Page:A Catechism on the Thirty nine Articles.pdf/110

104 There is no recorded instance, either in Holy Scripture, or in the history of the primitive Church, of St. Peter's exercising any authority or jurisdiction more than the other Apostles.

Show that, supposing he possessed such authority, the bishops of Rome do not possess it.

Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, shows that up to his time it was an established principle in the Church of Christ, that there was no universal bishop.

How does that appear?

Because he himself said, "whosoever calls himself or desires to be called a universal priest or bishop, is in his pride the forerunner of Anti-christ."

How came the bishops of Rome to have any spiritual authority in the kingdom of England?

Because by the instrumentality of a bishop of Rome the first bishops were appointed for our forefathers the Anglo-Saxons; and because the bishops of Rome were highest in rank in western Christendom; and thus were constantly appealed to for the purpose of settling disputes.

How did they lose this authority?

By stretching it too far and claiming it as a right.

Why ought they not to have it restored to them again?

Because there is fear of the recurrence of similar abuses, and because the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the country are fully competent to provide for its temporal and spiritual government.