History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Religion
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1
Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Smith, Joseph, Jr., 1805-1844
of the more ecclesiastical name of Patriarch. [186] In addition to
the importance attached to these cities as the capitals of the great
divisions of the empire, a superior dignity in the minds of Christians
attached to the Churches founded by the Apostles as the surest
depositories of the Apostolic teaching and doctrine; and as Apostolic
origin could be claimed for the churches in the three cities named,
it is not surprising, when their political importance is added, that
the bishops of those cities claimed superior dignity for their office,
and united under their jurisdiction the metropolitan bishops of the
respective three great divisions of the empire. Subsequently the same
title was granted to the bishop of Jerusalem, and to the bishop of
Constantinople; to the former it was granted in virtue of the peculiar
sanctity which attaches to Jerusalem, and the fact that the first
Christian Church was planted there; to the latter, because it was
made the capital of the empire, "New Rome;" and because also it was
peculiarly the city of the first imperial patron of Christianity. Thus
five patriarchates were established.
Through circumstances too numerous and intricate to detail here, the
bishops of Rome changed the primacy of mere precedence which had been
accorded them among associated brethren, to a primacy of power and
jurisdiction, which resulted in the bishops of Rome becoming recognized
as the supreme head of the Christian Church; and the papacy entered
upon that marvelous career which by the impartial can but be regarded
as the shame of the Christian name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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