Supremacy, Papal

Supremacy, Papal The papists claim for the see of Rome, represented in the person of the pope, "a principality of power over all others, as the mother and mistress of all Christian churches;" and all other patriarchs are required to receive their palls from the Roman pontiff. This doctrine is chiefly built on the supposed primacy of Peter, of whom the pope is the pretended successor; a primacy so far from being countenanced by Scripture that we find it there absolutely forbidden (Lu 22:24; Mr 9:35). The authority of the Roman see was first recognized by the fourth Lateran Council, A.D. 1215, and was first protested against by the authors of the Reformation. The title of "mother of churches," claimed by the Church of Rome, must certainly belong to the Church at Jerusalem, and was given to that Church by the second Council of Constantinople, A.D. 381. See PRIMACY.