Summa de Ecclesia

After we showed by the most approved testimonies that blessed Peter the apostle held the primacy among the apostles, and was instituted by Christ as prince and ruler of the Church, we shall inquire in consequence for what causes he was said to be the foundation of the Church. Now we say that although we read that the name of foundation is attributed to all the apostles, according to that of psalm 86, Their foundations are in the holy mountains, the first Gloss: in the apostles; and in Apoc. 21 it is said, The wall of the city, that is, of the Church, having twelve foundations, and in them the twelve names of the twelve apostles; and this because all the apostles founded the Church in the faith and doctrine of Christ, as the apostle Paul had founded it, who said in 1 Cor. 3, As a wise architect I have laid the foundation, the Gloss: the faith of Christ, no other; nevertheless, by a certain singular prerogative, blessed Peter was and was said to be, after Christ, the foundation of the Church. Whence in Matt. 16 Christ thus speaks to Peter alone, I say to thee, Peter, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Pondering this word, blessed Jerome says thus in his commentary, Thou hast said to me, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, and I say to thee in speech concealing nothing and bearing no work, but I say to thee, for my saying is doing, that thou art Peter. For as he gave light to the apostles that they might be called the light of the world, and the other names spoken by the Lord, so also to Simon, who believed in Christ the rock, he lavished the name of Rock, and according to the metaphor of the rock it is rightly said to him, I will build my Church upon thee; and this is what follows, and upon this rock I will build my Church; thus Jerome. But running through many expositions and commentaries of the holy fathers, we find that the name of foundation or rock is attributed to Peter most fittingly and most plainly for many reasons or considerations. First indeed by reason of that most glorious confession by which, before all the other apostles, he confessed Christ, saying in Matt. 16, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God; a confession certainly worthy of all praise, in which the faith of the whole Church is offered, as Augustine says; for he confesses Christ both true God and true man, as the Gloss says; a confession certainly salutary and necessary, without which no one enters the kingdom of heaven, as the Gloss says. This reason is touched by blessed Maximus in the sermon on the apostles Peter and Paul which begins, The most glorious princes of the Christian faith, speaking thus, This is Peter to whom Christ the Lord willingly granted communion; for as the apostle Paul taught, and the rock was Christ, so through Christ Peter was made rock, for with the Lord saying, Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church; for as in the desert, at the Lord's command, water flowed from the rock for the thirsting people, so for the whole world, languishing with the aridity of unbelief, the fount of the salutary confession sprang from the mouth of Peter; thus he. And most holy Leo speaks thus of this confession of Peter in the second sermon on his ordination, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God; Peter says it daily, and every tongue which confesses the Lord is imbued by the teaching of such a voice. This faith conquers the devil and looses the bonds of his captives. It engrafts those stripped of the world into heaven, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. For it is fortified by God with such solidity that neither heretical depravity could ever corrupt it nor pagan unbelief overcome it. Secondly, blessed Peter was most fittingly called the foundation of the Church because he first laid the foundations of the faith among the nations, as Ambrose says in ch. Fidelior, dist. 1; or as blessed Anacletus says in ch. In novo, dist. 21, He first brought men to the faith by the power of his preaching and instructed them by word. For the apostle Peter himself converted the first Jews and the first Gentiles after Christ's ascension to the faith of Christ; whence on the day of Pentecost about three thousand Jews are read to have been converted by the word of his exhortation and to have received the sacrament of baptism, Acts ch. 2; and then the history of the Acts testifies that he baptized Cornelius the centurion, a Gentile, and his household, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles. Thirdly, Peter was called the foundation of the Church on account of the singular constancy and insuperable firmness of his faith, concerning which blessed Pope Leo, treating in the first sermon on his consecration that passage of Luke 22, Behold, Simon, Satan hath desired you, speaks thus, The danger from the temptation of fear was common to all the apostles, and they equally needed the aid of divine protection, since the devil desired to crush them all; and yet the Lord undertakes a special care of Peter, and prays properly for the faith of Peter, as though the state of the others would be more secure if the mind of the prince were not conquered in Peter. Therefore the fortitude of all is fortified, and the aid of divine grace is so ordained that the firmness attributed through Christ to Peter is conferred through Peter upon the apostles. Fourthly, blessed Peter is most fittingly called the foundation of the Church because he was made the foundation and firmament of all the others; whence the Lord says in Luke 22, Thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren. Pondering this word, blessed Ambrose in book 1 of the Homilies, and it is found in ch. Fidelior, says thus, Peter was made more faithful after he wept that he had lost faith, and therefore found a greater grace than he had lost. For as a good shepherd he received the flock to be guarded, so that he who before had been weak in himself might become the firmament of all, and he who had changed at the temptation of the interrogation might found the rest by stability of faith; thus he. Likewise Theophilus, treating the aforesaid word, Confirm thy brethren, says thus, For this befits thee, who art strength with me and the rock of the Church. Likewise Chrysostom, on that word of Matt. 16, Thou art Peter, etc., alludes to our point, speaking thus, See how Christ raises Peter to a lofty understanding of him; for he promises the things which belong to God alone, namely to loose sins and to make the Church immutable and unchangeable amid so many storms of persecutions and tempests. To the same point blessed Hilary speaks thus on the same word, In the naming of the new name there is the happy foundation of the Church, a rock worthy of his building, which would dissolve the laws of hell and the gates of Tartarus and all the bars of death; thus