Research on the Mechanism of the Excommunication of the Christian Heresies and the Process of the Establishment of the Papal Primacy in the Later Roman Empire

在公元3世纪中叶，罗马主教和北非主教同意承认教皇的至高无上地位，以组成联合战线，将白羊座逐出教会。5世纪中叶，东西方教会在主教权威问题上的对立进一步加强了教廷的地位，除了这些外部因素外，西方教会内部的结构变化也促成了教廷至高无上地位的确立。与东部地区相比，上层异教徒及其传统文化在西方仍然具有很强的影响力。因此，西方教会不仅需要浪漫化，即在一定程度上世俗化，而且需要制度化，即建立一个以教皇为基础的牢固的组织。在这一阶段，奥古斯丁的原罪理论可以提供一个恰当的神学框架，以促进西方教会的世俗化，并建立需要更强大的赦罪权威的教会。在后果上，教皇作为可以驱逐异端和赦免异端的最高权威，在5世纪的格拉西教皇文件中被宣布。在同一文件中，规定教皇在宗教事务上高于皇帝的权利。这是最后的证据，象征性地证明了确立教皇至上地位的外部和内部因素的作用。

In the middle of the 3^<rd> century, the Roman bishops and those of North Africa agreed to acknowledge the papal primacy out of necessity to make a joint front in order to excommunicate the Arians. In the middle of the 5^<th> century, the Papacy was more strengthened through the antagonism between the Eastern churches and the Western concerning the authority of the bishops.In addition to such external factors, the structural change inside the Western Churches also contributed to the establishment of the primacy of the Papacy as an internal factor. Compared to the Eastern region, upper-class pagans and their traditional culture were still strongly influential in the West. Therefore, it was required for the Western Churches not only to romanize, namely secularize to some extent, but also to institutionalize, that is, to build a firm organization based on the Papacy. In such a phase, Augustine's theory on original sin could offer a pertinent theological framework to promote the secularization of the Western Churches and to build up the churches required a stronger authority for forgiveness of sin. In consequences, the Papacy as the supreme authority which could excommunicate heresies and forgive was declared in the Gelasius papal documents in the 5^<th> century. In the same documents, it was stipulated that the Papacy was superior to the rights of the emperor in religious matter. This is the final evidence which proved symbolically the function of the external and internal factors for establishing the primacy of the Papacy.