On the Divine Institution of The Papacy

It remains to satisfy also those who do not know that by the ancient fathers of the Church in Asia, Africa, and Europe the Roman pontiff was venerated as pastor of the whole Church, not by human but by divine reason: namely, because in Peter was instituted the ruler of the universal Church.

I therefore judged that the opinions of the ancient fathers and doctors of the Church, both Greek and Latin, should be brought forward: not all, nor the opinions of all, but so many as suffice for a clear knowledge that the Roman pontiff is the successor of Peter and has always been held to be, in Peter, the instituted pastor and ruler of the whole Church.

And beginning with the Greeks: Chrysostom, homily LV on Matthew, expounding that text, upon this rock, says: He appointed Peter to be the future pastor of the Church. And below: God alone can grant the remission of sins, and that the Church to come may remain unmovable amid so many and so great waves breaking upon it with violence — whose pastor and head, a fisherman and a man of no rank, though the whole world strive against him, should surpass the nature of adamant in firmness: all these things, I say, which belong to God alone, He promises that He will give. And below: this Peter, namely, Christ set over the whole world. And although above he glossed, upon this rock I will build my church, that is, faith and confession: yet below he says, I say to thee, thou art Peter, and I upon thee will build my church.

And in the last homily on John, treating that text: Simon son of John, lovest thou me more than these? and so forth, he says: Passing over the others, he addresses Peter alone, and commits to him the care of the brethren: he neither mentions the denial nor reproaches him: he only says, if thou love me, take upon thee the care of the brethren. And below, treating that text, follow me, he says: He says to him, follow me: by which words he again shows his care and his familiar affection toward him. But if anyone should ask how James received the see at Jerusalem, I would answer that he had set this man as master of the whole world. And below, treating that text, Lord, but what of this man?, he says: For when the Lord had communicated great things to Peter, had entrusted to him the care of the whole world, had foretold his martyrdom, and a greater, and so forth.

Theophylus also, Luke XXII, treating that text, and thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren, says: After thou hast wept and done penance over thy denial of me, strengthen the rest: since I have appointed thee prince of the apostles, for this befits thee who art with me the strength and rock of the Church. And below: Though he was an apostle, he denied; and again through penance he obtained the prerogative of being prelate of the world.

And on the last chapter of John, on that text, when therefore they had dined, he says: When the meal was ended, he commits the charge of the sheep of the world to Peter, and to no other. And on that text, follow me, he says: In this, that the Lord says to Peter, follow me, he institutes for him the prelacy over all the faithful. And below, on that text, until I come, he says: that is, whilst I here, willing it, shall direct John to preach: for I now direct thee to the pontificate of the world: and in this follow thou me.

Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, in the book of the Thesaurus: As Christ received from the Father the scepter of the Church of the Gentiles, going forth as leader out of Israel over all principality and power, over every single thing that is, that all things might be bowed down to him: so also to Peter and to his successors he most fully committed it: and to none other than Peter did Christ give in full what is his own, but to him alone he gave it. And again: The feet of Christ are his humanity, namely the man himself: to whom the whole Trinity gave the most full power: which power one of the three assumed in the unity of person, and carried over to the Father above all principality and power, that all the angels of God might adore him: and this whole he handed down through sacrament and power to Peter and to his Church. And again: To Peter all bow their head by divine right: and the chief men of the world obey him as the Lord Jesus himself. And again: To that apostolic throne of the Roman pontiffs alone it belongs to reprove, to correct, to establish, to loose, to dispose, and, in the place of him who built it, to bind.

Maximus, in the letter directed to the Easterns: All the ends of the world that have sincerely received the Lord, and the Catholics everywhere throughout the earth confessing the true faith, look to the Church of the Romans as to the sun, and from it they receive the light of the catholic and apostolic faith.

Cyril, patriarch of Jerusalem, speaking in the person of Christ, says to Peter: Thou with an end, and I without end: with all whom I shall set in thy place, fully and perfectly, by sacrament and by authority, I will be, even as I am, and with thee.

The Council of Chalcedon (as is read in its acts), in the time of St. Leo and of the emperor Marcian, acclaimed Pope Leo: Leo, most holy, apostolic, and universal.

And earlier, in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian (as di. XXI, nunc autem, has it), when Marcellinus, pope and afterward martyr, led by fear, had offered incense to idols, a synod of bishops gathered on account of this matter said: The first see shall not be judged by anyone.

