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Given by His
Holiness, Pope Leo XIII
June 29, 1896
To Our
Venerable Brethren, the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and
other Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren, Health, and Benediction.
1. It is sufficiently well known unto you that no small share of Our
thoughts and of Our care is devoted to Our endeavour to bring back to
the fold, placed under the guardianship of Jesus Christ, the Chief
Pastor of souls, sheep that have strayed. Bent upon this, We have
thought it most conducive to this salutary end and purpose to describe
the exemplar and, as it were, the lineaments of the Church. Amongst
these the most worthy of Our chief consideration is Unity. This the
Divine Author impressed on it as a lasting sign of truth and of
unconquerable strength. The essential beauty and comeliness of the
Church ought greatly to influence the minds of those who consider it.
Nor is it improbable that ignorance may be dispelled by the
consideration; that false ideas and prejudices may be dissipated from
the minds chiefly of those who find themselves in error without fault
of theirs; and that even a love for the Church may be stirred up in the
souls of men, like unto that charity wherewith Christ loved and united
himself to that spouse redeemed by His precious blood. "Christ loved
the Church, and delivered Himself up for it" (Eph. v., 25).
If those about to come back to their most loving Mother (not yet fully
known, or culpably abandoned) should perceive that their return
involves, not indeed the shedding of their blood (at which price
nevertheless the Church was bought by Jesus Christ), but some lesser
trouble and labour, let them clearly understand that this burden has
been laid on them not by the will of man but by the will and command of
God. They may thus, by the help of heavenly grace, realize and feel the
truth of the divine saying, "My yoke is sweet and my burden light"
(Matt. xi., 30).
Wherefore, having put all Our hope in the "Father of lights," from whom
"cometh every best gift and every perfect gift" (Ep. James i., 17) -
from Him, namely, who alone "gives the increase" (I Cor. iii., 6) - We
earnestly pray that He will graciously grant Us the power of bringing
conviction home to the minds of men.
2. Although God can do by His own power all that is effected by created
natures, nevertheless in the counsels of His loving Providence He has
preferred to help men by the instrumentality of men. And, as in the
natural order He does not usually give full perfection except by means
of man's work and action, so also He makes use of human aid for that
which lies beyond the limits of nature, that is to say, for the
sanctification and salvation of souls. But it is obvious that nothing
can be communicated amongst men save by means of external things which
the senses can perceive. For this reason the Son of God assumed human
nature - "who being in the form of God.... emptied himself, taking the
form of a servant, being made in the likeness of man" (Philipp. ii.,
6,7) - and thus living on earth He taught his doctrine and gave His
laws, conversing with men.
3. And, since it was necessary that His divine mission should be
perpetuated to the end of time, He took to Himself Disciples, trained
by himself, and made them partakers of His own authority. And, when He
had invoked upon them from Heaven the Spirit of Truth, He bade them go
through the whole world and faithfully preach to all nations, what He
had taught and what He had commanded, so that by the profession of His
doctrine, and the observance of His laws, the human race might attain
to holiness on earth and neverending happiness in Heaven. In this wise,
and on this principle, the Church was begotten. If we consider the
chief end of His Church and the proximate efficient causes of
salvation, it is undoubtedly spiritual; but in regard to those who
constitute it, and to the things which lead to these spiritual gifts,
it is external and necessarily visible. The Apostles received a mission
to teach by visible and audible signs, and they discharged their
mission only by words and acts which certainly appealed to the senses.
So that their voices falling upon the ears of those who heard them
begot faith in souls - "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
words of Christ" (Rom. x., 17). And faith itself - that is assent given
to the first and supreme truth - though residing essentially in the
intellect, must be manifested by outward profession - "For with the
heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation" (Rom. x., 10). In the same way in man, nothing is more
internal than heavenly grace which begets sanctity, but the ordinary
and chief means of obtaining grace are external: that is to say, the
sacraments which are administered by men specially chosen for that
purpose, by means of certain ordinances.
Jesus Christ commanded His Apostles and their successors to the end of
time to teach and rule the nations. He ordered the nations to accept
their teaching and obey their authority. But his correlation of rights
and duties in the Christian commonwealth not only could not have been
made permanent, but could not even have been initiated except through
the senses, which are of all things the messengers and interpreters.
For this reason the Church is so often called in Holy Writ a body, and
even the body of Christ - "Now you are the body of Christ" (I Cor.
xii., 27) - and precisely because it is a body is the Church visible:
and because it is the body of Christ is it living and energizing,
because by the infusion of His power Christ guards and sustains it,
just as the vine gives nourishment and renders fruitful the branches
united to it. And as in animals the vital principle is unseen and
invisible, and is evidenced and manifested by the movements and action
of the members, so the principle of supernatural life in the Church is
clearly shown in that which is done by it.
From this it follows that those who arbitrarily conjure up and picture
to themselves a hidden and invisible Church are in grievous and
pernicious error: as also are those who regard the Church as a human
institution which claims a certain obedience in discipline and external
duties, but which is without the perennial communication of the gifts
of divine grace, and without all that which testifies by constant and
undoubted signs to the existence of that life which is drawn from God.
It is assuredly as impossible that the Church of Jesus Christ can be
the one or the other, as that man should be a body alone or a soul
alone. The connection and union of both elements is as absolutely
necessary to the true Church as the intimate union of the soul and body
is to human nature. The Church is not something dead: it is the body of
Christ endowed with supernatural life. As Christ, the Head and
Exemplar, is not wholly in His visible human nature, which Photinians
and Nestorians assert, nor wholly in the invisible divine nature, as
the Monophysites hold, but is one, from and in both natures, visible
and invisible; so the mystical body of Christ is the true Church, only
because its visible parts draw life and power from the supernatural
gifts and other things whence spring their very nature and essence. But
since the Church is such by divine will and constitution, such it must
uniformly remain to the end of time. If it did not, then it would not
have been founded as perpetual, and the end set before it would have
been limited to some certain place and to some certain period of time;
both of which are contrary to the truth. The union consequently of
visible and invisible elements because it harmonizes with the natural
order and by God's will belongs to the very essence of the Church, must
necessarily remain so long as the Church itself shall endure. Wherefore
Chrysostom writes: "Secede not from the Church: for nothing is stronger
than the Church. Thy hope is the Church; thy salvation is the Church;
thy refuge is the Church. It is higher than the heavens and wider than
the earth. It never grows old, but is ever full of vigour. Wherefore
Holy Writ pointing to its strength and stability calls it a mountain"
(Hom. De capto Eutropio, n. 6).
Also Augustine says: "Unbelievers think that the Christian religion
will last for a certain period in the world and will then disappear.
But it will remain as long as the sun - as long as the sun rises and
sets: that is, as long as the ages of time shall roll, the Church of
God - the true body of Christ on earth - will not disappear" (In Psalm.
lxx., n. 8). And in another place: "The Church will totter if its
foundation shakes; but how can Christ be moved?...Christ remaining
immovable, it (the Church, shall never be shaken. Where are they that
say that the Church has disappeared from the world, when it cannot even
be shaken?" (Enarratio in Psalm. ciii., sermo ii., n. 5).
He who seeks the truth must be guided by these fundamental principles.
That is to say, that Christ the Lord instituted and formed the Church:
wherefore when we are asked what its nature is, the main thing is to
see what Christ wished and what in fact He did. Judged by such a
criterion it is the unity of the Church which must be principally
considered; and of this, for the general good, it has seemed useful to
speak in this Encyclical.
4. It is so evident from the clear and frequent testimonies of Holy
Writ that the true Church of Jesus Christ is one, that no Christian can
dare to deny it. But in judging and determining the nature of this
unity many have erred in various ways. Not the foundation of the Church
alone, but its whole constitution, belongs to the class of things
effected by Christ's free choice. For this reason the entire case must
be judged by what was actually done. We must consequently investigate
not how the Church may possibly be one, but how He, who founded it,
willed that it should be one. But when we consider what was actually
done we find that Jesus Christ did not, in point of fact, institute a
Church to embrace several communities similar in nature, but in
themselves distinct, and lacking those bonds which render the Church
unique and indivisible after that manner in which in the symbol of our
faith we profess: "I believe in one Church." "The Church in respect of
its unity belongs to the category of things indivisible by nature,
though heretics try to divide it into many parts...We say, therefore,
that the Catholic Church is unique in its essence, in its doctrine, in
its origin, and in its excellence...Furthermore, the eminence of the
Church arises from its unity, as the principle of its constitution - a
unity surpassing all else, and having nothing like unto it or equal to
it" (S. Clemens Alexandrinus, Stronmatum lib. viii., c. 17). For this
reason Christ, speaking of the mystical edifice, mentions only one
Church, which he calls His own - "I will build my church; " any other
Church except this one, since it has not been founded by Christ, cannot
be the true Church. This becomes even more evident when the purpose of
the Divine Founder is considered. For what did Christ, the Lord, ask?
