judging and of punish ing: and the power^TsTaiH toTDe'of such amplitude and force that God will ratify whatever is decreed by it. Thus it is supiemfi^nd, J^bsolutelyiin- ^dep endent, so that, having ho other power on earth as its superior, it embraces the whole Church and all things committed to the Church.
The promise is carried out when Christ the Lord after His Resurrection, having thrice asked Peter whether he loved Him more than the rest, lays on him the injunction: "Feed My lambs — feed My sheep." That is He confides to him, without exception, all those who were to belong to His fold, "The Lord does not hesitate. He interrogates, not to learn but to teach. When He was about to ascend S. Johannes Chrysostomus, Horn, liv., in Matt, v- 2 376 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
into heaven He left us, as it were, a vicegerent of His love...and so because Peter alone of all others pro- fesses his love he is preferred to all — that belrig the m ost ,;perfect he shoijld^.govern the^ more perfect.."* These, then, are the duties of a shepherd: to place him.-, ^self as leader at the head of his flock, to fjrovide proper food for it, to ward off dangers, to guard against insidious foes, to defend^it against violence: in a word, to rule and govern it. Since therefore Peter has been placed as shep- herd of the Christian flock he has received the power of governing all men for whose salvation Jesus Christ shed His blood. "Why has He shed His blood? To buy the sheep which He handed over to Peter and his successors."* And since all Christians must be closely united in the communion of one immutable faitli, Christ the Lord, in virtue of His prayers, obtained for Peter that in the ful- filment of his office he should never fall away from the faith. But I have asked for thee that thy faith fail not," ' and He furthermore commanded him to impart light and strength to his brethren as often as the need should arise: Confirm thy brethren.* He willed then that he whom He had designated as the foundation of the Church should be the defence of its faith. "Could not Christ, who con- fided to him the kingdom by His own authority, have strengthened the faith of one whom He designated a rock to show the foundation of the Church? " ^ For this reason Jesus Qhids±-.viilled that Peter should participate in certain names, signs of great things which properly belong to Himself alone: in order that identity of titles should show identity of power. So He who is Himself the chief corner-stone in whom all the building being framed S. Ambrosius, Exposit. in Evang. secundum Lucam, lib. x.
nn. 175,176.
" S. Johannes Chrysostomus, De Sacerdotio, lib. ii. 3 Luke xxii. 32.
Ibid.
' S. Ambrosius, De Fide, lib. iv., n. 56.
THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 377 together, groweth up in a holy temple in the Lord,^ placed Peter as it were a_stone \g support the Chuich. "When he heard thou art a rock, he was ennobled by the announce- ment. Although he is a rock, not as Christ is a rock, but as Peter is a rock. For Christ is by His very being an immovable rockj__ Peter only through this rock. Christ "Imparts His gifts, and is not exhausted...He is a priest, and makes priests. He is a rock, and constitutes a rock." ^ He who is the King of His Church, who hath the key of David, who openeth and no man shutteth, who shutieth and no 7nan openeth,^ having delivered the keys to Peter declared liim Prince of the Christian common- wealth. So, too. He, the Great Shepherd, who calls Himself the Good Shepherd, constituted Peter the pastor of His lambs and sheep. Feed My lambs, feed My sheep. Wherefore Chrysostom says: "He was pre-eminent among the apostles: He was the mouthpiece of the apostles and the head of the apostolic college...at the same time showing him that henceforth he ought to have confidence, and as it were blotting out his denial. He commits to him the government of his brethren...He saith to him: 7/ thou lovest Me, be over My brethren.'" Finally He who confirms in every good work and word* commands Peter to confirm his brethren. "Rightly, therefore, does St. Leo the Great say: "From the whole world Peter alone is chosen to take the lead in calling all nations, to be the head of all the apostles and of all the Fathers of the Church. So that, although in the people of God there are many priests and many pastors, E§ter_^Q.u_ld by right rule all of those over whom Christ Himself is thVcKgr ruler." ^ And^so St. Gregor}^ the Great, wTiting to the Emperor Maurice Augustus, says; » Eph. ii. 21.
^ Horn, de Poenitentia, n. 4 in Appendice opp. S. Basilii.
' Apoc. iii. 7.
2 Thess. ii. 16.
' Seimo iv., cap. 2.
