The Mark of Apostolicity

Apostolicity is the Mark by which the Church is recognized as identical with the Church founded by
Jesus Christ upon the Apostles. It is of great importance because it is the surest indication of the
true Church of Christ. It is most easily examined, and it virtually contains the other three marks,
namely, Unity, Sanctity, and Catholicity. Either the word “Christian” or “Apostolic” might be used to
express the identity between the Church of today and the primitive Church. The term “Apostolic” is
preferred because it indicates a correlation between Christ and the Apostles, showing the relation
of the Church both to Christ, the founder, and to the Apostles, upon whom He founded it. “Apostle”
is one sent, sent by authority of Jesus Christ to continue His Mission upon earth, especially a
member of the original band of teachers known as the Twelve Apostles.

Therefore the Church is called Apostolic, because it was founded by Jesus Christ upon the
Apostles. Apostolicity of doctrine and mission is necessary. Apostolicity of doctrine requires that
the deposit of faith committed to the Apostles shall remain unchanged. Since the Church is
infallible in its teaching, it follows that if the Church of Christ still exists it must be teaching His
doctrine.

Hence, Apostolicity of mission is a guarantee of Apostolicity of doctrine. St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haeres,
IV, xxvi, n. 2) says: “Wherefore we must obey the priests of the Church who have succession from
the Apostles, as we have shown, who, together with succession in the episcopate, have received
the certain mark of truth according to the will of the Father; all others, however, are to be
suspected, who separated themselves from the principal succession”, etc. In explaining the
concept of Apostolicity, then, special attention must be given to Apostolicity of mission, or Apostolic
succession. Apostolicity of mission means that the Church is one moral body, possessing the
mission entrusted by Jesus Christ to the Apostles, and transmitted through them and their lawful
successors in an unbroken chain to the present representatives of Christ upon earth. This
authoritative transmission of power in the Church constitutes Apostolic succession.

This Apostolic succession must be both material and formal; the material consisting in the actual
succession in the Church, through a series of persons from the Apostolic age to the present; the
formal adding the element of authority in the transmission of power. It consists in the legitimate
transmission of the ministerial power conferred by Christ upon His Apostles. No one can give a
power which he does not possess.

Hence in tracing the mission of the Church back to the Apostles, no lacuna can be allowed, no new
mission can arise; but the mission conferred by Christ must pass from generation to generation
through an uninterrupted lawful succession. The Apostles received it from Christ and gave it in turn
to those legitimately appointed by them, and these again selected others to continue the work of
the ministry. Any break in this succession destroys Apostolicity, because the break means the
beginning of a new series which is not apostolic. “How shall they preach unless they be sent?”
(Rom.10:15). An authoritative mission to teach is absolutely necessary; a man-given mission is not
authoritative. Hence any concept of Apostolicity that excludes authoritative union with the apostolic
mission robs the ministry of its Divine character. Apostolicity, or Apostolic succession, then, means
that the mission conferred by Jesus Christ upon the Apostles must pass from them to their
legitimate successors, in an unbroken line, until the end of the world.

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This notion of Apostolicity is evolved from the words of Christ Himself, the practice of the Apostles,
and the teaching of the Fathers and theologians of the Church.

Reference: Apostolicity from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)

In the dogma of the True Roman Catholic Faith, we see Holy Orders among three sacraments that
make an indelible mark called a sacramental Character on the Recipient's Soul (the other two are
baptism and confirmation).

The word "holy" means "set apart for some purpose." The word ordo (order, in Latin) designated an
established civil body or corporation with a hierarchy, and ordinatio meant legal incorporation into
an ordo. In context, therefore, a Holy Order is simply a group with a hierarchy that is set apart for
ministry in the Church. The Episcopal concept of ordination, Episcopal (from the Greek episkopos,
meaning "overseer" and from which we get the word "bishop") form of church government is
followed by the Roman Catholic Church and centers on the hierarchy of bishops.

The meaning of Priesthood is derived from the word which is found in Greek presbuteros meaning
"elder” and some suggest the Latin praepositus meaning "superintendent." The True Catholic Faith
sees the preisthood as both a reflection of the ancient Temple priesthood of the Jews and the
person of Jesus. The liturgy of ordination recalls the Old Testament priesthood and the priesthood
of Christ. In the words of Thomas Aquinas, "Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the
old law was a prefiguration of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ"
Summa Theologiae III, 22, 4c.

“One must be aware that the historical development of these orders was not the same throughout
the Church and, moreover, their functions underwent considerable modifications according to the
exigencies of the times. Gradually they lost their original importance. But, although for centuries
already many of the functions of the minor orders are performed by laymen, the orders have
remained. They now form a fitting preparation for the major orders, and recall the fact that the
priest is the responsible guardian of the house of God and of all the functions performed therein;
and that, if laymen are employed in rendering such services, the priest must see to it that worthy
persons are chosen and that they perform their offices in the proper way”.

A. Biskupek, According to the Traditional Catholic Rite of Holy Orders ,

S.V.D,Mission Press, 1954, Imprimi Potest May 4, 1942 Charles Michel, S.V.D. Provincial
Imprimatur May 4, 1942 + Samuel A. Stritch, D.D. Archbishop of Chicago

The worthy conduct of divine worship makes it necessary for many distinct functions which become
an intimate part of the central act of divine worship, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Such functions
are, for example, to take care of the place of worship and of the many things needed for the Holy
Sacrifice, to instruct the people and admit them to the divine services, to keep out unworthy
persons, to supervise the congregation so that due order and reverence may be observed by all, to
serve at Mass, as well as many other tasks that may need doing. We know that in ancient times,
when the faithful formed small minorities in the midst of a pagan population not well disposed
toward Christianity, it was of the utmost importance that such offices should be entrusted to

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 thoroughly reliable men. For this reason special orders were introduced by the Church, and men
were ordained by a sacred rite for the worthy discharge of these offices.

At priestly ordination the bishop imposes hands upon the deacon who is by that matter and the
form of the consecratory preface ordained to the priesthood. Usually, after a period of six months
or more as a transitional deacon a man will be ordained to the priesthood. Priests are able to
preach, perform baptisms, witness marriages, hear confessions and give absolutions, anoint the
sick, and celebrate the Eucharist or the Mass. Bishops are chosen from among the priests in
Church. In the Roman Catholic Faith, Bishops become leaders of territorial units called dioceses.
Only bishops can validly administer the sacrament of holy orders.

Bishops (and sometimes priests with authorization from the local bishop), may lawfully administer
the sacrament of confirmation, but if an ordinary priest administers that sacrament illegally, it is
nonetheless considered valid, so that the person confirmed cannot be actually confirmed again, by
a bishop or otherwise priest with special permission of the diocesan bishop or the Holy See can
lawfully administer confirmation; Every Roman Catholic priest must administer confirmation, even
without permission, to children in danger of death.

A comment of Old Roman Catholic Holy Orders

Frequently, the inquirers are told that the Holy Orders of the Old Roman Catholics and our
Sacraments are not valid or recognized by Rome. The following excerpts are included to
clear up any confusion that there might be on this point, although the Old Roman Catholic
Church are quite aware of its validity in all things and has no interest in gaining "recognition"
from any other quarters. This is not in our defense, nor is it written to justify our being. It is
to inform the uninformed individual.

The statements presented here are from official authorities, theologians and publications of the
Roman Catholic Church in the affirmation of the validity of the Holy Orders and Sacraments of
other sacramental, apostolic Churches. These sources were printed with the imprimatur of
various Roman Catholic Bishops
1 "When a Catholic sacred minister is unavailable and there is urgent spiritual
necessity, Catholics may receive the Eucharist, penance, or anointing from sacred
ministers of non-Catholic denomination whose holy orders are considered valid by
the Catholic Church. This includes all Eastern Orthodox priests, as well as priests
o f t h e O l d R o m a n Catholic or Polish National Church." Rights and
Responsibilities, A Catholics' Guide to the New Code of Canon Law, Thomas P.
Doyle, O.P., page 44.

2 "A validly consecrated bishop can validly confer all orders from the minor orders
to the episcopate inclusively ... For this reason the ordinations performed by the
bishops of the Old Roman Catholics are consider valid." A Practical Commentary
on the Code of Canon Law, revised and enlarged ion, by Rev. Stanislaw
Woywood, OFM, LLB. Vol. 1, Sec. 881, P. 558.

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3. "They Old Roman Catholics have received valid orders." Roman Catholic
Dictionary, by Addison Arnold.

4 "The Old Catholic Church has received valid Episcopal consecration", Christian
Denominations, B. Herder Book, London 1946, by Rev. Konrad Algermissen.

“The validity of Episcopal consecration in the

Church of Utrecht cannot be doubted, nor in this
regard can that of the Old Roman Catholic
Church, which depend upon the former. The
Utrecht Union came into existence in 1889,
through a consolidation of the Church of Utrecht
and the Old Roman Catholic Church.” P. 349.

“Since the Episcopal consecration in the Church

of Utrecht is valid, the validity of the prescribed
consecration performed in the Old Roman
Catholic Church cannot be doubted.” P. 357.

“In America, for instance, The American Catholic

Church, The Old Catholic Church in America, the
North American Old Roman Catholic Church,
have all received valid Episcopal consecration
from the Old Catholic Church.” P. 363.

5 "Their Old Catholic Orders and Sacraments are valid." A Catholic Dictionary, by
Donald Attwater.

6 "The Far East Magazine of June, 1928, published by the Saint Columban
Fathers of St. Columbans, Nebraska, in reply to any inquiry about the Old Catholic
Church, published the reply that: "These Old Roman Catholics Orders are valid."

7 "The Roman Church recognizes the validity of Old Roman Catholic Orders and
other Sacraments." 1974 Catholic Almanac, by Felician A. Roy, OFM, page 368.
"Our Sunday Visitor."

8 "We have no reason to doubt that the Old Roman Catholic Orders are valid. The
Apostolic Succession does not depend on obedience to the See of Peter but rather
on the objective line of succession from Apostolic sources, the proper matter and
form, and the proper intention ... likewise Old Roman Catholic bishops are bishops
in Apostolic Succession ... The Old Roman Catholics, like the Orthodox, posses a
valid priesthood." Separated Brethren, William J. Whalen, pp. 204, 248.

