Note 28 — Chapter IV

The name pope (Latin, papa = father) was originally and quite naturally applied to all bishops, and even to priests. It began to be especially applied to the bishops of Rome perhaps as early as the sixth century, but was not apparently confined to them until two or three hundred years later. Gregory VII (d. 1085) was the first to declare explicitly that the title should be used only for the Bishop of Rome. We shall, however, hereafter refer to the Roman bishop as pope, although it must not be forgotten that his headship of the Western Church did not for some centuries imply the absolute power that he came later to exercise over all the other bishops of western Europe.