St. Peter, His Name and His Office, as Set Forth in Holy Scripture

by T. W. Allies

The gifts promised to Peter alone, are contained in these words of Christ, recorded by Matthew: and therefore, from their nature and inherent qualities, we must judge of the sort, and the extent of inequality, put by Christ between Peter and the rest.

These are summed up in the four following: I. That Peter is the rock, on which the Church was to be built by Christ, the Chief Architect. II. That the impregnable strength which the Church was to have against the gates of hell, depended on its union with Peter, as the divinely laid foundation. III. That by Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, Peter is marked out as next to Him, and after Him, the Bearer of the keys in the Church's heavenly kingdom: IV. And that, accordingly, universal power of binding and loosing is promised to him, leaving him responsible to Christ alone, the supreme Lawgiver and Judge. Therefore the nature of the prerogatives expressed in these four terms must be our standard both of the character and degree of inequality between the Apostles and Peter, and of the power of the Primacy promised to Peter.

But these terms mark authority, and plainly express jurisdiction and power; the inequality, therefore, is one relating to jurisdiction and power; and Peter's pre-eminence likewise such.

That these terms, which contain Peter's prerogatives really do express jurisdiction and authority, may be thus very briefly shown. The first, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church," is drawn from architecture, exhibiting between Peter and the Church, which includes also the Apostles, the relation which exists between the foundation and the superstructure. This is one of dependence, by which accordingly the Apostles must maintain an indivisible union with Peter. Which relation of dependence, again, cannot be understood without the notion of superior jurisdiction in Peter, for these are correlative. The second term corroborates this; for it is a plain duty, and undoubted moral obligation, to be united to him, if severed from whom, the words of Christ do not entitle you to expect stability or victory over the gates of hell. Now, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," most plainly express that perseverance and victory are promised to no one by Christ, who does not remain joined with Peter. So much for the duty which binds all Christians, and the Apostles among them, to avoid separation from Peter as their destruction. But such duty involves the faculty and authority on Peter's part of enjoining on all without exception the maintenance of unity, and of keeping from the whole body the sin of schism, which, again, expresses his superior jurisdiction. Yet plainer and more striking is the third; for in the words, "And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven," it is foretold that Peter, in regard to the kingdom of heaven, and therefore to all Christians, whether teachers or taught, subjects or prelates, shall discharge the office of the bearer of the keys; with which jurisdiction and authority are indivisibly united. But in the fourth, there is no matter relating to the heavenly kingdom, which is not subjected by this promise to Peter's authority. "Whatsoever thou shalt bind," "whatsoever thou shalt loose;" but this is in its own kind without limit, a full legislative and judicial power. Thus these four terms exactly agree with each other, and express, severally and collectively, prerogatives by which Peter is admitted to a singular and close association with Christ; and therefore is pre-eminent among the Apostles by his Primacy, and his superior authority over the whole Church.

They also show, with no less clearness, that Christ in bestowing these prerogatives and primacy on Peter, designed to produce the visible unity of His kingdom and Church; and this in two ways, the first typically prefiguring the Church's own unity in Peter, the single Foundation, Bearer of the keys, and supreme Legislator and Judge; the second efficiently, as by a principle and cause, forming, holding together, and protecting, visible unity in that same Peter, as he discharged these functions. For just as the building is based on the foundation, and by virtue of it all the parts are held together, so a kingdom's unity and harmonious administration are first moulded out, and then preserved, in the unity of its supreme authority.

And this Primacy may be regarded from three different points of view; as it is in itself, and as it regards its efficient and its final cause. As to the first, it consists in superior jurisdiction and authority; as to the second, it springs from Christ Himself, who said to Peter alone, "And I too say unto thee," &c.; as to the third, it prefigures, forms, and protects the Church's visible unity.

But to prefigure, to form, and to protect the Church's unity being distinct functions, care must be taken not to confuse them, the former concerning the Primacy as a type, the two latter as the origin and efficient cause; and also not to concede the former while the latter are denied, which latter make up the Primacy as jurisdictional, and the instrument effecting unity. Now Peter is both the type of unity, its origin, and its efficient cause.

A long line[23] of fathers, from the most ancient downwards, regards Peter as at once the type, and the origin, and efficient cause of unity; setting it forth as a prerogative of his headship that no one, whether Apostle, or Prophet, or Evangelist, or Doctor, or Teacher, might separate from him without the crime of schism. In this consists his Primacy, and in this the famous phrase of S. Cyprian finds its solution, that "the Episcopate is one, of which a part is held by each without division of the whole."

And, what is like to the preceding, they hold that Peter is the continuous source of all power in the Church, and that while its plenitude dwells in his person, a portion of it is derived to the various prelates under him. No one has set this forth more fully than S. Leo, in the middle of the fifth century, as where he says, that "if Christ willed that other rulers should enjoy aught together with him, (that is, Peter,) yet never did He give, save through him, what He denied not to others."[24]

There is no one of these consequences but seems to result from the words of our Lord here solemnly addressed to Peter.