9. (Apostolicae Curae) "...Whenever there is no appearance of simulation on the

part of the minister, the validity of the sacrament is sufficiently certain ... "

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 10 “Every validly consecrated bishop, including heretical, schismatic, simonistic or
excommunicated bishops, can validly dispense the Sacrament of Order, provided
that he has the requisite intention, and follows the essential external rite (set.
Certa). Cf. D 855, 860; CIC 2372.” Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 1952 by Dr.
Ludwig Ott, pp. 456
(These sources were printed with the imprimatur of various Roman Catholic Bishops)

THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION

Cardinal Newman often professed that it was in reading of the works of the Fathers that enabled
him to see the truth of the claims of the Catholic Church, -“ whatever history teaches, whatever it
omits, whatever it exaggerates or extenuates, whatever it says and unsays, at least the Christianity
of history is not Protestantism.” He further goes on to concluded with those well known words “To
be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant” (Newman, John Henry, Historical Sketches, vol.1:
The Church of the Fathers, London: 1872, p.418).

The True Roman Catholic Faith teaches "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single
sacred deposit of the Word of God . . ." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 97. Note all
citations are from Catechism).
The Catholic Church reasons thus:

1. "The Apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them ‘their own position of
teaching authority.'" (Paragraph 77)
2. "This living transmission, accomplished through the Holy Spirit, is called tradition..." (Par. 78)
3. "Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of
devotion and reverence." (Par. 82).

Within the Catholic scope of Tradition, many doctrines have been revealed to the Church over the
centuries. For example, the wonderful truths of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Her Immaculate
Conception and Her Bodily Assumption into Heaven

Yet the Vatican II Novus Ordo Church is in the business of denying, changing or redefining
tradition for their own purposes. Latin Language represented a Universal Language for the
Celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the words of Pope Pius XII are prophetic.

"The day the Church abandons Her universal tongue will be the day before She returns to
the Catacombs." – Pope Pius XII (made a few days before he died).

1. "Teach nothing new, but implant in the hearts of everyone those things which the fathers of
venerable memory taught with a uniform preaching ... Whence, we preach nothing
except what we have received from our forefathers. In all things, therefore, both in the
rule of faith in the observance of discipline let the pattern of antiquity be observed." –
Pope St. Leo the Great, Father and Doctor of the Church.
2. "'One faith,' St. Paul writes (Eph. 4:5). Hold most firmly that our faith is identical with that of
the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church ... We must hold this for
certain, namely: that the faith of the people at the present day is one with the faith of the

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 people in past centuries. Were this not true, then we would be in a different church than
they were in and, literally, the Church would not be One." – St. Thomas Aquinas
3. "I accept with sincere belief the doctrine of faith as handed down to us from the Apostles
by the orthodox Fathers, always in the same sense and with the same interpretation." –
Pope St. Pius X
4. "The true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries nor innovators, but men of
tradition." – Pope St. Pius X
5. "The Church of Christ, zealous and cautious guardian of the dogmas deposited with it,
never changes any phase of them. It does not diminish them or add to them; it neither
trims what seems necessary now grafts things superfluous . . . but it devote all its
diligence to one aim: To treat tradition faithfully and wisely; to consolidate and to
strengthen what already was clear; and to guard what already was confirmed and
defined." – St. Vincent de Lerins: Commonitoria (5th Century)
6. "The true Church is also to be known from Her origin, which She derives under the law of
grace from the Apostles; for Her doctrines are neither novel nor of recent origin, but were
delivered of old by the Apostles and disseminated throughout the world." – Catechism of
the Council of Trent (16th Century)
7. "For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter, that by His revelation
they might make known new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably
keep and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith delivered through the Ages."
– First Vatican Council (1869-1870)
8. "I vow ... to change nothing of the received Tradition, and nothing thereof I have found
before me guarded by my God-pleasing predecessors, to encroach, to alter, or to permit
any innovation therein." – Coronation Oath of the Pope
9. "Therefore, heresy is from the Greek word meaning 'choice' . . . . But we are not permitted
to believe whatever we choose, nor to choose whatever someone else has believed. We
have the Apostles of God as authorities, who did not . . . choose what they would believe
but faithfully transmitted the teachings of Christ. So, even if an angel from heaven should
preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema. – St. Isidore, extraordinary Doctor of the
Church and last of the great Latin Fathers: Etymologies (7th Century)
10. "The day the Church abandons Her universal tongue will be the day before She returns
to the Catecombs." – Pope Pius XII (a few days before his death).
11. "You are fortunate; you have remained in the Church through your faith. You held fast to
the foundations of the faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. . . .In
the present crisis, it is they who have broken away from it." – St. Athanasius, champion
of Christ's Divinity, Doctor of Orthodoxy, Doctor of the Church, died 373 A. D.
12. "No one, my beloved brethren, will ever prevail against your Faith. And we are confident
that God will one day return our Churches to us." – St. Athanasius
13. "What then shall the Catholic do if some portion of the Church detaches itself from
communion of the universal Faith? What other choice can he make – and if some new
contagion attempts to poison, no longer a small part of the Church, but the whole Church
at once, then his great concern will be to attach himself to antiquity (Tradition) which can
no longer be led astray by any lying novelty." – St. Vincent de Lerins
14. "Is it permitted for Catholics to be present at, or to take part in, conventions, gatherings,
meetings, or societies of non-Catholics which aim to associate together under a single
agreement everyone who, in any way, lays claim to the name of Christian? In the
negative! ... It is clear, therefore, why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects

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 to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics. There is one way in which the unity of
Christians may be fostered, and that is by furthering the return to the one true Church of
Christ for those who are separated from Her." – Pope Pius XI

In the creed we recite the words “I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church”, it is
important to understand that these four positive marks of the Church are what distinguish her
from the false counter part or claimant “churches”. If the claimant sect or church lacks any one of
these marks, it can not claim to be the one true Church as founded by Christ.

The Mark that concerns us is the Mark of Apostolicity – Since we are dealing with the question of
apostolic succession.

It is by the note of Apostolic Succession that the four Marks of the Church are made most evident.
Since it ought to be contained, Oneness – unity with the Head of the Church- The Holiness – which
stems from conforming our selves to that doctrine, Catholicism – the same universal faith –
universal in space and time – And the Apostolicity of that faith as should be evident in those who
hold the legitimate succession of the Apostles.

Notion - What is meant by the term Apostolic Succession?

Church of Christ must be able to trace her doctrine, her orders, all her mission, to the Apostles of
Christ and so ultimately, by Apostolic Succession we mean that Lawful Succession of the hierarchy
from the Apostles by means of the Orders validly received while simultaneously having transmitted
the same faith of the Apostles.

And so in its concrete form, apostolic succession is the unbroken line of bishops stretching back to
the apostles, who held communion with the Holy Father.

Necessity for Apostolicity:

Does the Church have to be Apostolic?

The reason is that during all the time that the Church shall exist, there must have true pastors -
"For the work of the ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ,"—Eph. chap. iv.

And yet it's not enough for there simply to be priests, but these watchmen/priests must be
lawfully sent. St. Paul who in speaking of the missionaries for the faith and the God’s great
blessing of God upon such men, nevertheless does not fail to affirm (Romans 10) "How shall they
preach unless they be sent?" But even prior to this we read in the Old Testament that of such
self appointed missionaries God Himself complains by the mouth of Jeremiah saying,—Jer, xxiii,
21:—"I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they
prophesied ."

St. Paul doesn't limit the importance of having a lawful mission from the Church merely to
preaching but also to the very reception of Holy Order itself, that is why in his letter to the Hebrews

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he expressly states that "no man takes the honor of the priesthood upon himself, but he that is
called by God as Aaron was,"—Heb. v, 4.

And so it seems clear from scripture at least that the succession of pastors must be one that is
lawfully authorized. For this reason the Church has always continued along this path, by the power
that Christ had originally given to His apostles in the words: "As my Father has sent me, I also send
you" (Matt 28).

It was by means of this Apostolic Succession that Christ intended His Church to endure until the
end of world with the 4 marks with which he founded it. In other words it is by this Apostolic
Succession that we are to know the true Church from all the counterfeit claimant churches of today
because the true Church must derive, by a perpetual and uninterrupted succession from the
Apostles, her doctrines, her mission, and her orders.

Diagram Explanation of Apostolic Succession:

1. Christ - The Word of God made Flesh -Christ => Founds the Church on the 12 Apostles
From the Apostles comes the continuation of the same:
2. Doctrine = i.e. the Faith
3. Sacraments = i.e. Holy Order in regards to apostolic succession
4. Mission = the Legitimate succession which today more explicitly implies union with the patron
office of the Pope (Matt 16:18).

Scripture and Apostolic Succession:

The notion of Apostolic Succession is not doctrinal invention but one that is latent throughout the
whole New Testament, while also see in the Old Testament that there did exist a privileged status
of teaching which was in some way handed down as we see in the notion of the seat of Moses.
The Twelve Apostles

In fact we see that in the New Testament Our Lord chose 12 Apostles. It was no mistake or
accident that He chose 12 Apostles and not 11 or 13 etc. It was because these 12 Apostles were to
symbolically replace the 12 tribes of Israel as they were to be the 12 Pillars of the New Israel, the
New Testament Church. We see this idea in the 12th Chapter of the Apocalypse (Apoc. xii., 1)
where the women who is said to signify the Church is depicted with the 12 Stars upon her head as
though these twelve stars were here Glory. The significance of the number 12 is not accidental as
the 12 Apostles as foundation stones of the New Testament Church will supersede the Old
Testament Church.

St. Peter understood this well and that is why we read in the Acts of the Apostles that he affirms
that at the death of Judas they had to choose someone else to take his place before Pentecost and
that the person to take his place had to have been a witness of the resurrection and have been
with the apostles from the beginning. This was because St. Peter knew well that divine providence
had ordained it that the Church was to have 12 Apostles who were to be its foundation stones as a
clear sign that it was to be a re-founding, a new Church, which while in it had come forth from the

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bosom of the Old Testament Church, since Christ was the fulfillment of the law and yet it was a
totally new Church distinct from the Old Testament Church because it was founded by Christ the
New Adam (Rom 5) who is the chief corner stone of of the Church (Eph 2:21).

