good post


when Christianity started there was no pope (the term shows up many centuries later). There where small "churches" i.e. the word passed to followers, As it grew and got more organized there where regional leaders called Popes (most patriarchs/bishops) so there was for instance the Pope of Rome or the Pope of Alexandria.... because Rome and the Roman empire was so big and strong everywhere Christianity was situated at the time the Pope of Rome gained importance, and by the time of Constantine showed up and changed the Roman empire into a Christian empire Rome was the most important (but still not the only Pope). Eventually the Roman Pope because "all powerful" in the religion (and we have the "Pope" Catholics have now)

This is a bit OT But Constantine moved the political center of Rome to Constantinople, and eventually the Roman empire got split up into a western and eastern empire with a seat in Rome and one in Constantinople. Eventually the Christian churches split in two because the Pope of Rome favored the Western half (which had started falling into more disarray, and that is the birth of the Catholic faith while Constantinople had the patriarch of Constantinople at its head. (added this to say that mcn779 and you need to differentiate the political, spiritual and traditional aspects of religions)

also once Rome got the power (before the schism, the obvious next step was to give it credibility, that is why Peter is known as the first Pope and there is a lineage of papacy emanating from him. It is Kind of like Kings in Ancient Greece being able to say their lineage goes back to Hercules.