What did He wish in regard to the Church founded, or about to be
founded? This: to transmit to it the same mission and the same mandate
which He had received from the Father, that they should be perpetuated.
This He clearly resolved to do: this He actually did. "As the Father
hath sent me, I also send you" (John xx., 21). "Ad thou hast sent Me
into the world I also have sent them into the world" (John xvii., 18).
But the mission of Christ is to save that which had perished: that is
to say, not some nations or peoples, but the whole human race, without
distinction of time or place. "The Son of Man came that the world might
be saved by Him" (John iii., 17). "For there is no other name under
Heaven given to men whereby we must be saved" (Acts iv., 12). The
Church, therefore, is bound to communicate without stint to all men,
and to transmit through all ages, the salvation effected by Jesus
Christ, and the blessings flowing there from. Wherefore, by the will of
its Founder, it is necessary that this Church should be one in all
lands and at all times. to justify the existence of more than one
Church it would be necessary to go outside this world, and to create a
new and unheard - of race of men.
That the one Church should embrace all men everywhere and at all times
was seen and foretold by Isaias, when looking into the future he saw
the appearance of a mountain conspicuous by its all surpassing
altitude, which set forth the image of "The House of the Lord" - that
is, of the Church, "And in the last days the mountain of the House of
the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains" (Isa. ii., 2).
But this mountain which towers over all other mountains is one; and the
House of the Lord to which all nations shall come to seek the rule of
living is also one. "And all nations shall flow into it. And many
people shall go, and say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the House of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His
ways, and we will walk in His paths" (Ibid., ii., 2-3).
Explaining this passage, Optatus of Milevis says: "It is written in the
prophet Isaias: 'from Sion the law shall go forth and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem.' For it is not on Mount Sion that Isaias sees the
valley, but on the holy mountain, that is, the Church, which has raised
itself conspicuously throughout the entire Roman world under the whole
heavens....The Church is, therefore, the spiritual Sion in which Christ
has been constituted King by God the Father, and which exists
throughout the entire earth, on which there is but one Catholic Church"
(De Schism. Donatist., lib. iii., n. 2). And Augustine says: "What can
be so manifest as a mountain, or so well known? There are, it is true,
mountains which are unknown because they are situated in some remote
part of the earth But this mountain is not unknown; for it has filled
the whole face of the world, and about this it is said that it is
prepared on the summit of the mountains" (In Ep. Joan., tract i., n.
13).
5. Furthermore, the Son of God decreed that the Church should be His
mystical body, with which He should be united as the Head, after the
manner of the human body which He assumed, to which the natural head is
physiologically united. As He took to Himself a mortal body, which He
gave to suffering and death in order to pay the price of man's
redemption, so also He has one mystical body in which and through which
He renders men partakers of holiness and of eternal salvation. God
"hath made Him (Christ) head over all the Church, which is His body"
(Eph. i., 22-23). Scattered and separated members cannot possibly
cohere with the head so as to make one body. But St. Paul says: "All
members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also
is Christ" (I Cor. xii., 12). Wherefore this mystical body, he
declares, is "compacted and fitly jointed together. The head, Christ:
from whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly jointed together,
by what every joint supplieth according to the operation in the measure
of every part" (Eph. iv., 15-16). And so dispersed members, separated
one from the other, cannot be united with one and the same head. "There
is one God, and one Christ; and His Church is one and the faith is one;
and one the people, joined together in the solid unity of the body in
the bond of concord. This unity cannot be broken, nor the one body
divided by the separation of its constituent parts" (S. Cyprianus, De
Cath. Eccl. Unitateccl. Unitate, n. 23). And to set forth more clearly
the unity of the Church, he makes use of the illustration of a living
body, the members of which cannot possibly live unless united to the
head and drawing from it their vital force. Separated from the head
they must of necessity die. "The Church," he says, "cannot be divided
into parts by the separation and cutting asunder of its members. What
is cut away from the mother cannot live or breathe apart" (Ibid.). What
similarity is there between a dead and a living body? "For no man ever
hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ
doth the Church: because we are members of His body, of His flesh, and
of His bones" (Eph. v., 29-30).
Another head like to Christ must be invented - that is, another Christ
if besides the one Church, which is His body, men wish to set up
another. "See what you must beware of - see what you must avoid - see
what you must dread. It happens that, as in the human body, some member
may be cut off a hand, a finger, a foot. Does the soul follow the
amputated member? As long as it was in the body, it lived; separated,
it forfeits its life. So the Christian is a Catholic as long as he
lives in the body: cut off from it he becomes a heretic - the life of
the spirit follows not the amputated member" (S. Augustinus, Sermo
cclxvii., n. 4).
The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same for ever; those
who leave it depart from the will and command of Christ, the Lord -
leaving the path of salvation they enter on that of perdition.
"Whosoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress. He
has cut himself off from the promises of the Church, and he who leaves
the Church of Christ cannot arrive at the rewards of Christ....He who
observes not this unity observes not the law of God, holds not the
faith of the Father and the Son, clings not to life and salvation" (S.
Cyprianus, De Cath. Eccl. Unitate, n. 6).
6. But He, indeed, Who made this one Church, also gave it unity, that
is, He made it such that all who are to belong to it must be united by
the closest bonds, so as to form one society, one kingdom, one body -
"one body and one spirit as you are called in one hope of your calling
(Eph. iv., 4). Jesus Christ, when His death was nigh at hand, declared
His will in this matter, and solemnly offered it up, thus addressing
His Father: "Not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through
their word shall believe in Me...that they also may be one in Us...that
they may be made perfect in one" John xvii., 20-21 23). Yea, He
commanded that this unity should be so closely knit and so perfect
amongst His followers that it might, in some measure, shadow forth the
union between Himself and His Father: "I pray that they all may be one
as Thou Father in Me and I in Thee" (Ibid. 21).
Agreement and union of minds is the necessary foundation of this
perfect concord amongst men, from which concurrence of wills and
similarity of action are the natural results. Wherefore, in His divine
wisdom, He ordained in His Church Unity of Faith; a virtue which is the
first of those bonds which unite man to God, and whence we receive the
name of the faithful - "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph. iv.,
5). That is, as there is one Lord and one baptism, so should all
Christians, without exception, have but one faith. And so the Apostle
St. Paul not merely begs, but entreats and implores Christians to be
all of the same mind, and to avoid difference of opinions: "I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak
the same thing, and that there be no schisms amongst you, and that you
be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I Cor. i., 10).
Such passages certainly need no interpreter; they speak clearly enough
for themselves. Besides, all who profess Christianity allow that there
can be but one faith. It is of the greatest importance and indeed of
absolute necessity, as to which many are deceived, that the nature and
character of this unity should be recognized. And, as We have already
stated, this is not to be ascertained by conjecture, but by the certain
knowledge of what was done; that is by seeking for and ascertaining
what kind of unity in faith has been commanded by Jesus Christ.
7. The heavenly doctrine of Christ, although for the most part
committed to writing by divine inspiration, could not unite the minds
of men if left to the human intellect alone. It would, for this very
reason, be subject to various and contradictory interpretations. This
is so, not only because of the nature of the doctrine itself and of the
mysteries it involves, but also because of the divergencies of the
human mind and of the disturbing element of conflicting passions. From
a variety of interpretations a variety of beliefs is necessarily
begotten; hence come controversies, dissensions and wranglings such as
have arisen in the past, even in the first ages of the Church. Irenaeus
writes of heretics as follows: "Admitting the sacred Scriptures they
distort the interpretations" (Lib. iii., cap. 12, n. 12). And
Augustine: "Heresies have arisen, and certain perverse views ensnaring
souls and precipitating them into the abyss only when the Scriptures,
good in themselves, are not properly understood" (In Evang. Joan.,
tract xviii., cap. 5, n. 1). Besides Holy Writ it was absolutely
necessary to insure this union of men's minds - to effect and preserve
unity of ideas - that there should be another principle. This the
wisdom of God requires: for He could not have willed that the faith
should be one if He did not provide means sufficient for the
preservation of this unity; and this Holy Writ clearly sets forth as We
shall presently point out. Assuredly the infinite power of God is not
bound by anything, all things obey it as so many passive instruments.