More from Scripture

The idea of Apostolic succession is undeniably evident not only from the fact that Our Lord
established a Church (Matt 16:16) but its also clear from the fact that he intended that Church to
endure until the end of time as expressly stated "I shall be with you all days even to the
consummation of the world" (Matt 28:18 ). In other words, Christ promised to remain not only with
the Apostles but also with all their lawful successors until the end of time. If Christ imparted his
divine authority to His apostles to continue His mission of salvation and promised to remain with
His apostles until the end of the world, it is only obvious that they would require successors since
they were inevitably going to die like the rest of men.

St. Paul who while he was not called to be an apostle during the life time of Our Lord nevertheless
is just as adamant about the point of Apostolic Succession as he affirms to Titus saying: For this
cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and
shouldest ordain priests in every city, as I also appointed thee: ...(Titus 1:5 cf. also I Tim. 4:14). –
In other words, Titus, you have a duty to look after the Church and ensure it’s preservation and
edification by Ordaining priests who can legitimately govern and teach in the Church, those
doctrine which you have received from me, and I from Christ. I say this because the ordination to
the priesthood is essential to maintain the sacerdotal and hierarchical structure of the Church
which is implied in the notion of Apostolic Succession.

The Bishops thus have a duty not only of ruling the Church and guiding the priests and faithful
under them but to insure that the Church remains in her divine constitution in exactly the same way
it was founded.

Fr. Jorg Alexoff, editor, The Church Fathers and Apostolic Succession ,Catholic Mission Press,
Imprimatur Sept. 14, 1941 + Samuel A. Stritch, D.D. Archbishop of Chicago

What exactly did the Church Fathers say about Apostolic Succession

As early as we go back into antiquity, we see the same truth being affirmed. If any point of doctrine
has unanimity of opinion amongst the Fathers, it is truly this doctrine of Apostolic Succession.

Indeed, a perpetual succession of Catholic pastors has always existed and will always exist until
the end of time.

The first Christians then had no doubts about how to determine which claimant, among the many
competing new sects, which was the true Church. The test was simple: Just trace the apostolic
succession of the claimants. Did the teaching AND the teachers come down from the apostles and
their legitimate successors? The simple procedure worked every time, even if in times of crisis, it
might not have been always so clear yet this criterion has nevertheless remained infallibly true.

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What is interesting in this regard is that when Protestants look back today and speak of the "early
Church" or simply, "the Church," they fail to recognize that this "Church" which they tacitly assume
was one and unified, is none other than the organically connected ancestor of the present-day
Catholic Church, which operates on the same principle of apostolic succession.

It’s true that people will often bring up the point that present day Catholicism doesn’t have the
semblance or external appearance of what they had understood the early Church to be. The
problem with this line of argument is that it’s an objection that lacks both any real historical insight
and any real understanding to the notion of the “Church”. The Church which Christ founded was in
no way to remain static. While the guiding principles which would be it’s pillar, would remain static,
that is the unshakable and immutable faith upon which it is based, will and must remain ever
unchangeable, yet the Church itself like a human body, organically developed from the beginning
in a gradual, consistent fashion.

Cardinal Newman used the following analogy between an acorn seed and the great oak from which
it springs. In comparison they look noting alike, yet one has homogeneously grown out from the
other. All that the Oak Tree would become was contained in the seed. It is one and the same, the
seed, since without the seed there would be no Oak tree, and yet who will turn around and deny
that the Oak tree has nothing to do with the acorn?

The same is true of the Catholic Church, which while it has maintained it’s doctrinal truths,
nevertheless continue to grow both numerically in it’s membership and also in its expounding and
clarification of that same faith which Christ had taught to the apostles, while by the guidance and
inspiration of the Holy Ghost continues to lead men to heaven by means of the sacraments and
legitimately developed rites and ceremonies.

In fact, Christ Himself declared this to the apostles that this would be the purpose of the Holy
Ghost, to guide them in all Truth. Yet there were many things that our lord had wished to
expounded to the apostles, but as He said “ (John 16:12) “but you cannot bear them now. But
when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of
himself: but what things so ever he shall hear, he shall speak. And the things that are to
come, he shall show you them”. Hence, these truths were to be later expounded by the apostles
by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and faithfully transmitted through their successors.

Cardinal Newman’s Explanation/Illustration

Cardinal Newman makes the analogy between an acorn seed and the great oak from which it
springs

1. (Acorn) The Apostles as Foundation Stones of the Church: This was the primary role of the
Apostles that is why its a common opinion of theologians that after Pentecost all the Twelve
apostles were infallible, impeccable and all had universal jurisdiction/mission. That is why the
Church holds that Public revelation ended with death of the last Apostle, St. John the Evangelist.

2. (Oak Tree) The Apostles as Depositories of the Faith: This was the secondary role of the
Apostles, but it is the primary role of their successors (i.e. the bishops) to transmit that faith (that is
the TRUE NOTION OF TRADITION).

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While the secondary role of the successors of the apostles is the communication of that faith to the
generation in which they live (that is the true notion of "living Tradition").

An Important Truth about Apostolic Succession

The Catholic notion of Apostolic Succession however does not mean that all the successors of the
Apostles have the same authority as that of the Apostles themselves. The Legitimate successors of
the Apostles succeed the Apostles in their office but not in their personal gifts or prerogatives.
For example while all the Apostles, as foundations or “Pillars” of the Church, had universal
jurisdiction/mission while still having St. Peter as their head.

However all the legitimate successors of the Apostles today do not succeed the apostles in this
particular gift of universal Jurisdiction. This is reserved to the Roman Pontiff alone because it is
part of his office as the Vicar of Christ. Nevertheless, Bishops do govern their own diocese not only
as delegates of the Pope, but as true successors of the Apostles. For this reason St. Paul reminds
the bishops “Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed
you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28).

It seems clear then that the Catholic Faith and the Catholic Faith alone can claim to be that Church
as founded by Christ because She alone, has, beyond all doubt, existed in every age, from the
present till the Apostolic age. Her pastors are the only pastors on earth, who can trace their
mission from priest to Bishop and from bishop to Pope, back through every century, until they trace
that mission to the Apostles, who were commissioned by Christ himself.

Hence, it is this Church and This Church alone, which can claim a right to our obedience and our
assent in what it propose to us for belief since the faith She holds up for our Belief is none other
than that inviolable and immutable truth of God Himself.

Church Fathers and Apostolic Succession

Next we will look at the witness of the Church Fathers.

No point of doctrine has unanimity of opinion amongst the Fathers than the doctrine of Apostolic
Succession.

Evidential Quotes

Pope St. Clement (97AD) the fourth Successor of St. Peter, who had also been ordained by St.
Peter, wrote in his well known letter to the Church of Corinth after laymen of the Catholic Church in
Corinth had thrown out from their Church the official prelate. In this letter, St. Clements rebukes
them for their behavior and tells them to get in line. In this letter he states “Through countryside
and city [the apostles] preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the
Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops and
deacons had been written about a long time earlier....Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus
Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received
perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards

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added further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their
ministry." (Epistle to the Corinthians, 42:4-5, 44:1-3).

St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107 AD) who was a well know disciple of St. John the Evangelist
gives us evidence of the Catholic Teaching on Apostolic Succession in his letter to the Trallian
Church, where he acknowledges the three-fold hierarchical structure (i.e. bishop, priest, deacon)
and apostolic succession as he states “In like manner, let us reverence the deacons as Jesus
Christ, and the bishop as the Father, and the presbyters as the Sanhedrin of God and college of
the apostles. Without these, there is no Church (St. Ignatius (of Antioch) to the Trallians 1:8,9).

Again I will quote St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a student of St. Polycarp (who, in turn, was the student
of St. John the Apostle). In his famous work Against Heresies, in which he took it upon himself to
combat all of the false teachings of his time. He openly affirms that “Those that wish to discern the
truth may observe the apostolic tradition made manifest in every church throughout the world. We
can enumerate those who were appointed bishops in the churches by the apostles, and their
successors down to our own day, who never taught, and never knew, absurdities such as these
men produce. For if the apostles had known hidden mysteries which they taught the perfect in
private and in secret they would rather have committed them to those to whom the entrusted the
churches. For they wished those men to be perfect and unblamable whom they left and their
successors and to whom they handed over their office of authority....” He futher goes on to refute
the heretics of his day by simply affirming that "For all these [heretics] are of much later date than
are the bishops to whom the apostles handed over the churches. ... . It is of necessity, then, that
these aforementioned heretics, because they are blind to the truth, walk in devious paths, . .. . The
path of those, however, who belong to the Church, goes around the whole world, for it has the firm
tradition of the apostles, enabling us to see that the faith of all is one and the same." (ibid. 5:20:1)

EUSIBIUS (324 AD) the well known Church Historian of the 4th Century states "After the
martyrdom of Paul and Peter, the first man to be appointed Bishop of Rome was Linus. ... Linus,
who is mentioned in the Second Epistle to Timothy as being with Paul in Rome, as stated above
was the first after Peter to be appointed Bishop of Rome. Clement again, who became the third
Bishop of Rome ...." (The History of the Church, Book 3, AD 324)

Cyprian of Carthage

"[T]he Church is one, and as she is one, cannot be both within and without. For if she is with [the
heretic] Novatian, she was not with [Pope] Cornelius. But if she was with Cornelius, who
succeeded the bishop [of Rome], Fabian, by lawful ordination, and whom, beside the honor of the
priesthood, the Lord glorified also with martyrdom, Novatian is not in the Church; nor can he be
reckoned as a bishop, who, succeeding to no one, and despising the evangelical and apostolic
tradition, sprang from himself. For he who has not been ordained in the Church can neither have
nor hold to the Church in any way" (Letters 69[75]:3 [A.D. 253]).

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AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (ca. 400 AD) the well known Church Father of the 4th Century
declares

"For, if the order of succession of Bishops is to be considered, how much more surely, truly and
safely do we number them from Peter, to whom, as representing the whole Church, the Lord said:
"Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." For, to Peter
succeeded Linus, to Linus Clement, to Clement Anacletus, to Anacletus, Evaristus..." (Letters, No
53)

THE PAPACY

Christ instituted His Church as a means of salvation to continue His mission and apply his work of
redemption to souls throughout the ages until the consummation of the world (Matt 28:20). This
Church is a visible organization: "A city built on a hill cannot be hid" (St. Matt. 5, 14). Being visible,
Christ's Church possesses a hierarchical authority to govern it (St. Luke 6, 13), which is invested
with His own mission (St. John 20, 21) to teach (St. Matt. 28, 20) to rule (St. Matt. 18, 17-18) and to
sanctify the faithful (St. John 15, 16).

