The First Pope

After Jesus assigned Paul the responsibility to establish the Christian church, Paul traveled to Rome, where he became the first Pope. After Paul’s death, he passed on the role as Pope to the next generation, which was St. Peter (30 to 67 CE), who passed it on to Linus (67 to 76), and then Clement of Rome (88 to 97) etc.. With Peter as the Pope, Jesus’ Apostles became ordained bishops, and when they died, they ordained new bishops. This line of succession created the Roman Catholic Church as a functioning operation.
Even though this system was put into play, it took many years for the church to be taken seriously and establish common teachings. For instance Pope Leo I (400 to 461 CE) was the fist to say that the bishop of Rome was the highest ranking of the bishops of the church. Before that the Pope could not solely speak for the church, all of the bishops had to settle issues together. This form of hierarchy explains a lot about the building of the church systems, but also it demonstrates the traditions and politics of the Roman Catholic Church.

Information provided by: http://www.religioustolerance.org/rcc.htm