Offtopic. Guettée: The papacy its historic origin and primitive relations with the Eastern churches
A catholic priest who becomes an orthodox, involved in the sad and violent movements regarding the promulgation of the 1854 catholic dogma about the Immaculate Concepcion of the Holy Virgin, this writter make several books where shows a clear and high argumentation about some topics very difficult, even today.
An article of 1992 show the process involved in the pass from the catholic church into the orthodox, you can read the whole article here.
In the quotes taked from the self writtings of Guettée, we can read [i copy from the original article]:
“From my conversations with His Grace,” wrote Fr. Guettée, “it became clear that although formally I was not Orthodox, I was nevertheless a genuinely Orthodox writer….And I fervently desired to become Orthodox in deed, i.e., to belong to the Russian Church.” An exception was made and, by order of the Holy Synod, Guettée was received into the Orthodox Church in his clerical rank (under the present circumstances such economy would clearly be inadmissible). “I became Orthodox,” said Fr. Guettée, “without having read a single book about Orthodoxy, simply having studied the Fathers of the Church, the decrees of the first ecumenical councils, and the incontestable facts of the history of the Church.”
The book what here we share deals with the trouble of the papacy, his origins and the historic development in the first centuries of the christianism.
It is not a easy reading, several proposes and statues strike us to a new points of view about some ‘pre-existent’ historical concepts.
We take the Roman episcopate at the origin of Christianity, follow it through centuries, and are able to prove incontestably, that during eight centuries the spiritual Papacy, as we understand it at the present day, had no existence ; that the bishop of Rome was during three centuries only a bishop^ with the same rank as the others that in the fourth century he received a primacy of honor without universal jurisdiction ; that this honor has no other foundation than the decrees of the Church; that his restricted jurisdiction over certain neighboring churches is supported only upon a custom legalized by Councils.
As for the universal sovereignty, absolute, of divine right—in other words, the Papacy—facts and catholic testimony of the first eight centuries condemn instead of sustaining it.
History reveals to us the Papacy, after several fruitless attempts, taking its birth from circumstances and establishing itself in the ninth century, with its double political and ecclesiastical character. Its real founder was Adrian L Nicholas I. chiefly contributed to its development ; Gregory VII. raised it to its loftiest pitch.
A book of hard reading, but a good analysis under the patristic and apostolic thoughts.
Available via Internet Archive.