying naughty
things about the _Acta S. Callisti_, set their learned seal upon his
diploma of sanctity and martyrdom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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