And long before, Anacletus the martyr, in the time of Trajan, a Greek by nation, an Athenian by fatherland, says: The most sacred Roman and apostolic Church obtained its primacy not from the apostles but from our Lord and Savior himself: as he said to the blessed apostle Peter, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and I will give thee the keys, and so forth, as is contained in distinction XXII, Sacrosancta. And again, as is contained in distinction XXI, in Novo, the same one says: In the New Testament, after Christ the Lord, the sacerdotal order began from Peter: because to him first the pontificate in the Church of Christ was given, the Lord saying to him, thou art Peter, and upon this rock, and so forth. And again. The Lord reserved to himself the ejection of the supreme pontiffs. LXXIX dist., Eiectione.

Marcellus, pope and martyr, in the time of Diocletian and Maximian, or of Constantius and Galerius (who took up the helm of the empire after Diocletian and Maximian), in the chapter Rogamus vos, XXIIII q. I, says of Peter: He himself is the head of the whole Church: to whom the Lord says, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and so forth.

Cyprian also, the martyr, in the treatise On the Simplicity of Prelates, says those things which are cited at XXIIII q. I (Loquitur Dominus), which for the sake of brevity I have not thought should be repeated: for in them the pontificate of Peter is sufficiently plain, as was declared above.

Ambrose, in sermon XLVII on the faith of the apostle Peter (and it is contained in distinction I, ch. Fidelior), says of Peter: As a good shepherd he received the flock to be guarded: so that he who had before been weak in himself might become a firm support to all: and he who had himself wavered under the trial of questioning might ground the rest in the solidity of faith. In fine, for the solidity of his devotion he is called the rock of the churches: as the Lord says, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church: for he is called a rock because he first laid among the nations the foundations of the faith, and, like an unmovable stone, holds together the frame and mass of the whole Christian work. And the same author, in the hymn for the Lord's day, calls Peter the rock of the Church, saying: at this crowing the very rock of the Church washed away his fault. For Augustine testifies, in the first book of the Retractations, ch. XXI, that this hymn is Ambrose's.

And in sermon XI on the wonders: This ship of the Church alone, therefore, the Lord boarded, in which Peter has been appointed master: the Lord saying, upon this rock I will build my church. This ship so sails upon the deep of this present age that, though the world perish, it keeps unharmed all whom it takes aboard. Its figure we already see in the Old Testament. For just as Noah's ark, when the world was shipwrecked, preserved unharmed all whom it had taken in: so also the Church of Peter, when the age is set ablaze, has presented unharmed all whom it embraces. And just as then, when the flood was over, the dove brought back to Noah's ark a sign of peace: so also, when the judgment is over, Christ will bring back to the Church of Peter the joy of peace, because he himself is the dove, or peace. And the same author, on the first epistle to Timothy, ch. III, treating that text, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, and so forth, says: Although the whole world is God's: yet the Church is called his house, whose ruler today is Damasus: for the world is in transgression, disturbed by diverse error: therefore there it must be said that the house of God and the truth are, where he is feared according to his own will.

And in the book on the death of his brother, named Satyrus, he narrates, commends, and defends the caution and wisdom of the same man, who in foreign parts inquired whether a bishop was catholic, that is, whether he agreed with the Roman Church: saying, ch. VII, He called the bishop to himself, and thought no grace true except the grace of the true faith: and he inquired of him whether he agreed with the catholic bishops, that is, with the Roman Church. When he said "the Roman," not the Jerusalem, not the Antiochene, not the Constantinopolitan, and so forth: why this, unless because the Roman is common to all catholics, doubtless as their head? For you will find a like refuge in Jerome, who writes to Damasus in the seventh letter: I meanwhile cry out, if anyone is joined to the chair of Peter, he is mine.

Jerome, on Matthew, says: To Simon, who believed in Christ the rock, he bestowed the name of Peter: and according to the metaphor of the rock it is rightly said to him, I will build my church upon thee. Again, to Damasus (and it is contained at XXIIII q. I, Quoniam vetusto): I, following no reward except Christ, am joined in communion with thy blessedness (that is, with the chair of Peter): I know the Church to be built upon that rock. And below: Whoever gathers not with thee, scatters: that is, he who is not Christ's is Antichrist's. Here note that Jerome reckons Christ and the pope as one and the same, as regards those things which are of faith: for that he speaks of these is clearly plain to one who sees the fourth letter.

The same author also, in the first book against Jovinian, ch. XIIII, says: Among the twelve one is chosen, so that, a head being appointed, occasion of schism may be taken away. And he is speaking without doubt of the election of Peter not by the apostles but by Christ: as is clear from the solution of the question appended just after: but why was not John, the virgin, chosen? For he resolves it: lest the good master, who had said, my peace I give unto you, and so forth, should seem to furnish a cause of envy against the youth whom he had loved.

