The Chair of Peter

This doctrine concerns the standing of the bishop of Rome: whether he holds supreme jurisdiction over the whole church and whether, under defined conditions, he can teach without error. It is affirmed by the Catholic Church and rejected, in different ways, by the Orthodox and the Reformation churches.

The scriptural pivot is Matthew 16:18-19, where Jesus tells Simon, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church," and gives him "the keys of the kingdom." The Catholic reading takes this to institute a perpetual office, held by Peter and inherited by the bishops of the see he is held to have founded at Rome. Others read the same passage differently: that the "rock" is Peter's confession of faith rather than his person, or that the authority of the keys is given to all the apostles and their successors together. The historical record of the first centuries shows Rome accorded a special honour and often appealed to as an arbiter, which all sides acknowledge; what is disputed is whether that honour amounted to jurisdiction.