In regard to this external principle, therefore, we must inquire which
one of all the means in His power Christ did actually adopt. For this
purpose it is necessary to recall in thought the institution of
Christianity.
8. We are mindful only of what is witnessed to by Holy Writ and what is
otherwise well known. Christ proves His own divinity and the divine
origin of His mission by miracles; He teaches the multitudes heavenly
doctrine by word of mouth; and He absolutely commands that the assent
of faith should be given to His teaching, promising eternal rewards to
those who believe and eternal punishment to those who do not. "If I do
not the works of my Father, believe Me not" John x., 37). "If I had not
done among them the works than no other man had done, they would not
have sin" (Ibid. xv., 24). "But if I do (the works) though you will not
believe Me, believe the works" (Ibid. x., 38). Whatsoever He commands,
He commands by the same authority. He requires the assent of the mind
to all truths without exception. It was thus the duty of all who heard
Jesus Christ, if they wished for eternal salvation, not merely to
accept His doctrine as a whole, but to assent with their entire mind to
all and every point of it, since it is unlawful to withhold faith from
God even in regard to one single point.
When about to ascend into heaven He sends His Apostles in virtue of the
same power by which He had been sent from the Father; and he charges
them to spread abroad and propagate His teaching. "All power is given
to Me in Heaven and in earth. Going therefore teach all
nations....teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you" (Matt. xxviii., 18-1920). So that those obeying the
Apostles might be saved, and those disobeying should perish. "He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believed not
shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). But since it is obviously most in
harmony with God's providence that no one should have confided to him a
great and important mission unless he were furnished with the means of
properly carrying it out, for this reason Christ promised that He would
send the Spirit of Truth to His Disciples to remain with them for ever.
"But if I go I will send Him (the Paraclete) to you....But when He, the
Spirit of Truth is come, He will teach you all truth" John xvi., 7 13).
"And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete,
that he may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of Truth" (Ibid. xiv.,
16-17). "He shall give testimony of Me, and you shall give testimony"
(Ibid. xv., 26-27). Hence He commands that the teaching of the Apostles
should be religiously accepted and piously kept as if it were His own -
"He who hears you hears Me, he who despises you despises Me" (Luke x.,
16). Wherefore the Apostles are ambassadors of Christ as He is the
ambassador of the Father. "As the Father sent Me so also I send you"
John xx., 21). Hence as the Apostles and Disciples were bound to obey
Christ, so also those whom the Apostles taught were, by God's command,
bound to obey them. And, therefore, it was no more allowable to
repudiate one iota of the Apostles' teaching than it was to reject any
point of the doctrine of Christ Himself.
Truly the voice of the Apostles, when the Holy Ghost had come down upon
them, resounded throughout the world. Wherever they went they
proclaimed themselves the ambassadors of Christ Himself. "By whom
(Jesus Christ) we have received grace and Apostleship for obedience to
the faith in all nations for His name" (Rom. i., 5). And God makes
known their divine mission by numerous miracles. "But they going forth
preached everywhere: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word
with signs that followed" (Mark xvi., 20). But what is this word? That
which comprehends all things, that which they had learnt from their
Master; because they openly and publicly declare that they cannot help
speaking of what they had seen and heard.
But, as we have already said, the Apostolic mission was not destined to
die with the Apostles themselves, or to come to an end in the course of
time, since it was intended for the people at large and instituted for
the salvation of the human race. For Christ commanded His Apostles to
preach the "Gospel to every creature, to carry His name to nations and
kings, and to be witnesses to him to the ends of the earth." He further
promised to assist them in the fulfilment of their high mission, and
that, not for a few years or centuries only, but for all time - "even
to the consummation of the world." Upon which St. Jerome says: "He who
promises to remain with His Disciples to the end of the world declares
that they will be for ever victorious, and that He will never depart
from those who believe in Him" (In Matt., lib. iv., cap. 28, v. 20).
But how could all this be realized in the Apostles alone, placed as
they were under the universal law of dissolution by death? It was
consequently provided by God that the Magisterium instituted by Jesus
Christ should not end with the life of the Apostles, but that it should
be perpetuated. We see it in truth propagated, and, 'as it were,
delivered from hand to hand. For the Apostles consecrated bishops, and
each one appointed those who were to succeed them immediately "in the
ministry of the word."
Nay more: they likewise required their successors to choose fitting
men, to endow them with like authority, and to confide to them the
office and mission of teaching. "Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in
the grace which is in Christ Jesus: and the things which thou hast
heard of me by many witnesses, the same command to faithful men, who
shall be fit to teach others also" (2 Tim. ii., 1-2). Wherefore, as
Christ was sent by God and the Apostles by Christ, so the Bishops and
those who succeeded them were sent by the Apostles. "The Apostles were
appointed by Christ to preach the Gospel to us. Jesus Christ was sent
by God. Christ is therefore from God, and the Apostles from Christ, and
both according to the will of God....Preaching therefore the word
through the countries and cities, when they had proved in the Spirit
the first - fruits of their teaching they appointed bishops and deacons
for the faithful....They appointed them and then ordained them, so that
when they themselves had passed away other tried men should carry on
their ministry" (S. Clemens Rom. Epist. I ad Corinth. capp. 42, 44). On
the one hand, therefore, it is necessary that the mission of teaching
whatever Christ had taught should remain perpetual and immutable, and
on the other that the duty of accepting and professing all their
doctrine should likewise be perpetual and immutable. "Our Lord Jesus
Christ, when in His Gospel He testifies that those who not are with Him
are His enemies, does not designate any special form of heresy, but
declares that all heretics who are not with Him and do not gather with
Him, scatter His flock and are His adversaries: He that is not with Me
is against Me, and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth" (S.
Cyprianus, Ep. lxix., ad Magnum, n. I).
9. The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office,
has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavour than she has displayed
in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she regarded as rebels
and expelled from the ranks of her children all who held beliefs on any
point of doctrine different from her own. The Arians, the Montanists,
the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Eutychians, did not certainly
reject all Catholic doctrine: they abandoned only a certain portion of
it. Still who does not know that they were declared heretics and
banished from the bosom of the Church? In like manner were condemned
all authors of heretical tenets who followed them in subsequent ages.
"There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit
nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop
of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and
handed down by Apostolic tradition" (Auctor Tract. de Fide Orthodoxa
contra Arianos).
The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the
unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside
Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in
the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her
authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore :, drew up a
long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that
other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one
give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity.
"No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that
reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may
be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work
of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a
Catholic" (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88).
The need of this divinely instituted means for the preservation of
unity, about which we speak is urged by St. Paul in his epistle to the
Ephesians. In this he first admonishes them to preserve with every care
concord of minds: "Solicitous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace" (Eph. iv., 3, et seq.). And as souls cannot be perfectly
united in charity unless minds agree in faith, he wishes all to hold
the same faith: "One Lord, one faith," and this so perfectly one as to
prevent all danger of error: "that henceforth we be no more children,
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the
wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to
deceive" (Eph. iv., 14): and this he teaches is to be observed, not for
a time only - "but until we all meet in the unity of faith...unto the
measure of the age of the fullness of Christ" (13). But, in what has
Christ placed the primary principle, and the means of preserving this
unity? In that - "He gave some Apostles - and other some pastors and
doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (11-12).
