Summa de Ecclesia

But that blessed Peter was not only the prince of the other apostles, but had the principate and the authority of prelacy over the whole Christian world, we shall easily show both by testimonies of sacred Scripture and by efficacious reasons. First from that which the Lord says in Matt. 16: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Which word blessed Chrysostom treating on Matt. says thus, as St. Thomas adduces: The Son has universally granted to Peter what is the Father's and the power of the Son himself throughout the lands and to a mortal man has given authority over all things which are in heaven, giving him the keys for this that he amplify the Church everywhere. Likewise on the Acts of the Apostles the same blessed Chrysostom thus most excellently confirms the proposition: Peter the apostle received power from the Son over all who are sons, not as Moses in one nation but in the whole world. Secondly the same is drawn from that place in the last chapter of John where Christ says to Peter: Simon son of John, feed my sheep, distinguishing neither between these nor those, but commends all to his care. Hence blessed Chrysostom expounding this word says thus: Feed my sheep, that is in my place be set-over, and be head of the brethren, that they taking thee in my place may preach and confirm thee sitting on thy throne throughout the lands. Thirdly the same is shown from that place also in the last chapter of John where Christ says to Peter: Follow me. Which word ought to be understood not so much of the kind of martyrdom as of the order of mastership. For both Andrew and certain others besides Peter followed Christ in crucifixion, but the Lord substituted Peter alone for himself, both as vicar in office and as successor in martyrdom. Hence St. Thomas expounding this place says concerning both, or according to Chrysostom: Follow me in the office of prelacy, that is to say, as I have from God the Father the care of the Church, Ps. 2: Ask of me and I will give thee the nations etc., so be thou in my place over the whole Church. Hence Theophilus on the same word says: By this that the Lord says to Peter, follow me, he instituted him prelate of all the faithful. And blessed Bernard to Eugene in book 2 on consideration, ch. 6, proving from this place of the Gospel the amplitude of the apostolic principate, says thus to him: Thou art he to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven have been handed over, to whom the sheep have been handed over. There are indeed also other doorkeepers of heaven, and shepherds of flocks, but thou so much more gloriously as thou hast inherited each differently before the rest. Others have assigned flocks, each his own; to thee all have been credited, one flock to one man, and not only of sheep but also of shepherds, thou one man for all. Hence thou askest whence this be proved, from the word of the Lord by which not to bishops but to apostles also thus absolutely and indistinctly all the sheep were committed. If thou lovest me, he says, feed the sheep: which? of this or that people, city or region or indeed kingdom? sheep, he says, mine; to whom is it not plain that he designated none but assigned all? nothing is excepted where no distinction is made, and perhaps the other disciples were present when committing the Church to one he commended unity to all in one flock under one shepherd according to that place: One is my dove, my beautiful, my perfect, where unity there perfection, the remaining numbers have not perfection but distinction receding from unity. Hence it is that others have obtained single peoples by lot knowing the sacrament. In fine James who is called the pillar of the Church, content with one church of Jerusalem, yielding the universality to Peter. But beautifully was he placed there to raise up seed to the dead brother where he was slain. For he was called the brother of the Lord; moreover with the Lord's brother sitting, who would thrust himself in against Peter's prerogative? therefore according to thy canons others are called to a part of solicitude, thou to the fullness of power etc. Fourthly the same sentence is gathered from that place in John in the same chapter where Peter alone was bidden to come over the sea, by which it was given to be understood that he would hold the whole world designated by the sea under one sway. Hence blessed Bernard in the place above thus subjoins to the aforesaid pontiff: Take that which nonetheless confirms thy prerogative. The disciples were sailing, and the Lord appeared on the shore; Peter knowing that it is the Lord cast himself into the sea, and so came to him while the others came in boats. What is this? surely a sign of Peter's singular pontificate, by this that he undertook to govern not one boat as each of the rest his own, but the world itself. For the sea is the world, the boats the churches. Hence it is also that on another occasion walking upon the waters in the likeness of the Lord he designated himself the unique