Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/56

 2O Readings in European History herself ; and while they think they have now drawn near to the light and have escaped the night of heathenism, he casts over them in their ignorance yet other shades, so that they call themselves Christians, and yet do not abide in the Gospel and the precepts and the law of Christ. They think they have the light, and yet walk in the darkness. . . . Our Lord said to Peter : " I also say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and what- soever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." He thus erected his Church upon one [founda- tion]. 1 And though after his resurrection he gave equal powers to all the apostles, saying, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. . . . Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained," nevertheless, that he might manifest unity he established one Church, and by his own authority determined that in its origin this unity should proceed from one [source or person]. . . . He who holds not this unity of the Church, does he believe that he holds the faith? He who struggles against the Church and resists her, does he believe that he is a member of the Church ? . . . The episcopate is one : it is shared among individuals, yet each possesses the entire authority. 2 The Church also is one, though she is widely extended among the multitude. As there are many rays of the sun, but one light ; and many branches of a tree, but one strength lying in its tenacious root ; and since from one spring flow many streams, yet the unity is preserved in the source. Separate a ray of the sun from its body of light, its unity does not permit a division of the light; break a branch from the tree, when broken it will not be able to bud; cut off the stream from its fountain, and that which is cut off dries up. 1 Super unum aedificat ecclesiam. 2 Episcopatus unus est, cuius a singulis in solidum pars tenetur.