07 — Rome and the Primacy Question
The question on which East and West divided: was Peter at Rome, and what follows for the authority of the Roman see? This section sets out the historical evidence for Peter’s presence and martyrdom at Rome, then takes up — as the collection’s second source-critical centerpiece, with sourcing on every side and without polemic — the question of primacy versus supremacy, presenting the patristic and conciliar data (Canon 28 of Chalcedon, the pentarchy) and the Orthodox “primacy of honor” reading set beside the Roman Catholic reading, dated and sourced.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)
That Peter labored and died at Rome is, in fact, accepted by the Orthodox tradition and by most historians; what divides the Churches is not the bare fact but what is built upon it. This section therefore separates the two questions. The first file weighs the evidence for Peter at Rome — the early witnesses, the cryptic “Babylon” of 1 Peter, the Quo Vadis tradition, the Vatican excavations — and shows that the historical case is real while the inferences drawn from it are where the dispute lies. The second file is the heart of the matter: the patristic and conciliar data on the standing of Rome, and the two readings of primacy — the Orthodox “primacy of honor” within a conciliar Church and the Roman primacy of supreme universal jurisdiction defined at Vatican I — each stated in its strongest form, dated, and attributed (METHODOLOGY §4).
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Peter at Rome | The evidence for Peter’s presence and death at Rome: 1 Clement 5, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Gaius’s “trophies,” the “Babylon” of 1 Peter 5:13; the Quo Vadis legend (apocryphal, attested); the Vatican excavations under St. Peter’s; what is historically secure and what is inference. |
| Primacy and the Orthodox Reading | Primacy vs supremacy; the patristic and conciliar data — the canons of Nicaea (Canon 6), Constantinople (Canon 3), and especially Chalcedon (Canon 28); the pentarchy; the Orthodox “primacy of honor” set beside the Roman primacy of jurisdiction (Vatican I, 1870), each dated and sourced. |
See Also
- The Rock and the Keys — the exegetical centerpiece behind the primacy question
- The Two Coryphaei — Peter and Paul as joint founders of the Roman church
- The Martyrdom — the death at Rome
- Orthodox vs Catholic — the primacy difference in summary
- The Ecumenical Councils — the conciliar data
References
- 1 Clement 5; Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3; Eusebius, HE 2.25.
- The canons of Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), and Chalcedon (451).
- Meyendorff, John, et al. The Primacy of Peter in the Orthodox Church. Crestwood: SVS Press, 1992.
- First Vatican Council (1870), Pastor Aeternus. In Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum.