HÆR.

496

The Rock, the deposit of Faith committed to,

NOTES that he, who was being formed for the rule of the whole Church, should ON DE first learn what he was to teach, and for the stayedness of the Faith which PRESCR. he was to preach, was told, Thou art Peter, and on this rock, &c.' The strength then of the Christian Faith, which, built upon an impregnable rock, fears not the gates of death, confesses One Lord JESUS CHRIST, both very God and very man, believing the Same to be the Son of the Virgin, Who gave being to the Virgin; the Same born in the end of time, Who is the Creator of time; the Same the Lord of all power, and one of our dying race; the Same who knew no sin,' and 'in the likeness of sinful flesh' was offered for sinners." (Serm. xi. de Pass. Dom. c. 2.) In like way, when exhorting Maximus, Bp. of Antioch, to watch over the purity of the Faith in the Eastern Churches, against the Nestorian and Eutychian heresies, he appeals to the deposit of Faith, which St. Peter had committed to that Church. "So then, brother best-beloved, thou hast need to contemplate with thy whole heart, over the rule of what Church the Lord has willed that thou shouldest preside, and remember that doctrine which the most blessed Peter, the chief of all the Apostles, laid as a foundation, by one uniform preaching, through the whole world, but yet with special authority in the city of Antioch and of Rome; understanding that he, preeminent in the abode where he is glorified, requireth [at our hands] those forms of doctrine which he delivered, as he received them from the Truth Whom he confessed. And permit not that in any wise, in the Eastern Churches, and specially in those which the Canons of the most holy fathers of Nice assigned to the See of Antioch, the Gospel should be assailed by ungodly heretics, and the doctrine either of Nestorius or Eutyches be maintained by any. For, as I said, the rock of the Catholic Faith, whence was derived the name which the blessed Apostle Peter received from the Lord, admitteth no trace from either ungodliness." (Ep. 119. c. 2.) Here again the rock is the Confession of Faith, not of individual faith, nor belief generally, nor new decrees as to faith, but the one deposit of the Faith in the Object of faith, which was delivered alike to the keeping of Antioch and of Rome. This Faith S. Leo elsewhere describes as the sum of saving Faith, the right Faith in the Son of God,' John 20, 31. "The firmness of the foundation, whereon the heighth of the whole Church is built, is shaken by no massiveness of the temple built thereon. For the solidity of that Faith, which was praised in the chief of the Apostles, is everlasting, and as That abideth which Peter believed in Christ, so abideth that which Christ established in Peter." Then after quoting Matt. 16. and speaking of the present dignity of St. Peter, and that he "abode in the transfused strength of The Rock," that he was "called a rock, declared to be a foundation," he adds, "This, dearly beloved, hath that Confession obtained, which, inspired by God the Father into the Apostle's heart, transcended all uncertainties of human opinion, and received the firmness of a rock, unshaken by any shocks. For in the

a The last Roman editors, arguing against Quesnel, refer wrongly to this passage, as though in it S. Leo "called

not the faith of Peter, but Peter himself 'the rock of the Catholic Faith.'" Obss. in S. Leon. Serm. p. 462.

and confessed by, the Church Catholic.

6

497

whole Church, doth Peter daily say, Thou art Christ, The Son of The Living God;' and every tongue which confesses the Lord, is instructed by the teaching of that his voice. This Faith conquereth the devil, and looseth the bands of his captives. This conveys to heaven those snatched from the world; and against it the gates of hell cannot prevail. For with such solid strength was it fortified by God, that neither could heretical perverseness ever corrupt it, nor pagan treachery overcome it." (Serm. 3. de Nat. ips. §. 2, 3.) In reference to the same truth, he paraphrases our Lord's words, "And I,' He saith, say unto thee,' i. e. as My Father has manifested to thee My Divinity, so do I also make known to thee thy eminence, that thou art Peter,' i. e. whereas I am the unassailable Rock, I the Corner-stone Who made both one, I the Foundation, other than which can no man lay,' yet thou also art a rock, because thou art strengthened by My might, so that what of right belongs alone to Me, by My communication should be shared by thee, And on this rock, &c.' He saith, On this strength I will build an everlasting temple, and the height of My Church, which shall reach to heaven, shall rise upon the firmness of this Faith." S. Leo subjoins, " This confession the gates of hell shall not master, the bands of death shall not bind; for that word is the word of life. And as it advances those who confess it, to the heavens, so it sinks those who deny it, to hell; whence it is said to the most blessed Peter, 'I will give thee the keys, &c.' The right of this authority passed to the other Apostles, [see S. Cypr. de unit. Eccl. 1. c.] and what this decree decided, became common to all the heads of the Church, yet not without reason is that entrusted to one, which was to be conveyed to all. For this is therefore committed to Peter individually, because Peter is the common type of all the rulers of the Church. The privilege of Peter then abides, wherever sentence is passed with his equity." (Serm. 4. §. 2, 3.) The "rock" then according to S. Leo, was the revealed Faith in the Rock, the Ever-Blessed Son of God, which whosoever confessed, partook of the solidity of that Rock, Which St. Peter confessed, which Faith St. Peter first, in the name of the other Apostles, confessed, and for them received the blessing, himself possessing it first in order and dignity, which Faith also he preached, and delivered it, as the title-deeds of the Church, especially to the Churches over which he himself presided, to Antioch as to Rome, yet not in any other sense to Rome than to Antioch, nor as though new doctrine might be added, or as though doctrine, not virtually contained in the Apostles' Creed, formed a part of it.