The same author again, in the second letter to Damasus (and it is contained at XXIIII q. I, Haec est fides), says: If this our confession is approved by the judgment of thy apostolate: whoever shall wish to blame me will prove himself unskilled or malevolent or even not catholic, and will not prove me a heretic. Here, because thou seest that being or not being catholic or heretic depends on the judgment of the apostolic see, thou canst recognize the supreme tribunal of Christ on earth: to which it is established that the judgment concerning faith belongs.

Augustine not only affirms that Peter is the prince of the apostles: but, when the apostolic see was consulted concerning the faith against the Pelagian heresy by two councils, the Carthaginian and the Milevitan, he is found to have subscribed. And with Pope Innocent responding to the Carthaginian council: Keeping, by your priestly office, the institutions of the fathers, you judge that they are not to be trampled underfoot, because those fathers decreed not by a human but by a divine sentence: namely, that whatever should be transacted concerning separated and remote provinces, they should not deem it to be concluded before it came to the knowledge of this see, where, by the full authority of this see, whatever pronouncement had been just might be confirmed, and from thence the other churches might draw, just as all waters proceed from their native fount. And that throughout the diverse regions of the whole world it might remain of a pure and uncorrupted head: what to enjoin, whom to wash, whom — as those befouled as in filth that cannot be made clean — the wave worthy of clean bodies should shun. But to the Milevitan council: As often as a matter of faith is discussed, I judge that all our brethren and fellow bishops ought to refer it to none but Peter, that is, to the author of their own name and honor: even as now your charity has referred it, in a thing which throughout the whole world can profit all the churches in common.

Augustine, to Paulinus, letter CVI, relating these proceedings, commends the letters of Innocent in reply, adding: He wrote back to us on all points in the same manner in which it was right and fitting for the bishop of the apostolic see to do.

Again, in the second book on baptism against the Donatists, chapter one (and II q. VII, Puto, has it), he prefers the chair of Peter to any episcopate: when, comparing Cyprian to Peter, he says: I ought to fear lest I be insolent toward Peter: for who does not know that that primacy of his apostolate is to be preferred to any episcopate? But although the grace of the chairs differs, yet the glory of the martyrs is one.

Likewise, in the second book on Christian Doctrine, not far toward the beginning, he judges that the decretal letters of the apostolic see are to be held among the canonical scriptures, saying: In the canonical scriptures of the catholic churches let a most diligent investigator of the divine scriptures follow the authority of as many as possible: among which surely are those letters which the apostolic see has merited to have, and which others have merited to receive from it. For he who affirms that the decretals of the faith, which the apostolic see keeps by it or has sent to others, are to be held among the canonical scriptures, doubtless supposes the apostolic see to be not only set before all sees, but divine, inasmuch as it is the mistress of faith.

Gregory, in the fourth book of the Register, letter XXXII, to Maurice Augustus, says: To all who know the Gospel it is clear that by the voice of the Lord the care of the whole Church was committed to the holy apostle Peter, prince of all the apostles: for to him it is said, Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep. To him it is said, behold Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat: and I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren. To him it is said, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it: and I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven. Behold, he received the keys of the heavenly kingdom: the power of binding and loosing is given to him: the care of the whole Church and the primacy is committed to him.

Saint Leo the First, in the third sermon on the anniversary of the day of his assumption, says: Out of the whole world one Peter is chosen, who is set over both the calling of all the nations and over all the apostles and all the fathers of the Church: so that, although there are in the people of God many priests and many pastors, yet Peter rules all whom Christ also principally rules. Great and wonderful, most beloved, is the fellowship of his own power that the divine condescension has bestowed on this man: and if it willed anything to be common to the other princes with him, it never gave, except through him, whatever it did not deny to the others.

The venerable Bede, on that text of John I, and Jesus looking upon him said, says: He saw the simplicity of his heart, the loftiness of his mind: by whose merit he was to be set over the whole Church.

