FOURTH CONFERENCE.

OF THE ESTABLISHMENT UPON EARTH OF THE CHIEF OF THE CHURCH.

MY LORD,

GENTLEMEN,

THE Catholic Church being built upon unity, as we have seen in the Conference which treated of her constitution, it follows that the foundation of that unity on the shifting sands of the world must have been the object of a profound work of God; and if it is grand to follow the designs of his providence with regard to the least among men, what will it be to pursue that design in the establishment of that imperishable rock which, by a sublime play of words, he called Peter, (1) declaring that whoever should fall upon that stone should be broken? We purpose to-day to examine with you the foundation of the papacy, in the persuasion that the divinity of the Church is there fully shown, and that you will recognise it without any effort.

The papacy, or the sovereign pontificate, bears along with itself two elements: spiritual supremacy and temporal independence. Without spiritual supremacy, unity was but a chimera; without temporal independence, supremacy was but the enslaving of truth, confiding it to a single

(1) Peter signifying a rock. St. John, ch. 1, v. 42.

man, and that man delivered over to the mercy of an emperor, or a republic, or some other human power. It was needful, then, on one hand, that supremacy should be always visible and incontestable; and it was also necessary that it should have free exercise, notwithstanding obstacles of every kind which it might have to encounter. The manifestation of pontifical supremacy, and the establishment of its independence, these are two capital points correlative to each other, without which it was impossible for the unity of the Church to exist in the world; and for which, consequently, God must have provided in a manner so much the more worthy of attention as the work was more necessary, and more difficult also, seeing the nature of human communities, and of the passions in the midst of which so great a power was to be placed. We are about to traverse a vast course, Gentlemen; we shall be obliged to leave much detail in the shade; but you will see a sufficient number of things illustrated to distinguish there the finger of God, and to conceive the desire to study more profoundly the great depths of sovereign wisdom.

The spiritual supremacy of the sovereign pontiff was founded by Jesus Christ, with three remarkable declarations on three memorable occasions. Walking one day in

Galilee with his disciples, he halted

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and said to them, And the disciples anJohn the Baptist, and

Whom do men say that I am? swered: Some say that thou art others Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He then said to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answering, said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say unto thee: 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 to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatso

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ever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." (1) And at the Last Supper, suddenly turning towards Peter, he said to him, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : and thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren.” (2) Lastly, after his resurrection, Jesus one day said to Peter: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these? Peter answered: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said to him: Feed my lambs. He said to him again: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He answered: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said to him: Feed my lambs. He said to him the third time: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because Jesus said to him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he answered: Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. And Jesus said to him: Feed my sheep." (3)

These, Gentlemen, are the three sacred declarations upon which the supremacy of Peter was founded.

In virtue of these eminent words, immediately upon the ascension of the Saviour, Peter exercised his apostolic prerogative. He it was who stood up in the cenacle to cause the election of an apostle in the place of Judas; he it was who, after the descent of the Holy Ghost, first announced the word of God to the Jews; he also first invited the nations to the faith in the person of the centurion Cornelius; it was he who performed the first miracle, when he cast Ananias and Saphira dead at his feet because they lied to the Holy Ghost; it was he who spoke first in the council of Jerusalem, and proposed that which it was needful to maintain with reference to the observance of the ancient law; everywhere his supremacy is manifested.

But a seat was essential to that supremacy;

(1) St. Matthew, ch. 16, v. 13 and following.

(2) St. Luke, ch. 22, v. 31, 32.

(3) St. John, ch. 21, v. 15 and following.

it was

necessary to establish somewhere the chair of Saint Peter, and to find a place in which it could remain in the enjoyment of full independence. Where was this place to be? Between the Tyrrhenian sea and the dark summits of the Appenines, a handful of brigands had constructed their cabins around some hills. In digging the foundations for their first ramparts, they found a bloody head; and the oracle affirmed that that city should be the head of the world. Indeed, if that handful of brigands had possessed maps, and if they had taken a pair of compasses and had opened them at a radius of three or four hundred leagues, they would have seen that they formed the centre of a crowd of nations of Europe, Asia and Africa, of all those the extremities of whose territories were washed by the waves of the Mediterranean. But, instead of compasses, they extended round themselves their iron hand, and founded an empire which was to have for its boundaries the Ocean, the Rhine, the Euphrates, and the Atlas. And at the end of seven hundred years, after having destroyed the nationality of all their neighbours, glutted with blood, with spoils, with glory and pride, these brigands, become the first nation in the universe, resigned their proud republic into the hands of a single master.... and that master lived when Saint Peter deliberated as to where in the world he should establish his apostolic chair. Would you believe it, Gentlemen? it was under the eyes of this master, whose look even made the earth tremble, it was in his city, on the very steps of his throne, that Saint Peter went to establish his chair and seek his independence! But what independence could he obtain in such a place, he who aspired to a domain much more vast than that of the Roman emperors? What independence? He did not trouble himself about it, Gentlemen; he carried it with him he carried the independence of one who feared not to die for truth, the independence of martyrdom.

:

Only two of the pontiffs, his successors, died in their beds during three centuries, and that, only because age

men.

overtook them before death by violence. So that the first crown of the papacy was the crown of martyrdom; its first independence, the independence which death brings to him who disdains it. It was meet that the power of the Church should commence by that long affliction. Without doubt, truth ought to enjoy the right to penetrate into empires without paying at their frontiers the tribute of blood; but God designed to show how profitable it is for a man to suffer when he aspires to bear truth to He determined then the course of events, so that during three centuries the Church, and her first apostle at the head, gave their blood, in order to prove that they did not deceive the world in announcing themselves as the bearers of truths from above. Now, the first boy who leaves the schools believes himself entitled to teach truth to the whole of mankind; and if a single hair falls from his head of eighteen years old, he considers everything lost, and knows not how to cry loud enough against tyranny. For us, death has been inflicted upon us; a long while we suffered it, and we complained but with moderation, counting those to be happy who thus died to render glory to God, and to confirm, by their witness, the faith of their brethren.

But how did the spiritual supremacy develope itself? By what means was it enabled to manifest itself, during the time when the whole Church was enslaved to the law of martyrdom? It appears that here was an omission of Providence-a neglect of the first rules of policy. But God does not judge like men. It was precisely because the sovereign pontiffs possessed no human means of establishing their supremacy, that it was required to be more authentic and more immortal. If they had been protected by the Cæsars, it would have been said to us that the Church of Rome became the chief because she was established in the first city of the empire under the imperial purple; but as St. Peter came, staff in hand, to Rome to be crucified, he and his successors, during three centuries,