b In the words of Quesnel "he asserts that the solid strength of that Faith which was praised in Peter, is that rock upon which He promises that He will build His Church," to which it is rightly added by the subsequent editors, not faith in general, nor the private faith

of Peter, but that Faith which he preached, and of which he left a deposit in the Roman See [as in that of Antioch] and transmitted to his successor with the like privilege of solid strength." (1. c.)

k k

498

The "keys" given alike to all the Apostles

NOTES

PRESCR.

HÆR.

Note R, on p. 455.

The keys (Matt. 16, 19.) given to the Church in the person of St. Peter.

Tertullian, as a Montanist, confines this gift of the keys to St. Peter's ON DE first preaching the Gospel, excluding the authority of the Church. de Pudic. c. 21." He saith, I will give thee the keys,' not, the Church. And so the event shews. He first applied the key. Observe, what key. 'Ye men of Israel, hear what I say, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God unto you and the rest.' And this was what was peculiar to St. Peter. The rest he shared with the other Apostles, and with them, transmitted to the Church." See S. Cyprian de Unit. Eccl. §. 3. p. 133. Oxf. Tr. Ep. 33. (27.) ad lapsos. Ep. (73.) ad Jubaian. Orig. ad loc. "Are then the keys of the kingdom of heaven given to Peter alone, and shall no other of the blessed receive them?" (Afterwards, Tom. 13. in Matt. fin., he contrasts this authority given to S. Peter, not with that given to the Apostles or the Church, but with that which he supposed they have who thrice rebuke a brother.) Firmilian ap. S. Cypr. Ep. 75. c. 11. S. Ambr. in Ps. 38. §. 37. "This Novatian hath not heard, the Church of God hath heard-What is said to Peter, is said to the Apostles. We do not usurp power, we obey a command, &c." de Pœn. i. 7. §. 33. S. Hil. de Trin. vi. 33. "O blessed and holy men, [the Apostles,] and who for the reward of your faith obtained the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the power of binding and loosing in heaven and in earth." (comp. e. 16. in loc.) S. Aug. Tr. 22. in Joh. §. 7. explaining xi. 44. "It is said to the attendants, the Apostles, whatsoever ye loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." (comp. Tr. 49. §. 24.) Serm. 295. de nat. Pet. et Pauli §. 2. "Among these [disciples] to Peter every where almost alone was it vouchsafed to represent the Church. On account of this very character, which he alone bore, of representing the whole Church, was it granted him to hear the words, 'To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' For these keys not one man, but the unity of the Church received. Hereby then is the excellence of Peter set forth, that he was an emblem of the Church, in its universality and its unity, when it was said to him,' I give to thee' what was given to all. For that ye may know that the Church did receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, hear in another place what the Lord saith to all His Apostles, Receive the Holy Ghost,' and then instantly, 'whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained,' (Joh. 20, 22. 23.) appertaineth to the keys of which it was said, Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven.' (Matt. 16, 19.) But this He said to Peter, that thou mayest know that Peter was then representing the whole Church." Tr. 118. in Joh. §. 4.

and to the whole Church.

