304 THIRD PEKIOD. A.D. 311-590.
prerogatives have passed to the bishops of Rome, as the successors of this apostle.'
Ambrose of Milan (f 397) speaks indeed in very high terms of the Roman church, and concedes to its bishops a religious magistracy like the political power of the emperors of pagan Rome;' yet he calls the ])rimacy of Peter only a " primacy of confession, not of honor ; of faith, not of rank," * and places the apostle Paul on an equality with Peter." Of anv dependence of Ambrose, or of the bishops of Milan in gene* ral during the first six centuries, on the jurisdiction of Rome, no trace is to be found.
Jerome (f 419), the most learned commentator among the Latin fathers, vacillates in bis explanation of the petra^' now, like Augustine, referring it to Christ,' now to Peter and his confession.' In his commentary on Matt, xvi., he combines
' De schismate Donatiataruin, lib. ii. cap. 2, 3, and 1. vii. 3. The work waa com posed while Siricius was bishop of Rome, hence about 384.
' Ambr. Sernio ii. in festo Petri et Pauli : " In urbe Romae, quae prineipatura et caput obtinet nationum : scilicet ut ubi caput Huperstitionis erat, illic caput quiesceret sanctitatis, et ubi gentilium principes hal)itabant, illic ecclesiarum principes raorerentur." In Ps. 40 : " Ipse est Petrus cui dixit : Tu es Petrus . . . ubi ergo Patrus, ibi ecclesia ; ubi ecelesia, ibi nulla mors, sed vita eterna." Comp. the poetic passage in his Morning Hymn, in the citation from Augustine further on. But in another passage he likewise refers the rock to Christ, in Luc. ix. 20 : " Petra est Christus," etc.
' De incarnat. Domini, c. 4 : " Primatum confessionis utique, non honoris, primatum fidei, non ordinis."
* De Spiritu S. ii. 12 : "Nee Paulus inferior Pctro, quamvis ille ccclesijE fundanientum." Sermo ii. in festo P. et P., just before the above-quoted passage : "Ergo beati Petrus et Paulus eminent inter univcrsos apostolos, et peculiari quadam prasrogativa praecellunt. Verura inter ipsos, quis cui praeponatur, incertum est Puto enim illos aequales esse meritis, qui lequales sunt passione." Augustine, too once calls Paul, not Peter, caput et princcps apostolonm, and in another place that be tanti apostolatus meruit principatum.
' nieron. in Amos, vi. 12: "Petra Christus est, qui donavit apostolis suis, ut /psi -luoque petrae vocentur." And in another place: "Ecclesia Catholica super Petram Christum .siiihWi radici fundata est."
" Adv. Jovin. 1. i. cap. 26 (in Vallars. ed., torn. ii. 270), in reply to Jovinian'a appeal to Peter in favor of marriage : "Atdicis: super Pctrum fundatur ecclesia , licet id ipsum in alio loco super omnes apostolos fiat, et cuncti claves rcgni cocloruir accipiant, et ex a;quo super eos fortitude ecclesi.c solidetur, tamen propterea inter duodecira unus cligitur, ut capite constituto, achismatis tollatur occasio." So Epist XV. ad Damasum papam (ed. Vail. i. 37).
§ 61. OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS. 305
the two interpretations thus : " As Christ gave light to the apostles, so that they were called, after him, the light of the world, and as they received other designations from the Lord , so Simon, because he believed on the rock, Christ, received the name Peter, and in accordance with the figure of the rock, it is justly said to him : ''I will huild my church upon thee {sitper te).^ " He recognizes in the Roman bishop the successor of Peter, but advocates elsewhere the equal rights of the bishops,' and in fact derives even the episcopal office, not from direct divine institution, but from the usage of the church and from the presidency in the presbyterium.'' He can therefore be cited as a witness, at most, for a primacy of honor, not for a supremacy of jurisdiction. Beyond this even the strongest passage of his writings, in a letter to his friend, Pope Dama- Bus (a. d. 376), does not go : "Away with the ambition of the Roman head ; I speak with the successor of the fisherman and disciple of the cross. Following no other head than Christ, I am joined in the communion of faith with thy holiness, that is, with the chair of Peter. On that rock I know tlie church to be built." ' Subsequently this father, who himself had an eye on the papal chair, fell out with the Roman clergy, and retired
' Comp. Epist. 146, ed. Vail. i. 10Y6 (or Ep. 101 ed. Bened., al. 85) ad Evangelum : " Ubicunque fuerit episcopus, sive Romte, sive Eugubii, sive Gonstantinopoli, sive Rhegii, sive Alexandrise, sive Tanis [an intentional collocation of the most powerful and most obscure bishoprics], ejusdem est meriti, ejusdem est et sacerdotii. I'otentia divitiarum et paupertatis humilitas vel sublimiorem vel iuferioreai episcoj.'ura non facit. Caeterum omnes apostolorum successores sunt."
' Comp. § 52, above. J. Craigie Robertson, Hist, of the Christian Church to 590 (Lond. 1854), p. 286, note, finds a remarisable negative evidence against the papal claims in St. Jerome's Ep. 125, "where submission to one head is enforced on monks by the instinctive habits of beasts, bees, and cranes, the contentions of Esau and Jacob, of Romulus and Remus, the oneness of an emperor in his dommioDS, of a judge in his province, of a master in his house, of a pilot in a ship, of a general in an army, of a bishop, the archpresbyter, and the archdeacon in a church ; but there is no mention of the one universal bishop."
' Ep. XV. (alias 57) ad Damasum papam (ed. Vail. i. 37 sq.): "Facessat invi dia : Romani culminis recedat ambitio, cum successore piscatoris et discipulo cruois luquor. Ego nullum primum, nisi Christum sequcns, Beatitudini tuse, id est cathedra) Petri, communione consocior. Super illam petram aedificatam ecclesiam scio. Quicunque extra hanc domum agnum comederit, profanus est. Si quis in Noe area non fuerit, peribit regnante diluvio."