The Papal Claims examined

By now it should be clear, even it loses me some friends, that my conscience will not allow me to stand by quietly and see Anglicans intimidated by those who claim we have anything less than a full and complete Catholic heritage, both in theology and valid sacraments. We are no less the Church than the Orthodox and Roman communions. The late Fr. Louis Tarsitano once stated that "the only reason to be Anglican is to avoid the innovations both of Protestantism and of Rome." With that I whole heartedly agree. People who write of the Via Media as some sort of flawed theory, as if it were something that does not actually exist, look rather silly to those of us who consciously walk it (for, I know most certainly, there is ground beneath my feet).

This reminds me that the Orthodox Church regard the Roman Catholic Church as the first and largest Protestant denomination. From their perspective it has certainly erred into creating a few innovations no less than the Calvinists and Lutherans. These are matters, of course, debatable among Christians; and we expect that such debate will continue, and we know that it can and should be motivated on all sides by charity. Even when, lamentably, it isn't, the debate goes on.

The following was posted by An Anglican Cleric on the Society of Archbishops Cranmer and Laud. A few of the details are overstated, including the charge that Roman Catholics regard the Pope as Head of the Church instead of Universal Primate and Vicar of Christ. Indeed, they too recognize the Lord Jesus Christ alone as Head of the Body. And, I have no doubt that a learned man, such as Dr. William Tighe for example, can find fault with even more fine points in the essay. Nonetheless, I am posting this here anyway, because some of the claims made by Roman Catholics reveal an approach to history that forces it to fit a dogmatic theological scheme, which often creates an awkward and unrealistic analysis of real events. History is not doctrine, but the record of facts. Our problem with some Roman Catholics is that when we defend our own Church, and state facts of history, they take that defense as an attack on their beliefs.

The problem I want to address, without causing offense to our Roman Catholic brethren (and we want to avoid being anti-[Roman] Catholic), is that too many Anglicans swallow anti-Anglicanism whole (and yet they remain Anglicans). Usually, it is evident that these people have no appreciation for the Anglican reformers and divines, no appreciation for the history of the Church, misread Anglican formularies by interpreting them (especially the Articles) with no grasp of the times in which they were written and of the English language of that era. The result is that they buy the criticism heaped on our heritage by modern Roman Catholic apologists, uncritically. This is why I have written about a school of Anglo-Papalists who have an inferiority complex concerning Rome. This is why I have been quoting long passages of Richard Hooker (as a start). And, when I read troubling remarks by the Archbishop of the TAC about "the mistakes of the last five hundred years," I am alarmed at the possibility that his words might represent an overwhelmingly negative appraisal of Anglicanism itself (we readily welcome, indeed request, clarification). However, since that rather large jurisdiction still names itself "Anglican," I take it that we may be given some reassuring explanation about what mistakes are seen to have been made, and by whom.

The first paragraph of what follows is rather strong, and comes across as a prosecutor's opening remarks. I did not write this, however, but merely offer it as a good counter balance to a lot of misinformation, and as containing things worthy of discussion.

The Papal Claims Examined
from Catholic Principles
by
The Revd Frank N. Westcott

It is a sad and most unfortunate fact, yet one which is easily capable of demonstration by any competent historian, that all along the ages, Rome’s interests have been advanced by forgeries and falsification of the Fathers; and that such interpolations are quoted with approval today, in Roman controversial books; and that it is not safe to accept patristic quotations in such books, without verifying them at first hand.

There are plenty of historic facts which are utterly inconsistent with the assumption that the supreme judicial and spiritual authority of the Church, has always been in the hands of the Bishops of Rome. For example: the first difficulty which required judicial action in the Apostolic Church, was settled by a council of the whole Church at Jerusalem, under the presidency, not of St. Peter, but of St. James, who pronounced sentence in his own name, without any regard to St. Peter.

When Victor, Bishop of Rome, AD 196, undertook to excommunicate the Asiatic Churches, because they disagreed with him about the time of the observance of Easter, he was rebuked by the other Bishops, including Irenaeus, and his excommunication was ignored, and had no effect whatever.

In the fourth century, the Council of Sardica allowed a condemned Bishop to appeal to Rome for a new trial, not as a recognized right, but as conferring a privilege. This canon of Sardica, was misquoted by the Bishops of Rome as being a canon of the Council of Nice in a controversy with the African Bishops. But the latter consulted the Eastern Patriarchs, and, so discovering the misquotation, replied to the Patriarch of Rome through his legates, “We find it enacted in no council of the Fathers, that any person may be sent as legates of your holiness . . . . Do not therefore at the request of any, send your clergy as agents for you, lest we seem to introduce into the Church of Christ, the ambitious pride of the world.”

