So! A historic lineage doesn't carry any special authority. What supernatural powers were passed on? Where in Scripture does it tell us that the Apostles would be able to pass on the gifts our LORD infused them with?
“It is a fact that the Roman Catholic Church can actually trace it’s leadership (i.e. the priests and bishops) back to the apostles.”
How could these gems pass anything on except gas? If this is the spiritual heritage of the RC’s “apostolic succession”, I think I would look for something else to prove my legitimacy.
Pope Stephen VI (896-897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.
Pope John XII (937-964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
Pope Boniface VIII (1012-1024), who is lampooned in Dante’s Divine Comedy
Pope Benedict IX (1032-1044,1045,1047-1048), who “sold” the Papacy
Pope Urban VI (1378-1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.
Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503), a Borja, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.
Pope Leo X (1513-1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors reserves on a single ceremony.
Pope Clement VII (1523-1534), also a Medici, whose power-politiking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.