Apostolic Succession and Peter as the First Pope

[Boulder257]

I had a friend of mine ask me about Peter as the first Pope. He then asked if there was any written record of Peter excersicing his authority as Pope or a writing from Peter’s immediate successor stating that, as the “successor” Bishop of Rome they had “X” authority.

Basically, he is looking for the first Bishops of Rome to take that position, explicitly or implicitly by exercise of their authority.

I was slightly taken back because I don’t have an example of Peter saying, “As bishop of Rome I hereby decree…” I did reference some of the writings between Paul and Peter but didn’t have anything concrete where Peter said, “As bishop of Rome I command ‘X.’” Anyone understand what I am asking here? If so, any examples you have of Peter or his immediate successor taking this position would be most helpful.

Lastly, I don’t need to whole “absence of proof isn’t proof of absence” argument nor do I need someone to explain why it shouldn’t be there. He and I already went that route and it’s not going to benefit me for anyone to tell me why it’s “not” there. I just need a direct example, if one exists.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Elizium23]

Apostolic succession and pontifical succession are two different topics. The facts are these: the Church has a verifiable record of all men who held the position of Bishop of Rome, going back to St. Peter. The office was not always called Pope, and the primacy was not always understood in the same way, but they share in the dignity of the office.

Secondly, the Catholic Church (and a few others) have apostolic succession. This means that the Apostles ordained successors as bishops, who ordained other successors, who could always undisputably trace their origins back to the Apostles and Jesus. Now, many records have been lost, and the best we can do these days is the medieval Cardinal Rebiba, but the Church is clear and undisputed in the fact that our Apostolic Succession is an unbroken line. But that doctrine really has little to do with the succession of popes.

 

[trk1]

Don’t know that they’re precisely what you described, but these might help:

Ignatius of Antioch [50-117 AD] Epistle to the Romans
Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church [in Rome] which has obtained mercy, through the majesty of the Most High Father, and Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son; the Church which is beloved and enlightened by the will of Him… and which presides over love, is named from Christ, and from the Father…
“Not as Peter and Paul did, do I command you [Romans]. They were apostles, and I am a convict” (Letter to the Romans 4:3 [A.D. 110]).

Irenaeus of Lyons [120-180 AD] Adversus Haereses (Book III, Chapter 1)
“Matthew also issued among the Hebrews a written Gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul were evangelizing in Rome and laying the foundation of the Church” (Against Heresies, 3, 1:1 [A.D. 189]).

Irenaeus of Lyons [120-180 AD] Adversus Haereses (Book III, Chapter 3)
“But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the succession of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the succession of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. With that church [of Rome], because of its superior origin, all the churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world, and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition” (ibid., 3, 3, 2).
“The blessed apostles [Peter and Paul], having founded and built up the church [of Rome] . . . handed over the office of the episcopate to Linus” (Against Heresies 3:3:3 [A.D. 189]).

Clement of Alexandria [150-215 AD] Who is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?
“[T]he blessed Peter, the chosen, the preeminent, the first among the disciples, for whom alone with himself the Savior paid the tribute [Matt. 17:27], quickly grasped and understood their meaning. And what does he say? ‘Behold, we have left all and have followed you’ [Matt. 19:27; Mark 10:28]” (Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 21:3–5 [A.D. 200]).

Clement of Alexandria [150-215 AD] Fragments
“The circumstances which occasioned . . . [the writing] of Mark were these: When Peter preached the Word publicly at Rome and declared the gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had been a long time his follower and who remembered his sayings, should write down what had been proclaimed” (Sketches [A.D. 200], in a fragment from Eusebius, History of the Church, 6, 14:1).

Tertullian [160-240 AD] The Prescription Against Heretics
“Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter, who is called ‘the rock on which the Church would be built’ [Matt. 16:18] with the power of ‘loosing and binding in heaven and on earth’ [Matt. 16:19]?” (Demurrer Against the Heretics 22 [A.D. 200]).
“[T]his is the way in which the apostolic churches transmit their lists: like the church of the Smyrneans, which records that Polycarp was placed there by John, like the church of the Romans, where Clement was ordained by Peter” (Demurrer Against the Heretics 32:2 [A.D. 200]).
“But if you are near Italy, you have Rome, where authority is at hand for us too. What a happy church that is, on which the apostles poured out their whole doctrine with their blood; where Peter had a passion like that of the Lord, where Paul was crowned with the death of John [the Baptist, by being beheaded]” (Demurrer Against the Heretics 36 [A.D. 200]).

