<Ul> <Li> Pope portal </Li> <Li> Vatican City portal </Li> <Li> Catholicism portal </Li> </Ul> <Li> Vatican City portal </Li> <P> The word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning "father". In the early centuries of Christianity, this title was applied, especially in the east, to all bishops and other senior clergy, and later became reserved in the west to the Bishop of Rome, a reservation made official only in the 11th century . The earliest record of the use of this title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Heraclas of Alexandria (232--248). The earliest recorded use of the title "pope" in English dates to the mid-10th century, when it was used in reference to Pope Vitalian in an Old English translation of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum . </P> <P> The Catholic Church teaches that the pastoral office, the office of shepherding the Church, that was held by the apostles, as a group or "college" with Saint Peter as their head, is now held by their purported successors, the bishops, with the bishop of Rome (the pope) as their head . </P>

When was the title of pope first used