Wherefore, from the very earliest times the fathers and doctors of the
Church have been accustomed to follow and, with one accord to defend
this rule. Origen writes: "As often as the heretics allege the
possession of the canonical scriptures, to which all Christians give
unanimous assent, they seem to say: 'Behold the word of truth is in the
houses.' But we should believe them not and abandon not the primary and
ecclesiastical tradition. We should believe not otherwise than has been
handed down by the tradition of the Church of God" (Vetus Interpretatio
Commentariorum in Matt. n. 46). Irenaeus too says: "The doctrine of the
Apostles is the true faith...which is known to us through the Episcopal
succession...which has reached even unto our age by the very fact that
the Scriptures have been zealously guarded and fully interpreted"
(Contra Haereses, lib. iv., cap. 33, n. 8). And Tertullian: "It is
therefore clear that all doctrine which agrees with that of the
Apostolic churches - the matrices and original centres of the faith,
must be looked upon as the truth, holding without hesitation that the
Church received it from the Apostles, the Apostles from Christ and
Christ from God....We are in communion with the Apostolic churches, and
by the very fact that they agree amongst themselves we have a testimony
of the truth" (De Praescrip., cap. xxxi). And so Hilary: "Christ
teaching from the ship signifies that those who are outside the Church
can never grasp the divine teaching; for the ship typifies the Church
where the word of life is deposited and preached. Those who are outside
are like sterile and worthless sand: they cannot comprehend" (Comment.
in Matt. xiii., n. 1). Rufinus praises Gregory of Nazianzum and Basil
because "they studied the text of Holy Scripture alone, and took the
interpretation of its meaning not from their own inner consciousness,
but from the writings and on the authority of the ancients, who in
their turn, as it is clear, took their rule for understanding the
meaning from the Apostolic succession" (Hist. Eccl., lib. ii., cap. 9).
Wherefore, as appears from what has been said, Christ instituted in the
Church a living, authoritative and permanent Magisterium, which by His
own power He strengthened, by the Spirit of truth He taught, and by
miracles confirmed. He willed and ordered, under the gravest penalties,
that its teachings should be received as if they were His own. As
often, therefore, as it is declared on the authority of this teaching
that this or that is contained in the deposit of divine revelation, it
must be believed by every one as true. If it could in any way be false,
an evident contradiction follows; for then God Himself would be the
author of error in man. "Lord, if we be in error, we are being deceived
by Thee" (Richardus de S. Victore, De Trin., lib. i., cap. 2). In this
wise, all cause for doubting being removed, can it be lawful for anyone
to reject any one of those truths without by the very fact falling into
heresy? without separating himself from the Church? - without
repudiating in one sweeping act the whole of Christian teaching? For
such is the nature of faith that nothing can be more absurd than to
accept some things and reject others. Faith, as the Church teaches, is
"that supernatural virtue by which, through the help of God and through
the assistance of His grace, we believe what he has revealed to be
true, not on account of the intrinsic truth perceived by the natural
light of reason, but because of the authority of God Himself, the
Revealer, who can neither deceive nor be deceived" (Conc. Vat., Sess.
iii., cap. 3). If then it be certain that anything is revealed by God,
and this is not believed, then nothing whatever is believed by divine
Faith: for what the Apostle St. James judges to be the effect of a
moral delinquency, the same is to be said of an erroneous opinion in
the matter of faith. "Whosoever shall offend in one point, is become
guilty of all" (Ep. James ii., 10). Nay, it applies with greater force
to an erroneous opinion. For it can be said with less truth that every
law is violated by one who commits a single sin, since it may be that
he only virtually despises the majesty of God the Legislator. But he
who dissents even in one point from divinely revealed truth absolutely
rejects all faith, since he thereby refuses to honour God as the
supreme truth and the formal motive of faith. "In many things they are
with me, in a few things not with me; but in those few things in which
they are not with me the many things in which they are will not profit
them" (S. Augustinus in Psal. liv., n. 19). And this indeed most
deservedly; for they, who take from Christian doctrine what they
please, lean on their own judgments, not on faith; and not "bringing
into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ" (2
Cor. x., 5), they more truly obey themselves than God. "You, who
believe what you like, believe yourselves rather than the gospel" (S.
Augustinus, lib. xvii., Contra Faustum Manichaeum, cap. 3).
For this reason the Fathers of the Vatican Council laid down nothing
new, but followed divine revelation and the acknowledged and invariable
teaching of the Church as to the very nature of faith, when they
decreed as follows: "All those things are to be believed by divine and
Catholic faith which are contained in the written or unwritten word of
God, and which are pro posed by the Church as divinely revealed, either
by a solemn definition or in the exercise of its ordinary and universal
Magisterium" (Sess. iii., cap. 3). Hence, as it is clear that God
absolutely willed that there should be unity in His Church, and as it
is evident what kind of unity He willed, and by means of what principle
He ordained that this unity should be maintained, we may address the
following words of St. Augustine to all who have not deliberately
closed their minds to the truth: "When we see the great help of God,
such manifest progress and such abundant fruit, shall we hesitate to
take refuge in the bosom of that Church, which, as is evident to all,
possesses the supreme authority of the Apostolic See through the
Episcopal succession? In vain do heretics rage round it; they are
condemned partly by the judgment of the people themselves, partly by
the weight of councils, partly by the splendid evidence of miracles. To
refuse to the Church the primacy is most impious and above measure
arrogant. And if all learning, no matter how easy and common it may be,
in order to be fully understood requires a teacher and master, what can
be greater evidence of pride and rashness than to be unwilling to learn
about the books of the divine mysteries from the proper interpreter,
and to wish to condemn them unknown?" (De Unitate Credendi, cap. xvii.,
n. 35).
It is then undoubtedly the office of the church to guard Christian
doctrine and to propagate it in its integrity and purity. But this is
not all: the object for which the Church has been instituted is not
wholly attained by the performance of this duty. For, since Jesus
Christ delivered Himself up for the salvation of the human race, and to
this end directed all His teaching and commands, so He ordered the
Church to strive, by the truth of its doctrine, to sanctify and to save
mankind. But faith alone cannot compass so great, excellent, and
important an end. There must needs be also the fitting and devout
worship of God, which is to be found chiefly in the divine Sacrifice
and in the dispensation of the Sacraments, as well as salutary laws and
discipline. All these must be found in the Church, since it continues
the mission of the Saviour for ever. The Church alone offers to the
human race that religion - that state of absolute perfection - which He
wished, as it were, to be incorporated in it. And it alone supplies
those means of salvation which accord with the ordinary counsels of
Providence.
10. But as this heavenly doctrine was never left to the arbitrary
judgment of private individuals, but, in the beginning delivered by
Jesus Christ, was afterwards committed by Him exclusively to the
Magisterium already named, so the power of performing and administering
the divine mysteries, together with the authority of ruling and
governing, was not bestowed by God on all Christians indiscriminately,
but on certain chosen persons. For to the Apostles and their legitimate
successors alone these words have reference: "Going into the whole
world preach the Gospel." "Baptizing them." "Do this in commemoration
of Me." "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them." And in
like manner He ordered the Apostles only and those who should lawfully
succeed them to feed - that is to govern with authority - all Christian
souls. Whence it also follows that it is necessarily the duty of
Christians to be subject and to obey. And these duties of the Apostolic
office are, in general, all included in the words of St. Paul: "Let a
man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers
of the mysteries of God" (I Cor. iv., I).
Wherefore Jesus Christ bade all men, present and future, follow Him as
their leader and Saviour; and this, not merely as individuals, but as
forming a society, organized and united in mind. In this way a duly
constituted society should exist, formed out of the divided multitude
of peoples, one in faith, one in end, one in the participation of the
means adapted to the attainment of the end, and one as subject to one
and the same authority. To this end He established in the Church all
principles which necessarily tend to make organized human societies,
and through which they attain the perfection proper to each. That is,
in it (the Church), all who wished to be the sons of God by adoption
might attain to the perfection demanded by their high calling, and
might obtain salvation. The Church, therefore, as we have said, is
man's guide to whatever pertains to Heaven. This is the office
appointed unto it by God: that it may watch over and may order all that
concerns religion, and may, without let or hindrance, exercise,
according to its judgment, its charge over Christianity. Wherefore they
who pretend that the Church has any wish to interfere in Civil matters,
or to infringe upon the rights of the State, know it not, or wickedly
calumniate it.