This same Church, Christ founded upon Peter, the prince of the apostles in order that he (and his
successors) may be the visible representative of Christ saying:

"And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and
whatsoever You shall bind on earth, it shall bound also in heaven: and whatsoever Thou shalt
loose on earth, it shall be Bound also in heaven: and whatsoever Thou shalt loose on earth, It shall
be bound in heaven." - MATHEW 16:18 -19

Although the objections to these clear words of Christ are numerous because of the implications it
bestows upon Christians to be subject to the Roman Pontiff. The claim that Christ is referring to
himself as the Rock does violence to text since it is clear that Christ is praising Peter for having
confessed his divinity and not praising Himself as otherwise it would be but an insult to Peter. Yet
nevertheless the words which directly follow would also have not only not make any sense but
would have nothing to do with the very context of Christ's words as He goes on to say to St. Peter "
And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou (in the singular)
shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it
shall be loosed also in heaven". Thus from the whole context it seems clear that Christ is talking to
Peter and declaring him to be the Rock upon which He is to build his Church" - MATT 16:19

We also note that Christ had at this point changed Peters name to "Cephas" which means a large,
massive stone in Aramaic (since not only was Aramaic the language Jesus and the apostles and
all the Jews in Palestine spoke, but Matthew's Gospel was written by him in Aramaic, we know this
from records kept by Eusebius of Caesarea--but it was translated into Greek early on, perhaps by
Matthew himself) in order to affirm that Peter is the rock upon which He will build His Church. If
Peter was not in some way to be a Rock, why the need to change his name, especially since when

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God changes ones name it often has to do with a divine mission (i.e. Abram's name is Changed to
Abraham - Gen 17:5).

It is Jesus Christ Himself Who gave Simon Bar-Jonah, the fisherman, this unique place among His
twelve Apostles. The most obvious place to begin is Simon's name, which Jesus changed. In
Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, "And I say to you [Simon], you are Peter [Petros], and upon this rock
[petra] I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." The unfailing Church
of Jesus Christ, in other words, is built upon Simon the Rock - Peter. Like the Patriarchs
Abram/Abraham (Gen. 17:5) and Jacob/Israel (Gen. 32:28), Simon/Peter received a new identity
from the Lord.

Although the reception of a new name is significant in itself, as we know from the stories of
Abraham and Israel, Matthew 16:18 also promises that it is on Simon Peter that Jesus' Church will
be built. Even though the Apostles in general have been called a "foundation" (Eph. 2:20), Jesus
singled Simon Peter out as the "Rock." A similar thing occurs in 16:19: "I will give you the keys of
the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven; and whatever you
loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven." "Binding and loosing" is a charism given to all the
Apostles (Matt. 18:18), but Peter is singled out for "the keys."

Apologists who strictly equate Matthew 16:19 with 18:18[9] miss a rare but crucial biblical motif:
"keys" equal authority. Consider the words of Jesus in Apoc 1:18: "Once I was dead, but now I am
alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and hell." What does Jesus mean when He says He
holds "the keys"? In Peter's words, Jesus has authority or rights over death: "it was impossible for
[Jesus] to be held by [death]" (Acts 2:24). Jesus holds "the keys" of death, death does not hold
Jesus.

If "keys" represent authority, what kind of authority is Jesus conferring on Peter in Matthew 16:19?
Jesus gives Peter "keys" to a Kingdom. What kind of King is Jesus? Jesus is a King in the line of
David (Luke 1:32). So the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus mentions is nevertheless a truly Davidic
Kingdom. Jesus possesses "the key" of David (Rev. 3:7), and it is within His authority as Davidic
King to authorize Peter, which He does in Matthew 16:19.

Jesus gives "the keys" of His Kingdom to Peter alone among the Apostles; "the keys" are not
mentioned in passages like Matthew 18:18 and John 20:23. The Apostles, familiar with Isaiah and
with Israel's history, would have understood the imagery Jesus evoked. It need not have been any
more explicit. This is precisely however one of the major problems with both a number of (so
called) modern scholars and Protestants in general who pick up the bible some 2000 years later
and read it without having any historical or biblical education other than their own prejudicial views
and then hope to have an infallible understanding of the scriptures!

Can Christ and Peter both be foundation stones at the same time? This indeed is the case as St.
Peter is simply to be the ministerial head but Christ is the ultimate head upon which all things
depend for their existence. The Headship of St. Peter is dependant upon that of Christ as they are
not univocally one and the same since one is subordinate to the other. Christ further illustrates this
point when he calls us to be to be the light and Truth (Matt 5:16; John 14:6) even though He is the
Light and Truth (John 8:12). Hence there is no contradiction but rather an affirmation. There is no

14
contradiction, as both Peter and Christ are the "foundation" or "rock" of the Church in different
senses. Jesus was the cornerstone, author, and foundation of both salvation and Christianity, so
Peter who was the head of the apostles is in a lesser way - was the cornerstone of the Church.

St. Paul saw no contradiction in this and openly declares that the Apostles and prophets are
cornerstones with Christ: "You are fellow citizens with the saints and domestics of God, built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets" - Eph 2:20 He also confirms the same thing explicitly
of St. Peter, John and James saying " When they had known the grace that was given to me,
James and Cephas (Peter the Rock) and John, who seemed to be PILLARS, gave to me and
Barnabas the right hands of fellowship". The Papacy would thus become for the Church what a
foundation stone is for a building as outside of this building all are not part of it. This stone offers
stability and unity as we get from the supreme authority in any society.

Our Lord singles Peter out on other occasions as well. At the Last Supper, in the midst of
foretelling Peter's betrayal, a very negative thing, Jesus gives Peter a particular positive mission.
"Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you [plural] like wheat, but I have prayed
that your [singular] own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you [singular] must
strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:31-32). As James informs his readers, the prayers of a
righteous man like Jesus avail much (Jas. 5:16), and though Peter unfortunately denied knowing
the Lord three times, he did turn and strengthen his brothers.

One might say he did this in a number of ways. For example, Peter decided that, according to
Scripture, a successor to Judas' office must be appointed (Acts 1:15-22) so that the original
number of Apostles would not be diminished (weakened). Peter was also the first to command the
baptism of Gentiles (Acts 10:46-48), an action which increased the number of Christians by leaps
and bounds. As mentioned above, he was considered the first witness to the Resurrection (1 Cor.
15:5) and was the first to explain the outpouring of the Spirit and preach the Gospel publicly (Acts
2:14-40).

Peter is again singled out by Our Lord in John 21:15-19. Our Lord, knowing that He would not
remain long on this earth after his resurrection, appeared to peter in order to confer upon him that
which he had promised saying: JOHN 21:15 "Peter do you love me . . . .

". . . . Feed my Lambs" (Peter Head of the Bishops)

" . . . . Feed my Lambs" (Peter, Head of Priests)

" . . . . Feed my sheep" (Peter, Head of Laity)

By this Christ placed Peter as head to look after his Church that was to continue in perpetuity
according to the divine mission, which was entrusted to Him and all of his legitimate successors. A
great number of texts in scripture convey that Peter was preeminent among the apostle in both
honor and jurisdiction as the Head of the Church. In order signify the superiority of St. Peter his
name occurs first (and more often) in all lists of apostles (Mt 10:2; Mk 3:16; Lk 6:14; Acts 1:13).
Matthew even calls him the "first" (Mt 10:2). This is also illustrated by the fact that Peter alone
among the apostles is exhorted by Jesus to "strengthen your brethren" (Luke 22:32) and is

15
uniquely associates with him in the miracle of the tribute-money (Mt 17:24-27). The Jews and
common people regarded him as the leader and spokesman of Christianity (Acts 4:1-13; 2:37-41;
5:15). Peter takes the lead in calling for a replacement for Judas (Acts 1:22) and to receiving the
Gentiles, after a revelation from God (Acts 10:9-48). Those who purport to ignore Christ's Church
through their own disobedience no longer belong to its unity: "if he refuses to listen even to the
church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" (St. Matt. 18, 17). To ignore the Church,
one effectively ignores Christ.

The language of Peter's primacy, in Scripture, is no mere "primacy of honor." Peter is given crucial
duties and responsibilities and authorized to carry them out. Jesus clearly makes Peter a servant,
leader, and unifier to all His Apostles and disciples.

After the Ascension of Our Lord, it is Peter whom we see calling, presiding over and directing the
assembly at which St. Matthias is elected; it is he that first preaches the Gospel to the Jews; it is he
that receives the order to baptize Cornelius and open the Church to the Gentiles; it is he that
punishes Ananias and Saphira for the falsehood they uttered, and confounds Simon the Magician;
it is he that affirms before the tribunal his right and his mission to preach, and who performs the
first miracle in confirmation of the Gospel; first also, he speaks to the Council at Jerusalem; and all
the assembly "having heard these things, held their peace" (Acts 11:18); cast into prison, he
absorbs the attention of all the Church, and "prayer was made without ceasing by the Church to
God for him" (Acts12:5), until his miraculous delivery; it is he who founds the See of Antioch, which
for that reason became a patriarchal See; finally it is he who founds the See of Rome, and it is
because he died Bishop of that city that his legitimate successors have always had and always will
have the primacy in the universal Church.

The words of our lord "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me" (St. Luke
10, 16) teach us that it is no small matter to reject those who he has lawfully placed in command
over the Church.

The gift of infallibility, which what is understood by the Power of loosing and binding, is one that is
often misunderstood by people as meaning that, even if the pope isn't infallible in all he does, he is
infallible in all he says. This again is untrue. The object of the pope's infallibility is matters of faith
and morals. He cannot speak infallibly on anything else unless it is something that has a bearing
on the teachings of faith and morals. This is what theologians call the secondary object of
infallibility. But the pope is not infallible when it comes to matters of science or history or math etc.
Nor does it mean that the Pope is impeccable! The Pope is a sinner like the rest of us. Our Lord
made use of sinners to write the scriptures which Protestants have no problem as accepting to be
infallible and so in like manner he continues to use's a sinner to guard and defend the deposit of
the faith, which is the primary duty of the Pope.