The great Arian heresy which denied the divinity of our Lord, was settled by the Nicene Council, which was called, not by the Pope, but by the Emperor Constantine. Hosius presided, and the heresy was finally refuted, not through the pronouncement of the Pope, but through the argument of Athanasius; while Pope Liberius himself became a heretic.

Then the heresy denying the divinity of the Holy Ghost, was settled at the Council of Constantinople in 381, at which the Nicene Creed was reaffirmed, and the sentences defining doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost added, and the Roman Bishop was not present either in person or through his legates. Meletius of Antioch presided at the council, and was succeeded by Gregory Nazianzen, Patriarch of Constantinople; and so in the settlement of the two greatest heresies, the authority of the Bishop of Rome counted for little or nothing; and it is interesting to note that the Bishops assembled in council at Constantinople in 381, in their Epistle to the Western Bishops assembled at Rome, called the Church of Jerusalem the “Mother of all Churches.”

Of course the most complete refutation of the Roman claim of supremacy has been the historic position of the four patriarchates of the Eastern Church, which have never acknowledged the claims of such universal jurisdiction, and yet were in communion with the patriarch of Rome until the twelfth century.

The claims of supreme and spiritual jurisdiction over the whole Church, on the part of the Bishop of Rome, cannot stand the test of catholicity, and so become articles of faith, unless they have been acknowledged always, everywhere, and by all Catholics; and this we have shown to be historically incredible.

Roman Catholics are very fond of asserting that a visible Church must have a visible head; and that as there is no other Bishop who claims to be the head of the Church but the Pope of Rome, therefore he must be that head. We reply, that in the Holy Scriptures St. Paul asserts that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church; and he nowhere recognizes any other head; though he constantly insists on the visible, organic nature of the Church itself. St. Augustine asserts the same fact, thus: “Since the whole Christ is made up of the head and the body, the head is our Saviour Himself, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, who now, after He has risen from the dead, sits at the right hand of God; but His body is the Church; not this Church, or that, but the Church scattered over all the world . . . . For the whole Church, made up of all the faithful, because all the faithful are members of Christ, has its head situate in the heavens which governs this body: though it is separated from their sight, yet it is bound to them by love.” Then again, it must be remembered that the greater part of the Catholic Church is made up of souls in Paradise, and therefore is not visible to us; and Christ is the Head of the Church to them, as well as to us. To them He may be visible.

But supposing the visible Church must have a visible head: we reply, as a practical matter of fact, the universal episcopate assembled in general council was from the first regarded as the head of the Church; the ultimate source and seat of authority, to which the Bishop of Rome himself was always subject: as is proved by the fact, that the universal episcopate settled heresies, defined the Faith, and deposed Popes who were themselves heretics, and excommunicated them. Gregory the Great, as we have seen, expressly repudiated the title of "universal Bishop” which he most certainly would not have done, if he had considered himself the “head of the Church,” in the modern Roman sense.

It makes a neat turn of an argument to say that the visible Church must have a visible head; and then to set forth the Pope as that head; but after all, it is merely a question of historic fact, and history points to the universal Episcopate as the head, and not to the Pope of Rome. If the Pope of Rome is the head of the Church, then when the Pope dies, apparently the Church has no head, and remains a headless monster, perhaps for several months, until another Pope is elected and enthroned. Surely this is a curious condition of things, that the Church should be continually sloughing off its head, and growing another, every generation or so; so that every little while it has no head at all. The collective episcopate does not die; but lives on from age to age, and as the head of the Church, is abiding and permanent.

The whole growth of the papal claims may be summarized by four words: Primacy, Supremacy, Sovereignty, and Infallibility. The Primacy of Rome, Anglicans admit to be lawful; not as of divine appointment, but as a matter of precedence and executive convenience, originating from the prominence of the Imperial city. The Supremacy of Rome, Anglicans reject, as disturbing the original balance of power defined by the general councils and canon law of the Church. The Sovereignty of Rome, Anglicans repudiate, as mere secular Imperialism transferred to the Church, from the State. The Infallibility of the Roman pontiffs, the Anglican Church denies, as an assumption by one man in the Church of a power, or faculty, conferred by our Lord on the Church as a whole. From what has been said, it seems evident that there is no scriptural evidence that St. Peter was appointed supreme head of the Church by our Lord, and that there is no historical evidence of any sort which proves that St. Peter ever attempted to transfer any authority, peculiar to himself to the Bishops of Rome; and that what the early Church conceded to the Patriarch of Rome, was a primacy of honor among equals, and not a supremacy of authority, by divine appointment.