Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/391



THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 385

loosening, and feeding confers upon each and every one of the bishops, the successors of the apostles, a real authority to rule the people committed to him, certainly the same power must have the same effect in his case to whom the duty of feeding the lambs and sheep has been assigned by God. "Christ constituted jEeterJ not only pastor, but pastor of pastorsj Peter therefore feeds the lamBs^ and" feeds the sheep, feeds the children and feeds the mothers, governs the subjects and rules the prelates, because the lambs and the sheep form the whole of the Church." ^ Hence those remarkable expressions of the ancients con- cerning St, Peter, which most clearly set forth the fact that he was placed in the highest degree of dignity and authority. They frequently call him "the prince of the college of the disciples; the prince of the holy apostles; the leader of that choir; the mouthpiece of all the apostles; the head of that family; the ruler of the whole world; the first of the apostles; ^^Jie safeguard of the Church," In this sense St. Bernard writes as follows to Pope Eu- genius: "Who art thou? The great priest â€” the high priest. Thou art the Prince of Bishops and the heir of the apostles. . . . Thou art he to whom the keys were given. There are, it is true, other gatekeepers of heaven and other pastors of flocks, but thou art so much the more glorious as thou hast inherited a different and more glorious name than aR the rest. They have flocks con- signed to them, one to each; to thee all the flocks are confided as one flock to one shepherd, and not alone the sheep, but the shepherds. You ask how I prove this? From the words of the Lord, To which â€” I do not say â€” of the bishops, but even of the apostles have all the sheep been so absolutely and unreservedly committed? If thou lovest Me, Peter, feed My sheep. Which sheep? Of this or that people, of this city, or country, or kingdom? My sheep. He says: to whom therefore is it not evident

cap. 21, n. 55.
 * S. Brunonis Episcopi Signiensis comment, in Joan., part iii.,