"TU ES PETRUS" --"Thou art Peter"

Words from the Early Church Fathers, Saints, Councils etc that confirm that Peter is the rock
spoken of in Matthew 16:18

TERTULLIAN [A.D. 200]

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Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter, who is called "the rock on which the Church
would be built" [Matt. 16:18] with the power of "loosing and binding in heaven and on earth" [Matt.
16:19]" (_Demurrer Against the Heretics_ 22).

TERTULLIAN [A.D. 220]

I now inquire into your opinion, to see whence you usurp this right for the Church. Do you presume,
because the Lord said to Peter, "On this rock I will build my Church, I have given you the keys of
the kingdom of heaven" [Matt 16:18-19a] that the power of binding and loosing has thereby been
handed on to you, that is, to every church akin to Peter? What kind of man are you, subverting and
changing what was the manifest intent of the Lord when he conferred this personally upon Peter?
Upon you, he says, I will build my Church; and I will give you the keys, not to the Church; and
whatever you shall have bound or you shall have loosed, not what they shall have bound or they
shall have loosed" (_On Modesty_ 21:9-10_).

ORIGEN [A.D. 249]

Look at [Peter], the great foundation of the Church, that most solid of rocks, upon whom Christ built
the Church [Matt. 16:18]. And what does our Lord say to him? "Oh you of little faith," he says, "why
do you doubt?" [Matt. 14:31] (_Homilies on Exodus_ 5:4).

CYPRIAN [A.D. 251]

The Lord says to Peter: "I say to you," he says, "that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom
of heaven, and whatever things you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you
loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven" [Matt. 16:18-19]....On him he builds his
Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17]; and although he
assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair, and he established by his
own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also
which Peter was; but a primacy was given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one
Church and one chair. So too, all are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the
apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he
imagine that he still holds the faith? If he desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built,
can he still be confident that he is in the Church? (The Unity of the Catholic Church_ 4).

"With a false bishop appointed for themselves by heretics, they dare even to set sail and carry
letters from schismatics and blasphemers to the chair of Peter and to the principal Church [at
Rome], in which sacerdotal unity has its source; nor did they take thought that these are Romans,
whose faith was praised by the preaching Apostle, and among whom it is not possible for perfidy to
have entrance." (Cyprian, Letter 59 (55), 14 to Cornelius of Rome, c. AD 252)

"[After quoting Matthew 16:18f; John 21:15ff]...On him [Peter] He builds the Church, and to him He
gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigned a like power to all the Apostles,
yet he founded a single Chair, and He established by His own authority a source and an intrinsic
reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to

17
Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one Chair. So too, all are
shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the Apostles in single-minded accord. If
someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he
desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the
Church?" (Cyprian, The Unity of the Catholic Church [first edition] 4, c. AD 251)

FIRMILIAN [A.D. 255]

But what is his error, and how great his blindness, who says that the remission of sins can be given
in the synagogues of the heretics and who does not remain in the foundation of the one Church
which was founded upon the rock by Christ [Matt. 16:18], can be learned from this, which Christ
said to Peter alone: "Whatever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and
whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed in heaven" [Matt. 16:19] (_Letter to Cyprian_ 74
[75]:16).

And in this respect I am justly indignant at this so open and manifest folly of [Pope] Stephen [I], that
he who so boasts of the place of his episcopate, and contends that he holds the succession from
Peter, on whom the foundations of the Church were laid [Matt 16:18], should introduce many other
rocks and establish new buildings of many churches; maintaining that there is baptism in them by
his authority...[Pope] Stephen, who announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter is
stirred with no zeal against [Donatist] heretics, when he concedes to them, not a moderate, but the
very greatest power of grace; so far as to say and assert that, by the sacrament of baptism, the filth
of the old man is washed away by them, that they pardon the formal mortal sins, that they make
sons of God by heavenly regeneration, and renew eternal life by the sanctification of the divine
laver [Titus 3:4] (ibid., 74[75]:17).

ST. IRENAEUS

"All other Churches are were bound to be united in faith with that Church (of Rome) on account of
her greater principality" - Against the Heresies, Book III, Ch. III).

EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN [A.D. 350]

[Jesus said:] Simon my follower, I have made you the foundation of the holy Church [Matt 16:18] I
betimes call you Peter, because you will support all of its buildings. You are the inspector of those
who will build on earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is false, you, the
foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain from which my teaching flows; you
are the chief of my disciples. (Homilies_ 4:1).

Optatus of Milevis (A.D. 370)

"(F)or the good of unity blessed Peter, for whom it would have been enough if after his denial he
had obtained pardone only, deserved to be placed before all the apostles, and alone received the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, to be communicated to the rest." (De Schismate Donatistorum,7:3).

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 St. Peter, Bishop of Alexandria (306-311 A.D.):

Head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, he became bishop around A.D. 300, reigning for
about eleven years, and dying a martyr's death.

Peter, set above the Apostles. (Peter of Alexandria, Canon. ix, Galland, iv. p. 98)

St. Anthony of Egypt (330 A.D.):

Peter, the Prince of the Apostles (Anthony, Epist. xvii. Galland, iv p. 687).

St. Athanasius (362 A.D.):

Rome is called the Apostolic throne. (Athanasius, Hist. Arian, ad Monach. n. 35).

The Chief, Peter. (Athan, In Ps. xv. 8, tom. iii. p. 106, Migne)

St. Macarius of Egypt (371 A.D.):

The Chief, Peter. (Macarius, De Patientia, n. 3, p. 180)

Moses was succeeded by Peter, who had committed to his hands the new Church of Christ, and
the true priesthood. (Macarius, Hom. xxvi. n. 23, p. 101)

DAMASUS I [A.D. 382]

Likewise it is decreed...[W]e have been considered that it ought to be announced that although all
the Catholic Churches spread abroad through the world comprise one bridal chamber of Christ,
nevertheless, the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by conciliar decisions of
other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who
says: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have
bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be
loosed in heaven" [Matt. 16:18-19]. The first see, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the
Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it (The Decree of Damasus
3).

St. Epiphanius, Archbishop of Salamis (385):

"At Rome. the first Apostles and bishops were Peter and Paul; then Linus, then Cletus, then
Clement, the contemporary of Peter and Paul, whom Paul remembers in his Epistle to the Romans
.... The succession of the bishops of Rome is as follows: Peter and Paul, Linus and Cletus,
Clement, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, Telephorus, Hyginus, Pius, Anicetus, whom I have already
mentioned above in my enumerating of the bishops. (The Panacea against All Heresies 27,6)

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"Holy men are therefore called the temple of God, because the Holy Spirit dwells in them; as that
Chief of the Apostles testifies, he that was found to be blessed by the Lord, because the Father
had revealed unto him. To him then did the Father reveal His true Son; and the same (Peter)
furthermore reveals the Holy Spirit. This was befitting in the First of the Apostles that firm Rock
upon which the Church of God is built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates of
hell are heretics and heresiarchs. For in every way was the faith confirmed in him who received the
keys of heaven; who looses on earth and binds in heaven. For in him are found all subtle questions
of faith. He was aided by the Father so as to be (or lay) the Foundation of the security (firmness) of
the faith. He (Peter) heard from the same God, 'feed my lambs'; to him He entrusted the flock; he
leads the way admirably in the power of his own Master". (Epiphanius, T. ii. in Anchor).

Epiphanaius not only affirms the historical fact that Peter was bishop of Rome, he uses it in his
refutation of the heretics.

JEROME [A.D. 393]

"But," you [Jovinian] will say, "it was on Peter that the Church was founded" [Matt. 16:18].
Well...one among the twelve is chosen to be their head in order to remove any occasion for
division. But why was not John [the beloved disciple] chosen? (_Against Jovinian_ 1:26).

AMBROSE [A.D. 380]

[Christ] made answer: "You are Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church..." Could he not,
then, strengthen the faith of the man to whom, acting on his own authority, he gave the kingdom,
whom he called the rock, thereby declaring him to be the foundation of the Church [Matt. 16:18]?
(_Of the Christian Faith_ 4:5).

AMBROSE [A.D. 394]

It is to Peter that he says: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church" [Matt. 16:18].
Where Peter is, there is the Church. And where the Church, no death is there, but life eternal (_On
Twelve Psalms_ 40:30).

St. Julius I (337-52)

The Eusebians believed that since Rome reserved the right to depose Novation without the East
the East should have the freedom to depose Athanasius without interference from the West. Julius
responded to them in a letter which was preserved by Athanasius:

It behooved you, beloved, to come hither [to Rome], and not to refuse, in order that this business
may be terminated, for reason requires this... O beloved!...For even if any offenses had been
committed by these men, as you say, the judgment ought to have been in accordance with the rule
of the church, and not thus...And why were we not written to especially with regard to the church of
Alexandria? Or are you ignorant that this has been the custom, first to write to us, and that thus
what is just be decreed from here? If therefore any such suspicion fell upon the bishop there [at
Alexandria], it was befitting to write to this church. Not thus were the ordinances of Paul, not thus

20
have the Fathers handed it down to us. This is a new decree, and a new institution. Bear with me, I
exhort you, for what I write is for the common good. For what we have received from the blessed
apostle Peter, the same do I manifest to you. [Apol., 35. PG 25: 305-8]

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Patriarch (363)

Our Lord Jesus Christ then became a man, but by the many He was not known. But wishing to
teach that which was not known, having assembled the disciples, He asked, 'Whom do men say
that the Son of man is?' ...And all being silent (for it was beyond man to learn) Peter, the Foremost
of the Apostles, the Chief Herald of the Church, not using the language of his own finding, nor
persuaded by human reasoning, but having his mind enlightened by the Father, says to Him, 'Thou
art the Christ,' not simply that, but 'the Son of the living God.' (Cyril, Catech. xi. n. 3)

For Peter was there, who carrieth the keys of heaven. (Cyril, Catechetical Lectures A.D. 350).

