Who was the first Bishop of Rome ?

[Paul Younan]

Well erm, you can't have two Bishops in one city from what I understand so it would mean Saint Paul appointed the Popes, even though St.Peter might have done some discipling. This is a problem for the "Petrine authority" business...(which makes my life very difficult also)

I don't think they were "bishops" in the sense we think of the formalized office today, right? Not for a while at least until the Church organized itself in whatever fashion it could while trying to keep a low profile and stay out of the mouths of lions.

We think of Shimun or Paul and the others as leaders now, and we use terminology familiar with our current setup.