Today’s Readings Podcast Description

How did the limited influence of the ancient Roman bishops grow into the unbridled claims of the later Papacy? In these sections of the Institutes, Calvin traces the decisive turns. Leo bitterly opposed the honour given to Constantinople at Chalcedon, moved less by doctrine than by fear of losing primacy. Gregory firmly rejected the title of universal patriarch for anyone, including himself, declaring that such a claim diminished the honour of all other bishops. Yet after Phocas conceded the headship of the churches to Rome, and after Pepin and Charlemagne rewarded papal support with expanded jurisdiction, the ancient order was gradually effaced. By the time of Bernard the Roman court had become a market for ecclesiastical honours, filled with ambition and simony, while the modern Papacy claims a supremacy that no bishop of Leo’s or Gregory’s day ever possessed—an authority that judges all and submits to none.

Today’s Readings:

John Calvin — Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 7, Sections 15–19

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