Peter, the chief and foremost leader of the Apostles, before a little maid thrice denied the Lord, but
moved to penitence, he wept bitterly. (Cyril, Catech ii. n. 15)

In the power of the same Holy Spirit, Peter, also the foremost of the Apostles and the key-bearer of
the Kingdom of Heaven, healed Aeneas the paralytic in the name of Christ. (Cyril, Catech. xviii. n.
27)

St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople (c. 387):

Peter himself the Head or Crown of the Apostles, the First in the Church, the Friend of Christ, who
received a revelation, not from man, but from the Father, as the Lord bears witness to him, saying,
'Blessed art thou, &c.' This very Peter and when I name Peter I name that unbroken Rock, that firm
Foundation, the Great Apostle, First of the disciples, the First called, and the First who obeyed he
was guilty ...even denying the Lord." (Chrysostom, T. ii. Hom)

Peter, the Leader of the choir of Apostles, the Mouth of the disciples, the Pillar of the Church, the
Buttress of the faith, the Foundation of the confession, the Fisherman of the universe.
(Chrysostom, T. iii Hom).

Peter, that Leader of the choir, that Mouth of the rest of the Apostles, that Head of the brotherhood,
that one set over the entire universe, that Foundation of the Church. (Chrys. In illud hoc Scitote)

(Peter), the foundation of the Church, the Coryphaeus of the choir of the Apostles, the vehement
lover of Christ ...he who ran throughout the whole world, who fished the whole world; this holy
Coryphaeus of the blessed choir; the ardent disciple, who was entrusted with the keys of heaven,
who received the spiritual revelation. Peter, the mouth of all Apostles, the head of that company,
the ruler of the whole world. (De Eleemos, iii. 4; Hom. de decem mille tal. 3)

In those days Peter rose up in the midst of the disciples (Acts 15), both as being ardent, and as
intrusted by Christ with the flock ...he first acts with authority in the matter, as having all put into his

21
hands ; for to him Christ said, 'And thou, being converted, confirm thy brethren. (Chrysostom, Hom.
iii Act Apost. tom. ix.)

He passed over his fall, and appointed him first of the Apostles; wherefore He said: ' 'Simon,
Simon,' etc. (in Ps. cxxix. 2). God allowed him to fall, because He meant to make him ruler over the
whole world, that, remembering his own fall, he might forgive those who should slip in the future.
And that what I have said is no guess, listen to Christ Himself saying: 'Simon, Simon, etc.' (Chrys,
Hom. quod frequenter conveniendum sit 5, cf. Hom 73 in Joan 5).

And why, then, passing by the others, does He converse with Peter on these things? (John 21:15).
He was the chosen one of the Apostles, and the mouth of the disciples, and the leader of the choir.
On this account, Paul also went up on a time to see him rather than the others (Galatians 1:18).
And withal, to show him that he must thenceforward have confidence, as the denial was done away
with, He puts into his hands the presidency over the brethren. And He brings not forward the
denial, nor reproches him with what had past, but says, 'If you love me, preside over the brethren,
...and the third time He gives him the same injunction, showing what a price He sets the presidency
over His own sheep. And if one should say, 'How then did James receive the throne of
Jerusalem?,' this I would answer that He appointed this man (Peter) teacher, not of that throne, but
of the whole world. (Chrysostom, In Joan. Hom. 1xxxviii. n. 1, tom. viii)

"For what purpose did He shed His blood? It was that He might win these sheep which he
entrusted to Peter and his successors." (De Sacerdotio, 53)

"Peter himself the chief of the Apostles, the first in the Church, the friend of Christ, who received a
revelation not from man, but from the Father, as the Lord bears witness to him, saying, 'Blessed
are thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and bone hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who
is in heaven'; this very Peter, - and when I name Peter, the great Apostles, I name that unbroken
rock, that firm foundation, the great Apostle, the first of the disciples, the first called and the first
who obeyed." (Homily 3 de Poenit. 4)

Council of Ephesus (431)

Pope Celestine was represented by three legates to whom he gave the instructions:

We also order the authority of the Apostolic See to be preserved... Indeed the instructions given to
you say that if it comes to disputing [among bishops], you are to judge their teachings, not enter the
fray... [Mansi 4: 556]

The Papal legates were late. The acts record that Cyril was:

22
... holding the place of the most holy and most sacred Celestine, archbishop of the Roman
Church." [Mansi 4: 1123]

With Nestorius condemned the third session reread his sentence. Philip, a Papal legate,
responded:

... Peter, prince and head of the apostles, pillar of the faith and foundation of the Catholic Church...
to him was given the power of binding and loosing sins, who up to this very age ever lives and
judges in his successors. [Mansi 4: 1295-8]

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 424):

He suffers him no longer to be called Simon, exercising authority and rule over him already having
become His own. By a title suitable to the thing, He changed his name into Peter, from the word
'petra' (rock); for on him He was afterwards to found His Church. (Cyril, T. iv. Comm. in Joan., p.
131)

He (Christ) promises to found the Church, assigning immovableness to it, as He is the Lord of
strength, and over this He sets Peter as shepherd. (Cyril, Comm. on Matt., ad loc.)

Therefore, when the Lord had hinted at the disciple's denial in the words that He used, 'I have
prayed for thee that thy faith not fail,' He at once introduced a word of consolation, and said (to
Peter): 'And do thou, when once thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.' That is, 'Be thou a
support and a teacher of those who through faith come to me.' Again, marvel also at the insight of
that saying and at the completeness of the Divine gentleness of spirit. For so that He should not
reduce the disciple to despair at the thought that after his denial he would have to be debarred
from the glorious distinction of being an Apostle, He fills him with good hope, that he will attain the
good things promised. ...O loving kindness! The sin was not yet committed, and He already
extends His pardon and sets him (Peter) again in his Apostolic office. (Cyril Comm. on Luke's
Gospel)

For the wonderous Peter, overcome by uncontrollable fear, denied the Lord three times. Christ
heals the error done, and demands in various ways the threefold confession ... For although all the
holy disciples fled, ...still Peter's fault in the threefold denial was in addition, special and peculiar to
himself. Therefore, by the threefold confession of blessed Peter, the fault of the triple denial was
done away. Further, by the Lord's saying, Feed my lambs, we must understand a renewal as it
were of the Apostleship already given to him, washing away the intervening disgrace of his fall, and
the littleness of human infirmity. (Cyril, Comm. on John's Gospel).

They (the Apostles) strove to learn through one, that preeminent one, Peter. (Cyril, Ib. 1. ix. p.
736).

And even blessed Peter, though set over the holy disciples, says 'Lord, be it far from Thee, this
shall be done to Thee. (Cyril, Ibid. 924).

23
If Peter himself, that prince of the holy disciples, was, upon an occasion, scandalized, so as
suddenly to exclaim, 'Lord, be it far from Thee,' what wonder that the tender mind of woman should
be carried away? (Cyril, Ibid, p. 1064)

That the Spirit is God we shall also learn hence. That the prince of the Apostles, to whom 'flesh and
blood,' as the Savior says, 'did not reveal' the Divine mystery, says to Ananias, 'Why hath satan
tempted thy heart, &c.' (Cyril, T. v. Par. 1. Thesaur. p. 340)

Besides all these, let there come forward that leader of the holy disciples, Peter, who, when the
Lord, on a certain occassion, asked him, 'Whom do men say that the Son of man is?' instantly cried
out, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' (Cyril, T. v. P.2, Hom. viii. De Fest. Pasch. p.
105)

'If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me.' When the Coryphaeus (Peter) had heard these
words, he began to change. (Cyril, Ib. Hom.)

This bold man (Julian), besides all this, cavils at Peter, the chosen one of the holy Apostles. (Cyril,
T. vi.l. ix. Contr. Julian. p. 325).

St. Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople (434):

A disciple of St. John Chrysostom,...

Peter, the coryphaeus of the disciples, and the one set over (or chief of) the Apostles. Art not thou
he that didst say, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God'? Thou Bar-Jonas (son of the dove)
hast thou seen so many miracles, and art thou still but Simon (a hearer)? He appointed thee the
key-bearer of Heaven, and has though not yet layed aside thy fisherman's clothing? (Proclus, Or.
viii In Dom. Transfig. t. ix. Galland)

LEO I [A.D. 442]

[T]he Lord says: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood have not revealed it
to you, but my Father, who is in heaven. And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it..." [Matt. 16:18] The
dispensation of truth therefore abides, and the blessed Peter persevering in the strength of the
rock, which he has received, has not abandoned the helm of the Church, which he understood. For
he was ordained before the rest in such a way that from his being called the rock, from his being
pronounced the foundation, from his being constituted the doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven,
from his being set as the umpire to bind and loose, whose judgments shall retain their validity in
heaven, from all these mystical titles we might know the nature of his association with Christ
(_Sermons_ 3:2-3).

LEO I [A.D. 450]

Our Lord Jesus Christ...has placed the principal charge on the blessed Peter, chief of all the
apostles, and from him as from the head wishes his gifts to flow to all the body, so that anyone who

24
dares to secede from Peter's solid rock may understand that he has no part or lot in the divine
mystery. He wished him who had been received into partnership in his undivided unity to be named
what he himself was, when he said: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church"
[Matt. 16:18], that the building of the eternal temple might rest on Peter's solid rock, strengthening
his Church so surely that neither could human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell prevail
against it (_Letters_ 10:1).

LEO I [A.D. 458]

Since, therefore, the universal Church has become a rock through the building up of that original
rock and the first of the apostles, the most blessed Peter, heard the voice of the Lord saying, "You
are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church" [Matt. 16:18], who is there who dare assail
such impregnable strength unless he be either Antichrist or the devil, who, abiding unconverted in
his wickedness, is anxious to sow lies by the vessels of wrath which are suited for his treachery,
while under the false name of diligence he pretends to be in search of the truth? (_Letters_ 156:2).

Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus in Syria (450):

A native of Antioch, Theodoret ruled under the Antiochean Patriarch.

