Papal primacy and supremacy isn’t negated just because popes didn’t always summon councils. Men like Constantine and Ossius of Cordoba were responsible for Nicaea, not the pope. True, but what does this prove? The Holy Spirit worked and continues to work through us all, and through great men like Athanasius even when all the dark powers are against him. But it is the Holy Father who has the final say and always did.
The statement you made that the Fathers are all unanimous about the equality in powers of bishops is nonsense. You can find many statements indeed by ECF’s that the
confession of Peter was the rock and not Peter himself. But likewise you can find a plethora of statements by ECF’s pointing toward the
man Peter being the rock and the pope and the bedrock of the Church.
I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to post just a five quotes here. What I’d like you to do is this–do NOT counter my quotes with other quotes, just react and explain the Orthodox argument and refute these quotes, ok? Do NOT counter-quote, react. Explain these away please …
**"… and although he [Jesus] 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. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was
, but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair." --Cyprian
**“The 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]).
–Tertullian
**"*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]).
—Origen
"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 successions 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, 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" **–**Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3:3:2 [A.D. 189]). **
"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. Neither do the apostles proceed individually on their own, **and anyone who would [presume to] set up another chair in opposition to that single chair would, by that very fact, be a schismatic and a sinner. **. . . **Recall, then, the origins of your chair, those of you who wish to claim for yourselves the title of holy Church" (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).
–Optatus of Milevus **
The Fathers are unanimous that the Bishops are all equals just as were the Apostles - all equals as are brothers with God as their Father. The primacy among the equals is as an elder brother.
The Bishop of Rome had the primacy due to what the Holy Spirit said through the Councils Canons said and for no other reason.
It is also clear that it was the Councils that had the authority to give the primacy and order of the Patriachs and that Pope’s were subject to them and that the Popes did not call the Councils and that even one of the 7 was called despite the direct opposition of a Pope. Pope Honorius I was condemned by Council.
One of the books which goes into detail into the Councils by a Roman Catholic Historian Leo Donald Davis is found in The Theology and Life Series 21 entitled “The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787) Their History and Theology.” I recommend it to any one interested in getting the facts from a Catholic perspective.
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