building; not the only one.

And here like

wise St. Paul sides with those that uphold a broader conception of the Church, in that he says that "the building" of the Church, being fitly framed together in Jesus, the chief Corner-stone (not in the Pope), groweth up into an holy temple in the Lord (Ephes. ii. 20, 21). Finally, I reject the assertion that the authority, or the faculty of jurisdiction, resident in the head of any society, is the binding force and the principle of unity in it. It is quite true, authority must not be wanting; but the laws and rules of conduct and action for the members, in correlation with the end of the society, are far more necessary. If the Pasteur theory and its serum are proved false and useless, there is no President of the Pasteur Institute that will save it from destruction. Pasteur himself would be powerless. Would not this fate be shared by the Church, if Christ were to be proved an impostor?

So far we have discoursed on the text itself, apart from any detailed consideration of the way in which the early Fathers of the Church interpreted it. Let us now pass on to examine this latter point.

CHAPTER IV

THE FATHERS AND ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS

OF THE CHURCH ON ST. PETER

I

HAVE before me three different books

of Roman Catholic theology: one by an Italian, another by a French, and a third by a German author; all of them are conceived and laid out on the same plan: ab uno disce

omnes.

After the so-called Scriptural proof, they quote the Fathers to prove that they held Peter to be the rock meant by Christ upon which the Church was to be built. "Prob. II. Ex. Patribus; Patres docent B. Petrum esse petram, super quam Ecclesia fundata est." And they quote Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzen, Epiphanius, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and others of less account.

Now, it is quite true that all these Fathers,

and many others, say often, in passing words, that the Church is built on Peter, and that Peter is the rock; but it is not less true that the same Fathers held at other times that the rock was Jesus, or that it was the confession made by St. Peter.

At the time of the Vatican Council a book was published under the title Quæstio, which examined very carefully the opinions of the Fathers of the Church upon our subject; and it found that eight Fathers interpreted the word "rock" as all the apostles collectively taken; sixteen took it as meaning Christ Himself; seventeen applied it to St. Peter, and forty-four interpreted it as the faith which Peter confessed: 66 Quadraginta quatuor ea verba explicant de fide quam confessus est Petrus."1 I have by me the Very Rev. J. Waterworth's book, A Commentary by Writers of the First Five Centuries on the Place of St. Peter in the New Testament. London: Thomas Richardson, 1871. I take my quotations from him, because he is beyond suspicion. In his book I see quoted a great number of Fathers and writers in support of

1 Apud Hurter, S.J., Theologiæ Dogmaticæ Compendium, Tract III., De Primatu, Thesis lxxi., nota.

the word "rock" as applied to Peter; but it is necessary to observe that all of them do so in passing remarks, not on purpose and by design, repeating as it were mechanically the words of Jesus: "Thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build My Church." This word, to them, is a mere adjective which they bestow on Peter, just as our Lord did. The same Fathers and writers, however, whenever they happen to inquire into the meaning of the word "rock," as applied to Peter, uphold either (a) that the true rock is Christ; or (b) that St. Peter was called Rock because he was entrusted with the foundation of the Church, i.e. because he, first of all, opened the gates of the Church to the Jews and the Gentiles; or (c) because, from the first Church founded by him at Jerusalem, all other Churches are derived; or (d) finally, because the Church is founded upon the profession of faith by him uttered, on which faith, as upon a solid rock, the Church was for ever founded.

In Mgr. Waterworth's collection I see that over thirty Fathers and writers of the first five centuries call Peter a rock; many of whom, however, add explanations of their

meaning in other parts of their works. A greater number of them call Jesus a rock, although not so as to exclude St. Peter, as a secondary rock, or foundation, of the Church. A few, as St. Asterius (p. 78), St. Maximus (139), Firmilian (30), Tertullian (8), St. Innocent I. (135), St. Boniface (137), St. Gregory Nazianzen (61), and perhaps others, held the second and third meanings of the word "rock" referred to above; others, as St. Basil (69), Origen (14), and St. Jerome (110) say that the Church was built on Peter, but not to the exclusion of all the other apostles; and finally, about twenty profess explicitly our opinion, i.e. that the Church was founded on the rock of the faith professed by Peter, when he said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

The reader may read, if he has a wish, St. Epiphanius (p. 67), St. Augustine (125, 128, 130), St. John Chrysostom (85, 90), St. Athanasius (50), St. Hilary of Poitiers (44, 45), St. Ambrose (71, 72, 76), Origen (13), Theodoret (152), St. Cyril of Alexandria (143), Tertullian (6), Victor of Antioch (133), Palladius (133), Cassian (155), Paul Emesenus (156), St. Leo, Pope (157, 158, 160, 162),