Origins of Peter as
Pope
(
1 Cor. 3:11,
Eph. 2:20, 1 Pet. 2:5–6, Rev.
21:14, Luke 22 31-32, John 21:15-17).
Tatian the Syrian
"Simon Cephas answered and said, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the
living God.’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon,
son of Jonah: flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee also, that you are
Cephas, and on this rock will I build my Church; and the gates of hades
shall not prevail against it" (The Diatesseron 23 [A.D. 170]).
Tertullian
"Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter, who is called ‘the
rock on which the Church would be built’ [Matt. 16:18] with the power
of ‘loosing and binding in heaven and on earth’ [Matt. 16:19]?" (Demurrer
Against the Heretics 22 [A.D. 200]).
"[T]he Lord said to Peter, ‘On this rock I will build my Church, I have
given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [and] whatever you shall
have bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven’ [Matt.
16:18–19]. . . . What kind of man are you, subverting and changing what
was the manifest intent of the Lord when he conferred this personally
upon Peter? Upon you, he says, I will build my Church; and I
will give to you the keys" (Modesty 21:9–10 [A.D.
220]).
The Letter of Clement to James
"Be it known to you, my lord, that Simon [Peter], who, for the sake of
the true faith, and the most sure foundation of his doctrine, was set
apart to be the foundation of the Church, and for this end was by Jesus
himself, with his truthful mouth, named Peter" (Letter of Clement to
James 2 [A.D. 221]).
The Clementine Homilies
"[Simon Peter said to Simon Magus in Rome:] ‘For you now stand in
direct opposition to me, who am a firm rock, the foundation of the
Church’ [Matt. 16:18]" (Clementine Homilies 17:19 [A.D. 221]).
Origen
"Look at [Peter], the great foundation of the Church, that most solid
of rocks, upon whom Christ built the Church [Matt. 16:18]. And what
does our Lord say to him? ‘Oh you of little faith,’ he says, ‘why do
you doubt?’ [Matt. 14:31]" (Homilies on Exodus 5:4 [A.D. 248]).
Cyprian of Carthage
"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will
not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of
heaven . . . ’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. On him [Peter] he builds the Church,
and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and
although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a
single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority
a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others
were that also which Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given
to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one
chair. . . . If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can
he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the
chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be
confident that he is in the Church?" (The Unity of the Catholic
Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).
"There is one God and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded
on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another
altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that one altar and
that one priesthood. Whoever has gathered elsewhere is scattering" (Letters
43[40]:5 [A.D. 253]).
"There [John 6:68–69] speaks Peter, upon whom the Church would be
built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that even if a
stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish to
obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined
to the priest and the flock clinging to their shepherd are the Church.
You ought to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and the
Church in the bishop, and if someone is not with the bishop, he is not
in the Church. They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having
peace with the priests of God, believing that they are
secretly [i.e., invisibly] in communion with certain individuals. For
the Church, which is one and Catholic, is not split nor divided, but it
is indeed united and joined by the cement of priests who adhere one to
another" (ibid., 66[69]:8).
Firmilian
"But what is his error . . . who does not remain on the foundation of
the one Church which was founded upon the rock by Christ [Matt. 16:18],
can be learned from this, which Christ said to Peter alone: ‘Whatever
things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and
whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed in heaven’ [Matt.
16:19]" (collected in Cyprian’s Letters 74[75]:16 [A.D. 253]).
"[Pope] Stephen [I] . . . boasts of the place of his episcopate, and
contends that he holds the succession from Peter, on whom the
foundations of the Church were laid [Matt. 16:18]. . . . [Pope] Stephen
. . . announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter"
(ibid., 74[75]:17).
Ephraim the Syrian
"[Jesus said:] ‘Simon, my follower, I have made you the foundation of
the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because you will support
all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on
earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is false, you,
the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain
from which my teaching flows; you are the chief of my disciples’" (Homilies
4:1 [A.D. 351]).
Optatus
"You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the
episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat,
the same who was head—that is why he is also called Cephas [‘Rock’]—of
all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all" (The
Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).
Ambrose of Milan
"[Christ] made answer: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock will I build
my Church. . . . ’ Could he not, then, strengthen the faith of the man
to whom, acting on his own authority, he gave the kingdom, whom he
called the rock, thereby declaring him to be the foundation of the
Church [Matt. 16:18]?" (The Faith 4:5 [A.D. 379]).
"It is to Peter that he says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18]. Where Peter is, there is the Church.
And where the Church is, no death is there, but life eternal" (Commentary
on Twelve Psalms of David 40:30 [A.D. 389]).
Pope Damasus I
"Likewise it is decreed . . . that it ought to be announced that . . .
the holy Roman Church has not been placed at the forefront [of the
churches] by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has
received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who
says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and
the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you
the keys of the kingdom of heaven. . . . ’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. The first
see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church,
which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it" (Decree of
Damasus 3 [A.D. 382]).
Jerome
"‘But,’ you [Jovinian] will say, ‘it was on Peter that the Church was
founded’ [Matt. 16:18]. Well . . . one among the twelve is chosen to be
their head in order to remove any occasion for division" (Against
Jovinian 1:26 [A.D. 393]).
"I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your
blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair of Peter. I know
that this is the rock on which the Church has been built. Whoever eats
the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark of
Noah will perish when the flood prevails" (Letters 15:2 [A.D.
396]).
Augustine
"If the very order of episcopal succession is to be considered, how
much more surely, truly, and safely do we number them [the bishops of
Rome] from Peter himself, to whom, as to one representing the whole
Church, the Lord said, ‘Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the
gates of hell shall not conquer it.’ Peter was succeeded by Linus,
Linus by Clement. ... In this order of succession a Donatist bishop is
not to be found" (Letters 53:1:2 [A.D. 412]).
Council of Ephesus
"Philip, the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See [Rome], said:
‘There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the
holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, pillar of
the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of
the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the
human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding
sins: who down even to today and forever both lives and judges in his
successors’" (Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 431]).
Sechnall of Ireland
"Steadfast in the fear of God, and in faith immovable, upon [Patrick]
as upon Peter the [Irish] church is built; and he has been allotted his
apostleship by God; against him the gates of hell prevail not" (Hymn
in Praise of St. Patrick 3 [A.D. 444]).
Pope Leo I
"Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has placed the principal charge on the
blessed Peter, chief of all the apostles. . . . He wished him who had
been received into partnership in his undivided unity to be named what
he himself was, when he said: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18], that the building of the eternal temple
might rest on Peter’s solid rock, strengthening his Church so surely
that neither could human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell
prevail against it" (Letters 10:1 [A.D. 445]).
Council of Chalcedon
"Wherefore the most holy and blessed Leo, archbishop of the great and
elder Rome, through us, and through this present most holy synod,
together with the thrice blessed and all-glorious Peter the apostle,
who is the rock and foundation of the Catholic Church, and the
foundation of the orthodox faith, has stripped him [Dioscorus] of the
episcopate" (Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 451]). |
