Papacy in early Christianity was the period in papal history between 30 A.D., when according to Catholic doctrine, St. Peter effectively assumed his pastoral role as the Visible Head of the Church, until the pontificate of St. Miltiades, in 313, when Peace in the Church began. Overview The life and actions of many early popes remain shrouded in mystery, such as St. Linus, said to have been the second pope, whose life is unknown and his attitudes as Bishop of Rome uncertain. The controversy among historians about the role of the early popes is remarkable, while some claim that they did not in fact possess primatial rights and privileges, denying several pivotal events in papal history, others contrarily claim that papal primacy can be identified in these centuries. The most accepted view among historians, regardless of religious orientation, is that the Roman Church possessed a prominence in the litigation of the universal Church in this period, and mainly, that this role changed and became more pronounced in subsequent centuries. In this period of Christianity, new schisms and heresies often arose, which the Bishops of Rome tried to solve, although factors such as geographical distance limited their authority. Besides the Roman Church, the Churches of Alexandria and Antioch were also important centers for Christianity, and their bishops had jurisdiction over certain territories. Many historians have suggested that their special powers came from the fact that all three communities were headed by St. Peter (Rome and Antioch were, according to Holy Scripture and Tradition, founded by Peter and in Alexandria by his disciple St. Mark). The books of the lives of the saints of Rome state that due to the persecution of the Roman Empire, all the Popes of that time were martyred, although there is uncertainty about the death of many Bishops of Rome, whose accounts of martyrdom emerged long after their death, in the likes of a legend, such as St. Clement I, who lived in the late 1st century, but whose story of martyrdom goes back until the 4th century. The end of the early papacy is commonly placed in late antiquity, in 313, when Emperor Constantine I published the Edict of Milan in which he granted freedom to all religions, beginning the Peace in the Church. Constantine began to interfere in many ecclesiastical matters, giving rise to Caesaropapism, and a relationship of "difficult entanglement between Church and State."