“Princeps apostolorum - princeps ecclesiae”. Peter's primacy and authority (auctoritas) of the roman bishop in the teaching and practice of St. Leo the Great

The article is devoted to an analysis of the teaching of St. Leo the Great, Pope of Rome (440-461), about the primacy of the Roman bishop in the Ecumenical Church as the heir and successor of the Apostle Peter. Catholic theologians and historians of the Church believe that the principles of the doctrine of the supreme jurisdiction of the Roman bishop in the Church, as well as the infallibility of his teaching ex cathedra , as they were set forth in the Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus of the First Vatican Council, directly follow from the ideas of St. Leo the Great. Many Orthodox and Protestant historians are also inclined to see in the teaching of St. Leo an apology for the papacy. The papacy assumes that the Roman bishop is the first without equal ( primus sine paribus ) among the rest of the hierarchs of the Ecumenical Church. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that St. Leo considered the apostle Peter “the first among equals” ( primus inter pares ) in relation to other apostles. Accordingly, the Roman bishop, who has the primacy of authority ( primatus auctoritatae ), is thus “the first among equals” in the host of bishops of the Ecumenical Church. In reality, the thesis of the Peter’s primacy according to St. Leo was the theological theory on which the principles of the structure of the patriarchy as an institution of church administration and judicial power are based. From the idea of Peter’s primacy also proceeded the practical activity of St. Leo as an authoritative defender of the Orthodox faith and canonical order in the Ecumenical Church and the Patriarch of the West, who pursued in his patriarchal area a policy of centralizing and strengthening the unity of metropolises and dioceses around the Apostolic See.