Bernard not only many times calls the Roman pontiff the vicar of Jesus Christ and the head of the whole Church: but in the first letter to Pope Eugene, CCXXVII in the order of the letters, he says: The place in which thou standest is holy ground: it is the place of Peter, the place of the prince of the apostles, where his feet stood: it is the place of him whom the Lord appointed lord of his house and prince of all his possession: deservedly to such a pastor, such a foster-father, was the Church committed, when it was still tender, still in the cradle. And in letter CCXLII to the Romans, when they had departed from the lord pope, he says: Why do you alike provoke against yourselves the king of the earth, the lord of heaven, with a fury as intolerable as it is irrational? While with sacrilegious daring you strive to assail the sacred and apostolic see, singularly exalted with divine and royal privileges, and to diminish it of its honor? And in letter CXXXI to the Milanese, on the fullness of apostolic power, he says: The Roman Church is very clement, but nonetheless powerful: a faithful counsel and worthy of all acceptance: do not abuse its clemency, lest thou be crushed by its power. But someone says: I will show it due reverence, and nothing more. Be it so. Do what thou sayest: for if thou show the due, thou showest also every kind. For the fullness of power over all the churches of the world has, by a singular prerogative, been given to the apostolic see: he therefore who resists this power, resists the ordinance of God. It can, if useful it shall judge, ordain new bishoprics where hitherto they have not been: it can depress some of those that exist, and exalt others, as reason shall dictate to it: so that it is permitted to create archbishops out of bishops, and conversely if it shall seem necessary. It can summon from the ends of the earth any exalted ecclesiastical persons whatsoever, and compel them to its presence: not once or twice, but as often as it shall see to be expedient. Moreover it is ready at hand for it to avenge all disobedience, if anyone should perchance attempt to resist.

In the acts of the Council of Constance, among the condemned articles of John Wyclif and John Hus, these two are found: namely, that Peter is not and was not the head of the holy catholic Church; that it is not of the necessity of salvation to believe the Roman Church to be supreme among the other churches. And it is added: it is an error, inasmuch as it would deny the primacy of the supreme pontiff over the other particular churches.

Saint Thomas, in IV contra Gentes, ch. LXXVI, after he has proved in manifold ways that one bishop has been set by Christ over the whole Church, adds: But by this is excluded the presumptuous error of certain men, who strive to withdraw themselves from the obedience and subjection of Peter, not recognizing his successor the Roman pontiff as pastor of the universal Church.

Likewise in the universal council of Florence, under Eugene IV, where the union of the Greeks, Armenians, and Jacobites with the Roman Church is read to have been made, these words are had: We define that the holy apostolic see and the Roman pontiff hold the primacy over the whole world: and that the Roman pontiff himself is the successor of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and the true vicar of Christ, and is the head of the whole Church and the father and teacher of all Christians: and that to him, in blessed Peter, full power of feeding, ruling, and governing the universal Church was handed down by our Lord Jesus Christ: even as is also contained in the acts of the ecumenical councils and in the sacred canons. Thus far there.

Here note that this definition was not newly devised by this synod, but that it is itself contained in the acts of other universal councils: and therefore this one council suffices for all to establish the faith of this truth.

I pass over the throng of canons and doctors (which no one can number) that hold the same. For so evidently, from those things which we have brought forward, is it clear that the Roman pontiff, the successor of Peter, has been instituted by Christ in Peter as pastor of the whole Church, that no place is left for doubt. But if anyone after these things is found hesitating, he is either untrained and inept, or thinks with the heretics or schismatics, or certainly is not a Christian: for whoever seeks mathematical certitude in all things is very unlearned and unteachable, as the philosophers hand down.

It is proper to heretics and schismatics to use sacred Scripture, yet according to the sense in which they themselves make it sound. But the wisdom of Christians, who are truly catholic, understands sacred Scripture according to the sense which the holy doctors, which the sacred councils, strengthened by apostolic authority, interpret. Whoever rejects this manner of knowing Christian truth is not a Christian: he who departs from this way is found an unbeliever. For if license to stray from this way be admitted, it is permitted to call into doubt, with Arius, the one substance of the Trinity: that the Holy Spirit proceeds also from the Son will still be ambiguous, as with the ancients: it will be doubted that the bread in the sacrament of the altar is converted into the body of Christ. For all these things have been rendered to Christians certain and to be held with undoubting faith by no other way or authority than by the interpretation of sacred Scripture according to the teachings of the saints, and by the definition of the sacred councils confirmed by apostolic authority. Wherefore, since the texts of the Gospel are at hand for the purpose, and the teaching of the saints in conformity appears for the purpose, with not one of the saints at all resisting, and the definition of the sacred councils, with apostolic authority, is found, and every age of Christians from Peter until now in the holy catholic Church is found to have confessed this, and the testimonies of the remaining doctors are innumerable: it is thus rendered certain that the Roman pontiff, the successor of Peter, instituted in Peter by Christ, is the pastor of the whole Church, so that a more certain faith cannot be had. Amen.

At Rome, in the year of Christian salvation 1521, in the fifty-second year of my age, on the eighteenth day of February.