Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-03

tolic band He decides what must be
done to fill up the place of Judas. Peter
Is the first apostle who performed 8
miracle. "In the name of Jesus of Naza-
reth, rise up and walk"
''and he leaping up, stood
and walked" Peter is the first
to announce the gospel to the Jews
while his apostolic brethren stand re-
specially around him; upon which &C.
casion he converts 1900 souls. Peter is
the first to make converts from the Gen
tile world in the persons of Cornelius and
his friends, admonished to that effect by
a special heavenly vision.
st. James is cast into prison by Herod,
and afterwards beheaded. He was one of
the sthree most favored apostles, was
bishop of Jerusalem, the cousin Of our
Lord and brother of st. John. He was
most dear to the faithful. Yet mo extra
ordinary efforts are made by the faith
full to rescue him from death
Peter is imprisoned about the same
| time. The whole church ls aroused.
Prayers for his deliverance ascend to
heaven, not only from Jerusalem, but also
from every Christian family in the land.
The army of the Lord can afford to lose a
chieftain in the person of James, but
1t cannot yet spare the commander
| chief. Does not this 60 to prove Peters
superior authority? st. Paul is called.
in miraculous manner, to be the special
apostle of the Gentlles; yet ST. Paul
'sgoes up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and
stays with him fifteen days." and the OBJ
| ject of his visit may be farther gathered
from the remarkable reason he assigns
for another subsequent journey to Jeru-
| salem: s'Lest perhaps l should run in
vain"
In his epistle, Peter takes the elevated
and dignlfed tone of primate; he ad-
dresses all grades of the hierarchy in Ian
guage which might be adopted by mod
ern Roman pOntiff: ''Feed the flock of
Christ which is among you; taking care
| (thereof) not by constraint, but willingly
according to God; neither for the sake of
filthy lucre, but voluntarily, neither as
domineering over the clergy, but being
made a pattern of the flock from the
heart"
All these facts or circumstances taken
together are surely evidence enough of
Peters supremacy, albeit Layman can
find not single trace of it anywhere in
the New Testament. But the above
facts are all from the New Testament.
Layman says St. Peter had, some ten or
twelve years prior to the council of Je-
rusalem, formed and announced his
opinion on the question before it, that
this opinion was known to the church all
this time, but was not accepted as set
ting or determining the question. Then
of course, Layman reasons, Peter had not
the power TO settle or determine such
questions. First, ask the gentleman,
where does he find that Peter formed and
announced this opinion; secondly, that
it was we'll known to the church all this
time; thirdly, that it was not accept
ed as settling the question? But
granting this, which he fails
to prove, l answer that the pope
was well known TO have for years diff
ferent opinion from Luther; yet he wait
ed till the council of Trent to formally
condemn the heresiarch's doctrines. And
yet this does not argue that he had not
the power to condemn them at once.
The popes for long time condemned
Zallicanism, yet they waited till the last
council to formally crush it. Rome is
proverbially slow, but sure. So the vicar
of our Lord was patient like our Lord
God waits long in mercy, but comes at
last in justice. Patient waiting is a sign
or power. According to Layman's reas-
oning, God possesses no power, because
he does not punish the sinner on the
spot. A king or a government which
does not at once quell the first grumbling
OF discomfort in their subjects has not
supreme power in the land. Lavman
says Peter did not dominate or contror'
the council in any way. | have shown
how he controlled it. But as TO d0msnat-
u low To oh -
sarlly. For his Divine Master had told
him: "Let HIM that is first among you be
as the servant of ALL And hence it is
that Peters successor, the pope, signs
himself Serious .SerOorun Dea, servant of
the servants of God.
Layman says the decree of the council
Of Jerusalem did not go out from Peter,
but from "the apostles and ancient breth-
rem" therefore, Peter had not the
primacy. But surely everybody knows
that when the head speaks the whole
body speaks. We say (my whole self,
body and soull walk, when only my feet
walk. SO when Peter speaks the whole
church speaks. The church is
unit. ''Ubi Petrus, ibl Eccle
sia." When the church speaks,
Peter speaks. The head cannot be sepa-
rated from the body. AS Christ prom
ised perpetuity to his church, Peter in his
successors is always the head.
Finally Laymen says that he does "not
find in the acts of the early bishops of
Honesty these of the first century
perhaps we might add those of the sec
ond century)-nor in the history Of their
times, nor in the writings of the early
fathers, nor in Bishop Ireland's citations,
any proof that these bishops claimed or ex-
ercised sovereignty over the entire Chris
tlan church." 1t does not concern me to
show why or how the gentleman does mot
And," but only that it Is to be found
The early bishops of Rome had to hide
themselves in the catacombs, as every
body, LaYman possibly excepted, very
well knows. For three centuries the
sword of persecution, welded by the
mightiest empire which the world ever
saw. was seldom returned to the scab-
bard. and to be a Roman pontiff was TO
be candidate for martydom More
than thirty of the early pontiffs were
martyrs. And it is of these Layman ex-
poets to find formal and comprehensive
accounts of every official act in govern
ing the church. Aud yet history fur
Aishes enough of said acts to prove that
they claimed and exercised sovereignty
over the whole Christian church.