When we consider the historical Roman Catholic church, it’s easy to imagine that it’s simply always existed in its current form. Yet the grand buildings, authority structure, and even the belief system didn’t just pop into existence. In fact, the Catholic Church is the result of historical Christians simply trying to make the most sense out of where they fit within the lives of the people, how they relate to the government, and what role they should play throughout the world.
(The entire history of the church leading up to the Protestant Reformation is far beyond this series. This article will attempt to give a very brief overview of how the Catholic church found itself in the state it was in during Martin Luther’s day in the 1500s, but if you’d like to go deeper I’d highly recommend the book “Church History in Plain Language” by Bruce Shelley.)
Too much growth
At the conclusion of the apostles’ ministry, the church found itself in an interesting position. What once started as a cluster of churches started by apostles had started booming across the world. People all around the known world were hearing the gospel and surrendering their lives to Jesus Christ.
Of course, there were some problems that may not immediately occur to us. One problem was the general lack of communication between churches. The second was that the Bible hadn’t been compiled into a single book, meaning that some churches may have access to Romans and Ephesians, while others may have copies of everything but the letters to the Corinthians and Thessalonians.
The limitations of the early church led to one major concern – consistency in beliefs. As Christianity spread, the risk of false teaching or total misunderstandings likewise grew. People knew that there was one truth about Jesus Christ, and everyone wanted to be sure they were following the true teachings of their savior. Yet because people were still trying to figure out the basic beliefs that we take for granted today, it was easy for individual churches to fall into error.
It’s important to point out the different worldview held by the church in that day. Today, we are so accustomed to different denominations, and even completely different offshoots of Christianity (Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc), that we’ve grown accustomed to the idea that other Christians have it wrong. Yet back then, Christians saw themselves as a single body of believers pursuing the same truth together. They even called themselves “catholic,” which simply means “universal.”
Thus, it was important for them to make sure Christianity around the world continued holding to the same beliefs. After all, the truths of God weren’t up to a single group’s interpretation. Just as Paul had to stamp out heresy in many of his letters, so too did this catholic body of believers try to remove any traces of false teaching around the world.
Yet between the limitations of communication and the continued growth of the gospel around the world, they had to figure out a way to make sure the truth of God was held consistently.
The election of leaders
The early church fathers took a very practical stance on how to solve this issue. Perhaps influenced by Roman rule, the churches agreed that it was too much for each church to try communicating with the others. Thus, each region elected a bishop.
In short, a bishop was like a “pastor of pastors.” Although they had their own churches, they were also responsible for overseeing, among other things, the spiritual health and wellbeing of the churches under their care. It was their responsibility to meet with other church leaders in their area and maintain the truth of the gospel.
With this authority structure, maintaining unity throughout the world became even easier. Rather than having hundreds of pastors trying to communicate with one another and ask questions about different teachings, a smaller number of trusted bishops were able to meet, discuss, and bring these discussions back to the churches under their care.
In time, we start to see the earliest hints of what we now understand as the Pope. With Rome being the central figure of the known world, it made sense to centralize leadership of the churches to the bishop of Rome. Although his authority didn’t necessarily override the other bishops, a sense of authority began to be assigned to Rome over all the other bishops.
As the office of bishop continued to grow and gain authority, the idea of “apostolic succession” started to take root. This is the concept still held in Rome, believing that there’s an unbroken line of authority that started with the apostles and was passed down. We can see this justified with how authority seems to be transferred from Paul to Timothy, then from Timothy to Titus. Likewise, the bishops claimed their personal authority began with Peter, using Christ’s own words to justify it:
I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. (Matthew 16:18)
Christ’s kingdom
Although the authority structure made sense, we have the hindsight to see the grave errors it led to. Yet at the time, centralizing power and having rulers made sense because of how the kingdom of God was understood. Considering Rome had conquered and controlled most of the world physically, the worldview of the time allowed for Christians to view Christianity with a similar idea of global control. Thus as everyone from peasants to church officials looked at how the world around them functions, they started modeling the structure of the church in the same way.
Through a series of political events, Christianity became the official religion of the government. The affairs of the church were mixed closely with the functions of government. History would see an exhausting amount of emperors and kings who demanded that their subjects fall in line with the teachings of the church, essentially making everyone a Christian in name, regardless of if their hearts reflected the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
One benefit to this was that Christianity was pushed to the forefront of everyone’s minds. People cared about the gospel. After a time of persecution, Rome even hosted councils where religious leaders would get together to debate certain teachings that others saw as heresy. The first of these was held nearly 1,700 years ago to understand whether Christ was truly God or just a creation who was similar to God (a belief still held by groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses).
We can see the benefits of Christians striving for absolute unity in belief, as well as being so prominent in the world that everyone was exposed to the gospel. It seemed as though the kingdom of God was truly in the world, and in time it seemed like the entire world would be a Christian.
Of course, no one should be surprised when “religious officials having power in the government” soon became “government officials having power in religion.” As new generations replaced the old, corruption started creeping into the church. This became so rampant that church positions, even the office of the pope, was for sale. To call yourself a Christian at this time was merely a way of ticking a box so that you could be elected.
And why was religious leadership such a desire? Unlike many pastors today who run themselves ragged with meeting those who are spiritually hurting, raising a family, studying diligently, and preaching the truths of Christ from the pulpit, being a religious leader back then was a matter of living in comfort and prosperity. Any time spent dealing with religious matters would often be more about acquiring and maintaining power and control, with new religious teachings often aiming at giving ultimate spiritual authority to the church.
Innocent beginnings, disastrous endings
This was an incredibly brief look at how Christianity got to the point of having so much power. It’s tempting to think that Catholicism is a history that’s completely separate from our own. Yet the more we look at everything that happened since the time of the apostles, the more we realize that the Catholic church stands as a violent and corrupt example of what happens when we abandon the truths of God in favor of using Him for our own gain.
As this article looked at the process of the church acquiring such power, the next article will look at the specific beliefs that led to the world-shaking split in the 1500s. Come back next time as we discuss burning heretics at the stake, making the Bible unreadable to the common people, stripping people of their salvation, and much more.
