AHC keep the bishop of Rome just a bishop so he doesnt become pope

Here is your challenge, find a way for the Bishop of Rome to remain a bishop instead of becoming the Pope of Western Christianity leading to no east-west split
 
For a long while, the Bishop of Rome was one of five or six Patriarch Archbishops (the others being Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and perhaps Seleucia in Mesopotamia.) Sometimes, Rome and Constantinople were ranked equal above the others - I think the Council of Chalcedon recognized their primacy, but that decree was often ignored. Rome sometimes claimed universal dominion, but I don't think the East took them seriously enough to split until the Patriarch of Rome excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1054 over this point. So, to keep the Church formally united, you'd just need to butterfly away that excommunication and any other attempts at that.

One course I've thought about sometimes is having other patriarchial sees in the West - perhaps at Hippo/Carthage, in honor of St. Augustine; or somewhere in the British Isles in honor of St. Patrick or St. Columba. I know the Irish Church almost held the British Isles against St. Augustine of Canterbury; such a western challenger to Rome might stimey their extravagant claims.
 
I think the real key to keeping the papacy as just another Patriarchate is to have more than one Patriarch in the west. The East/West split is pretty likely to happen unless you seriously alter European history, but keeping the Western church multi-polar would keep the bishop of Rome from asserting his primacy in any major way.
 
After 476, The Eastern Emperors claimed theirself as true heads of the Church because they had the power to call the Ecumenical Councils and to intervene over their works, and pledges all the patriarchs, even the bishop of Rome, to obdedience.
 
Maybe Milan or Ravenna? Carthage would not work since it will eventually be conquered by the Arabs later on. Look what happened with Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria. If the Arabs are stopped the other Patriarchates will be more powerful and would slow down the epic struggle for power between Rome and Constantinople.
 
I think the real key to keeping the papacy as just another Patriarchate is to have more than one Patriarch in the west. The East/West split is pretty likely to happen unless you seriously alter European history, but keeping the Western church multi-polar would keep the bishop of Rome from asserting his primacy in any major way.
I'd say have someone think up the idea of the Councilliary Movement early on. The problem was that after 500, Rome was one of the few real urban centers so you need to make places that can be prestigious enough to have western rivals to Rome. Perhaps Chalemagne can appoint a religious figure for the Carolingian Empire instead of being crowned by the Pope? I think Milan and Ravenna are too close to Rome for it to work for them.

In RoS I contributed to this by having the Spaniards essentially control the pope, but instead of building up papal power to use it against their enemies, they saw it in their interests to keep papal power weak for various reasons. This led to the growth of state-churches. Byzantium, since they couldn't hold Rome themselves, agreed with them. Of course that was a huge part of the impetus for the current general war raging, but can't make an omlette etc. etc.
 
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