Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/386



380 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.

"To be in communion with Cornelius is to be in com- munion with the CathoHc Church." ^ In the same way IMaximus the Abbot teaches that obedience to the Romaii pontiff is the proof of the true-iaith. .a.nd- oi legitimate -communion. " Therefore if a man does not want to be, ~or to be called, a heretic, let him not strive to please this or that man . . . but let him hasten before all things to be in communion with the Roman See. If he be in communion with it, he should be acknowledged by all and everywhere as faithful and orthodox. He speaks in vain who tries to persuade me of the orthodoxy of those who, like himself, refuse obedience to his Holiness the Pope of the most holy Church of Rome; that is to the Apostolic See." The reason and motive of this he ex- plains to be that "the Apostohc See has received and hath government, authority, and power of binding and loosing from the Incarnate Word Himself; and, according to all holy synods, sacred canons and decrees, in all things and through all things, in respect of all the holy churches of God throughout the whole world, since the Word in heaven who rules the heavenly powers binds and loosens there." =*

Wherefore what was acknowledged and observed as Christian faith, not by one nation only nor in one age, but by the East and by the West, and through all ages, this Philip, the priest, the Pontifical legate at the Council of Ephesus, no voice being raised in dissent, recalls: "J^o joaa^c an doubt^ yea, it isknown unto all ages, that St. Peter,^, the Prince of the Apostles7"tEe7plIIaT6f the. faith and the ground of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is: the power of forgiving and retaimhg siris was given to him who, up to the present time, lives and exercises judgment in the persons of his successors." ^ The pronouncement

Â» Ep. Iv., n. 1.

^ Defloratio ex Epistola ad Pet rum illustrem.

' Actio iii.