[56] Encom. in Petrum et cœteros Apostolos.
[57] Cat. xi. n. 3. [Greek: ho prôtosthatês tôn Apostholôn kai tês ekklêshias koryphaios khêryx.]
[58] Mark xvi. 16; John iii. 18; Rom. iii. 3, &c.
[59] Ambros. in Ps. 1. n. 30.
[60] Mansi, Tom. viii. 746.
[61] De unitate Ecclesiæ, 3.
CHAPTER III.
THE INVESTITURE OF PETER.
Our Lord has hitherto, while on earth,[1] ruled as its visible head that body of disciples which He had chosen out of the world, and which His Father had given Him. And this body He for the first time called the Church in that famous prophecy[2] wherein He named the person, who, by virtue of an intimate association with Himself, the Rock, should be its foundation, and the duration of which until the consummation of the world, He pronounced at the same time, in spite of all the rage of "spiritual wickedness in high places" against it, because it should be founded upon the rock which He should lay.