so that in some places he speaks of the Apostolic See under the name of St. Peter. 213 And when Eulogius, the Patriarch of Alexandria, declared his conviction that "Peter was still living in his successors in the Roman See," St. Gregory replied that he had been extremely delighted with this expression of the Egyptian Patriarch concerning the Chair of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, to the effect that he still continued to sit therein in the person of his successors. 214 Thus does St. Gregory speak of the authority of the Apostolic See. His claims are seen to be neither wider nor more restricted than those of every one of his predecessors and of his successors down to the present day.

IV. After having perused the foregoing testimonies, taken from the works of St. Gregory, the reader may be at a loss to account for the stress laid by Dr. Pusey upon certain passages of that Pope's writings quoted by him in his Eirenicon. He informs us that St. Gregory used the following expression: "Christ Himself (the Mediator between God and man) is that rock from which Peter received his name, and upon which He said that He would build His Church." And in another place: "It is now said to the Universal Church, 'Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth,' &c." 215 He adds that St. Gregory spoke as follows in one of his

xxi. 17, Matt. xvi. 18, Lucæ xxii. 31.) . . Ecce claves regni cœlestis accepit, potestas ei ligandi et solvendi tribuitur, cura ei totius Ecclesiæ et principatus committitur."

213 S. Gregorius I.: Epist., 1. vi., epist. liv., lv. (1. c., pp. 831, 832).

214 S. Gregorius I.: Epist., 1. vii., epist. xl. (1. c., p. 887, seq.). "Suavissime mihi sanctitas vestra multa in Epistolis suis de S. Petri Apostolorum Principis cathedra loquuta est, dicens, quod ipsa in ea nunc usque in suis successoribus sedeat."

215 Eirenicon: Postscriptum, p. 309.

letters to the Patriarch Eulogius: “And thus, though the Apostles be many, yet the see of the Chief of the Apostles, which belongs to one, though it is in three places, alone prevailed in authority, by virtue of the headship of that one. For it is he who exalted the see in which he also condescended to take his rest, and finish the present life. It is he who adorned the see, to which he sent the Evangelist, his disciple. It is he who established the see, in which he sat for seven years, though he was to leave it. Inasmuch, then, as the see, over which by divine authority three bishops now preside, is one man's, and one, whatever good I hear of you I lay to mine own account." 216 Now by all these extracts Dr. Pusey intends to prove that when St. Gregory maintained that the only head of the Church is Christ our Lord, and that the sees of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, are equal in authority, he shows himself to hold doctrines unfavourable to the claims set forth on behalf of Papal supremacy as a divine institution. But the author seems not to understand St. Gregory's doctrine aright. For the holy Father's teaching on the point is that of all antiquity, the doctrine of the Catholic world, the teaching of the whole line of Pontiffs down to the present day. Christ is, indeed, the principal and invisible head of the Church; He is the primary founda-tion of it, whereon Peter was set to be a secondary foundation, from Whom the Apostle received his name, his strength, and his stability. We have already set forth this doctrine according to the mind of the Fathers, and we have shown that Peter's divine supremacy not only does not exclude this principle, but rather implies it as a necessary complement.. What wonder then if, in the words of St. Gregory,

216 Eirenicon, Postscriptum, pp. 308, 309.

"St. Paul rejects the idea of members of the Lord's body being subjected to certain heads, as it were, beside Christ (extra Christum), and that even to the Apostles themselves, as leaders of parties (ipsis Apostolis subjici partialiter evitavit)," &c.217 St. Gregory, indeed, with the rest of the Fathers, following in the footsteps of the Apostles, represents the Church as the mystical body of Christ, of which He is the head. In this point of view the faithful cannot be under other heads who are not in unity with Christ, who are separated from Him as independent parts detached from the whole (partialiter); they are to be under Christ, the supreme head, and to be joined to Him as His members, but they cannot be members of Christ if they be subject to such as are in no connection with Christ, to such as set themselves up as principal head, each independent of any other. For Christ is found in unity, not in division. Is Christ divided? His mystical body is one, and none can be under Him, as divine head, unless he be a member of His body. Therefore, St. Gregory, regarding the Apostles and Peter himself from that point of view, declares them to be all members of the Holy Universal Church, all members under one head. Surely all the Apostles, and Peter their chief, in comparison with Christ, were but His members; not one of them is the head, all are built upon Him-He is the foundation. This doctrine of St. Gregory is no other than that of the Fathers, and of the whole Catholic Church. But is it inconsistent

