Papal Primacy: From Its Origins to the Present

Has the papal office always been what it now is, and will it always be the same as it is today? In this, the first complete history of papal primacy, Klaus Schatz traces the development of the idea of a papacy as center of teaching and jurisdiction from its earliest Roman beginnings, through centuries of development, the great papal schism and the struggles over conciliarism and Gallicanism, to the triumph of papal authority at Vatican I and beyond that to Vatican II.

Papal primacy has grown with the Church, and it remains a reality embedded in the Church as a living community begins to change.