^ 378 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
" It is evident Jo all who know the Gospel that the charge of the whole Church was committed to St. Peter, the apostle and prince of all the apostles, by the word of the Lord...Behold! he hath received the keys of the heavenly kingdom — the power of binding and loosing is conferred upon him: the care of the whole government of the Church is confided to him." * It was necessary that a government of this kind, since it belongs to the constitution and formation of the Church, as its principal element — that is as the principle of unity and the foundation of lasting stability — should in no wise come to an end with St. Peter, but should pass to his successors from one to another. "There remains, there- fore, the ordinance of truth, and St. Peter, persevering in the strength of the rock which he had received, hath not abandoned the government of the Church which had been confided to him." ^ For this reason th e Pontiffs who .succeed Peter in the Roman Episcopate recgLyejbhe.su- preme power in the Church, jure divino. "We define" (declare the Fathers of the Council of Florence) "that the Holy and Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff holds th« primacy of the Church throughout the whole world: and that the same Roman Pontiff is the successor of St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, and the true Vicar of Christ, the head of the whole Church, and the father and teacher of all Christians; and that full power was given to him, in blessed Peter, by Our Lord Jesus Christ to feed, to rule, and to govern the universal Church, as is also contained in the acts of oecumencial councils and in the sacred canons," ^ Similarly the Fourth Council of Lateran declares: "The Roman Church, as the mother and mistress of all the faithful, by the will of Christ ob- tains primacy of jurisdiction over all other Churches."
These declarations were preceded by the consent of an- tiquity which ever acknowledged, without the slightest Epist. lib. V. Epist. xx ^ S. Leo M. sermo iii., cap. 3.
^ Cone. Florentinum.
THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 379 doubt or hesitation, the Bishops of Rome, and revered them, as the legitimate successors of St. Peter.
Who is unaware of the many and evident testimonies of the holy Fathers which exist to this effect? Most remark- able is that of St^ _Iren8eus, who, referring to the Roman Church, says: "With this Church, on account p^ its-pre=. eminent authority, it is necessary that every Church should be m concord; " ^ and St. Cyprian also says oTHTe Koman Church, tEaF " it is the root and mother of the CathoHc Church, the chair of Peter, and the principal Church whence sacerdotal unity has its source." ^ He calls it the chair of Peter because it is occupied by the successor of Peter; he calls it jjie yrind'pai Churc h, on â– account_of_ the primacy conferred on Potor ]^^|p|=|^]f andN . â– his Jeg TtimRtp. siicgpssnrs; anrl the source of unity, because the Roman Church is the efficient cause of unity in the Christian commonwealth. For this reason Jerome ad- dresses Damasus thus: "My words are spoken to the successor of the Fisherman, to the disciple of the cross...I communicate w4th none save your Blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this I know is the rock on which the Church is built." ^ Union with the Roman See of Peter is to him always the public criterion of a Catholic. "I acknowledge every one who is united with the See of Peter."* And for a hke reason S^vAllgus- ^tinQ^ pubhcly.^aitegts that "the primacyof the Apostolic chair always^ exis ted in t he Roman Church;"' and he denies that any one who dissents from the Roman faith can be a Catholic. "You are not to be looked upon as holding the true Catholic faith if you do not teach that the faith of Rome is to be held." * So, too, St. Cyprian: 'Contra Haereses, lib. iii., cap. 3, n. 2.
Ep. xl\dii, ad Cornelium, n. 3. and Ep. lix., ad eundem, n. 14.
' Ep. XV., ad Damasum, n. 2.
Ep. x"vi., ad Damasum, n. 2.
Ep. xliii. n. 7.
Sermo cxx. n. 13.
380 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
"To be in communion with Cornelius is to be in com- munion with the CathoHc Church." ^ In the same way IMaximus the Abbot teaches that obedience to the Romaii pontiff is the proof of the true-iaith..a.nd- oi legitimate -communion. " Therefore if a man does not want to be, ~or to be called, a heretic, let him not strive to please this or that man...but let him hasten before all things to be in communion with the Roman See. If he be in communion with it, he should be acknowledged by all and everywhere as faithful and orthodox. He speaks in vain who tries to persuade me of the orthodoxy of those who, like himself, refuse obedience to his Holiness the Pope of the most holy Church of Rome; that is to the Apostolic See." The reason and motive of this he ex- plains to be that "the Apostohc See has received and hath government, authority, and power of binding and loosing from the Incarnate Word Himself; and, according to all holy synods, sacred canons and decrees, in all things and through all things, in respect of all the holy churches of God throughout the whole world, since the Word in heaven who rules the heavenly powers binds and loosens there." =* Wherefore what was acknowledged and observed as Christian faith, not by one nation only nor in one age, but by the East and by the West, and through all ages, this Philip, the priest, the Pontifical legate at the Council of Ephesus, no voice being raised in dissent, recalls: "J^o joaa^c an doubt^ yea, it isknown unto all ages, that St. Peter,^, the Prince of the Apostles7"tEe7plIIaT6f the. faith and the ground of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is: the power of forgiving and retaimhg siris was given to him who, up to the present time, lives and exercises judgment in the persons of his successors." ^ The pronouncement » Ep. Iv., n. 1.
