Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/267

Rh transferred to Rome, over which we, with divine grace supporting us, preside this very day. But if your Antiochian seat, which originally was the first, gave way to the Roman seat, there is none which is not subject to its bestowal—ditione." See how very finely this pope begins and how very confusedly he ends. In the first place, he asks and begs that the priests of Antioch teach nothing else than what they received from Peter and from other apostles and holy Fathers. O that all clerics had done this! Then he says, that the seat of Peter was the primary one among them, that is, the first place of his residence, in which as bishop he taught Christ's law. And this is true. But when he says, "Afterwards it was transferred to Rome," that is, Peter's seat—I certainly do not know what that seat was that was transferred; for no church, no locality, no people were transferred. If it be said, it was the authority of Peter to teach the law, then that authority was at one and the same time in Antioch and in Rome. What then was transferred unless it was Peter, when he came from Antioch to Rome? But Pope Marcellus did not preside over Peter, nor is Peter now the Roman seat. What, therefore, does this expression "Over which," mean, when he says, "Over which we preside." Certainly this pope speaks confusedly. For after the dotation, the Roman bishop then living intended that the Roman church by the authority of Cæsar should be called first, that is, the more worthy seat over which he himself presides, and so he intended that the priests of Antioch should be subject to himself. If Peter affected this superiority while he dwelt in Rome, I do not know. But I do know that in his letters he wished that they should follow in the steps of Jesus Christ. And I will pass by the way in which many popes and canonists speak obscurely about the apostolic see. I will, however, not say that the city of Rome is the apostolic seat, so necessary that without it the church of Jesus Christ could not stand. For, if