he. Likewise Pope Damasus, writing to Stephen the archbishop, says thus to the point, Be, most dear brethren, a firmament fixed and immovable by God, and a most luminous title of his priests, that is, of all bishops — that the apostolic see is constituted, even the crown of the churches. For thou art, as the divine word truly proclaims, Peter, and upon thy firmament the columns of the Church, which are understood to be the bishops, have been confirmed, and to thee I have committed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and I have proclaimed the power of binding and loosing both the things that are in heaven and those on earth; thus he. Likewise Pope Leo, in the third sermon on his ordination, treating that passage of Matt. 16, And I say to thee that thou art Peter, etc., speaks thus beautifully to the point, I say to thee, that is, as my Father has manifested my divinity to thee, so also I make known to thee thy excellence, because thou art Peter; that is, since I am the inviolable rock, I the cornerstone who make both one, I the foundation besides which no one can lay another, thou also art a rock because thou art made solid by my power, so that the things which are mine by power may be thine with me by participation; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; upon this fortitude, he says, I will raise the eternal temple, and the loftiness of my Church, to be engrafted into heaven, shall rise upon the firmness of this faith; thus he. To the same point is blessed Pope Gregory in the epistle to the bishop of Syracuse, Who does not know that the holy Church was strengthened upon the solidity of the prince of the apostles, who drew firmness of mind into his name, so as to be called Peter from the rock, to whom it is said by the voice of truth, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; likewise, Feed my sheep. And so, though there are many apostles, the see of the prince of the apostles alone, by reason of their princedom, has grown strong in authority. Fifthly, Peter was called the foundation of the Church on account of the insuperable teaching authority of his see, in which, as is found in ch. In sede and in ch. Haec est fides, 24, q. 2, the Catholic religion has always been kept without stain. To which point blessed Jerome cries out in ch. Quoniam vetus, in the same place, I am joined in communion with the see of Peter; I know that upon that rock the Church is founded; whoever eats the lamb outside this house is profane; whoever shall not have been in the ark shall perish while the flood reigns. And Cyprian: whoever deserts the see of Peter, upon which the Church is founded, let him not trust that he is in the Church. Sixthly, Peter was called the foundation of the Church by reason of his primacy, the authority of whose see is a certain foundation of the Church, as holy Thomas says at the end of book 2 of the Sentences. For the see of Peter is first from Christ, and founded upon Christ, as in ch. Omnes, dist. 22; upon it depends the disposition of the whole ecclesiastical order, and after Christ rises the height of the whole ecclesiastical edifice. For it is that see which, as Pope Nicholas says in ch. Omnes, dist. 22, instituted and founded all men, whether patriarchs, to the summit of whatsoever primacy, or the sees of metropolitans or archbishops, or the dignity of churches of whatsoever order; but that see itself was founded by him alone, and he raised it upon the rock of the faith then being born, who committed to blessed Peter, the key-bearer of eternal life, the rights of earthly and heavenly rule together. And in this way seems to be understood what Damasus says in the sermon on the Transfiguration, answering Peter who says, It is good for us to be here, let us make here three tabernacles, The Lord has not constituted thee the maker of tabernacles but the builder of the universal Church. Wherefore, as blessed Augustine says in a certain sermon read on the feast of the See of Saint Peter, Rightly do they celebrate the Church's birthday-feast of Peter's see, which see the apostle undertook for the salvation of the churches, with the Lord saying, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Peter therefore he named the foundation of the Church, and therefore the Church worthily honors this foundation, upon which the height of the building rises; thus Augustine. Likewise the same blessed Augustine, in a certain sermon on the apostles Peter and Paul, speaking of blessed Peter, says thus, Peter merited to hear, yet I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Worthy indeed was he to be a stone for the foundations for the peoples to be built in the house of God, a column for support, a key for the kingdom. Likewise the same Augustine, and it is found in ch. Pudenda, 24, q. 1, says that the Church is founded upon the root of the apostolic see. Seventhly, blessed Peter was called the foundation of the Church by reason of the irrefragable firmness of the judgments of his apostolic see; concerning which Origen says in the Gloss upon that passage of Matt. 16, Whatsoever thou shalt bind, etc., thus, See how great a power the rock has upon which the Church is built, so that even its judgments remain firm, as though God were judging through it. Likewise Maximus, in the sermon on the apostles Peter and Paul which begins, Of the most blessed apostles, etc., speaks thus of this, What shall I relate of Peter also, whose justice was so approved by God, and to whom so great a power of judging was attributed, that the heavenly judgment was placed at his discretion? See therefore, and esteem with how great honor Peter the apostle must be revered by us, whose sentence pronounced on earth the equity of the eternal Judge does not reject. And blessed Bernard, in a certain sermon on the apostles Peter and Paul which begins, Peter, prince of the apostles, speaks thus, Peter, prince of the apostles, is one whom the insignia of a singular primacy ennoble above others, the little key-bearer of the kingdom, the tongue of heaven, the foundation of the faith, consummate honor and glorious dignity: that a man placed on earth should command in heaven, and exercise the efficacy of judicial power among the choirs of angels, and possess on earth the binding and loosing which none of the angels possesses; Peter is present, and at his discretion the whole world is bound and loosed, and the sentence of Peter precedes the sentence of the Redeemer; for it is not Peter who binds what Christ binds, but Christ who binds what Peter binds, with himself testifying to him, Whatsoever thou shalt bind, etc. O how powerful a dignity, how worthy a power! Peter shall judge, and the Almighty confirms the judgments of Peter, and in the hand of Peter is the hand of the Most High; and he alone becomes the intimate of Christ who shall have had the intimacy of Peter; thus he.