Summa de Ecclesia

¹ With the arguments of the adversaries founded on the first supposition emptied, let us answer those founded on the second supposition. In the first place we say that the second supposition itself, in which the adversaries say that all things said to Peter conveying or designating authority or power were also said to the other apostles and in them to the whole Church, is false, as is clear by example in many instances. And first concerning that which is put in John 1: Thou shalt be called Cephas, which according to Saints Anacletus and Isidore means head, it is manifest that this was said neither to the other apostles nor to the whole Church itself. Likewise neither the words in Matt. 16: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven; and I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. But this was said to Peter alone, and not to the other apostles nor to the community of the Church itself, which is said to be founded upon the Rock or upon the confession of Peter: hence blessed Chrysostom says: See how Christ raises Peter to a lofty understanding of him, for he promises that he will give him these things which belong to God alone, namely to loose sins and to make the Church unshaken amid so many storms of persecutions and temptations. Likewise blessed Augustine in a certain sermon on the apostles Peter and Paul most openly confirms our proposition, saying: This is Peter, in that school of the heavenly disciples the chief and first, fit, receiving the words of life from the mouth of Christ, interpreter of the law, asserter of grace, destroyer of the synagogue, repairer of the Church, and therefore alone among the apostles he merited to hear: Amen I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock, etc. But as to what the adversaries say, that Peter answered for all, it is said that this is true, since as blessed Ambrose says, although the other apostles were silent, Peter nevertheless answered for all. Hence Chrysostom on Matthew says thus: But when the Lord asks the opinion of the people, all answer, but when asked concerning all the disciples, Peter, as the mouth of the apostles and the head, answers for all, whence there follows: And Simon Peter answering, etc. But what the adversaries subjoin is that what was said to Peter, To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, was said not for himself alone but also for the others. It is answered that this is true, but with a difference: for to Peter the keys were given or promised immediately, and in fullness or in pre-eminence; but to the others through Peter as mediator, or in relation to him and according to the measure of the dispensation to be carried out through him. For as he was foremost in confession, so was he foremost in reward. For although he received for all, nevertheless he received also before all; whence the Gloss says thus on this passage: He who confessed before the rest was endowed with the conferred keys before the rest. This too is manifestly clear from the sayings of the saints which they bring forward for themselves, if they are recited not truncated, as is their custom, but whole. It is clear from Leo the pope, who in the third sermon on his consecration speaks thus: He is first in the confession of the Lord who is first in apostolic dignity; on which account it is said to most blessed Peter: To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, etc. The right of this power did indeed pass to the other apostles, and the ordinance of such a decree travelled to all princes of the Church; but not in vain is it commended to one what is intimated to all. For to Peter this is singularly entrusted, because the pattern of Peter is set before all rulers of the Church — thus far. Likewise it is clear from Rabanus, whom they bring forward, if he be brought whole into the midst: for he says, as is had in the continuous Gloss: But this power of binding and loosing, which seems to have been given by the Lord to Peter alone, is nevertheless given to the other apostles, and now also in bishops and priests to the whole Church; but Peter received in a special way the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the principate of judicial power, that all throughout the world may understand that whosoever in any way segregate themselves from the unity of the faith or from its fellowship — that such can neither be absolved from the bonds of sins nor enter the gate of the heavenly kingdom. Behold that the sayings of the saints brought forward by the adversaries, when they are brought whole into the midst, manifestly confirm our point: namely, that it was said to Peter singularly and specially: To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Which is also most openly shown by the fact that he alone among the apostles is depicted with keys. Likewise of him alone sings the Church: O God, who with the conferred keys of the heavenly kingdom didst hand over to blessed Peter thy apostle the pontificate of binding and absolving, etc. Moreover, that the supposition of the adversaries — namely, that things said to Peter conveying power were also said to the other apostles and in them to the whole Church — is utterly false, is clear from what Christ said to Peter: Simon of John, lovest thou me more than these? Feed my sheep. But it is most plain that these words are said to Peter alone, which the holy fathers also manifestly attest; whence blessed Chrysostom, treating this word on John, speaks thus: Passing the others by and hastening past, he speaks to him of such things; for Peter was the excellent