Page:Petri Privilegium - Manning.djvu/30

Rh should be manifested the universality of the Church resting upon Peter. In an age when men are wandering, or feeling their way uncertainly, believing that a Church exists, but not knowing where to find it, the two notes which S. Augustin held up before the Donatists, the diffusa per orbem, and the Cathedra Petri, are visibly seen, not as texts in a page, but as living facts before our eyes. I hope that it will be not unacceptable to you if I draw together old truths with which, Reverend and dear Brethren, I know you to be familiar: nevertheless, this moment gives them a special seasonableness, and a new explicitness and application to our times.

What I conceive is brought vividly before us is the perpetual office and action of Peter as the source of unity and infallibility to the Church; and at the same time the eminently practical and pervading influence of this Divine order. With those who are out of the Church, Peter is a historical name, a person in the past, a subject of patristic learning, a symbol of unity and authority. To Catholics, Peter teaches and rules at this hour. His prerogatives are wielded by successors, but the powers are his. He is the source of jurisdiction, the organ of truth, the centre of unity. Pontiffs come and go, but Peter abides always. As one of the greatest of his successors has said: 'Simon may die, but Peter lives for ever.' The Catholic theology, therefore, and the Councils of the Church, when they speak of Peter and of his prerogatives, are using no rhetorical phrases, no oriental and allegorical