the natural spiritual authority for all of Western Europe during the chaos of the early Middle Ages. Based on these considerations, we can date the emergence of Roman Catholicism to sometime around AD 500. What about “lowercase-c” catholic Christianity? We must recognize that catholic Christianity predated the emergence of its later namesake. It was established long before the Roman Catholic Church ever came into being as such. In an essay entitled “Why All Christians are Catholics,” D. H. Williams
Page 24