vicar of Christ, who ought to preside not over one people but over all, since many waters are peoples. And so when to each of the rest his own, to thee alone the boats made from all into one, the universal Church itself spread through the whole world, has been committed. So says Bernard. Fifthly the universality of the apostolic pontificate is shown from what follows consequently in the same Gospel of John, where Peter alone is read to have ascended and drawn the net to land full of great fishes. On which blessed Gregory assigning the reason says of this kind: For to him the holy Church has been committed, to him it is said spiritually, feed my sheep. But this he himself now prefigures in deed, for he draws the fishes to the solidity of the shore, because he shows to the faithful the stability of the eternal homeland. Sixthly the same is shown from that place in Acts 10 where to Peter alone was shown the sheet let down from heaven, and let down upon him alone, in which were all quadrupeds and creeping things of the earth and fowls, and to him alone was it said concerning all those animals: Arise Peter, kill and eat. Which sheet no one doubts designates the whole world with all men of diverse rites. Nor is there doubt that to kill and to eat was nothing else than to cut off perverse morals in them, and to incorporate them in his own person into the whole Church, as is sufficiently gathered from the interlinear Gloss. Hence also blessed Augustine treating this word on that place in Ps. 30, All the beasts of the field shall drink, speaks thus to our proposition concerning the extension of Peter's principate to all faithful men of whatever nations: For the fourfold linen vessel was let down from heaven to Peter wherein were animals of every kind, and a voice sounded to him: Arise Peter, slay and eat, for Peter slays all in that wherein they are evil, and eats by transferring into the body of the Church. And below: For all were in the ark, all in the dish, Peter slays all and eats all. So says Augustine. Seventhly this same is shown from that which the Church throughout the world on the feast of blessed Peter the apostle says to Peter: Thou art the shepherd of the sheep, prince of the apostles, to thee God has handed over all the kingdoms of the world. Eighthly from that which in the same history the Lord is reported to have said to Peter: Simon Peter, before I called thee from the boat I knew thee and I have constituted thee prince over my people. But the people of Christ is called the whole universal Church. There remains therefore from the adduced testimonies of sacred Scripture most clear, that blessed Peter was, and now his successor has, the authority of prelacy over the whole Church of Christ, so that he is truly that servant of whom Christ says in Luke 12: The faithful and wise servant whom the Lord has set over his household, the Gloss says, that is the Church. Ninthly this same is shown from the Chalcedonian council which St. Thomas in the treatise against the errors of the Greeks in ch. 67 adduces to prove this, namely that the aforesaid vicar of Christ obtains prelacy over the whole universal Church. For it is read in the Chalcedonian council that the whole synod acclaimed Pope Leo: Leo most holy apostolic and Ycomenicus, that is universal patriarch, live for many years. Likewise he adduces Cyril on John saying: James he bounds locally in a place, but Peter he ordains master and teacher of the whole world. This is also shown thus by reason. Prince, law and end seem so commensurate that they are mutually equal in universality and extension: the regulative principate, the means by which, and the end to which; but so it is that the evangelical law according to which the ecclesiastical pontiff rules the Church, and the end which he intends in the government of the Church, the ecclesiastical prince himself, namely supreme beatitude, extends to every faithful man, to every sex, and to every state. Therefore to all the faithful of whatever condition and state they be, gathered together locally or dispersed through the world, extends the authority of the government and administration of the supreme pontiff. From which the error of those saying that blessed Peter or the Roman pontiff does not have primacy or principate over the whole Church is most openly refuted. Concerning the gravity of which error blessed Thomas against the error of the Greeks in ch. 66 speaks thus: But like is the error of those saying that the vicar of Christ, the pontiff of the Roman Church, does not have the primacy of the universal Church, to the error of those saying that the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Son. For Christ himself the Son of God consecrates his Church, and seals it to himself with the Holy Spirit as with his character and seal, as is manifestly had from the authorities set above, and likewise the vicar of Christ by his primacy and providence preserves the universal Church subjected to Christ as a faithful minister. So says St. Thomas.