^ Defloratio ex Epistola ad Pet rum illustrem.
' Actio iii. of the Council of Chalcedon on the same matter is present to the minds of all: "Peter has spoken through Leo," to which the voice of the Third Council of Constantinople responds as an echo: "The chief Prince of the Apostles was fighting on our side: for we have had as our ally his follower and the successor to his see: and the paper and the ink were seen, and Peter spoke through Agatho."
In the formula of Catholic faith drawn up and proposed by Hormisdas, which was subscribed at the beginning of the sixth century in the great Eighth Council by the Emperor Justinian, by Epiphanius, John and Menna, the Patriarchs, this same is declared with great weight and solemnity. "For,the pronouncement of Our Lord Jesus Christ saying: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church,' etc., cannot be passed over. What is said is proved by the result, because Catholic faith., has, always been preserved without stain in the Apostolic See." We have no wish to quote every available declaration; but it is well to recall the formula of faith which Michael Paleologus professed in the Second Council of Lyons: "The same holy Roman Church possesses the sovereign and plenary primacy and authority over the whole Catholic Church, which, truly and humbly, it acknowledges to have received together with the plenitude of power from the Lord Himself, in the person of St. Peter, the Prince or Head of the Apostles, of whom the Roman Pontiff is the successor. And as it is bound to defend the truth of faith beyond all others, so also if any question should arise concerning the faith it must be determined by its judgment.", But if the authority of Peter and his successors is plenary and supreme, it is not to be regarded as the sole authority. For He who made Peter the foundation of the Church also chose twelve, whom He called apostles; and 382 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
just as it is necessary that the authority of Peter should be perpetuated in the Roman Pontiff, so, by the fact that the bishops succeed the apostles, they inherit their ordinary power, and thus the episcopal order necessarily belongs to the essential constitution of the Church. Al- though they do not receive plenary, or universal, or supreme authority, they are not to be looked upon as vicars of the Roman Pontiffs; because they exercise a power really their own, and are most truly called the ordinury pastors of the peoples over whom they rule.
But since the successor of Petgr.ig^ one, and those of the .apostles a re many, It "is necessary to examine into the jfilations wju di exist_betwMi h^^^ them according to the divine constitution of the Church. Above all things the need of union b etween the bishops and the successors of Peter is clear and imdeniable. This bond once broken, Christians would be separated and scattered, and would in no wise form one body and one flock. "The safety of the Church depends on the dignity of the chief priest, to whom if an extraordinary and supreme power is not given, there are as many schisms to be expected in the Church as there are priests." ^ It is necessary, therefore, to bear this in mind, viz., that nojthing wasjcqnf erred on J,he apostles apartfrom Peterj but that several^ jthings were^onTerrecr upon Peter apart ^pm_the apostles. St. John ChrysostomTTn explaining the words of CEfist asks: "Why, passing over the others, does He speak to Peter about these things?" And he replies unhesitatingly and at once, "Because he was pre-eminent am.ong the apostles, the mouthpiece of the disciples, and the head of the college." ^ He alone was designated as the founda- tion of the Church. To him He _gave the power of bindirig . ^nd loosing; to him alone was given the power of feeding. On the other hand, whatever authority and office the apostles received, they received in conjunction with ' S. Hieronymus, Dialog, contra Luciferianos, n. 9.
Horn. Ixxxviii. in Joan., n. 1. Peter. "If the divine benignity willed anything to be in common between him and the other princes, whatever He did not deny to the others He gave only through him. So that whereas Peter alone received many things, He conferred nothing on any of the rest without Peter par- ticipating in it."
From this it must be clearly understood that bishops are deprived of the right and power of ruling, if they deliberately secede from Peter and his successors; because, by this secession, they are separated from the foundation on which the whole edifice must rest. They are therefore outside the edifice itself; and for this very reason they are separated from the fold, whose leader is the Chief Pastor; they are exiled from the Kingdom, the keys of which were given by Christ to Peter alone.