499

"In that he returned that answer for all [the Apostles] and with all received that saying, [' I will give thee, &c.'] representing, as it were, the very character of unity itself, therefore was he one for all, because unity is in all." Tr. 124. §. 5. "As relates to himself properly, he was by nature one man, by grace one Christian, by more abundant grace, one and the same the first Apostle; but when that was said to him, 'I will give thee, &c.' he represented the whole Church, which in this world is beat upon by divers temptations, wind, floods, storms, and falleth not, for it is founded on the Rock, whence Peter had his name.-The Church then which is founded on Christ, received from Him, in Peter, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, i. e. the power of binding and loosing sins." Tr. 51. §. 12. "Were not Peter a type of the Church, the Lord would not say to him, ' I will give thee, &c.' If this was said to Peter only, the Church doth it not. But if it is wrought in the Church also, that what are bound on earth are bound in heaven, what loosed on earth loosed in heaven, because, when the Church excommunicates, the excommunicate is bound in heaven, where he is reconciled by the Church, the reconciled is loosed in heaven-if this is wrought in the Church, Peter, when he received the keys, signified the holy Church." add de doctr. Christ. i. 18. c. advers. leg. i. 17. in Ps. 108 init. as a type of the Church, de ag. Christ. c. 30. " for to this Church [the Church Catholic] were the keys of the kingdom of heaven given, when they were given to Peter." add c. 31. de Bapt. iii. 17. as a type of unity, add vii. 51. Pacian. ad Sympr. Ep. 3. p. 311. Ep. i. p. 106. "What is that which He saith to the Apostles-Was this permitted to the Apostles alone?" S. Jerome adv. Jov. i. 14. (quoted Note Q.) Opt. vii. 3. "To him it was vouchsafed to be preferred to all the Apostles, and he alone received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which were to be communicated to the rest" [by Christ, Rig. ad Cypr. de Unit. Eccl. Du Pin Diss. iv. 1. 1.] S. Leo Serm. 4. (quoted Note Q.) Fulgent. de Rem. Pecc. i. 19. 24. ii. 20. de Fide ad Pet. c. 3. Johann. Hieros. et Synod. Palæst. (ap. Launoy p. 32.) Pseudo-Eucherius Hom. de Nat. S. Pet. (ib.) Gaudentius Tract. in dic. Ordinat. suæ. (Du Pin iv. 1. 1.) Theoph. in loc. "Although the I will give thee' was said to Peter alone, still it is given to all the Apostles," Phot. cod. 280. ap. Barrow on the Supremacy of the Pope, Supp. i. 20. c. 16. S. Chrys. among the titles of S. John, adds" who hath the keys of the kingdom of heaven," (Hom. 1. in Joh. §. 1. quoted ib.) See the Gallican Divines, Launoy Ep. ii. 5. Du Pin Diss. iv. 1. 1. vi. 6.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

On Apol. c. 21. p. 48. n. f.

Chrysologus (Serm. 57. de Symb. Ap.) uses nearly the same words as T." The Son proceeded from The Father, not receded, nor, to succeed to The Father, did He go forth from The Father, but He went forth to abide ever in The Father," (processit Filius, non recessit, nec successurus Patri, &c.)

On Note D, on the Millennium, p. 128.

S. Jerome in Is. 1. xvii. c. 60. v. 19. 20. uses language which might seem to imply that he himself received the doctrine of the Millennium, in a spiritual sense; but in saying that he does not differ from the Millenarians as to the period when these prophecies shall be accomplished, he probably means only that it shall be at the end of all things, but in Heaven, not on earth. The passage is, " From this section, we are compelled to refer all which has been and is about to be said, to the last time, when, heaven and earth passing away, the office of the sun and moon shall cease, and the Lord Himself shall be the everlasting Light; so that what the Millenarians assert shall be fulfilled carnally, we believe are to be spiritually, differing as to the quality of the promises not as to the period," and, in the same context, he paraphrases, c. 62. v. 7. "So long ought ye to ask, until Jerusalem which fell in the Jews, and is a by-word and curse, shall be the praise of the whole world;" and, on v. 9. "These things (Matt. 14, 25.) are in part being fulfilled in the Church, when the Lord saith to His disciples, 'Drink, My friends, and be ye inebriated' with the wine which maketh glad the heart of man.' And in midday doth Joseph drink with his brethren. And it shall be fulfilled more completely, when the earth shall be inebriated with the blessings of the Lord." This period he explains (on c. 60 fin.) to be "the consummation of all things and the second coming of the Saviour," but so also does S. Augustine place the Millennium after the Day of Judgment. It seems very unlikely, however, that had S. Jerome held a spiritual Millennium, he should speak so very often as he does against the fleshly Millenarians, without intimating the doctrine which he held.