[828] We have already seen that the inscription of date A. D. 392, regarded as the epitaph of a “most holy Pope Felix,” was in reality that of a foster-father. See ante, [p. 471]. The phrase “Apostolic See,” now restricted to Rome, was originally applied to every bishop’s seat.—Bingham, ii, 2, § 3.
[829] He speaks of his predecessor in office as “our father, (πάπα,) the blessed Hereclas.”—Eu., H. E., vii, 7. In like manner an epitaph of an African bishop, of date A. D. 475, designates him “our father of holy memory”—Sanctæ memoriæ pater noster.
[830] Ep. 8. Cler. Rom. ad Cler. Carth.
[831] De Pudicit., c. 13.
[832] Ep. 17, 18, 30, etc.
[833] The synonymous title of abbot is still used in this sense. It was applied to the hermit monks of the Orkneys and Iceland, and gave the name Papa Strona and Papa Westra to islands of the Orkney group.
[834] Optatus says there were forty churches in Rome in the third century. Ammianus describes the almost regal pomp of the bishops in the latter part of the fourth century, and records the sanguinary struggle for the episcopal dignity between Damasus and Ursicinus. The streets were strewn with the slain, and one hundred and thirty-seven corpses polluted the sacred precincts of a Christian basilica. The primitive church stigmatized simony as χριστεμπορείαν, or “selling Christ.”
[835] Ego autem fidenter dico quia quisque se universalem sacerdotem vocat, vel vocari desiderat, in elatione suâ Antichristum præcurrit.—Greg. Max., Epis. vii, 7-33.
[836] Gregory III. (731-741) styles himself “the most holy and blessed Apostolic Pope”—Sanctissimus ac Beatissimus Apostolicus Papa. Boniface VIII. adopted the triple-crowned tiara, to indicate the Pope’s dominion over heaven, earth, and hell.
Dante represents the pope as an all-powerful griffin, symbolical of his spiritual and temporal functions, drawing the triumphal car of the church.—Purgatorio, Can. xxix. Yet in a fresco of the seventh or eighth century, of Cornelius, bishop of Rome, he is in no way distinguished by costume, insignia, or title from Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who stands beside him.