These things enable us to see the heavenly ideal, and the divine exemplar of the constitution of the Christian commonwealth, namely: When the divine Founder decreed that the Church should be one in faith, in government, and in communion, He chose Peter and his successors as the principal and centre, as it were, of this unity. Wherefore St. Cyprian says: "The following is a short and easy proof of the faith. The Lord saith to Peter: 'I say to thee thou art Peter'; on him alone He buildeth His Church; and although after His Resurrection He gives a similar power to all the apostles and says: 'As the Father hath sent me,' etc., still in order to make the need of unity clear, by His own authority He laid down the source of that unity as beginning from one." And Optatus of Milevis says: "You cannot deny that you know that in the city of Rome the Episcopal chair was first conferred on Peter. In this Peter, the head of all the apostles (hence his name Cephas), has sat; in which chair alone unity was to be preserved for all, lest any of the other apostles should claim anything as exclusively his own. So much so, that he who would place another 384 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
chair against that one chair, would be a schismatic and a sinner." ^ Hence the Reaching of Cyprian, that heresy and ^chism arise and are begotten from the fact that ^djua obedience is refused to the supreme authority. " Here- sies and schisms have no other origin than that obedience is refused to the priest of God, and that men lose sight of the fact that there is one judge in the place of Christ in this world. " ^ No one, therefore, unless in communion with Peter can share in his authority, since it is absurd to imagine that he who is outside can command in the Church. Wherefore Optatus of Milevis blamed the Dona- tists for this reason: "Against which gates (of hell) we read that Peter received the saving keys, that is to say, our prince, to whom it was said by Christ: 'To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the gates of hell shall not conquer them.' Whence is it therefore that you strive to obtain for yourselves the keys of the kingdom of heaven — you who fight against the chair of Peter?"® But theJEpi^copal otcIct is rightly judged to be in com- munion with Petcr^ as Christ commanded^ if it be subject to_and obeys Peter; otherwise It necessarily becomes a lawfess^afid'^isofderTy crowd. It is not sufficient for the due preservation of the unity of the faith that the head should merely have been charged with the office of super- intendent, or should have been invested solely with a power of direction. But it is absolutely necessary that he should have received real and sovereign authority which the whole community is bound to obey. What^had the Son of God in view when He promised the keys o? the kingdom of heaven to Peter alone? Biblical usage and the unan- imous teaching of the Fathers clearly show that supreme authority is designated in the passage by the word keys'. Nor is it lawful to interpret in a different sense what 'was given to Peter alone, and what was given to the other apostles conjointly with him. If the power of binding, De Schism. Donat.. lib. ii. ^ Epist. xii. ad Cornelium, n. 5.
THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 385 loosening, and feeding confers upon each and every one of the bishops, the successors of the apostles, a real authority to rule the people committed to him, certainly the same power must have the same effect in his case to whom the duty of feeding the lambs and sheep has been assigned by God. "Christ constituted jEeterJ not only pastor, but pastor of pastorsj Peter therefore feeds the lamBs^ and" feeds the sheep, feeds the children and feeds the mothers, governs the subjects and rules the prelates, because the lambs and the sheep form the whole of the Church." ^ Hence those remarkable expressions of the ancients con- cerning St, Peter, which most clearly set forth the fact that he was placed in the highest degree of dignity and authority. They frequently call him "the prince of the college of the disciples; the prince of the holy apostles; the leader of that choir; the mouthpiece of all the apostles; the head of that family; the ruler of the whole world; the first of the apostles; ^^Jie safeguard of the Church," In this sense St. Bernard writes as follows to Pope Eu- genius: "Who art thou? The great priest — the high priest. Thou art the Prince of Bishops and the heir of the apostles...Thou art he to whom the keys were given. There are, it is true, other gatekeepers of heaven and other pastors of flocks, but thou art so much the more glorious as thou hast inherited a different and more glorious name than aR the rest. They have flocks consigned to them, one to each; to thee all the flocks are confided as one flock to one shepherd, and not alone the sheep, but the shepherds. You ask how I prove this? From the words of the Lord, To which — I do not say — of the bishops, but even of the apostles have all the sheep been so absolutely and unreservedly committed? If thou lovest Me, Peter, feed My sheep. Which sheep? Of this or that people, of this city, or country, or kingdom? My sheep. He says: to whom therefore is it not evident S. Brunonis Episcopi Signiensis comment, in Joan., part iii., cap. 21, n. 55.
