Fathers and the Primacy of Peter and Rome

[RBushlow]

EUSEBIUS:
"Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’; Orthodoc

From previous post:

While the above speak of the Roman Pope as the successor of Peter or the key-bearer, or the head of all the Churches, this is particularily explicit:
If the Roman See recognizes Pyrrhus to be not only a reprobate but a heretic, it is certainly plain that everyone who anathematizes those who have rejected Pyrrhus also anathematizes the See of Rome, that is, he anathematizes the Catholic Church. I need hardly add that he excommunicates himself also, if indeed he is in communion with the Roman See and the Catholic Church of God …Let him hasten before all things to satisfy the Roman See, for if it is satisfied, all will agree in calling him pious and orthodox. For he only speaks in vain who thinks he ought to pursuade or entrap persons like myself, and does not satisfy and implore the blessed Pope of the most holy Catholic Church of the Romans, that is, the Apostolic See, which is from the incarnate of the Son of God Himself, and also all the holy synods, accodring to the holy canons and definitions has received universal and surpreme dominion, authority, and power of binding and loosing over all the holy churches of God throughout the whole world. (Maximus, Letter to Peter, in Mansi x, 692; ).

by refusing they would have caused the first and Mother of Churches, and the city, to remain so long a time in widowhood, they replied quietly: We cannot act with authority in this matter, for we have received a commission to execute, not an order to make a profession of faith. But we assure you that we will relate all that you have put forward, and we will show the document itself to him who is to be consecrated, and if he should judge it to be correct, we will ask him to append his slgnature to it. But do not therefore place any obstacle in our way now, or do violence to us by delaying us and keeping us here. For none has a right to use violence especially when faith is in question. For herein even the weakest waxes mighty and the meek becomes a warrior, and by comforting his soul with the Divine Word, is hardened against the greatest attack. How much more in the case of the clergy and Church of the Romans, which from of old until now, as the elder of all the Churches under the sun, presides over all? Having surely received this canonically, as well from councils and the Apostles, as from the princes of the latter, and being numbered in their company, she is subject to no writings or issues of synodical documents, on account of the eminence of her pontificate, even as in all these things all are equally subject to her according to sacerdotal law. And so when without fear but with all holy and becoming confidence, those ministers of the truly firm and immovable rock, that is, of the most great and Apostolic Church at Rome, had so replied to the clergy of the royal city, they were seen to have conciliated them and to have acted prudently, that the others might be humble and modest, while they made known the orthodoxy and purity of their own faith from the beginning.
(St. Maximus the Confessor, 7th century)

 

[GAssisi]

Someone had noted, I am not sure if it was in this thread or not, that St. Maximus stated the honorific statements about Rome simply because she was the only one that was orthodox at the time among all the other Sees. But what does that tell you of the indefectibility of the Roman See? The same thing happened during the Arian controversy with St. Athanasius.

Besides, St. Maximus stated things which cannot possibly be conditioned by mere circumstance:

Let him hasten before all things to satisfy the Roman See, for if it is satisfied, all will agree in calling him pious and orthodox. For he only speaks in vain who thinks he ought to persuade or entrap persons like myself, and does not satisfy and implore the blessed Pope of the most holy Catholic Church of the Romans*, that is, the Apostolic See, which is from* the incarnate of the Son of God Himself, and also all the holy synods, according to the holy canons and definitions has received universal and surpreme dominion, authority, and power of binding and loosing over all the holy churches of God throughout the whole world. (Maximus, Letter to Peter, in Mansi x, 692; ).

How much more in the case of the clergy and Church of the Romans, which from of old until now, as the elder of all the Churches under the sun,** presides over all**? Having surely received this canonically, as well from councils and the Apostles, as from the princes of the latter, and being numbered in their company, she is subject to no writings or issues of synodical documents, on account of the eminence of her pontificate, even as in all these things** all are equally subject to her according to sacerdotal law**. And so when without fear but with all holy and becoming confidence, those ministers of the truly firm and immovable rock, that is, of the most great and Apostolic Church at Rome, had so replied to the clergy of the royal city, they were seen to have conciliated them and to have acted prudently, that the others might be humble and modest, while they made known the orthodoxy and purity of their own faith from the beginning.

Note that these truisms are claimed by St. Maximus to be the TRADITION of the Church, not merely conditioned by the circumstance of the times (i.e., that Rome was the only See that was orthodox at the time he made the statements).

God bless,

Greg

 

[The_Dead_Bishop]

I see it as Christ is the Cornerstone,…upon which the first Rock, ( St. Peter ) was placed… thereby forming the beginning of His ( our Lord’s ) Church. With men, spirit can not exist without flesh, therefore St. Peter, being both flesh and spirit was given the "commission " of primacy or the " first " Bishop ( or first Pope ) of the Holy Catholic Church. ( Church… not churches )