Were the earliest Christians united under a papacy?

In a recent video discussing his conversion to Roman Catholicism, Joe Schmid said:

"And then, totally unsurprisingly, given their defective courtless system for church governance, Protestantism turns into a schism fest....You know, Christ wanted people to remain united while preserving the whole truth full and inviolate. Any sensible guy, much less the omniscient Creator of the universe, could foresee that the Protestant system was not going to work for that....Commonsensically, if Christ intended to establish a unified worldwide church that would preserve one faith across nations and centuries, a continuing teaching office is exactly the sort of institution we should expect him to provide. And then when we turn to history, we discover that this is exactly what the earliest Christians adopted."

In the second century, Celsus wrote:

"Christians at first were few in number, and held the same opinions; but when they grew to be a great multitude, they were divided and separated, each wishing to have his own individual party: for this was their object from the beginning....being thus separated through their numbers, they confute one another, still having, so to speak, one name in common, if indeed they still retain it. And this is the only thing which they are yet ashamed to abandon, while other matters are determined in different ways by the various sects." (cited in Origen's Against Celsus 3:10, 3:12)

And see here regarding Origen's response to Celsus, which further illustrates the absence of a papacy in early church history. Or see here regarding the anti-papal ecclesiology of Ignatius of Antioch, among many other examples that could be cited.

Underestimated Sins

I've sometimes talked about the harm done by flattery. It's a common theme in Proverbs (e.g., 29:5), but Christians and others who should know better often succumb to flattery anyway. I've written here and here about how much of a problem it is in modern America.

I think part of what's gone wrong is that it doesn't get discussed much. It's easier to overlook or underestimate something if it doesn't get much attention. I mentioned what Proverbs says about flattery. I doubt that it would rank high as one of the issues people think about or talk about when Proverbs comes up.

It seems like flattery is also one of those things people think of as doing little or no harm, sort of like how they'll often ask what harm is done by something like fornication or homosexuality or same-sex marriage. They haven't given the subject much thought, and their (false) initial impression is that not much is at stake.

And many people are involved in flattery and enjoy it, in terms of giving it or receiving it. They have a lot to lose if they acknowledge that it's a problem and how much of a problem it is. Politicians, pastors, radio hosts, businesses, and YouTube hosts, for example, are highly dependent on flattery to get and keep their jobs. Their audiences frequently don't want to be told the truth. They want to be flattered. It makes them feel better in the short term, they like blame shifting, they like playing the victim card (my problems are somebody else's fault), and so on.

Neglecting Or Cultivating Your Soul

"We know that some merchants who are illiterate look for literate mercenaries; although they themselves do not know letters, they acquire immense profits by having others write their ideas. Now, if those who are unlearned hire literate mercenaries in order to obtain earthly wealth, why do not you, whoever you are that is illiterate, seek with the price of reward someone to read over the sacred Scriptures for you, so that you may be able to acquire eternal rewards through them?...Someone may may: I am a farmer and continually engaged in earthly matters; I can neither listen to nor read the divine lessons. How many men and women in the country remember and repeatedly sing diabolical, shameful love songs! These things which the Devil teaches they can remember and say; are they unable to keep in mind what Christ shows them? How much more quickly and to better advantage, how much more profitably could these men and women from the farm learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, a few antiphons or the fiftieth and ninetieth Psalms? By getting and remembering these and saying them rather frequently they might have a means of uniting their soul to God and freeing it from the Devil....Therefore, let no one say: I cannot remember anything of what is read in church. Doubtless, if you really wanted to, you could; begin to wish it, and you will understand at once....The care of our soul, dearly beloved, is very much like earthly cultivation....Vices should be uprooted and virtues planted...I beseech you to tell me, whoever you are who said a little while ago that you could not fulfill God's precepts because you did not know how to read - tell me, who showed you how to provide for your vineyard, at what time to plant new shoots? Who taught you this, unless you saw or heard or questioned the best cultivators as to how you should work your farm? Why, then, are you not as solicitous for your soul as you are for your estate?...If you till your land and do not till your soul, you are willing to settle your farm and to leave God's deserted. Is this just, brethren?...Why do you not attend to your neglected soul and bewail it, just as you take care of your cultivated farm and rejoice over it?...Therefore, with God's help let us labor with all our strength, so that when God wishes to come to his field, that is, to our soul, He may find it cultivated, arranged, and all in order. May He find a harvest, not thorns; wine, not vinegar; wheat, rather than cockle." (Caesarius of Arles, Mary Magdeleine Mueller, trans., St. Caesarius: Sermons, Volume I [1-80] [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2004], Sermon 6:2-5, pp. 39-42)