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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wrath of the Swarm" data-source="post: 1555021" data-attributes="member: 16402">The modern-day Catholics assert that was a belief held in the early Church.  The modern-day Orthodox assert that is a modern (well, relatively modern) invention and a heresy.  The Catholics claim the Orthodox split off from them, and are willing to accept them back if they accept the authority of the Pope.  The Orthodox claim the Catholics split off from them, and are willing to accept them back if they deny the authority of the Pope.I'm not interesting in getting into an argument about the historical evidence and which side, if either, is correct.  My point is that modern Christianity bears little resemblance to the Christianity that existed fifteen-hundred years ago, and even if we accept for the sake of argument that the beliefs about the special role of the Bishop of Rome were actually held, the doctrines of those times were very different from those of today.There was no Catholic Church.  There was only the Church.</blockquote>