[30] De Præse. c. 24.
[31] Cyprian, Ep. 71.
[32] Ep. 82, n. 22.
[33] Passaglia, p. 240.
[34] Hom. on text, n. 17.
CHAPTER VII.
S. PETER'S PRIMACY INVOLVED IN THE FOURFOLD UNITY OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
The doctrine[1] of S. Paul has brought us to a most interesting point of the subject, what, namely, is the principle of unity in the Church. A short consideration of this will shew us how the office of S. Peter enters into and forms part of the radical idea of the Church, so that the moment we profess our belief in one holy Catholic Church, the belief is likewise involved in that Primacy of teaching and authority which makes and keeps it one.
The principle of unity, then, is no other than "the Word made flesh:" that divine Person who has for ever joined together the Godhead and the Manhood. Thus, S. Paul speaks to us of God "having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, to gather together under one head all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth:" at whose resurrection, "He set all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." And again, "the head of every man is Christ;—and the head of Christ is God." "And we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another:"[2] as, again, he sets forth at length in the 12th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, calling that one body by the very name of Christ.