III.
(Peter, cap. xxii. note 6, p. 253.)
In the treatise of Cyprian, De Unitate, we shall have occasion to speak fully on this interesting point. The reference to Kaye may suffice, here. But, since the inveterate confusion of all that is said of Peter with all that is claimed by a modern bishop for himself promotes a false view of this passage, it may be well to note (1) that St. Peter's name is expounded by himself (1 Peter ii. 4, 5) so as to make Christ the Rock and all believers "lively stones"--or Peters--by faith in Him. St. Peter is often called the rock, most justly, in this sense, by a rhetorical play on his name: Christ the Rock and all believers "lively stones," being cemented with Him by the Spirit. But, (2) this specialty of St. Peter, as such, belongs to him (Cephas) only. (3) So far as transmitted it belongs to no particular See. (4) The claim of Rome is disproved by Præscription. (5) Were it otherwise, it would not justify that See in making new articles of Faith. (6) Nor in its Schism with the East. (7) When it restores St. Peter's Doctrine and Holiness, to the Latin Churches, there will be no quarrel about pre-eminence. Meantime, Rome's fallibility is expressly taught in Romans xi. 18-21.
IV.
(The Apostles, cap. xxv. p. 254.)
Nothing less than a new incarnation of Christ and a new commission to new apostles can give us anything new in religion. This præscription is our Catholic answer to the Vatican oracles of our own time. These give us a new revelation, prefacing the Gospels (1) by defining the immaculate conception of Mary in the womb of her mother; and (2) adding a new chapter to the Acts of the Apostles, in defining the infallibility of a single bishop.
Clearly, had Tertullian known anything of this last dogma of Latin Novelty, he would not have taken the trouble to write this treatise. He would have said to heretics, We can neither discuss Scripture nor Antiquity with you. Rome is the touchstone of dogma, and to its bishop we refer you.
V.
(Truth and Peace, cap. xliv. p. 265.)
The famous appeal of Bishop Jewel, known as "the Challenge at Paul's Cross," which he made in a sermon preached there on Passion Sunday, a.d. 1560, is an instance of "Præscription against heresies," well worthy of being recalled, in a day which has seen Truth and Peace newly sacrificed to the ceaseless innovations of Rome. It is as follows:--"If any learned man of all our adversaries, or, if all the learned men that be alive, be able to bring any one sufficient sentence out of any old Catholic doctor or father; or out of any old general Council; or out of the Holy Scriptures of God; [2313] or, any one example of the primitive Church, whereby it may be clearly and plainly proved, that--
1. There was any private mass in the whole world at that time, for the space of six hundred years after Christ; or that--
2. There was then any communion ministered unto the people under one kind; or that--
3. The people had their common prayers, then, in a strange tongue that they understood not; or that--
4. The bishop of Rome was then called an universal bishop, or the head of the universal Church; or that--
5. The people was then taught to believe that Christ's body is really, substantially, corporally, carnally or naturally in the Sacrament; or that--
6. His body is, or may be, in a thousand places or more, at one time; or that--
7. The priest did then hold up the Sacrament over his head; or that--
8. The people did then fall down and worship it with godly honour; or that--
9. The Sacrament was then, or now ought to be, hanged up under a canopy; or that--
10. In the Sacrament after the words of consecration there remaineth only the accidents and shews, without the substance of bread and wine; or that--
11. The priest then divided the Sacrament in three parts and afterwards received himself, alone; or that--
12. Whosoever had said the Sacrament is a pledge, a token, or a remembrance of Christ's body, had therefore been judged a heretic; or that--
13. It was lawful, then, to have thirty, twenty, fifteen, ten, or five masses said in one Church, in one day; or that--
14. Images were then set up in churches to the intent the people might worship them; or that--
15. The lay people was then forbidden to read the word of God, in their own tongue:
"If any man alive be able to prove any of these articles, by any one clear or plain clause or sentence, either of the Scriptures, or of the old doctors, or of any old General Council, or by any Example of the Primitive Church; I promise, then, that I will give over and subscribe unto him."
All this went far beyond the concession of præscription which makes little of any one saying of any one Father, and demands the general consent of Antiquity; but, it is needless to say that Jewel's challenge has remained unanswered for more than three hundred years, and so it will be to all Eternity.
With great erudition Jewel enlarged his propositions and maintained all his points. See his works, vol. I., p. 20 et seqq. Cambridge University Press, 1845.
[2313] It must be remembered that an appeal to Scripture lies behind Tertullian's Præscription: only he will not discuss Holy Scripture with heretics.
tertullian against_marcion anf03 tertullian-against_marcion The Five Books Against Marcion /ccel/schaff/anf03.v.iv.html
The Five Books Against Marcion
II.
The Five Books Against Marcion.
[Translated by Dr. Holmes.]
Introductory Notes.
------------------------
Dedication.
To the Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of Chester.
My Dear Lord,
I am gratified to have your permission to dedicate this volume to your Lordship. It is the fruit of some two years' leisure labour. Every man's occupation spares to him some leipsana chronou; and thirty years ago you taught me, at Oxford, how to husband these opportunities in the pleasant studies of Biblical and Theological Science. For that and many other kindnesses I cannot cease to be thankful to you.
But, besides this private motive, I have in your Lordship's own past course an additional incentive for resorting to you on this occasion. You, until lately, presided over the theological studies of our great University; and you have given great encouragement to patristic literature by your excellent edition of the Apostolic Fathers. [2314] To whom could I more becomingly present this humble effort to make more generally known the great merits of perhaps the greatest work of the first of the Latin Fathers than to yourself?
I remain, with much respect,
My dear Lord,
Very faithfully yours,
Peter Holmes.
Mannamead, Plymouth, [2315]
March, 1868.