God indeed even made the Church a society far more perfect than any
other. For the end for which the Church exists is as much higher than
the end of other societies as divine grace is above nature, as immortal
blessings are above the transitory things on the earth. Therefore the
Church is a society divine in its origin, supernatural in its end and
in means proximately adapted to the attainment of that end; but it is a
human community inasmuch as it is composed of men. For this reason we
find it called in Holy Writ by names indicating a perfect society. It
is spoken of as the House of God, the city placed upon the mountain to
which all nations must come. But it is also the fold presided over by
one Shepherd, and into which all Christ's sheep must betake themselves.
Yea, it is called the kingdom which God has raised up and which will
stand for ever. Finally it is the body of Christ - that is, of course,
His mystical body, but a body living and duly organized and composed of
many members; members indeed which have not all the same functions, but
which, united one to the other, are kept bound together by the guidance
and authority of the head.
Indeed no true and perfect human society can be conceived which is not
governed by some supreme authority. Christ therefore must have given to
His Church a supreme authority to which all Christians must render
obedience. For this reason, as the unity of the faith is of necessity
required for the unity of the church, inasmuch as it is the body of the
faithful, so also for this same unity, inasmuch as the Church is a
divinely constituted society, unity of government, which effects and
involves unity of communion, is necessary jure divino. "The unity of
the Church is manifested in the mutual connection or communication of
its members, and likewise in the relation of all the members of the
Church to one head" (St. Thomas, 2a 2ae, 9, xxxix., a. I). From this it
is easy to see that men can fall away from the unity of the Church by
schism, as well as by heresy. "We think that this difference exists
between heresy and schism" (writes St. Jerome): "heresy has no perfect
dogmatic teaching, whereas schism, through some Episcopal dissent, also
separates from the Church" (S. Hieronymus, Comment. in Epist. ad Titum,
cap. iii., v. 1011). In which judgment St. John Chrysostom concurs: "I
say and protest (he writes) that it is as wrong to divide the Church as
to fall into heresy" (Hom. xi., in Epist. ad Ephes., n. 5). Wherefore
as no heresy can ever be justifiable, so in like manner there can be no
justification for schism. "There is nothing more grievous than the
sacrilege of schism....there can be no just necessity for destroying
the unity of the Church" (S. Augustinus, Contra Epistolam Parmeniani,
lib. ii., cap. ii., n. 25).
11. The nature of this supreme authority, which all Christians are
bound to obey, can be ascertained only by finding out what was the
evident and positive will of Christ. Certainly Christ is a King for
ever; and though invisible, He continues unto the end of time to govern
and guard His church from Heaven. But since He willed that His kingdom
should be visible He was obliged, when He ascended into Heaven, to
designate a vice-gerent on earth. "Should anyone say that Christ is the
one head and the one shepherd, the one spouse of the one Church, he
does not give an adequate reply. It is clear, indeed, that Christ is
the author of grace in the Sacraments of the Church; it is Christ
Himself who baptizes; it is He who forgives sins; it is He who is the
true priest who hath offered Himself upon the altar of the cross, and
it is by His power that His body is daily consecrated upon the altar;
and still, because He was not to be visibly present to all the
faithful, He made choice of ministers through whom the aforesaid
Sacraments should be dispensed to the faithful as said above" (cap.
74). "For the same reason, therefore, because He was about to withdraw
His visible presence from the Church, it was necessary that He should
appoint someone in His place, to have the charge of the Universal
Church. Hence before His Ascension He said to Peter: 'Feed my sheep' "
(St. Thomas, Contra Gentiles, lib. iv., cap. 76).
Jesus Christ, therefore, appointed Peter to be that head of the Church;
and He also determined that the authority instituted in perpetuity for
the salvation of all should be inherited by His successors, in whom the
same permanent authority of Peter himself should continue. And so He
made that remarkable promise to Peter and to no one else: "Thou are
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church" (Matt. xvi., 18). "To
Peter the Lord spoke: to one, therefore, that He might establish unity
upon one" (S. Pacianus ad Sempronium, Ep. iii., n. 11). "Without any
prelude He mentions St. Peter's name and that of his father (Blessed
art thou Simon, son of John) and He does not wish Him to be called any
more Simon; claiming him for Himself according to His divine authority
He aptly names him Peter, from petra the rock, since upon him He was
about to found His Church" (S. Cyrillus Alexandrinus, In Evang. Joan.,
lib. ii., in cap. i., v. 42).
12. From this text it is clear that by the will and command of God the
Church rests upon St. Peter, just as a building rests on its
foundation. Now the proper nature of a foundation is to be a principle
of cohesion for the various parts of the building. It must be the
necessary condition of stability and strength. Remove it and the whole
building falls. It is consequently the office of St. Peter to support
the Church, and to guard it in all its strength and indestructible
unity. How could he fulfil this office without the power of commanding,
forbidding, and judging, which is properly called jurisdiction? It is
only by this power of jurisdiction that nations and commonwealths are
held together. A primacy of honour and the shadowy right of giving
advice and admonition,which is called direction, could never secure to
any society of men unity or strength. The words - and the gates of Hell
shall not prevail against it proclaim and establish the authority of
which we speak. "What is the it?" (writes Origen). "Is it the rock upon
which Christ builds the Church or the Church? The expression indeed is
ambiguous, as if the rock and the Church were one and the same. I
indeed think that this is so, and that neither against the rock upon
which Christ builds His Church nor against the Church shall the gates
of Hell prevail" (Origenes, Comment. in Matt., tom. xii., n. ii). The
meaning of this divine utterance is, that, notwithstanding the wiles
and intrigues which they bring to bear against the Church, it can never
be that the church committed to the care of Peter shall succumb or in
any wise fail. "For the Church, as the edifice of Christ who has wisely
built 'His house upon a rock,' cannot be conquered by the gates of
Hell, which may prevail over any man who shall be off the rock and
outside the Church, but shall be powerless against it" (Ibid.).
Therefore God confided His Church to Peter so that he might safely
guard it with his unconquerable power. He invested him, therefore, with
the needful authority; since the right to rule is absolutely required
by him who has to guard human society really and effectively. This,
furthermore, Christ gave: "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom
of Heaven." And He is clearly still speaking of the Church, which a
short time before He had called His own, and which He declared He
wished to build on Peter as a foundation. The Church is typified not
only as an edifice but as a Kingdom, and every one knows that the keys
constitute the usual sign of governing authority. Wherefore when Christ
promised to give to Peter the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, he
promised to give him power and authority over the Church. "The Son
committed to Peter the office of spreading the knowledge of His Father
and Himself over the whole world. He who increased the Church in all
the earth, and proclaimed it to be stronger than the heavens, gave to a
mortal man all power in Heaven when He handed him the Keys" (S.
Johannes Chrysostomus, Hom. Liv., in Matt. v., 2). In this same sense
He says: "Whatsoever thou shall bind upon earth it shall be bound also
in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed
also in Heaven." This metaphorical expression of binding and loosing
indicates the power of making laws, of judging and of punishing; and
the power is said to be of such amplitude and force that God will
ratify whatever is decreed by it. Thus it is supreme and absolutely
independent, so that, having no other power on earth as its superior,
it embraces the whole Church and all things committed to the Church.
The promise is carried out when Christ the Lord after His Resurrection,
having thrice asked Peter whether he loved Him more than the rest, lays
on him the injunction: "Feed my lambs - feed my sheep." That is He
confides to him, without exception, all those who were to belong to His
fold. "The Lord does not hesitate. He interrogates, not to learn but to
teach. When He was about to ascend into Heaven He left us, as it were,
vice-gerent of His love....and so because Peter alone of all others
professes his love he is preferred to all - that being the most perfect
he should govern the more perfect" (S. Ambrosius, Exposit. in Evang.
secundum Lucam, lib. x., nn. 175-176).
These, then, are the duties of a shepherd: to place himself as leader
at the head of his flock, to provide proper food for it, to ward off
dangers, to guard against insidious foes, to defend it against
violence: in a word to rule and govern it. Since therefore Peter has
been placed as shepherd of the Christian flock he has received the
power of governing all men for whose salvation Jesus Christ shed His
blood. "Why has He shed His blood? To buy the sheep which He handed
over to Peter and his successors" (S. Joannes Chrysostomus, De
Sacerdotio, lib. ii).
