Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/385



THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 379

doubt or hesitation, the Bishops of Rome, and revered them, as the legitimate successors of St. Peter.

Who is unaware of the many and evident testimonies of the holy Fathers which exist to this effect? Most remark- able is that of St^ _Iren8eus, who, referring to the Roman Church, says: "With this Church, on account p^ its-pre=. eminent authority, it is necessary that every Church should be m concord; " ^ and St. Cyprian also says oTHTe Koman Church, tEaF " it is the root and mother of the CathoHc Church, the chair of Peter, and the principal Church whence sacerdotal unity has its source." ^ He calls it the chair of Peter because it is occupied by the successor of Peter; he calls it jjie yrind'pai Churc h, on â– account_of_ the primacy conferred on Potor ]^^|p|=|^]f andN

. â– his Jeg TtimRtp. siicgpssnrs; anrl the source of unity, because the Roman Church is the efficient cause of unity in the Christian commonwealth. For this reason Jerome ad- dresses Damasus thus: "My words are spoken to the successor of the Fisherman, to the disciple of the cross. ... I communicate w4th none save your Blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this I know is the rock on which the Church is built." ^ Union with the Roman See of Peter is to him always the public criterion of a Catholic. "I acknowledge every one who is united with the See of Peter."* And for a hke reason S^vAllgus-

^tinQ^ pubhcly .^aitegts that "the primacyof the Apostolic chair always^ exis ted in t he Roman Church;"' and he denies that any one who dissents from the Roman faith can be a Catholic. "You are not to be looked upon as holding the true Catholic faith if you do not teach that the faith of Rome is to be held." * So, too, St. Cyprian:

'Contra Haereses, lib. iii., cap. 3, n. 2.

' Ep. XV., ad Damasum, n. 2.
 * Ep. xl\dii, ad Cornelium, n. 3. and Ep. lix., ad eundem, n. 14.


 * Ep. x"vi., ad Damasum, n. 2.
 * Ep. xliii. n. 7.


 * Sermo cxx. n. 13.