07-25-2008, 08:53 AM
Quote:I rather like St Gregory's (?)Yep, Gregory the Great. He sent Augustine (not the famous Father of the Church, but another one) to convert those Anglo-Saxons.
Which is remarkable, because the Anglo-Saxons had already been converted, by monks from Ireland. However, Gregory believed that the Irish were not really orthodox: after all, they accepted women as bishops and calculated the Date of Easter differently. At the Synod of Whitby, the adherents of Irish Christianity accepted Augustine's teachings.
It is important, because it was now in fact conceded that all ecclesiastical authority depended on the bishop of Rome. In other words, if the pope did not like a bishop, he could order him to desist. In c.600, this had to be done indirectly, by declaring the diocese a missionary zone; the Dictatus Papae and the Concordat with Napoleon made it even easier. Today, we find it self-evident that bishops derive their authority from Rome, but it was not always like that.
