A Protestant Finds Too Many Popes...

Michie · Apr 8, 2025

Does the historical evidence show more than one guy running the Church in 1st-century Rome?

The Letter of Clement to the Church of Corinth, which dates to the latter part of the first century, is often appealed to as evidence that the church of Rome, and by way of implication the bishop of Rome, had a posture of leadership relative to the other churches within the Christian world, since the letter is sent to the church of Corinth to settle certain disputes they were having in response to the church of Corinth’s request for the church of Rome to intervene.

But some Protestants argue that the letter doesn’t speak in the first-person singular, which is what we’d expect if the letter were being issued by Clement, the bishop of Rome. Rather, the letter is written in the name of the church of Rome (“The church of God which sojourns at Rome, to the church of God sojourning at Corinth”) and uses the first-person plural “we”: “We feel that we have been somewhat tardy in turning our attention to the points respecting which you consulted us.”

Moreover, some have argued that Clement wasn’t even the bishop of Rome when this letter was written. Clement wasn’t bishop until around A.D. 90. This letter, so it’s argued, was written some time before the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70. Clement, therefore, would have been a presbyter, apparently working as a secretary of sorts in the Roman church. The reason for this early dating of the letter is that Clement speaks of the Temple as if it were still standing in chapter forty-one of his letter.

For some Christians, these two details indicate that the early church of Rome wasn’t governed by a single bishop, like what the papacy would demand, but rather was governed by a council of presbyters.

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