Your warped, Ellen White-vomited Biblical perversions aside – the Pope got his power from Jesus Christ (Matt. 16:18-19, John 21:15-19) – not a dragon and not the Beast,
Jesus did not give any man the authority or power to persecute those that disagreed with him. That power, that authority, came from the emperor Justinian, which was later included in Roman law, and spread into Catholic canon law.
Justinian’s ambitions to reunite the Roman Empire were matched by a desire to create complete ecclesiastical unity. Therefore, he also—so far as the West was concerned—“regarded his project somewhat as a crusade to rescue the Catholics from Arian rule.” To this end, he took a step quite contrary to the normal tendency at Constantinople: he decided to elevate the Roman pontiff over the entire church. According to several historians, the emperor stated this in a letter to Pope John II (b. ?–535, reigned from 533) in that pontiff’s accession year. Justinian said he had taken pains to unite all the priests of the Eastern church, subjecting them to the pope, “because you are the Head of all the holy churches (quia caput est omnium sanctarum ecclesiarum).” This decision was incorporated in the Civil Code. In various parts of it, the same idea is repeated—as in the 131st Novella, which states: “Hence, in accordance with the provisions of these Councils, we order that the Most Holy Pope of ancient Rome shall hold the first rank of all the Pontiffs, but the Most Blessed Archbishop of Constantinople, or New Rome, shall occupy the second place after the Holy Apostolic See of ancient Rome, which shall take precedence over all other sees.”
KJV Revelation 13:2
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion:
and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Elsewhere in scripture, the dragon is described as that power, Satan, that stood before the woman to kill the child as soon as he was born. This is clearly a reference to the attempts by the Roman puppet King Herod to kill Jesus as an infant. The child however as we know, survived and was taken to heaven, after which the woman, prophetically meaning the church, went into the wilderness to escape persecution. Satan could not personally persecute anyone. But he used agents to accomplish that instead. First were the Jews themselves through Saul who became Paul the apostle. Then the pagan Romans, then the Catholic emperors, especially Justinian, followed later by Roman pontiffs on the basis of the authority invested in them by Justinian.
They all represented the dragon, and did his work, and it was Justinian who granted the Pope his seat, his power, and great authority. That is where papal power came from. Petrine succession didn't enter into it, although succession of authority was an Italian tradition particularly among the aristocracy. Simony was also used on various occasions to secure the papal tiara, which Vigilius of that time did even while the former Pope Silverius was still alive. Interesting that while Silverius was canonized later, Vigilius is still recognised in the list of succession, supposedly after the invocation of the holy Ghost. Strange that God would arrange such a turn of events in order to establish the successor of Peter to the throne.
