By contrast, the corresponding “Antichrist” panel shows the pope receiving an honorific visit from a secular king. The papal insignia of the “keys to the kingdom” stand above the doorway. These keys symbolize Jesus’ promise to give heavenly authority to his disciples. Over time, this authority became increasingly identified with the papacy, especially since the popes viewed themselves as Peter’s successors. In Matthew 16, for instance, after the disciple Simon Peter shared his belief that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus said to him, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19). This is a key biblical justification for papal claims of authority over the church.

Far from being a settled matter, however, the church’s relationship to secular authority was often challenging. Before Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire, Christians lived a precarious existence and were subject to outbreaks of persecution by the state, including public execution. At that time, there was little to no expectation that political leadership would or ought be united with the Christian faith. That changed under Emperor Constantine, who first legalized Christianity within the empire and then personally called the Council of Nicea (325 C.E.), a gathering of church leaders that affirmed the full divinity of Jesus Christ and the unity of the three persons of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. After this, political authorities played critical roles in the structure and life of the church. In the eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantine Empire), this developed into the practice of “caesaropapism,” in which the emperor appointed leading bishops and provided administrative oversight of the state-sponsored church.

The fall of the western Roman Empire to Germanic tribes in the fifth century created a more complicated situation for the Latin-speaking church. With little political infrastructure left after the invasions, bishops of Rome became influential civic leaders in negotiations with the new authorities and provided much-needed social stability. In this way, Roman bishops eventually came to provide both spiritual and political leadership in western Europe. On this point, an important symbolic moment occurred on Christmas Day in the year 800 C.E., when a pope (the bishop of Rome) crowned Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor. Although Charlemagne had not viewed the event in this way, later generations supporting papal primacy came to view this as a sign that the church held ultimate authority in the world, with power over even emperors and princes. Conflicts between secular and church authorities reached a peak in the Investiture Controversy of the eleventh century, in which popes and emperors battled for the right to install local bishops.

Disputes about religious and political authority persisted into the sixteenth century. As the Indulgence Controversy that started with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses grew into the divisions of the Reformation, this question of church authority often stood at the heart of the conflict. In works like his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Luther wrote that papal supremacy did not have a basis in the New Testament or the early church, that church leadership was primarily a matter of overseeing faith rather than secular affairs, and that—as concerned baptized Christians—civic leaders could promote the well-being of local congregations if church leaders were negligent in their stewardship of Christ’s gospel.

This first set of images, therefore, taps into long-running and highly-charged disputes about the nature of spiritual leadership. Christ turns away from a crown and flees into the wilderness. By contrast, the pope—protected by a chain, cannons, and an army—receives homage from secular nobility. In addition to the two references to the Gospel of John mentioned early, the left panel ends with words about servant leadership that Jesus spoke at his last supper: “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so among you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves” (Luke 22:25-26).