Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-08-27

ciples X y X X" "To nv mind this
is all our Lord intended to
say, or did say to his dis
ciples by these words" And he i'm
adds, summing up, as 1t were:
"But it IS IN no wise incumbent upon me
to determine the true import of this cele-
brated passage" But Ifeel 1t incumbent
upon me, now that L have begun, to sift
a little further the pathological maneu-
vering Of our learned friend, if, for lack of
space, not now, trust on another occas-
ion. Meanwhile l merely remind him
that, even If, which | grant not, our Lord
then spoke the Greek, it would not be
very appropriate to make Peter of the
feminine gender, which should -be-dene,
had the word petra been applied to him,
the genius, moreover, of that most fieXi-
bic and versatile language being such as
TO admit most naturally and easily the
change Of the feminine termination a TO
the masculine termination es. L further
remind him that the current dialect at
the time was what is styled the Koine
Dialectos, in which the dual number be-
gan already to be suppressed, not init
mating hereby that the genuine pure
Attic would not have used the same form.
Many Protestant writers of the greatest
learning and eminence, such as Bloom
field, Bishop Marsh, Rossenmuller,
Thompson, and others, substantially
agree with Catholics in the interpreta-
ton of this passage. Archbishop Spald-
ing, IN his ''Catholic Evidences" thus
speaks of the pathological ques-
tlon." ''The argument which some
have attempted to build up on this diff
terence OF termination and gender, in Or
der to show that Peter and the rock are
not identical, is puerile in the extreme.
1t only shows the desperate extremities
to which the adversaries of the primacy
are driven in their attempt to wrest the
passage from its natural and obvious
meaning" Pope says little learning, [
say much learning is dangerous thing.
The church of Christ must have unity
Zone Lord, one faith, one baptism," as
st. Paul says to the EphesiaAs. To have
unity, 1t must have one visible head and
ruler. This visible head and ruler was
Peter firzt, and the popes, his legitimate
successors, after him. l will here put
before the GLOBE readers the mind mot
minds, for they had but one mind on this
polnt,) of some of the early Christians
cheek by jowl with Layman's mind, saliva
tamen reverentia. st. Jerome, in his
work against Jovlnian, says: "One is
chosen that, by the appointment of a
head, all occasion of schlsm may be re-
moved" and to Damascus, ''I speak to
the successor Of the fisherman, and to the
disciple OF the cross. Following no chief
but Christ, l am united in communion
with your holiness, that is, with the
chair of Peter. l know that on this rock
is built the church, St. Irenaus had
said long before: ''The Lord said to
Peter, 4 say to thee Peter! thou art Peter
and upon this rock will build my church;
he builds his church on one; to display
unity, he disposed, by his own authority,
the origin of this unity, which had
It's beginning with one, etc."
optatus of Milevis says: eft can
not being ascribed to ignorance on your
part, knowing as you do, that the Episco-
pal chair in which as head of all the
apostles, Peter sat, was first fixed by him
in the city of Rome, that in him alone
may be preserved the unity of the church,
and that the other apostles may not claim
each char for himself: so that now he
who erects another in opposition to this
single chair is schismatic and a prevar-
lcator. st. Basil has these words: "Pete1
| is made the Foundation (themelion ton
Petron onomazel ties ecclesias) because he
| says: Thou art Christ, the Son of the liv-
ing Cod and hears in reply that he is a
| rock; but although rock he is not such a
rock as Christ, for in himself Christ is
truly an immovable rock, but Peter only
| by virtue of that rock, for God bestows
his dignities on others. He is a priest
and he makes priests; rock and he makes
rock; what belongs to himself he be-
| slows on his servants" Would not this
be sufficient to dispose of Layman's petra
"the bed of rock underlying St. Paul
| Petros, the rock quarried from that bed
and made the actual foundation of St.
Paul. But l must be excused. Perhaps
! Layman is more skilled in Greek than St
Basil was. Finally, St. Ambrose saws:
"Should any one object, that the church
| is content with one head and one spouse,
Jesus Christ, and requires no other, the
answer is obvious; for, as we deem Christ
not only the author of all the sacraments
| but also their invisible minister The it is
who baptises, he 1t is who absolves, al
though men are appointed by him the
| external ministers of the sacraments); sc
has he placed over his church
which he governs by his invisible
spirit, man to be his vicar. and the
minister Of his power. A visible church
| requires visible head, and therefore does
the Savior appoint Peter head and pastor
of all the faithful, when in the most ample
terms he commits to his care the feeding
of all his sheep; desiring that he who was
to succeed him should be invested with
| the very same power OF ruling and gov
erning the entire church." st. Cyprlan,
st. Augustine, and all the fathers, teach
the same doctrine. And yet l confess
there is one drawback. st. Ambrose,
etc., were not, perhaps, adopts in philol-
ogy, and certainly did not live in the
electric light of the nineteenth century.
But possibly, too, the outspoken mind
of those just cited is separated from Lay
mans mind by too wide chasm of time.
Let me then conclude this already over
grown article by citing few passages
from a small volume published last wear,
''Order out of Chaos;;'' three sermons
preached at All Saints, Lambeth, by f.
6: Lee, D. D., Allen 81 Co., London The
"MOnth,' review published in London.
thus introduces it to its readers, "Anglic-
anism is the religion of anomalies, but
the delivery and publication of these
three sermons by an Anglican clergy
man is an anomaly scarcely credltable. .
He is man of extensive research,
considerable power, and wide information,
and he has been unable to resist the