Alcune considerazioni sul discorso del primato pontificio

Abstract

At the end of the IVth century, the Church was integrated in the judicial world of Roman Empire. Finally, the sacred Christian rites had a legal foundation, a legal function, based on Roman Law. Over time, despite the controversies and disputes between East and West, the bishop of Rome started using Roman Law to define its office, its possessions, and actions vis-a-vis other ecclesiastical institutions. Between the IVth and the IXth century, two interconnected judicial principles defined Rome: the primacy and the patrimony. Until Leo the Great, the first principle was a theological one based on Matthew 16:18-19; under the bishop Leo, the primacy of Rome began to add a legal perspective to its cause: the hereditary condition under Roman Law. In other words, the Petrine Office was bound by a hereditary testament given by Jesus to Peter. If this heir, the bishop of Rome, was made under the Roman Law, it is possible to know exactly how and why in the Middle Ages, the Pope became the vicar of Christ. Our arguments reside on three hypotheses that might define in what way the roman bishop acquired the heir legal status through: adrogans, haereditas or consortium? Regarding the patrimony, the ecclesiastical propriety was bound to Emperors constitutions. Each law passed gave the bishops more power within their lands: they became paterfamilias in potestate having the rights to own and use their proprieties. Moreover, the birth of Roman Church patrimony in Middle Ages, or as we know it as ”patrimonium Sancti Petri” was nonetheless a creation by Roman Law at the end of the IVth century.