And since all Christians must be closely united in the communion of one
immutable faith, Christ the Lord, in virtue of His prayers, obtained
for Peter that in the fulfilment of his office he should never fall
away from the faith. "But I have asked for thee that thy faith fail
not" (Luke xxii., 32), and He furthermore commanded him to impart light
and strength to his brethren as often as the need should arise:
"Confirm thy brethren" (Ibid.). He willed then that he whom He had
designated as the foundation of the Church should be the defence of its
faith. "Could not Christ who confided to him the Kingdom by His own
authority have strengthened the faith of one whom He designated a rock
to show the foundation of the Church?" (S. Ambrosius, De Fide, lib.
iv., n. 56). For this reason Jesus Christ willed that Peter should
participate in certain names, signs of great things which properly
belong to Himself alone: in order that identity of titles should show
identity of power. So He who is Himself "the chief corner-stone in whom
all the building being framed together, groweth up in a holy temple in
the Lord" (Eph. ii., 21), placed Peter as it were a stone to support
the Church. "When he heard 'thou art a rock,' he was ennobled by the
announcement. Although he is a rock, not as Christ is a rock, but as
Peter is a rock. For Christ is by His very being an immovable rock;
Peter only through this rock. Christ imparts His gifts, and is not
exhausted....He is a priest, and makes priests. He is a rock, and
constitutes a rock" (Hom. de Poenitentia, n. 4 in Appendice opp. S.
Basilii). He who is the King of His Church, "Who hath the key of David,
who openeth and no man shutteth, who shutteth and no man openeth (Apoc.
iii., 7), having delivered the keys to Peter declared him Prince of the
Christian commonwealth. So, too, He, the Great Shepherd, who calls
Himself "the Good Shepherd," constituted Peter the pastor "of His lambs
and sheep. Feed My lambs, feed My Sheep." Wherefore Chrysostom says:
"He was preeminent among the Apostles: He was the mouthpiece of the
Apostles and the head of the Apostolic College....at the same time
showing him that henceforth he ought to have confidence, and as it were
blotting out his denial, He commits to him the government of his
brethren....He saith to him: 'If thou lovest Me, be over my brethren.'
Finally He who confirms in "every good work and word" (2 Thess. ii.,
16) commands Peter "to con firm his brethren."
Rightly, therefore, does St. Leo the Great say: "From the whole world
Peter alone is chosen to take the lead in calling all nations, to be
the head of all the Apostles and of all the Fathers of the Church. So
that, although in the people of God there are many priests and many
pastors Peter should by right rule all of those over whom Christ
Himself is the chief ruler" (Sermo iv., cap. 2). And so St. Gregory the
great, writing to the Emperor Maurice Augustus, says: "It is evident to
all who know the gospel that the charge of the whole Church was
committed to St. Peter, the Apostle and Prince of all tie Apostles, by
the word of the Lord....Behold! he hath received the keys of the
heavenly kingdom - the power of binding and loosing is conferred upon
him: the care of the whole government of the Church is confided to him"
(Epist. Iib. v., Epist. xx).
13. It was necessary that a government of this kind, since it belongs
to the constitution and formation of the Church, as its principal
element that is as the principle of unity and the foundation of lasting
stability - should in no wise come to an end with St. Peter, but should
pass to his successors from one to another. "There remains, therefore,
the ordinance of truth, and St. Peter, persevering in the strength of
the rock which he had received, hath not abandoned the government of
the Church which had been confided to him" (S. Leo M. sermo iii., cap.
3). For this reason the Pontiffs who succeed Peter in the Roman
Episcopate receive the supreme power in the church, jure divino. "We
define" (declare the Fathers of the Council of Florence) "that the Holy
and Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff hold the primacy of the Church
throughout the whole world: and that the same Roman Pontiff is the
successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and the true Vicar
of Christ, the head of the whole Church, and the father and teacher of
all Christians; and that full power was given to him, in Blessed Peter,
by our Lord Jesus Christ to feed, to rule, and to govern the universal
Church, as is also contained in the acts of ecumenical councils and in
the sacred canons" (Conc. Florentinum). Similarly the Fourth Council of
Lateran declares: "The Roman Church, as the mother and mistress of all
the faithful, by the will of Christ obtains primacy of jurisdiction
over all other Churches." These declarations were preceded by the
consent of antiquity which ever acknowledged, without the slightest
doubt or hesitation, the Bishops of Rome, and revered them, as the
legitimate successors of St. Peter.
Who is unaware of the many and evident testimonies of the holy Fathers
which exist to this effect? Most remarkable is that of St. Irenaeus
who, referring to the Roman Church, says: "With this Church, on account
of its preeminent authority, it is necessary that every Church should
be in concord" (Contra Haereses, lib. iii., cap. 3, n. 2); and St.
Cyprian also says of the Roman Church, that "it is the root and mother
of the Catholic Church, the chair of Peter, and the principal Church
whence sacerdotal unity has its source" (Ep. xlviii., ad Cornelium, n.
3. and Ep. lix., ad eundem, n. 14). He calls it the chair of Peter
because it is occupied by the successor of Peter: he calls it the
principal Church, on account of the primacy conferred on Peter himself
and his legitimate successors; and the source of unity, because the
Roman Church is the efficient cause of unity in the Christian
commonwealth. For this reason Jerome addresses Damasus thus: "My words
are spoken to the successor of the Fisherman, to the disciple of the
Cross....I communicate with none save your Blessedness, that is with
the chair of Peter. For this I know is the rock on which the Church is
built" (Ep. xv., ad Damasum, n. 2). Union with the Roman See of Peter
is to him always the public criterion of a Catholic. "I acknowledge
everyone who is united with the See of Peter" (Ep. xvi., ad Damasum, n.
2). And for a like reason St. Augustine publicly attests that, "the
primacy of the Apostolic chair always existed in the Roman Church" (Ep.
xliii., n. 7); and he denies that anyone who dissents from the Roman
faith can be a Catholic. "You are not to be looked upon as holding the
true Catholic faith if you do not teach that the faith of Rome is to be
held" (Sermo cxx., n. 13). So, too, St. Cyprian: "To be in communion
with Cornelius is to be in communion with the Catholic Church" (Ep.
Iv., n. 1). In the same way Maximus the Abbot teaches that obedience to
the Roman Pontiff is the proof of the true faith and of legitimate
communion. Therefore if a man does not want to be, or to be called, a
heretic, let him not strive to please this or that man...but let him
hasten before all things to be in communion with the Roman See. If he
be in communion with it, he should be acknowledged by all and
everywhere as faithful and orthodox. He speaks in vain who tries to
persuade me of the orthodoxy of those who, like himself, refuse
obedience to his Holiness the Pope of the most holy Church of Rome:
that is to the Apostolic See." The reason and motive of this he
explains to be that "the Apostolic See has received and hath
government, authority, and power of binding and loosing from the
Incarnate Word Himself; and, according to all holy synods, sacred
canons and decrees, in all things and through all things, in respect of
all the holy churches of God throughout the whole world, since the Word
in Heaven who rules the Heavenly powers binds and loosens there"
(Defloratio ex Epistola ad Petrum illustrem).
Wherefore what was acknowledged and observed as Christian faith, not by
one nation only nor in one age, but by the East and by the West, and
through all ages, this Philip, the priest, the Pontifical legate at the
Council of Ephesus, no voice being raised in dissent, recalls: "No one
can doubt, yea, it is known unto all ages, that St. Peter, the Prince
of the Apostles, the pillar of the faith and the ground of the Catholic
Church, received the keys of the Kingdom from Our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is: the power of forgiving and retaining sins was given to him
who, up to the present time, lives and exercises judgment in the
persons of his successors" (Actio iii.). The pronouncement of the
Council of Chalcedon on the same matter is present to the minds of all:
"Peter has spoken through Leo" (Actio ii.), to which the voice of the
Third Council of Constantinople responds as an echo: "The chief Prince
of the Apostles was fighting on our side: for we have had as our ally
his follower and the successor to his see: and the paper and the ink
were seen, and Peter spoke through Agatho" (Actio xviii.).
In the formula of Catholic faith drawn up and proposed by Hormisdas,
which was subscribed at the beginning of the sixth century in the great
Eighth Council by the Emperor Justinian, by Epiphanius, John and Menna,
the Patriarchs, this same is declared with great weight and solemnity.
