The Rise of the Papacy 343 The name "pope" iadXxv papa., "father") was originally Title of pope and quite naturally given to all bishops, and even to priests. It began to be especially applied to the bishops of Rome, perhaps as early as the sixth century, but was not apparently confined to them until two or three hundred years later. Gregory VII Fig. 136. The Ancient Basilica of St. Peter Of the churches built by Constantine in Rome that in honor of St. Peter was, next to the Lateran, the most important. It was constructed on the site of Nero's circus, where St. Peter was believed to have been crucified. It retained its original appearance, as here represented, for twelve hundred years, and then the popes (who had given up the Lateran as their residence and come to live in the Vatican palace close to St. Peter's) determined to build the new and grander church one sees to-day (see section 90, below). Constantine and the popes made constant use in their buildings of columns and stones taken from the older Roman buildings, which were in this way demolished (d. 1085 ; see section 75, below) was the first to declare explicitly that the title should be used only for the bishop of Rome. Not long after the death of Leo the Great, Odoacer put an Duties that end to the Western line of emperors. Then, as we know, ^pon the Theodoric and his East Goths settled in Italy, only to be early popes
