Who is the Protestant Pope?

Outline

Firstly I should define what a pope is. There are in fact several religious positions with that name, and some of these positions have multiple claimants, regarded as anti-popes. Starting from the traditional Roman Catholic definition of “pope”, the role I am describing is that of the bishop of Rome, the “first amongst equals” of bishops in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, with a primacy of honour and reverence, though not of jurisdiction or personal infallibility. Naturally I apply the lemma from my previous blog post to determine an interpretation of the phrase “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church”, and as that lemma is implicitly parameterised based on a set of doctrinal viewpoints, I will specify here that I am presenting a protestant view. I am not claiming this is a mainstream or even a correct protestant view, but I think it overlaps with the views of protestants enough to at least be interesting.

So, what I intend to do is go over the history of Christianity following the algorithm suggested by the lemma to select a Church which is apostolically succeeded and has maintained communion with the apostles (and their protestant doctrine) while schismatic Churches have split from it along the way. By carrying this on up to the present day, I can then give an idea of who is currently in this Church, and of those people I can state who fits the definition of “pope” as explained above.

Timeline

1509

Henry VIII marries his brother’s widow (as allowed or encouraged by Deuteronomy). Under Canon Law this (incorrectly) required a dispensation from the pope (Julius II)

1521-01-03

Martin Luther was excommunicated from Pope Leo X, and thus became the only ordained member of the Catholic Church

1521

Henry VIII publishes ‘Defence of the Seven Sacraments’ critical of Luther’s views

1527

Henry VIII asks (non-Catholic) Pope Clement VII to annul his marriage to Catherine

1533-01

Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn in secret

1533-02

Thomas Cranmer finds out about Henry VIII’s second marriage

1533-04-26

Papal bulls arrive allowing the appointment of Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury

1533-04-30

Thomas Cranmer consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury (not in the Catholic Church)

1533-05-23

Thomas Cranmer issues an (incorrect) annulment of Henry VIII’s first marriage

1533-05-28

Thomas Cranmer (incorrectly) validates Henry VIII’s second marriage

1533-07-09

Pope Clement VII provisionally excommunicates Henry VIII and Thomas Cranmer from himself (which is moot as none of the parties is Catholic)

1533-10

Excommunication takes effect

1539

The Act of Six Articles passes in England (confirming that the Church of England had not reformed enough from the Church of Rome to be protestant)

1540

Paulus Juusten is consecrated as priest by bishop Martti Skytte (who, while not Catholic, was apostolically ordained)

1543

The King’s Book published, defending the Six Articles

1546

Luther dies

1552

The Forty-Two Articles of the Chuch of England are completed

1554

Paulus Juusten is consecrated bishop of Viipuri by bishop Botvidus Sunonis (again not Catholic, but apostolically valid)

1563

The 42 articles are revised and the number drops to 38

1563

Paulus Juusten becomes bishop of Turku

1571

The last of the Thirty-Nine Articles is added to the list of articles, which are ratified by the queen and subscribed to by the bishops and clergy (the Church of England is thus in de facto but not de jure communion with the Catholic Church from Luther)

1576

Paulus Juusten consecrates Laurentius Petri Gothus as archbishop of Uppsala, part of the Church of Sweden. At this point the Church of Sweden is the true doctrinal and communional successor to Luther and an apostolic successor to the apostles, thus it is the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church

1809

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland splits of from Church of Sweden when the Grand Duchy of Finland is established as a part of the Russian Empire. The two Churches remain in communion and so are collectively still the Catholic Church

1816-10-27

An Anglican service is first conducted in Rome

1828

The first permanent Anglican chaplain in Rome is appointed

1842

The Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe is created

1992

De jure communion established between the Anglican Church and the Churches of Finland and Sweden, under the agreement of the Porvoo common statement. Thus the Anglican Church becomes part of the Catholic Church.

Note: Cranmer’s Court considered the King’s matter and pronounced the King’s marriage to have been void from the beginning on the grounds that the Pope did not possess the powers of dispensation that he had used to allow Henry to marry Catherine. While Cranmer was correct on theological grounds that no pope is able to grant a dispensation that allows someone to sin, it was not a sin for Henry to marry Catherine and so no dispensation was needed. Thus the marriage was legal and should not have been annulled.

Reveal

The hints are there in the timeline, that there is an Anglican congregation in Rome, and this congregation is overseen by the bishop whose diocese is mainland Europe. As the Anglican Church is an apostolic Church in communion with the Church that is the successor to the Roman Catholic Church when it split with Luther, then the bishop of this diocese is the rightful bishop of Rome. So who is this mysterious figure? He is the Right Reverend Doctor Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe.

I don’t suppose he is aware that he is the protestant pope, although he has written a book called “English Religious Traditions and the Genius of Anglicanism” so perhaps he would at least understand the argument I am putting forward. I’m sure he’s very familiar with the Thirty-Nine Articles, which I may appear to be over-emphasising in the timeline, but it is worth pointing out that Article XIX says in part “As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred: so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith.” The Church of England, it could be said, thinks of itself as a natural descendant of the Church of Rome, which, if taken as true, would produce the same answer to the question that is the title of this post, without the use of my earlier lemma, although I feel that the lemma is mathematically more appealing at least.

So, if I bumped into him while he was at his Bishop’s Lodge in Sussex, or his cathedral in Gibraltar, or his pro-cathedral in Malta or Belgium, what would he say if I told him about this theory?