Of the Rise of the Popes after the Year 606

Besides, in the first three centuries after the death of the apostles nothing was known in the Roman church, as regards its rulers, but common bishops or overseers, until the time of Constantine the Great; and from that time on to the year 600, only archbishops and patriarchs, but no popes, until after the year 606, when, by the power of the Emperor Phocas, the Roman Bishop Boniface the Third was declared and established the general head and supreme ruler of the whole church. The succession of the popes who followed was also interrupted by many important events, with respect to the manner of the papal election as well as to the doctrine and the life of the popes themselves, and also with regard to various circumstances belonging to these matters. An account of this will be given shortly.

NOTE. Besides what we have mentioned in our account of holy baptism, for the year 606, of the rise and establishment of the Roman pope, there is also found, concerning the cause of it (in the Chronijk van den Ondergang der Tyrannen, edition of 1617, book 7, page 211, column 2), this note: When the patriarch at Constantinople reproved the Emperor Phocas for the shameful murder he had committed, or would not consent to it, or remit it, while the bishop of Rome winked at, or excused, this wicked deed, the Emperor Phocas, in his displeasure, deprived the church of Constantinople of the title, Head of Christendom, and, at the request of Boniface the Third, conferred it upon the Roman church; which was done amid great contentions, for the eastern churches could not well consent to it, that the see of Rome should be considered by everybody, and everywhere, as the head and the supreme (of the) church. Compare this with Platinae Reg. Pap., folio 123; Fasc. Temp., folio 122; Pol. Virgil, book 4, chapter 10; Hist. Georg., book 4; Conrad. Oelutar., folio 19; a tract called Ouden en Nieuwen Godt, book 1; M. Zanchij Tract. Pap., folio 41; Zeg. Chron. Rom. Pap., folio 132. [n73-1]