one of the apostles, and the mouth of the disciples, and the head of the college — thus Chrysostom. Behold a most clear testimony that that was said by Christ to Peter alone. Moreover blessed Bernard testifies to this same thing, writing thus to Eugenius in the second book on Consideration: Thou art he to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven have been handed over, to whom the sheep have been entrusted. There are indeed also other doorkeepers of heaven, and shepherds of flocks; but thou so much the more gloriously, as thou hast inherited both names before the rest with greater distinction. Others have assigned flocks, each his own; to thee all have been entrusted — one to one man, not of sheep only but also of shepherds; thou the one shepherd of all. Whence, thou askest, shall I prove it? From the word of the Lord: for to whom — I say not of bishops but even of apostles — were the sheep so absolutely and indistinctly committed whole? If thou lovest me, he says, feed my sheep, etc. But as to what the adversaries bring forward from blessed Augustine in his book on the Combat of the Christian — that when the keys of the Church were given, they were given with Peter — we say that this is true, but, as we said above and as is had in the Gloss on Matt. 16, in bishops and priests, but not in the whole community of the Church. And likewise what Augustine consequently says — that what is said with Peter is said to all: Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep — is not to be understood as though Christ then directed that word of himself and immediately to all the apostles, since, as blessed Chrysostom says, as has been seen, Christ, passing by the other apostles, spoke to Peter. And blessed Bernard says that to none of the apostles did he commit the sheep as absolutely and indistinctly as to Peter: both because, if Christ had said that to all the apostles, he would then have constituted several shepherds of the universal Church, against that of John 10: There shall be one fold and one shepherd; and moreover it would be laughable for that word to be understood as referred to all the faithful, since it is agreed that not all have been set as shepherds. For the Apostle says in Eph. 4: Some he appointed as shepherds; ‘some,’ he said — he did not say ‘all.’ Nor can it be referred to the whole community of the faithful either, as we showed above; for it is not called shepherd but flock of the Lord, whose care was committed to Peter, as Gregory says. But Augustine’s saying must be taken thus, according to the same holy doctor’s own meaning: that what was then said to Peter alone in his own person was said also in the figure of all the other apostles and of future prelates — to whom, as he said, the keys were given in the Church — yet according to the proportion of the solicitude to which they were to be called through Peter. Whence the same Augustine, in a certain sermon on the apostles Peter and Paul which begins, Peter the apostle, first of all the apostles, etc., treating that word of the last chapter of John, Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep, says thus: One by one the Lord Jesus said to Peter, who said, I love thee: Feed my lambs; feed my little sheep. In Peter was figured the unity of all shepherds. This too blessed Ambrose means to say at the beginning of his Pastoral, when he says that Peter did not receive the sheep then alone, but received them with us, and we with him. He speaks of shepherds, such as Ambrose himself was — whence that book is called Pastoral. For since Christ had care for his sheep not only for the time of Peter but also for the whole course of time unto the end of the world, it is certain that when he committed his sheep to Peter, he is understood to have committed them in him also to all his other successors and to prelates to be called into a share of his solicitude; and consequently it is true that when Peter undertook the sheep to be fed, he undertook them with the others, and the others are said to have undertaken them with him. But with this it stands that Peter, for his own time, undertook all the sheep of Christ to be fed, he alone absolutely and indistinctly, as blessed Bernard says. For the rest, that the aforesaid supposition of the adversaries is also false is clear from what was said by Christ to Peter in Luke 22: Thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren. But this was said to Peter alone, not to the other apostles, as is manifest from the very letter; and yet in this very great authority was given to Peter, as is clear from that of blessed Ambrose in ch. Fidelior, dist. 50: Peter was made more faithful after he wept that he had lost faith, and therefore found a greater grace: so that he who before had been weak in himself might become the firmament of all; so that he who had changed at the temptation of the interrogation might found the rest by stability of faith — thus Ambrose. Further, that the aforesaid supposition of the adversaries is false is clear from what is read as said to Peter in Luke 5: Launch out into the deep. But that this was said not to the apostles but to Peter alone the Gloss expressly testifies, saying thus: Whence it is also commanded to the others to let down the nets; to Peter alone it is said, Launch out into the deep — that is, into the depth of disputations. And blessed Ambrose testifies to the same in ch. Est aliud, 24, q. 1. From these the falsity of the aforesaid supposition of the adversaries is manifestly clear, and consequently the arguments founded on it are of no strength or moment.