Tertullian [160-240 AD] Scorpiace
“For though you think that heaven is still shut up, remember that the Lord left the keys of it to Peter here, and through him to the Church, which keys everyone will carry with him if he has been questioned and made a confession [of faith]” (Antidote Against the Scorpion 10 [A.D. 211]).

Tertullian [160-240 AD] On Modesty
“[T]he Lord said to Peter, ‘On this rock I will build my Church, I have given you the keys of the kingdom of heaven [and] whatever you shall have bound or loosed on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]. . . . Upon you, he says, I will build my Church; and I will give to you the keys, not to the Church” (Modesty 21:9–10 [A.D. 220]).

 

[trk1]

MORE!!!

Origen [185-254 AD] De Principiis (Book IV)
“You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat, the same who was head-that is why he is also called Cephas ‘Rock’]-of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all” (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).

Origen [185-254 AD] Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book XII)
…in what sense it is said to Peter, and to every Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.”…

Origen [185-254 AD] Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Book XIII)
“*f we were to attend carefully to the Gospels, we should also find, in relation to those things which seem to be common to Peter . . . a great difference and a preeminence in the things [Jesus] said to Peter, compared with the second class [of apostles]. For it is no small difference that Peter received the keys not of one heaven but of more, and in order that whatsoever things he binds on earth may be bound not in one heaven but in them all, as compared with the many who bind on earth and loose on earth, so that these things are bound and loosed not in [all] the heavens, as in the case of Peter, but in one only; for they do not reach so high a stage with power as Peter to bind and loose in all the heavens” (Commentary on Matthew 13:31 [A.D. 248]).

Dionysius the Great [190-265 AD] Exegetical Fragments
“You [Pope Soter] have also, by your very admonition, brought together the planting that was made by Peter and Paul at Rome and at Corinth; for both of them alike planted in our Corinth and taught us; and both alike, teaching similarly in Italy, suffered martyrdom at the same time” (Letter to Pope Soter [A.D. 170], in Eusebius, History of the Church 2:25:8).

Miscellaneous [Unknown] A Treatise on Re-Baptism (c. 255)
“Be it known to you, my lord, that Simon [Peter], who, for the sake of the true faith, and the most sure foundation of his doctrine, was set apart to be the foundation of the Church, and for this end was by Jesus himself, with his truthful mouth, named Peter” (Letter of Clement to James 2 [A.D. 221]).

Cyprian of Carthage [200-270 AD] Epistle 8
"There [John 6:68–69] speaks Peter, upon whom the Church would be built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that even if a stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish to obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined to the priest and the flock clinging to their shepherd are the Church. You ought to know, then, that the bishop is in the Church and the Church in the bishop, and if someone is not with the bishop, he is not in the Church. They vainly flatter themselves who creep up, not having peace with the priests of God, believing that they are

Cyprian of Carthage [200-270 AD] Epistle 26
…describing the honour of a bishop and the order of His Church, speaks in the Gospel, and says to Peter: "I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church

Cyprian of Carthage [200-270 AD] Epistle 51
“Cornelius was made bishop by the decision of God and of his Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the applause of the people then present, by the college of venerable priests and good men, at a time when no one had been made [bishop] before him-when the place of [Pope] Fabian, which is the place of Peter, the dignity of the sacerdotal chair, was vacant. Since it has been occupied both at the will of God and with the ratified consent of all of us, whoever now wishes to become bishop must do so outside. For he cannot have ecclesiastical rank who does not hold to the unity of the Church” (Letters 55:[52]):8 [A.D. 253]).

Cyprian of Carthage [200-270 AD] Epistle 54
“With a false bishop appointed for themselves by heretics, they dare even to set sail and carry letters from schismatics and blasphemers to the chair of Peter and to the principal church [at Rome], in which sacerdotal unity has its source” (ibid., 59:14).

