ArchivedReality v.s. TraditionI have posted the history of the title of "Vicar of Christ" before, however: Pope Boniface III
Pope Boniface III, of Roman extraction and the son of John Cataadioce, was elected to succeed Sabinian after an interregnum of nearly a year; he was consecrated 19 February, 607; d. 12 November of the same year. He had been ordained a deacon of the Roman Church, and in 603 sent by Gregory the Great as apocrisiarius, or legate, to the court of Constantinople, where, by his tact and prudence, he appears to have gained the favourable regard of the Emperor Phocas. After his elevation to the See of Rome, Boniface obtained a decree from Phocas, against Cyriacus, Bishop of Constantinople, by which it was ordained, that "the See of Blessed Peter the Apostle should be the head of all the Churches", and that the title of "Universal Bishop" belonged exclusively to the Bishop of Rome–an acknowledgment somewhat similar to that made by Justinian eighty years before (Novell., 131, c. ii, tit. xiv). At Rome Boniface held a council, attended by seventy-two bishops and all the Roman clergy, wherein he enacted a decree forbidding anyone under pain of excommunication, during the lifetime of a pope or of a bishop, to treat of or to discuss the appointment of his successor, and setting forth that no steps were to be taken to provide for a successor until three days after the burial of the deceased. The acts of the council are lost, and it is not known what may have been the occasion for the decree. Pope Boniface was a man "of tried faith and character" (St. Greg., ep. xiii, 41). He died within a year of his elevation and was buried in St. Peter's. His epitaph is found in the works of Duchesne and Mann.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02660b.htm
A study of history will inform you that Constantine held the title of Vicar of Christ. This title was passed to the Bishop of Damascus until Boniface III received the title from Emperor Phocas after his election as the Bishop of Rome. Boniface III was elected Bishop of Rome in 607 A.D.
Purgatory as a Jewish "tradition" was first recorded in 2 Maccabees, which was written about 40 B.C. and is not part of Jewish religious philosophy as found in the Law and the prophets. 2 Maccabees was written by an Alexandrian Jew influenced by Greek philosophy and is a departure from authentic Jewish religious philosophy, not a confirmation of that philosophy.
BTW, I found this while searching for the date the Bishop of Damascus was given the title Vicar of Christ. Nor will you find Rome confessing to the faithful Roman Catholic laity, that the great Augustine, joined by Cyril, Hilary, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, and delegates to the Council of Chalcedon, declared the rock upon which Christ would build His Church was Christ himself, not the Apostle Peter. That is not this writer’s opinion or pipedream. That is hard, cold, unyielding history. In his 13th sermon, preserved I believe by divine intent, Augustine made his belief perfectly clear.
“Thou art Peter, and on this Rock – petra – which thou hast confessed,
on this rock which thou hast known, saying: ‘Thou art Christ, the Son
of the living God,’ I will build my church upon Myself, who am the Son
of the living God; I will build it on Me, and not Me on thee.”
Roman Catholic apologists have called this writer some unflattering names for stating that there was no pope and no papacy for more than 500 years after Christ returned to heaven. But history is history, and all the name calling in the world will not alter the fact that Augustine spoke the previously quoted words during his years in Africa as bishop of Hippo – get this, now – in the first third of the FIFTH CENTURY. Moreover, Augustine’s conviction – based on a correct interpretation of the Scriptures - that Jesus Himself was the foundation rock of Christianity, was shared almost 100% by the churches existing at that time.
http://www.contenderministries.org/Cath ... llacy1.php
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