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The Church considers its bishops to be the successors to Jesus's apostles and the Church's leader, the Bishop of Rome (also known as the Pope), to be the sole successor to St Peter [1] who ministered in Rome in the first century AD after his appointment by Jesus as head of the Church.
In the account of the Confession of Peter found in the Gospel of Matthew, Christ designates Peter as the "rock" upon which Christ's church will be built. The Catholic Church considers the bishop of Rome, the pope, to be the successor to Saint Peter. Some scholars state Peter was the first bishop of Rome.
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What is a basilica in the Catholic Church?
- Rome: A Kingdom, Then A Republic
- Alexander: Setting The Stage
- The Maccabees: First Encounter
- Divided We Fall: Two Versions
- Julius Caesar: One-Man Rule
- Augustus: The Birth of Empire
- The Rise of Herod
- The Arrival of The Governor
- Tiberius: Unpopular Successor
- Caligula: Madman
According to legend, the city of Rome was founded on April 21, 753 B.C. Its founders were supposed to be twins—Romulus and Remus—who were grandsons of a king named Numitor. The story goes that they were raised by a she-wolf, and when they quarreled at the time they founded the city, Romulus killed Remus. He thus became the original king of Rome. Th...
In the 300s B.C., the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great began a massive military campaign. In just a few years, his men conquered vast swaths of territory, including the Greek peninsula in the west, parts of the Indian subcontinent in the east, and Egypt in the south. In Egypt, the pharaohs were regarded as gods, so when Alexander became rul...
One of the Seleucid kings, Antiochus Epiphanes, became a great persecutor of the Jews, and in 167 B.C., his oppression led the priestly family of the Maccabeesto revolt and establish an independent Jewish state. Facing the might of the Seleucid empire, the rebels were in a precarious situation and desperately needed a powerful ally. Their leader, J...
In the 60s B.C., two Maccabean brothers, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, became embroiled in a conflict over which of them should lead the nation. At the time, the Roman general Pompey the Great was campaigning in the east, and the brothers appealed to him to settle their conflict. Pompey decided for Hyrcanus, and to put his decision into effect, h...
Pompey lost the conflict and was assassinated, and afterward Caesar was proclaimed “dictator in perpetuity.” At the time, dictators weren’t viewed negatively. They were men appointed to run the state with a free hand, but only for a limited period, to keep them from turning into tyrants. However, making a man perpetual dictator was tantamount to ma...
Caesar’s heir was his adopted son, Octavian. To defeat Caesar’s assassins, Octavian became part of a Second Triumvirate, which consisted of him, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus. It lasted from 43 B.C. to 33 B.C., but when Lepidus fell from power, Octavian and Mark Anthony began feuding. Eventually, Mark Antony—along with his Egyptian ally and lover...
A little before 100 B.C., the Maccabean leader John Hyrcanus had conquered the neighboring kingdom of Idumea and forced the inhabitants to convert to Judaism if they wanted to stay in their land (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews13:9:1). One of the Idumean Jews, Antipater I, became an influential mover and shaker who courted the Romans’ favor. Juli...
Herod died in 1 B.C. (not 4 B.C., as commonly claimed), and a dispute arose about which of his remaining sons should have power. Augustus ultimately settled the matter when three brothers—Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip—traveled to him for his decision. Each of the three bore the name Herod, so they are sometimes called Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipa...
When Augustus died in A.D. 14, his adopted son Tiberius became emperor, and his reign started well. But with time, he became cruel, indifferent, and given over to his personal vices. This set a pattern for many future emperors, who would govern well in the beginning and poorly later on. In the fifteenth year of Tiberius—A.D. 29—the ministry of John...
When Tiberius died in A.D. 37, his adopted son, Gaius, became emperor. As a child, Gaius had worn a miniature soldier’s costume, complete with miniature boots. This led the troops to nickname him “Caligula” (roughly, “Little Boot”). People were relieved to have a new emperor, but Caligula fell ill and, when he recovered, he had undergone a dramatic...
The history of the Catholic Church begins with the teachings of Jesus Christ, who lived in the 1st century CE in the province of Judea of the Roman Empire. The contemporary Catholic Church says that it is the continuation of the early Christian community established by Jesus.
After the destruction of the Western Roman Empire, the church in the West was a major factor in preserving classical civilization, establishing monasteries, and sending missionaries to convert the peoples of northern Europe as far north as Ireland.
The church stands on the ruins of a temple of Minerva, one of those built by Pompey. In the eighth century there was a Greek monastery here. In 1280 Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro, Dominicans, began the new church by order of Nicholas III, and with the aid of the Caetani, Savelli, and Orsini .
basilica, in the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, a canonical title of honour given to church buildings that are distinguished either by their antiquity or by their role as international centres of worship because of their association with a major saint, an important historical event, or, in the Orthodox Church, a national patriarch.
