V.

ROMAN CLAIMS TO

SUPREMACY.

P

The Church historical Society.

President:-THE RIGHT REVEREND J. WORDSWORTH, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF SALISBURY.

Chairman:-THE REVEREND W. E. COLLINS,

PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
AT KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON.

Roman Claims to Supremacy (V).

BY THE

REV. A. ROBERTSON, D.D.,
PRINCIPAL OF BISHOP HATFIELD'S HALL, DURHAM.

THIRD EDITION.

PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE.

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: NORTHUMBERLAnd Avenue, W.C.

BRIGHTON: 129, North Street.

NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.

II. The Roman Church in the first and second centuries, Clement to Irenaeus .

III. The Roman See in the third and early fourth centuries, from Victor to Julius I. Cyprian, Constantine, Nicaea, the claims of Julius

IV. The Roman See from Julius I. to Leo I. Canons of Sardica, use made of them. Origin of papal decretals, case of Apiarius, divergence of Greek and Latin Churches, Edict of Valentinian III, Council of Chalcedon

V. Conclusion

211

223

246

ROMAN CLAIMS TO SUPREMACY.

Εγένετο δὲ καὶ φιλονεικία ἐν αὐτοῖς, τὸ τίς αὐτῶν δοκεῖ εἶναι μείζων. ὁ δὲ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, Οἱ βασιλεῖς τῶν ἐθνῶν κυριεύουσιν αὐτῶν, καὶ οἱ ἐξουσιάζοντες αὐτῶν εὐεργέται καλοῦνται. ὑμεῖς de oux OUTWS.-S. Luke xxii. 24, 25.

THE subject of this lecture is "Roman Claims to Supremacy," and its purpose is to give a brief historical sketch of the earliest history of these claims, and of the early Church's attitude toward the Roman See. At the close I shall hope to suggest a few thoughts on the practical question, how we ought to regard these claims, and what ought to be our own attitude toward the Roman See.

The historical question does not necessarily solve the practical one. For the Church's

attitude toward the Roman See has varied in different countries and at different times, and it is a conceivable position that, granting that the attitude of the modern Roman Catholic toward the pope may be something unknown to the mind of the earlier Church, yet it may be the right attitude now. This is, I say, a conceivable position, and it or something like it is taken up by some under the supposed warrant of the scientific conception of development.