In the
Apostolic Age the Christian Church was organized as an indefinite number of local Churches that in the initial years looked to that at Jerusalem as its main centre and point of reference.
James the Just, who was martyred around 62, is described as the first bishop of Jerusalem. Roman persecutions following the
Jewish revolts against Rome in the later 1st and 2nd centuries also affected the city's Christian community, and led to Jerusalem gradually being eclipsed in prominence by other sees, particularly those of
Constantinople,
Antioch,
Alexandria, and
Rome. However, increased
pilgrimage during and after the reign of
Constantine the Great increased the fortunes of the see of Jerusalem, and in 325 the
First Council of Nicaea attributed special honor, but not
metropolitan status (then the highest rank in the Church), to the bishop of Jerusalem. Jerusalem continued to be a bishopric until 451, when the
Council of Chalcedon granted Jerusalem independence from the
metropolitan of Antioch and from any other higher-ranking bishop, granted what is now known as
autocephaly, in the council's seventh session whose "Decree on the Jurisdiction of Jerusalem and Antioch" contains: "the bishop of Jerusalem, or rather the most holy Church which is under him, shall have under his own power the three Palestines". This led to Jerusalem becoming a
patriarchate, one of the five patriarchates known as the
pentarchy, when the title of "patriarch" was created in 531 by
Justinian I. When the
Great Schism took place in 1054 the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the other three Eastern Patriarchs formed the
Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Patriarch of Rome (i.e. the
Pope) formed the
Roman Catholic Church. In 1099 the
Crusaders appointed a
Latin patriarch. As a result, the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs lived in exile in
Constantinople until 1187. ==Current position==