The great foundation of the Church was shaken, and confirmed by the Divine grace. And the Lord
commanded him to apply that same care to the brethren. 'And thou,' He says, 'converted, confirm
thy brethren.' (Theodoret, Tom. iv. Haeret. Fab. lib. v.c. 28)

'For as I,' He says, 'did not despise thee when tossed, so be thou a support to thy brethren in
trouble, and the help by which thou was saved do thou thyself impart to others, and exhort them
not while they are tottering, but raise them up in their peril. For this reason I suffer thee also to slip,
but do not permit thee to fall, thus through thee gaining steadfastness for those who are tossed.' So
this great pillar supported the tossing and sinking world, and permitted it not to fall entirely and
gave it back stability, having been ordered to feed God's sheep. (Theodoret, Oratio de Caritate in J.
P. Minge, ed., Partrologiae Curses Completus: Series Graeca).

I therefore beseech your holiness to persuade the most holy and blessed bishop (Pope Leo) to use
his Apostolic power, and to order me to hasten to your Council. For that most holy throne (Rome)
has the sovereignty over the churches throughout the universe on many grounds. (Theodoret,
Tom. iv. Epist. cxvi. Renato, p. 1197).

If Paul, the herald of the truth, the trumpet of the Holy Spirit, hastened to the great Peter, to convey
from him the solution to those in Antioch, who were at issue about living under the law, how much
more do we, poor and humble, run to the Apostolic Throne (Rome) to receive from you (Pope Leo)
healing for wounds of the the Churches. For it pertains to you to have primacy in all things; for your
throne is adorned with many prerogatives. (Theodoret Ibid, Epistle Leoni)

Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus in Syria (450):

A native of Antioch, Theodoret ruled under the Antiochean Patriarch.

25
The great foundation of the Church was shaken, and confirmed by the Divine grace. And the Lord
commanded him to apply that same care to the brethren. 'And thou,' He says, 'converted, confirm
thy brethren.' (Theodoret, Tom. iv. Haeret. Fab. lib. v.c. 28)

'For as I,' He says, 'did not despise thee when tossed, so be thou a support to thy brethren in
trouble, and the help by which thou was saved do thou thyself impart to others, and exhort them
not while they are tottering, but raise them up in their peril. For this reason I suffer thee also to slip,
but do not permit thee to fall, thus through thee gaining steadfastness for those who are tossed.' So
this great pillar supported the tossing and sinking world, and permitted it not to fall entirely and
gave it back stability, having been ordered to feed God's sheep. (Theodoret, Oratio de Caritate in J.
P. Minge, ed., Partrologiae Curses Completus: Series Graeca).

I therefore beseech your holiness to persuade the most holy and blessed bishop (Pope Leo) to use
his Apostolic power, and to order me to hasten to your Council. For that most holy throne (Rome)
has the sovereignty over the churches throughout the universe on many grounds. (Theodoret,
Tom. iv. Epist. cxvi. Renato, p. 1197).

If Paul, the herald of the truth, the trumpet of the Holy Spirit, hastened to the great Peter, to convey
from him the solution to those in Antioch, who were at issue about living under the law, how much
more do we, poor and humble, run to the Apostolic Throne (Rome) to receive from you (Pope Leo)
healing for wounds of the the Churches. For it pertains to you to have primacy in all things; for your
throne is adorned with many prerogatives. (Theodoret Ibid, Epistle Leoni)

"This most holy See has preserved the supremacy over all Churches on the earth, for one especial
reason among many others; to wit, that it has remained intact from the defilement of heresy. No
one has ever sat on that Chair, who has taught heretical doctrine; rather that See has ever
preserved unstained the Apostolic grace." (Epistle 116 to Renatus).

St. John Cassian, Monk (c. 430):

That great man, the disciple of disciples, that master among masters, who wielding the government
of the Roman Church possessed the principle authority in faith and in priesthood. Tell us, therefore,
we beg of you, Peter, prince of Apostles, tell us how the Churches must believe in God (Cassian,
Contra Nestorium, III, 12).

St. Nilus of Constantinople (448):

A disciple of St. John Chrysostom, ....

Peter, Head of the choir of Apostles. (Nilus, Lib. ii Epistl.)

Peter, who was foremost in the choir of Apostles and always ruled amongst them. (Nilus, Tract. ad.
Magnam.)

26
 Council of Chalcedon, 451

EXTRACTS FROM THE ACTS. SESSION I.

Paschasinus, the most reverend bishop and legate of the Apostolic See, stood up in the midst with
his most reverend colleagues and said: We received directions at the hands of the most blessed
and apostolic bishop of the Roman city, which is the head of all the churches, which directions say
that Dioscorus is not to be allowed a seat in this assembly, but that if he should attempt to take his
seat he is to be cast out. This instruction we must carry out; if now your holiness so commands let
him be expelled or else we leave.

Lucentius, the most reverend bishop having the place of the Apostolic See, said: ... And he
[Dioscorus] dared to hold a synod without the authority of the Apostolic See, a thing which had
never taken place nor can take place. Paschasinus the most reverend bishop, holding the place of
the Apostolic See said: We cannot go counter to the decrees of the most blessed and apostolic
bishop ["Pope" for "bishop" in the Latin], who governs the Apostolic See, nor against the
ecclesiastical canons nor the patristic traditions.

Lucentius, the most reverend bishop, and legate of the Apostolic See, said: Since the faith of
Flavian of blessed memory agrees with the Apostolic See and the tradition of the fathers it is just
that the sentence by which he was condemned by the heretics should be turned back upon them
by this most holy synod.

Eulogius of Alexandria (581 A.D.):

Born in Syria, he became the abbot of the Mother of God monastery at Antioch. In 579, he was
made Patriarch of Alexandria; and became an associate of St. Gregory the Great while visiting
Constantinople. Much of their subsequent correspondence is still extant.

Neither to John, nor to any other of the disciples, did our Savior say, 'I will give to thee the keys of
the Kingdom of Heaven,' but only to Peter. (Eulogius, Lib. ii. Cont. Novatian. ap. Photium, Biblioth,
cod. 280)

HILARY OF POTIERS

"Blessed Simon, who after his confession of the mystery was set to be the foundation-stone of the
Church, and received the keys to the kingdom of heaven." (On the Trinity, 20, NPNF2, 9:105)

Stephen Ray comments on James White's book, The Roman Catholic Controversy, and White's
usage of Hilary: "Why does White not inform his readers that Hilary, in the same treatise, refers to
Peter as the foundation stone of the Church? Is Hilary confused? Is it Peter or his faith? Does
Hilary see two applications of the passage as mutually exclusive, as Protestants like White are
wont to do, forcing them into two, separate, water-tight compartments? Why is it so difficult for
opponents of the Papacy to see there is no conflict here? Even Pope John Paul II, in his book
"Crossing the Threshold of Hope" refers to the rock of Matthew 16 as Peter and as Christ."

27
 AUGUSTINE

"[In] the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The
consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by
miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests
keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His
resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep, down to the present episcopate. And so, lastly,
does the name itself of Catholic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the Church
has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks
where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house. Such
then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a
believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should.... With you, where there is none of these
things to attract or keep me.... No one shall move me from the faith which binds my mind with ties
so many and so strong to the Christian religion.... For my part, I should not believe the gospel
except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church." (Against the Epistle of Manichaeus
[Contra Epistolam Manichaei Quam Vacant Fundamenti.)

BASIL THE GREAT

"When we hear the name of Peter, that name does not cause our minds to dwell on his substance,
but we figure to our minds the properties that are connected with him. For we at once, on hearing
that name, think of the son of him that came Bethsaida, Andrew's brother; him that was called from
amongst fishermen unto the ministry of the Apostleship; him who on account of the pre-eminence
of his faith received upon himself the building of the Church." (Adv. Eunom. 4)

"One of these mountains was Peter, upon which rock the Lord promised to build His Church
(Comm. in Esai 2,66)

"It seemed to me to be desirable to send a letter to the bishop of Rome, begging him to examine
our condition, and since there are difficulties in the way of representatives being sent from the
West by a general synodial decree, to advise him (the bishop of Rome) to exercise his personal
authority in the matter, choosing suitable persons to sustain the labours of a journey, - suitable,
too, by gentleness and firmness of character, to correct the unruly among us here." (Letter 69 to
Anathasius).

The Vicariate at Thessalonica

From the late fourth century to the time of Pope Leo the Great the bishop of Thessalonica acted as
vicar of the Bishop of Rome.

The Vicariate under Pope Boniface(418-422) was headed up by Rufus. Boniface had written to the
bishops of Thessaly:

28
The institution of the universal Church at its birth took its beginning from the office of Blessed
Peter, in whose person its government and summit consists. For from his fountain the stream of
ecclesiastical discipline flowed forth into all the Churches, as the culture of religion progressively
advanced. The precepts of the Council of Nicea bear witness to nothing else: so that it did not dare
to appoint anything over him, seeing that nothing could possibly be conferred above his office:
moreover, it knew that everything had been granted to him by the word of the Lord...certain
bishops... are striving to separate themselves from the Apostolic See’s communion, or if I may
speak more accurately, her authority, asking for help from those to whom ecclesiastical rules have
not sanctioned any greater authority... [PL 20: 777-79]

With the Vicariate under Celestine he had written to several bishops of Illyricum over a certain
incident involving a bishop and said:

We especially are bound to have care for all, to whom Christ imposed the necessity of dealing with
all, in the holy apostle Peter, when He gave him the keys for opening and shutting... [PL 50: 427-8]

The Vicariate under Pope St. Leo saw an incident of the abuse of this authority and in a reprimand
to vicar Anastatius Leo wrote:

... I have delegated the place of my authority so that, in imitation of my meekness, you might assist
in the care we owe to all the churches principally and by divine institution, and in a sense extend
the presence of our visitation to provinces far distant from us... For we have entrusted our place to
Your Charity in such a way that you are called to a share in our solicitude, not the fullness of
authority. [PL 54: 668-671]

Cyril and Celestine

Celestine instructs St. Cyril that Nestorius has to retract in ten days or face excommunication:

Wherefore, having assumed unto yourself the authority of our See, and using our stead and our
place with authority, you shall execute this sentence with the utmost strictness...We have written
the same things to our brethren and fellow bishops John, Rufus, Juvenal and Flavian, so that our
sentence, or rather the divine sentence of Christ our God concerning him, may be made known.
[PL 50: 463]

Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople (466-516)

Macedonius declared, when desired by the Emperor Anastasius to condemn the Council of
Chalcedon, that 'such a step without an Ecumenical Synod presided over by the Pope of Rome is
impossible.' (Macedonius, Patr. Graec. 108: 360a (Theophan. Chronogr. pp. 234-346 seq.)

