Pentarchy: the Early Christian Capitals Explained | Church History

During the first century, many of those who had seen and heard Christ began to die. In fear of losing the memory of Jesus, the apostles began writing what Justin Martyr calls, “the memoirs of the Apostles.” These came later to be known as the four accounts of the Gospel known to us as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The last of these accounts might have been written at the wake of the second century. As the disciples preached the gospel and moved from country to country, they would send letters to reach out to those already believing, confirming them in the faith and enjoining them to walk worthy of the calling by which they were called. These letters were immediately seen as authoritative by those who received them. However, no one would see them as part of a “canon” of Scripture for at least another hundred years when we begin to see the first compiled list of books of the “New Testament.” Other edifying writings were composed such as the “Shepherd of Hermas.” Local churches had different notions of which books were authoritative and which were not. For example, 2 Peter, James, and Jude were seen by some as authoritative while others regarded them as disputed letters.

The main sees of Christianity began forming in the first century at major metropolises and cultural hubs of the Roman Empire. Eusebius and Irenaeus of Lyons record how Peter and Paul together established the Church of Rome which emerged as a cardinal bishopric when a number of other bishoprics later came to be organized around its bishop. With the preaching of Mark, considered a disciple of Peter by Irenaeus, the Church of Alexandria was established. Mark would write a gospel around the year 60 AD and accredited with establishing Alexandria’s liturgical tradition purportedly later edited by the pillar of faith, Cyril of Alexandria in the fifth century. Paul and Andrew would then preach in Greece and in what would later become known as Constantinople. It is believed that one of the Churches there was presided over by Onesimus, the slave Paul had freed through his plea with his master Philemon in a letter which would later become part of the New Testament. As mentioned earlier Peter, Paul and Barnabas played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Church at Antioch. The Church of Antioch produced a bishop named Ignatius of Antioch who would compose a number of letters that inform us a lot about the ecclesial life of the second century.