Cyprian of Carthage [200-270 AD] Epistle 74
the foundation of the one Church … based by Christ upon the rock … that Christ said to Peter alone… the one Catholic Church in which we are…
… the foundation of the one Church which was once based by Christ upon the rock, may be perceived from this, that Christ said to Peter alone, “Whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound …
… he holds the succession from Peter,” on whom the foundations of the Church were laid…

Cyprian of Carthage [200-270 AD] Treatise 1
“The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. … ’ [Matt. 16:18]. On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. . . . If someone [today] does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?” (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; first edition [A.D. 251]).

Cyprian of Carthage [200-270 AD] Treatise 11
“There is one God and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that one altar and that one priesthood. Whoever has gathered elsewhere is scattering” (Letters 43[40]:5 [A.D. 253]).

Peter of Alexandria [260-311 AD] The Genuine Acts of Peter
…and guardian of all preceding and subsequent occupiers of this pontifical chair …Peter was the first of the apostles…*

 

[trk1]

To beat the dead horse even further:

Peter of Alexandria [260-311 AD] The Canonical Epistle
“Peter, the first chosen of the apostles, having been apprehended often and thrown into prison and treated with ignominy, at last was crucified in Rome” (Penance, canon 9 [A.D. 306]).

Eusebius of Caesarea [265-340 AD] Oration in Praise of Constantine
“[In the second] year of the two hundredth and fifth Olympiad [A.D. 42]: The apostle Peter, after he has established the church in Antioch, is sent to Rome, where he remains as a bishop of that city, preaching the gospel for twenty-five years” (The Chronicle [A.D. 303]).

Eusebius of Caesarea [265-340 AD] Church History (Book II)
… Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and that Peter likewise was crucified under Nero…

Eusebius of Caesarea [265-340 AD] Church History (Book III)
“Paul testifies that Crescens was sent to Gaul [2 Tim. 4:10], but Linus, whom he mentions in the Second Epistle to Timothy [2 Tim. 4:21] as his companion at Rome, was Peter’s successor in the episcopate of the church there, as has already been shown. Clement also, who was appointed third bishop of the church at Rome, was, as Paul testifies, his co-laborer and fellow-soldier [Phil. 4:3]” (Church History 3:4:9–10 [A.D. 312]).
…third that held the episcopate there after Paul and Peter. Linus was the first, and after him came…

Eusebius of Caesarea [265-340 AD] Church History (Book V)
…Victor, who was the thirteenth bishop of Rome from Peter…

Lactantius [290-350 AD] Of the Manner In Which the Persecutors Died
“When Nero was already reigning, Peter came to Rome, where, in virtue of the performance of certain miracles which he worked . . . he converted many to righteousness and established a firm and steadfast temple to God. When this fact was reported to Nero . . . he sprang to the task of tearing down the heavenly temple and of destroying righteousness. It was he that first persecuted the servants of God. Peter he fixed to a cross, and Paul he slew” (The Deaths of the Persecutors 2:5 [A.D. 318]).

Sardica (344) [LOCAL] [344 AD] Sardica (344) [LOCAL]
…honour the memory of Peter the Apostle, and let those who gave judgment write to Julius, the bishop of Rome…

Ephraim the Syrian, St [306-373 AD] The Nisibene Hymns
“[Jesus said:] Simon, my follower, I have made you the foundation of the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because you will support all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on Earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is false, you, the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain from which my teaching flows; you are the chief of my disciples. Through you I will give drink to all peoples. Yours is that life-giving sweetness which I dispense. I have chosen you to be, as it were, the firstborn in my institution so that, as the heir, you may be executor of my treasures. I have given you the keys of my kingdom. Behold, I have given you authority over all my treasures” (Homilies 4:1 [A.D. 351]).

Cyril of Jerusalem, St [315-386 AD] Catechetical Lecture 2
“The Lord is loving toward men, swift to pardon but slow to punish. Let no man despair of his own salvation. Peter, the first and foremost of the apostles, denied the Lord three times before a little servant girl, but he repented and wept bitterly” (Catechetical Lectures 2:19 [A.D. 350]).

