什麼是羅馬教廷

天主教會的中央管理體系。早期的教會由各主教領導，直到西元1世紀末爲止對羅馬主教有着特別的尊敬。3世紀時聖西普里安對這一崇高職位提出了挑戰。4～5世紀君士坦丁堡的主教權力提升，對羅馬主教造成威脅，這種對立情況在1054年教會分裂時達到高潮。羅馬帝國瓦解後，教廷在查理曼及其繼任者的羽翼下受到保護。9～10世紀德意志皇帝們控制了教廷。1059年教宗利奧九世迴應樞機主教學院，授予其權力特別命名一個新的教宗。爲了建立教廷超越各國的至高無上權力，聖格列高利七世於1075年頒佈法令，稱平民統治者不能授予教會人員的世俗權力（參閱Investiture Controversy），並將德意志的亨利四世逐出教會。在接下來的幾個世紀裏，教廷的世俗氣和腐敗以及在亞威農教廷發生的「巴比倫之囚」事件導致了西部教會分裂，最後並造成宗教改革運動。特倫託會議則宣佈了反宗教改革。在19世紀，教廷國劃歸新成立的義大利王國，教廷也因此失去了它僅存的世俗的權力，但仍維持一個保守的宗教地位，它在宣稱教義方面永無謬誤，且擁護教宗是教會的絕對領導者。第二次梵諦岡會議給予主教、牧師和俗人更多的發言權。亦請參閱Roman Catholicism。

papacy

System of central government of the Roman Catholic church. Bishops led the early Church, with the bishop of Rome being accorded special respect by the end of the 1st century AD. St. Cyprian challenged that position of honor in the 3rd century, and in the 4th-5th century the power of the see of Constantinople rose to challenge that of Rome; the rivalry would culminate in the Schism of 1054 between the Eastern and Western Churches. After the collapse of the Roman empire, the papacy found protection under the wing of Charlemagne and his successors; in the 9th-10th century the German emperors controlled it. In 1059 Pope Leo IX responded by vesting the right to name a new pope exclusively with the College of Cardinals. To establish the papacy's supremacy over the state, Gregory VII decreed in 1075 that civil rulers could not invest churchmen with temporal power (see Investiture Controversy) and excommunicated Henry IV of Germany. In the next centuries, the worldliness and corruption of the papal court and the “Babylonian Captivity” of the papacy at Avignon (see Avignon papacy) led to the Western Schism and eventually to the Reformation. The Council of Trent inaugurated the Counter-Reformation. In the 19th century the papacy lost its remaining temporal powers when the Papal States were incorporated into the new Kingdom of Italy. It maintained a conservative religious position, proclaiming infallibility in doctrinal matters and espousing the idea that the pope is the absolute ruler of the church. The Second Vatican Council gave the bishops, clergy, and laity more voice. See also Roman Catholicism.