Page "Pope" Paragraph 67

The title " Pope " was from the early 3rd century an honorific designation used for any bishop in the West.

In the East it was used only for the Bishop of Alexandria.

Pope Marcellinus ( d. 304 ) is the first Bishop of Rome shown in sources to have had the title " Pope " used of him.

From the 6th century, the imperial chancery of Constantinople normally reserved this designation for the Bishop of Rome.

From the early 6th century, it began to be confined in the West to the Bishop of Rome, a practice that was firmly in place by the 11th century, when Pope Gregory VII declared it reserved for the Bishop of Rome.