Cyril of Jerusalem, St [315-386 AD] Catechetical Lecture 6
“[Simon Magus] so deceived the city of Rome that Claudius erected a statue of him. . . .While the error was extending itself, Peter and Paul arrived, a noble pair and the rulers of the Church, and they set the error aright. . . . [T]hey launched the weapon of their like-mindedness in prayer against the Magus, and struck him down to earth. It was marvelous enough, and yet no marvel at all, for Peter was there-he that carries about the keys of heaven. And it was nothing to marvel at, for Paul was there-he that was caught up into the third heaven” (Catechetical Lectures 6:14 [A.D. 350]).

Cyril of Jerusalem, St [315-386 AD] Catechetical Lecture 17
“In the power of the same Holy Spirit, Peter, both the chief of the apostles and the keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in the name of Christ healed Aeneas the paralytic at Lydda, which is now called Diospolis [Acts 9:32–34]” (ibid., 17:27).

Ambrose of Milan, St [340-397 AD] On the Mysteries
“It is to Peter that he says: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church’ [Matt. 16:18]. Where Peter is, there is the Church. And where the Church is, no death is there, but life eternal” (Commentary on Twelve Psalms of David 40:30 [A.D. 389])

Ambrose of Milan, St [340-397 AD] Exposition of the Christian Faith, Book IV
“[Christ] made answer: ‘You are Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church. . . .’ Could he not, then, strengthen the faith of the man to whom, acting on his own authority, he gave the kingdom, whom he called the rock, thereby declaring him to be the foundation of the Church [Matt. 16:18]?” (The Faith 4:5 [A.D. 379]).

Ambrose of Milan, St [340-397 AD] Concerning Repentance (Book I)
“[T]hey [the Novatian heretics] have not the succession of Peter, who hold not the chair of Peter, which they rend by wicked schism; and this, too, they do, wickedly denying that sins can be forgiven [by the sacrament of confession] even in the Church, whereas it was said to Peter: ‘I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven’[Matt. 16:19]” (Penance 1:7:33 [A.D. 388])

John Chrysostom, St [347-407 AD] Homily 10 on Second Timothy
Linus… was second Bishop of the Church of Rome after Peter.

John Chrysostom, St [347-407 AD] Homily 88 on the Gospel of John
… He appointed Peter teacher, not of the chair, but of the world.

 

[trk1]

Hope your friend likes some good patristics!

Miscellaneous [Unknown] Apostolic Constitutions (Book VI)
“It is recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and Peter, likewise, was crucified, during the reign [of the Emperor Nero]. The account is confirmed by the names of Peter and Paul over the cemeteries there, which remain to the present time. And it is confirmed also by a stalwart man of the Church, Gaius by name, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus, bishop of Rome. This Gaius, in a written disputation with Proclus, the leader of the sect of Cataphrygians, says this of the places in which the remains of the aforementioned apostles were deposited: ‘I can point out the trophies of the apostles. For if you are willing to go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this Church’” (Disputation with Proclus [A.D. 198] in Eusebius, Church History 2:25:5).

Jerome, St [347-420 AD] To Pammachius Against John of Jerusalem
“I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built. Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark of Noah will perish when the flood prevails” (Letters 15:2 [A.D. 396]).

Jerome, St [347-420 AD] The Dialogue Against the Luciferians
“[Pope] Stephen . . . was the blessed Peter’s twenty-second successor in the See of Rome” (Against the Luciferians 23 [A.D. 383]).

Jerome, St [347-420 AD] Against Vigilantius
Does the bishop of Rome do wrong when he offers sacrifices to the Lord over the venerable bones of the dead men Peter and Paul…

Jerome, St [347-420 AD] De Viris Illustribus (Illustrious Men)
“Simon Peter, the son of John, from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, brother of Andrew the apostle, and himself chief of the apostles, after having been bishop of the church of Antioch and having preached to the Dispersion . . . pushed on to Rome in the second year of Claudius to overthrow Simon Magus, and held the sacerdotal chair there for twenty-five years until the last, that is the fourteenth, year of Nero. At his hands he received the crown of martyrdom being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord” (Lives of Illustrious Men 1 [A.D. 396]).
“Clement, of whom the apostle Paul writing to the Philippians says ‘With Clement and others of my fellow-workers whose names are written in the book of life,’ the fourth bishop of Rome after Peter, if indeed the second was Linus and the third Anacletus, although most of the Latins think that Clement was second after the apostle” (Lives of Illustrious Men 15 [A.D. 396]).