"For the pronouncement of Our Lord Jesus Christ saying: 'Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,' and c., cannot be
passed over. What is said is proved by the result, because Catholic
faith has always been preserved without stain in the Apostolic See"
(Post Epistolam, xxvi., ad omnes Episc. Hispan., n. 4). We have no wish
to quote every available declaration; but it is well to recall the
formula of faith which Michael Paleologus professed in the Second
Council of Lyons: "The same holy Roman Church possesses the sovereign
and plenary primacy and authority over the whole Catholic Church,
which, truly and humbly, it acknowledges to have received together with
the plenitude of power from the Lord Himself, in the person of St.
Peter, the Prince or Head of the Apostles, of whom the Roman Pontiff is
the successor. And as it is bound to defend the truth of faith beyond
all others, so also if any question should arise concerning the faith
it must be deter mined by its judgment" (Actio iv.).
14. But if the authority of Peter and his successors is plenary and
supreme, it is not to be regarded as the sole authority. For He who
made Peter the foundation of the Church also "chose, twelve, whom He
called apostles" (Luke vi., 13); and just as it is necessary that the
authority of Peter should be perpetuated in the Roman Pontiff, so, by
the fact that the bishops succeed the Apostles, they inherit their
ordinary power, and thus the episcopal order necessarily belongs to the
essential constitution of the Church. Although they do not receive
plenary, or universal, or supreme authority, they are not to be looked
as vicars of the Roman Pontiffs; because they exercise a power really
their own, and are most truly called the ordinary pastors of the
peoples over whom they rule.
But since the successor of Peter is one, and those of the Apostles are
many, it is necessary to examine into the relations which exist between
him and them according to the divine constitution of the Church. Above
all things the need of union between the bishops and the successors of
Peter is clear and undeniable. This bond once broken, Christians would
be separated and scattered, and would in no wise form one body and one
flock. "The safety of the Church depends on the dignity of the chief
priest, to whom if an extraordinary and supreme power is not given,
there are as many schisms to be expected in the Church as there are
priests" (S. Hieronymus, Dialog, contra Luciferianos, n. 9). It is
necessary, therefore, to bear this in mind, viz., that nothing was
conferred on the apostles apart from Peter, but that several things
were conferred upon Peter apart from the Apostles. St. John Chrysostom
in explaining the words of Christ asks: "Why, passing over the others,
does He speak to Peter about these things?" And he replies
unhesitatingly and at once, "Because he was pre eminent among the
Apostles, the mouthpiece of the Disciples, and the head of the college"
(Hom. lxxxviii. in Joan., n. 1). He alone was designated as the
foundation of the Church. To him He gave the power of binding and
loosing; to him alone was given the power of feeding. On the other
hand, whatever authority and office the Apostles received, they
received in conjunction with Peter. "If the divine benignity willed
anything to be in common between him and the other princes, whatever He
did not deny to the others He gave only through him. So that whereas
Peter alone received many things, He conferred nothing on any of the
rest without Peter participating in it" (S. Leo M. sermo iv., cap. 2).
15. From this it must be clearly understood that Bishops are deprived
of the right and power of ruling, if they deliberately secede from
Peter and his successors; because, by this secession, they are
separated from the foundation on which the whole edifice must rest.
They are therefore outside the edifice itself; and for this very reason
they are separated from the fold, whose leader is the Chief Pastor;
they are exiled from the Kingdom, the
keys of which were given by Christ to Peter alone.
These things enable us to see the heavenly ideal, and the divine
exemplar, of the constitution of the Christian commonwealth, namely:
When the Divine founder decreed that the Church should be one in faith,
in government, and in communion, He chose Peter and his successors as
the principle and centre, as it were, of this unity. Wherefore St.
Cyprian says: "The following is a short and easy proof of the faith.
The Lord saith to Peter: 'I say to thee thou art Peter'; on him alone
He buildeth His Church; and although after His Resurrection He gives a
similar power to all the Apostles and says: 'As the Father hath sent
me,' &c., still in order to make the necessary unity clear, by His
own authority He laid down the source of that unity as beginning from
one" (De Unit. Eccl., n. 4). And Optatus of Milevis says: "You cannot
deny that you know that in the city of Rome the Episcopal chair was
first conferred on Peter. In this Peter, the head of all the Apostles
(hence his name Cephas), has sat; in which chair alone unity was to be
preserved for all, lest any of the other apostles should claim anything
as exclusively his own. So much so, that he who would place another
chair against that one chair, would be a schismatic and a sinner" (De
Schism. Donat., lib. ii). Hence the teaching of Cyprian, that heresy
and schism arise and are begotten from the fact that due obedience is
refused to the supreme authority. "Heresies and schisms have no other
origin than that obedience is refused to the priest of God, and that
men lose sight of the fact that there is one judge in the place of
Christ in this world" (Epist. xii. ad Cornelium, n. 5). No one,
therefore, unless in communion with Peter can share in his authority,
since it is absurd to imagine that he who is outside can command in the
Church. Wherefore Optatus of Milevis blamed the Donatists for this
reason: "Against which ages (of hell) we read that Peter received the
saving keys, that is to say, our prince, to whom it was said by Christ:
'To thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the gates
of hell shall not conquer them.' Whence is it therefore that you strive
to obtain for yourselves the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven - you who
fight against the chair of Peter?" (Lib. ii., n. 4-5).
But the Episcopal order is rightly judged to be in communion with
Peter, as Christ commanded, if it be subject to and obeys Peter;
otherwise it necessarily becomes a lawless and disorderly crowd. It is
not sufficient for the due preservation of the unity of the faith that
the head should merely have been charged with the office of
superintendent, or should have been invested solely with a power of
direction. But it is absolutely necessary that he should have received
real and sovereign authority which the whole community is bound to
obey. What had the Son of God in view when he promised the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven to Peter alone? Biblical usage and the unanimous
teaching of the Fathers clearly show that supreme authority is
designated in the passage by the word keys. Nor is it lawful to
interpret in a different sense what was given to Peter alone, and what
was given to the other Apostles conjointly with him. If the power of
binding, loosening, and feeding confers upon each and every one of the
Bishops the successors of the Apostles a real authority to rule the
people committed to him, certainly the same power must have the same
effect in his case to whom the duty of feeding the lambs and sheep has
been assigned by God. "Christ constituted [Peter] not only pastor, but
pastor of pastors; Peter therefore feeds the lambs and feeds the sheep,
feeds the children and feeds the mothers, governs the subjects and
rules the prelates, because the lambs and the sheep form the whole of
the Church" (S. Bruonis Episcopi Signiensis Comment. in Joan., part
iii., cap. 21, n. 55). Hence those remarkable expressions of the
ancients concerning St. Peter, which most clearly set forth the fact
that he was placed n the highest degree of dignity and authority. They
frequently call him "the Prince of the College of the Disciples; the
Prince of the holy Apostles; the leader of that choir; the mouthpiece
of all the Apostles; the head of that family; the ruler of the whole
world; the first of the Apostles; the safeguard of the Church." In this
sense St. Bernard writes as follows to Pope Eugenius: "Who art thou?
The great priest - the high priest. Thou art the Prince of Bishops and
the heir of the Apostles.... Thou art he to whom the keys were given.
There are, it is true, other gatekeepers of heaven and to pastors of
flocks, but thou are so much the more glorious as thou hast inherited a
different and more glorious name than all the rest. They have flocks
consigned to them, one to each; to thee all the flocks are confided as
one flock to one shepherd, and not alone the sheep, but the shepherds.
You ask how I prove this? From the words of the Lord. To which - I do
not say - of the Bishops, but even of the Apostles have all the sheep
been so absolutely and unreservedly committed? If thou lovest me,
Peter, feed my sheep. Which sheep? Of this or that country, or kingdom?
My sheep, He says: to whom therefore is it not evident that he does not
designate some, but all? We can make no exception where no distinction
is made" (De Consideratione, lib. ii., cap. 8).