386 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
that He does not designate some, but all? We can make no exception where no distinction is made." ^ But it is opposed to the truth, and in evident contradic- tion with the divine constitution of the Church, to hold that while each bishop is individually bound to obey the authority of the Roman Pontiffs, taken collectively the bishops are not so bound. For it is the nature and object of a foundation to support the unity of the whole edifice and to give stability to it, rather than to each component part; and in the present case this is much more applicable, since Christ the Lord wished that by the strength and solidity of the foundation the gates of hell should be pre- vented from prevailing against the Church. _ All are agreed that the divine promise must be understood of the Church as a whole, and not of any certain portions of it. These can indeed be overcome by the assaults of the powers of hell, as in point of fact has befallen some of them. More- over, he who is set over the whole flock must have au- thority not only over the sheep dispersed throughout the Church, but also when they are assembled together. Do the sheep when they are all assembled together rule and guide the shepherd? Do the successors of the apostles assembled together constitute the foundation on which the successor of St. Peter rests in order to derive therefrom strength and stability? Surely jurisdiction and authority belong to him in whose power "have been placed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, not alone in all provinces taken singly, but in all taken collectively. And as the bishops, each in his own district, command with real power not only individuals but the whole community, so the Roman Pontiffs, whose jurisdiction extends to the whole Christian commonwealth, must have all its parts even taken collectively, subject and obedient to their authority. ^.Christ the Lord, as we have quite suf- ficiently shown, made Peter and his successors His vicars, to exercise forever in the Church the power which He De Consideratione, lib. ii.. cap?
THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 387 exercised during His mortal life. Can the Apostolic Col- lege be said to have been above its master in authority? This power over the Episcopal College to which we re- fer^ and which is cleariy set forth in holy writ, has ever been acknowledged and attested by the Church, as is clear from the teaching of General Councils. "We read that the Roman Pontiff has pronounced judgments on the prelates of all the churches; we do not read that anybody has pronounced sentence on him." * The reason for which is stated thus: "there is no authority greater than that of the Apostolic See," ^ Wherefore Gelasius on the decrees of Councils says: "That which the First See has not ap- proved of cannot stand; but what it has thought well to decree has been received by the whole Church." ' It has ever been unquestionably the office of the Roman Pontiffs to ratify or to reject the decrees of Councils. Leo the Great rescinded the acts of the Conciliabulum of Ephesus. Damasus rejected those of Rimini, and Hadrian I. those of Constantinople. The twenty-eighth canon of the Council of Chalcedon, by the very fact that it lacks the assent and approval of the Apostolic See, is admitted by all to be worthless. Rightly, therefore, has Leo X. laid dovm in the fifth Council of Lateran "that the Roman Pontiff alone, as having authority over all Councils, has full jurisdiction and power to summon, to transfer, to dissolve Councils, as is clear, not only from the testimony of holy writ, from the teaching of the Fathers and of the Roman Pontiffs, and from the decrees of the sacred canons, but from the teaching of the very Councils them- selves." Indeed, hoty writ attests that the keys of the kingdom of heaven' were given to Peter alone, and that ' Hadrianus ii., in Allocutione iii., ad Synodum Romanum an. 869. Cf. Actionem Adi., Cone. Constantinopolitani iv.
^ Nicolaus in Epist. Ixxxvi. ad Michael. Imperat. " It is evident that the judgment of the Apostolic See, than which there is no anthority greater, may be rejected by no one, nor is it lawful for any one to pass judgment on its judgment."
^ Epist. xx\a., ad Episcopos Dardaniae, n. & 388 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH the power of binding and loosening was granted to the apostles and to Peter; but^ t h^re is^othin g toshojs-jthat the apostles received supreme power without Peter, and against Peter. Such power they certainly did not receive from Jesus Christ. Wherefore, in the decree of the Vati- can Council as to the nature and authority of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, no newly conceived opinion is set forth, but the venerable and constant belief of every age.* age.* Nor does it beget any confusion in the administration that Christians are bound to obey a twofold authority. We are prohibited in the first place by divine wisdom from entertaining any such thought, since this form of government was constituted by the counsel of God Him- self. In the second place we must note that the due order of things and their mutual relations are disturbed if there be a twofold magistracy of the same rank set over a people, neither of w^hich is amenable to the other. But the authority of the Roman Pontiff is supreme, universal, independent; that of the bishops limited, and^dependent. "It is not congruous that two superiors with equal au- thority should be placed over the same flock; but that two one of whom is higher than the other, should be placed over the same people is not incongruous. Thus the parish priest, the bishop, and the Pope, are placed immediately over the same people."^ So the Roman Pontiffs, mindful of their duty, wish above all things, that the divine constitution of the Church -should be preserved. Therefore, as they defend with all necessary care and vigilance their own authority, so they have always labored, and will continue to labor, that the au- thority of the bishops may be upheld. Yea, they look upon whatever honor or obedience is given to the bishops as paid to themselves. "My honor is the honor of the universal Church. My honor is the strength and stability ' Sess. iv., cap. 3.
' St. Thomas in iv. Sent. dist. xvii. a. 4, ad q. 4, ad 3.
THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 389 of my brethren. Then am I honored when due honor is given to even^ one." ^