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217 S. Gregorius: Epist., 1. v., epist. xviii. (t. ii., p. 743); and Dr. Pusey, 1. c., p. 313. We do not approve of the version adopted by Dr. Pusey and others, of the words of St. Gregory, extra Christum" (besides Christ). St. Paul, speaking of members of the mystical body of Christ, meant nothing by "extra Christum," but "out of Christ;" that is to say, detached from the union of the mystical body.

with the doctrine of St. Peter's supremacy in the Church? In St. Gregory's opinion it was not.

V. It is undeniable that in this same series of letters he asserts, and in the most explicit terms, the doctrine of St. Peter's supremacy. To call this in question would betray a complete ignorance of what the illustrious Pontiff again and again repeats concerning the prerogatives of St. Peter and his see of Rome. The extracts given above suffice to prove beyond all possibility of cavil that on this point his faith was identical with that of all Catholics. We now invite attention to St. Gregory's epistle to the Emperor Maurice, some passages of which we quoted in the earlier part of this section. "All who know the Gospel," he says, in this epistle, "are aware that, by the divine word, St. Peter, the Prince of all the Apostles, was entrusted with the care of the whole Church; because to him were addressed the words we read in St. John xxi. 17, St. Matt. xvi. 18, St. Luke xxii. 31," &c.218 Therefore, according to St. Gregory's principles, St. Peter was appointed head over the whole Church, in order to rule it in virtue of authority received from Christ. And the Pontiff, after having quoted the passage from St. Matthew, proceeds in the same place: "Peter received the keys of the kingdom of heaven; on him is conferred the power of binding and loosing; to him is committed the care and the Princedom of the whole Church." He inculcates the same doctrine in another of his letters, when he says: "Peter certainly received power over the heavenly kingdom, so that whatever he binds or looses on earth is bound or loosed in heaven." 219 Again, Peter is directly and explicitly affirmed to be the foundation of the Church. "Who

218 See No. 212 of this section.

219 Epist., 1. xi., epist. xlv. (1. c., p. 1129).

does not know," he says, "that the Holy Church is founded on the solidity of the Prince of the Apostles?"220 All must perceive by these extracts from St. Gregory's letters that his teaching on this point is the very same as that of the whole Catholic Church in all times. His doctrine can be summed up in these few propositions: Christ is the principal head, and the primary foundation on which the Church was built; Peter, therefore, with respect to Christ, is the secondary head and the secondary foundation; but with respect to the Church, he is its head and its foundation, himself being founded on the solidity of the corner-stone, Christ our Lord. Again, St. Gregory repeatedly asserts that Peter received from Christ the keys of the kingdom of heaven; but he does not, nor can he, deny, that the power of the keys was committed by Christ to the whole Church in union with Peter as its head. Because, first, although to Peter in an especial manner, as to the supreme ruler of the Church, Christ addressed the words recorded in St. Matthew xvi. 19, yet on another occasion the words, "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven," &c. (Matt. xviii. 18), were spoken by Him to the Universal Church united to its head, and represented by the whole Apostolic College. Secondly, even when Christ gave to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, he conferred that power on him as the head and supreme ruler of the Church. When the head of the Church received that power, the Church received it in and through him. Therefore the Fathers, and especially St. Augustine, say: "The Church received in Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” 221 On this account, St. Gregory

220 Epist., 1. vii., epist. xl. (1. c., p. 888).

221 S. Augustinus: Tract. cxxiv., in Joan., n. 5 (Op., t. iii., p. 599. Edit. Antwerp.).