But it is opposed to the truth, and in evident contradiction with the
divine constitution of the Church, to hold that while each Bishop is
individually bound to obey the authority of the Roman Pontiffs, taken
collectively the Bishops are not so bound. For it is the nature and
object of a foundation to support the unity of the whole edifice and to
give stability to it, rather than to each component part; and in the
present case this is much more applicable, since Christ the Lord wished
that by the strength and solidity of the foundation the gates of hell
should be prevented from prevailing against the Church. All are agreed
that the divine promise must be understood of the Church as a whole,
and not of any certain portions of it. These can indeed be overcome by
the assaults of the powers of hell, as in point of fact has befallen
some of them. Moreover, he who is set over the whole flock must have
authority, not only over the sheep dispersed throughout the Church, but
also when they are assembled together. Do the sheep when they are all
assembled together rule and guide the shepherd? Do the successors of
the Apostles assembled together constitute the foundation on which the
successor of St. Peter rests in order to derive therefrom strength and
stability? Surely jurisdiction and authority belong to him in whose
power have been placed the keys of the Kingdom taken collectively. And
as the Bishops, each in his own district, command with real power not
only individuals but the whole community, so the Roman pontiffs, whose
jurisdiction extends to the whole Christian commonwealth, must have all
its parts, even taken collectively, subject and obedient to their
authority. Christ the Lord, as we have quite sufficiently shown, made
Peter and his successors His vicars, to exercise for ever in the Church
the power which He exercised during His mortal life. Can the Apostolic
College be said to have been above its master in authority?
This power over the Episcopal College to which we refer, and which is
clearly set forth in Holy Writ, has ever been acknowledged and attested
by the Church, as is clear from the teaching of General Councils. "We
read that the Roman Pontiff has pronounced judgments on the prelates of
all the churches; we do not read that anybody has pronounced sentence
on him" (Hadrianus ii., in Allocutione iii., ad Synodum Romanum an.
869, Cf. Actionem vii., Conc. Constantinopolitani iv). The reason for
which is stated thus: "there is no authority greater than that of the
Apostolic See" (Nicholaus in Epist. Ixxxvi. ad Michael. Imperat.)*
wherefore Gelasius on the decrees of Councils says: "That which the
First See has not approved of cannot stand; but what it has thought
well to decree has been received by the whole Church" (Epist. xxvi., ad
Episcopos Dardaniae, n. 5). It has ever been un questionably the office
of the Roman Pontiffs to ratify or to reject the decrees of Councils.
Leo the great rescinded the acts of the Conciliabulum of Ephesus.
Damasus rejected those of Rimini, and Hadrian 1. those of
Constantinople. The 28th Canon of the Council of Chalcedon, by the very
fact that it lacks the assent and approval of the Apostolic See, is
admitted by all to be worthless. Rightly, therefore, has Leo X. laid
down in the 5th council of Lateran "that the Roman Pontiff alone, as
having authority over all Councils, has full jurisdiction and power to
summon, to transfer, to dissolve Councils, as is clear, not only from
the testimony of Holy Writ, from the teaching of the Fathers and of the
Roman Pontiffs, and from the decrees of the sacred canons, but from the
teaching of the very Councils themselves." Indeed, Holy Writ attests
that the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were given to Peter alone, and
that the power of binding and loosening was granted to the Apostles and
to Peter; but there is nothing to show that the Apostles received
supreme power without Peter, and against Peter. Such power they
certainly did not receive from Jesus Christ. Wherefore, in the decree
of the Vatican Council as to the nature and authority of the primacy of
the Roman Pontiff, no newly conceived opinion is set forth, but the
venerable and constant belief of every age (Sess. iv., cap. 3).
Nor does it beget any confusion in the administration that Christians
are bound to obey a twofold authority. We are prohibited in the first
place by Divine Wisdom from entertaining any such thought, since this
form of government was constituted by the counsel of God Himself. In
the second place we must note that the due order of things and their
mutual relations are disturbed if there be a twofold magistracy of the
same rank set over a people, neither of which is amenable to the other.
But the authority of the Roman Pontiff is supreme, universal,
independent; that of the bishops limited, and dependent. "It is not
congruous that two superiors with equal authority should be placed over
the same flock; but that two, one of whom is higher than the other,
should be placed over the same people is not incongruous. Thus the
parish priest, the bishop, and the Pope, are placed immediately over
the same people" (St. Thomas in iv Sent. dist. xvii., a. 4, ad q. 4, ad
3). So the Roman Pontiffs, mindful of their duty, wish above all
things, that the divine constitution of the Church should be preserved.
Therefore, as they defend with all necessary care and vigilance their
own authority, so they have always laboured, and will continue to
labour, that the authority of the bishops may be upheld. Yea, they look
up whatever honour or obedience is given to the bishops as paid to
themselves. "My honour is the honour of the Universal Church. My honour
is the strength and stability of my brethren. Then am I honoured when
due honour is given to everyone" (S. Gregorius M. Epistolarum, lib
viii., ep. xxx., ad Eulogium).
16. In what has been said we have faithfully described the exemplar and
form of the Church as divinely constituted. We have treated at length
of its unity: we have explained sufficiently its nature, and pointed
out the way in which the Divine Founder of the Church willed that it
should be preserved. There is no reason to doubt that all those, who by
Divine Grace and mercy have had the happiness to have been born, as it
were, in the bosom of the Catholic Church, and to have lived in it,
will listen to Our Apostolic Voice: "My sheep hear my voice" John x.,
27), and that they will derive from Our words fuller instruction and a
more perfect disposition to keep united with their respective pastors,
and through them with the Supreme Pastor, so that they may remain more
securely within the one fold, and may derive therefrom a greater
abundance of salutary fruit. But We, who, notwithstanding our unfitness
for this great dignity and office, govern by virtue of the authority
conferred on us by Jesus Christ, as we "look on Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith" (Heb. xii., 2) feel Our heart fired by His
charity. What Christ has said of Himself We may truly repeat of
Ourselves: "Other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I
must bring and they shall hear my voice" John x., 16). Let all those,
therefore, who detest the wide-spread irreligion of our times, and
acknowledge and confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the
Saviour of the human race, but who have wandered away from the Spouse,
listen to Our voice. Let them not refuse to obey Our paternal charity.
Those who acknowledge Christ must acknowledge Him wholly and entirely.
"The Head and the body are Christ wholly and entirely. The Head is the
only-begotten son of God, the body is His Church; the bridegroom and
the bride, two in one flesh. All who dissent from the Scriptures
concerning Christ, although they may be found in all places in which
the Church is found, are not in the Church; and again all those who
agree with the Scriptures concerning the Head, and do not communicate
in the unity of the Church, are not in the Church" (S. Augustinus,
Contra Donatistas Epistola, sive De Unit. Eccl., cap. iv., n. 7).
And with the same yearning Our soul goes out to those whom the foul
breath of irreligion has not entirely corrupted, and who at least seek
to have the true God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, as their Father.
Let such as these take counsel with themselves, and realize that they
can in no wise be counted among the children of God, unless they take
Christ Jesus as their Brother, and at the same time the Church as their
mother. We lovingly address to all the words of St. Augustine: "Let us
love the Lord our God; let us love His Church; the Lord as our Father,
the Church as our Mother. Let no one say, I go in deed to idols, I
consult fortune-tellers and soothsayers; but I leave not the Church of
God: I am a Catholic. Clinging to thy Mother, thou offendest thy
Father. Another, too, says: 'Far be it from me; I do not consult
fortune-telling, I seek not soothsaying, I seek not profane
divinations, I go not to the worship of devils, I serve not stones: but
I am on the side of Donatus.' What doth it profit thee not to offend
the Father, who avenges an offense against the Mother? What doth it
profit to confess the Lord, to honour God, to preach Him, to
acknowledge His Son, and to confess that He sits on the right hand of
the Father, if you blaspheme His Church? . . . If you had a beneficent
friend, whom you honoured daily - and even once calumniated his spouse,
would you ever enter his house? Hold fast, therefore, O dearly beloved,
hold fast altogether God as your Father, and the Church as your Mother"
(Enarratio in Psal. Lxxxviii., sermo ii., n. 14).
Above all things, trusting in the mercy of God, who is able to move the
hearts of men and to incline them as and when He pleases, We most
earnestly commend to His loving kindness all those of whom We have
spoken. As a pledge of Divine grace, and as a token of Our affection,
We lovingly impart to you, in the Lord, Venerable Brethren, to your
clergy and people, Our Apostolic Blessing.
Given at St. Peter's, Rome, the 29th day of June, in the year 1896, and
the nineteenth of our Pontificate.
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