Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/172

182 in the first instance, in the person of the Apostle Peter, by the words—you understand Latin?

Myself.—Poccissimo, your Holiness. I have begun to learn it lately.

The Pope.—Very good, then you will understand the words, “Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram ædificabo ecclesiam meam, et portæ inferni non prævalebunt ''adversus eam. Et tibi dabo claves cœlorum''.” This dignity and this power descended from Peter to every Pope who has succeeded him, from the very earliest period of the church, down to the unworthy individual who now stands before you. This is the belief and the doctrine of the church.

Myself.—We in our church, explain these words of our Saviour differently. "We consider that by Peter, He intended the Rock-man, and that the acknowledgement which Peter made, “Thou art Christ, the son of the living God!” was the rock upon which Christ would build His church, against which the gates of Hell should not prevail. We believe that Christ left the keys to all His apostles, as well as to Peter, with power to bind and release, and that every earnest Christian, whether it be the Pope in Rome, or a poor fisherman on our own coasts, has part in this church of the Rock and in its privileges.

The Pope.—But you have not either confession nor absolution; you do not believe in the mass, nor in the seven sacraments, nor upon those things or ordinances which the church of Christ appoints. He who believes the one must believe in all. There is but one God in heaven, and but one church on earth, in which he lives, by his representative, and by regulations