Jerome, St [347-420 AD] Letter 15
“Since the East, shattered as it is by the long-standing feuds, subsisting between its peoples, is bit by bit tearing into shreds the seamless vest of the Lord . . . I think it my duty to consult the chair of Peter, and to turn to a church [Rome] whose faith has been praised by Paul [Rom. 1:8]. I appeal for spiritual food to the church whence I have received the garb of Christ. . . . Evil children have squandered their patrimony; you alone keep your heritage intact” (Letters 15:1 [A.D. 396]).
… that is with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the church is built!

Jerome, St [347-420 AD] Letter 16
…“He who clings to the chair of Peter is accepted by me.” …
…He who clings to the chair of Peter is accepted by me…

Jerome, St [347-420 AD] Letter 97
…the whole East admires and praises Rome may gladly take to her heart. And may the chair of the apostle Peter by its preaching …

Jerome, St [347-420 AD] Against the Pelagians (Book I)
“‘But,’ you [Jovinian] will say, ‘it was on Peter that the Church was founded’ [Matt. 16:18]. Well . . . one among the twelve is chosen to be their head in order to remove any occasion for division” (Against Jovinian 1:26 [A.D. 393]).

Augustine of Hippo, St [354-430 AD] Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental
The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep, down to the present episcopate.

Augustine of Hippo, St [354-430 AD] Letter 53 (A.D. 400)
"If the very order of episcopal succession is to be considered, how much more surely, truly, and safely do we number them from Peter himself, to whom, as to one representing the whole Church, the Lord said, ‘Upon this rock I will build my Church’ . . . [Matt. 16:18]. Peter was succeeded by Linus, Linus by Clement, Clement by Anacletus, Anacletus by Evaristus . . . " (Letters 53:1:2 [A.D. 412]).

Augustine of Hippo, St [354-430 AD] Answer to Petilian the Donatist (Book II)
“If all men throughout the world were such as you most vainly accuse them of having been, what has the chair of the Roman church done to you, in which Peter sat, and in which Anastasius sits today?” (Against the Letters of Petilani 2:118 [A.D. 402]).

Augustine of Hippo, St [354-430 AD] Tractate 7 (John 1:34-51)
“Who is ignorant that the first of the apostles is the most blessed Peter?” (Commentary on John 56:1 [A.D. 416]).

Augustine of Hippo, St [354-430 AD] Tractate 9 (John 2:1-2)
“Among these [apostles] Peter alone almost everywhere deserved to represent the whole Church. Because of that representation of the Church, which only he bore, he deserved to hear ‘I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven’” (Sermons 295:2 [A.D. 411]).

 

[trk1]

I figure that’s a good point to stop in history. Have fun reading it all!

 

[Boulder257]

I figure that’s a good point to stop in history. Have fun reading it all!

Yeah, good start, lol.

Thanks!

 

[Rich_C]

There is a written record: the Acts of the Apostles. At the first council in Jerusalem, over whether Christians must observe Jewish dietary laws, Peter makes the final call.

Another fascinating example is Pope Victor I who almost excommunicated the Eastern Patriarch in AD 180 for celebrating Easter on days other than Sunday. When he learned that the Apostles themselves handed down two dates to date Easter, he accepted it as true tradition and let it go.

 

[Boulder257]

There is a written record: the Acts of the Apostles. At the first council in Jerusalem, over whether Christians must observe Jewish dietary laws, Peter makes the final call.

Another fascinating example is Pope Victor I who almost excommunicated the Eastern Patriarch in AD 180 for celebrating Easter on days other than Sunday. When he learned that the Apostles themselves handed down two dates to date Easter, he accepted it as true tradition and let it go.

This is a little closer to what I am looking for. I want something directly from Peter where he either exercises his authority or states that he has it.

 

[Jerry-Jet]

What are the chances that Peter told the Catholic faithful in Rome that if the Romans killed him then Linus should take over the Petrine ministry?

What are the chances that Rome had a bishop subordinate to Peter and that was Linus?

In Jerusalem there were sometimes more than one disciple present and they were all bishops.

Could Linus have been a bishop with and under Peter at Rome?