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Hello, I hope you're doing well, and welcome to this latest episode of The Ancients,

where we are going back to Imperial Rome almost 2,000 years

ago to explore the fascinating story of the earliest popes, the first bishops of Rome and what we

know about them. This was a fascinating chat. I think you'll really enjoy when we talk about

St. Peter, first of all, including the connection he may well have had to the writing of Mark's Gospel.

That and so much more is to come with our guest, the brilliant Professor Rosamund McKittrick, Emeritus Fellow at Sydney Sussex College, the University of Cambridge.

I really do hope you enjoy. Let's go.

Thank you. of Cambridge. I really do hope you enjoy. Let's go. And so I tell you, Peter, you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it.

I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

What you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in

heaven. That was an excerpt from the book of Matthew, chapter 17, where Jesus converses with

his disciples, Peter, the man who would go on to become the first bishop of Rome, the first pope.

Despite facing persecutions, the Christian community in Rome endured over the following

centuries as a minority under the rule of pagan emperors.

That was until the early 4th century, when Christianity began to rise to the fore and the power

...