Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/101

 The Rise of the Papacy 65 their places, where their own authentic letters are still read, bringing back their voice and the face of each. If you hap- pen to be near Achaia, you have Corinth ; if you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi and Thessalonica. If you can turn toward Asia, you have Ephesus. If you live near Italy, you have Rome, from whence comes the authority in our own case. How happy is this church on which apostles poured forth all their teachings along with their blood! where Peter endures a passion like his Lord's ! where Paul wins his crown in a death like John's, where the Apostle John was plunged but uninjured into boiling oil, and then sent to his island exile ! See what she has learned and taught and the fellowship she has enjoyed with even [our] churches in Africa. Later Tertullian joined the sect of the Montanists, who Later Ter- were regarded as heretics by the Roman Church. In his ti^the" 6 treatise "On Modesty" he protests scornfully against claims^ the powers claimed by the bishop of Rome. He learns, O f Rome, he says, that " the sovereign pontiff, that is, the bishop of bishops," has issued a certain edict of which he can in no way approve. He then proceeds to inquire whence the bishop of Rome "usurps " this right. If because the Lord said to Peter, " upon this rock will I build my church," " to thee have I given the keys of the heavenly kingdom," or " whatsoever thou shalt have bound or loosed on earth shall be bound or loosed in the heavens," you, therefore, presume that the power of binding and loos- ing has come down to you, that is, to every church akin to Peter, what sort of man are you, subverting and wholly changing the manifest intention of the Lord, who conferred this right upon Peter personally. " On thee" he says, " will I build my church," and " I will give to thee the keys," not to the church ; and "whatsoever thou shalt have loosed or bound," not what they shall have loosed or bound.