Emperor Justinian (520-533)

29
Writing to the Pope, ...

Yielding honor to the Apostolic See and to Your Holiness, and honoring your Holiness, as one
ought to honor a father, we have hastened to subject all the priests of the whole Eastern district,
and to unite them to the See of your Holiness, for we do not allow of any point, however manifest
and indisputable it be, which relates to the state of the Churches, not being brought to the
cognizance of your Holiness, since you are the Head of all the holy Churches. (Justinian Epist. ad.
Pap. Joan. ii. Cod. Justin. lib. I. tit. 1).

Let your Apostleship show that you have worthily succeeded to the Apostle Peter, since the Lord
will work through you, as Surpreme Pastor, the salvation of all. (Coll. Avell. Ep. 196, July 9th, 520,
Justinian to Pope Hormisdas).

St. Hormisdas (514-23)

The formula of Pope Hormisdas reads in part:

...the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be overlooked, which says: "Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I shall build my Church," these things which have been said are proven by the
events, because in the Apostolic See the Catholic religion has always been preserved
immaculate... we anathematize all heresies... we anathematize Eutyches and Dioscorus of
Alexandria, who were condemned in the holy council of Chalcedon... Consequently we receive and
approve all the letters of the blessed Pope Leo, which he wrote concerning the true faith.
Wherefore, as we have already said, following in all things the Apostolic See and preaching
whatever has been decreed by it, I hope that I may deserve to be in one communion with you,
which the Apostolic See preaches, in which the complete and true solidity of the Christian religion
is. [CSEL 35: 520-22]

Persecutions in the East resulted in bloodshed. Hormisdas received one appeal from numerous
archimandrites and monks of Second Syria having almost 200 hundred signatures:

Taught by the grace of our Savior to have recourse to Your Beatitude as to a tranquil harbor in a
storm, we believe that we have already been delivered from the evils weighing upon us... As Christ
our God has constituted you the prince of pastors… We beg you, we urge you, O blessed Father,
rise up full of zeal and ardor, have compassion on the body torn to pieces, since you are the head
of all; avenge the faith which has been despised, the canons trampled underfoot, the fathers
blasphemed, the holy council struck with anathema. God has given you the power and authority of
binding and loosing. [CSEL 35: 565 sq.]

The Armenians were loosing Monophysite faithful. John, Patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote to the
Catholicos of Caucasian Albania:

As for us, that is the holy Church, we have the following dominical pronouncement, which he spoke
to Peter, head of the apostles, giving him the superintendence of the immovable faith of the
churches, [saying:] "You are rock and on that rock I shall build my Church, and the gates [of hell]
shall not prevail against it." He also gave to Peter the keys of heaven and earth, so that until this

30
day his disciples and the doctors of the catholic church follow his faith... especially the heirs of his
holy and venerable See [who do this] with sound faith, unerringly [anskhal] in accordance with the
dominical pronouncement… [Ararat, 9 (1896), 253]

Fifth Ecumenical Council: Constantinople II, 553

EXTRACTS FROM THE ACTS. SESSION VII.

But we, bishops, answered him [Pope Vigilius]: "If your blessedness is willing to meet together with
us and the most holy Patriarchs, and the most religious bishops, and to treat of the Three Chapters
and to give, in unison with us all, a suitable form of the orthodox faith, as the Holy Apostles and the
holy Fathers and the four Councils have done, we will hold thee as our head, as a [father] and
primate...."

St. Gregory the Great (590-604)

EPISTLE XLI. TO CASTORIUS, BISHOP. Gregory to Castorius, Bishop of Ariminum (Rimini). We

therefore interdict in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and forbid by the authority of the blessed
Peter, Prince of the apostles, in whose stead we preside over this Roman Church, that any bishop
or secular person hereafter presume in any way to devise occasions of interfering with regard to
the revenues, property, or writings of monasteries, or of the cells or vills thereto appertaining, or
have recourse to any tricks or exactions: but, if any case should by chance arise as to land
disputed between their churches and any monasteries, and it cannot be arranged amicably, let it
be terminated without intentional delay before selected abbots and other fathers who fear God,
sworn upon the most holy Gospels.

EPISTLE XLVIII. TO COLUMBUS, BISHOP. Gregory to Columbus, &c. It is known, most dear
brother in Christ, that the ancient enemy, who by cunning persuasion deposed the first man from
the delights of Paradise to this life of care, and in him even then inflicted the penalty of mortality on
the human race, does now with the same cunning, so as more easily to seize the flock, endeavour
to infect the shepherds of the Lord's sheep with infused poisons, and already to claim them as his
own by right. But we, who, though unworthy, have undertaken the government of the Apostolic See
in the stead of Peter the prince of the apostles, are compelled by the very office of our pontificate to
resist the general enemy by all the efforts in our power.

EPISTLE CXXVII. FROM S. COLUMBANUS TO POPE GREGORY. To the holy lord, and father in
Christ, the Roman [pope], most fair ornament of the Church, a certain most august flower, as it
were, of the whole of withering Europe, distinguished speculator, as enjoying a divine
contemplation of purity. I, Bargoma, poor dove in Christ, send greeting. ... Nor does it befit our
place or rank that anything should be suggested in the way of discussion to thy great authority, and
that my Western letters should ridiculously solicit thee, who sittest legitimately on the seat of the
apostle and key-bearer Peter, on the subject of Easter.

Lateran Council (649)

Called by Pope Martin the opening of the acts call it:

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... the holy and apostolic synod, which occurred in the most celebrated Old Rome, according to the
sacred command and canonical procurement of the most holy and thrice blessed Pope Martin, who
presided over the entire divine hierarchy under the sun, for the establishment and defense of the
dogmas of the fathers and synods of the Catholic and apostolic church according to the gospel.
[Mansi X, 863-64]

Stephon of Dora, bishop under St. Sophronius of Jerusalem, addresses the council:

And for this cause, we sometimes asked for... the wings of a dove... that we might fly away and
announce these things to that Chair which rules and presides over all, that is to yours, the head
and highest... For this it has been accustomed to do from of old and from the beginning with power
by its canonical or spiritual authority, because the truly great Peter, leader of the apostles, clearly
was deemed worthy not only to be entrusted with the keys of heaven, alone [and] apart from the
rest… [Mansi X, 893]

Stephen had been instructed by Sophronius:

Traverse swiftly, therefore, from one end of the world to the other, until you come to the Apostolic
See, where are the foundations of the holy doctrines... Cease not to pray and beg them until their
apostolic and divine wisdom shall have pronounced the victorious judgment and destroyed the new
heresy from its foundation. [Mansi X, 895]

Greek and Armenian monks led by John, abbot of St. Sabas, followed Stephen describing the
council as meeting:

... by command of the one divinely presiding over you, priest of priests and father of fathers pre-
eminent over all, our lord Martin, the thrice blessed pope... The hearts of all look to you, after God,
knowing that you have been established by Christ our God as leader and head of the churches.
[Mansi X, 903-8]

After the council Pope Martin appointed John, bishop of Philadelphia, as a special vicar in the east
with wide authority. Martin told John to:

...correct the things which are wanting, and appoint bishops, priests and deacons in every city of
those which are subject to the see of both Jerusalem and of Antioch, with us charging you to do
this in every way, by virtue of the apostolic authority which was given to us by the Lord in the
person of the most holy Peter, prince of the apostles, on account of the necessities of our time, and
the pressure of the nations. [Mansi X, 806 sq.]

St. Maximus the Confessor (c. 650)

He regarded the Lateran Council as the sixth ecumenical. He wrote Rome saying:

... as they were explained piously and in all purity by the six holy councils [the five ecumenical
councils, plus the Lateran Council], which were inspired and dictated by God in proclaiming very
clearly the Symbol of Faith. For ever since the Word of God condescended to us and became man,

32
all the Churches of Christians everywhere have held, and hold the great Church there as their sole
basis and foundation, because, according to the very promises of the Lord, the gates of hell have
never prevailed over her... [PG 91: 137-40]

Maximus was arrested and put on trial for treason. When asked why he did not communicate with
the Church of Constantinople he said:

They are condemned by their own action, and... by the Romans... and by the [Lateran] Council.
[PG 90: 120]

"The extremities of the earth, and everyone in every part of it who purely and rightly confess the
Lord, look directly towards the Most Holy Roman Church and her confession and faith, as to a sun
of unfailing light awaiting from her the brilliant radiance of the sacred dogmas of our Fathers,
according to that which the inspired and holy Councils have stainlessly and piously decreed. For,
from the descent of the Incarnate Word amongst us, all the churches in every part of the world
have held the greatest Church alone to be their base and foundation, seeing that, according to the
promise of Christ Our Savior, the gates of hell will never prevail against her, that she has the keys
of the orthodox confession and right faith in Him, that she opens the true and exclusive religion to
such men as approach with piety, and she shuts up and locks every heretical mouth which speaks
against the Most High." (Maximus, Opuscula theologica et polemica, Migne, Patr. Graec. vol. 90)

"How much more in the case of the clergy and Church of the Romans, which from old until now
presides over all the churches which are under the sun? Having surely received this canonically, as
well as from councils and the apostles, as from the princes of the latter (Peter & Paul), and being
numbered in their company, she is subject to no writings or issues in synodical documents, on
account of the eminence of her pontificate .....even as in all these things all are equally subject to
her (the Church of Rome) according to sacerodotal law. And so when, without fear, but with all holy
and becoming confidence, those ministers (the popes) are of the truly firm and immovable rock,
that is of the most great and Apostolic Church of Rome." (Maximus, in J.B. Mansi, ed. Amplissima
Collectio Conciliorum, vol. 10)

"If the Roman See recognizes Pyrrhus to be not only a reprobate but a heretic, it is certainly plain
that everyone who anathematizes those who have rejected Pyrrhus also anathematizes the See of
Rome, that is, he anathematizes the Catholic Church. I need hardly add that he excommunicates
himself also, if indeed he is in communion with the Roman See and the Catholic Church of God
...Let him hasten before all things to satisfy the Roman See, for if it is satisfied, all will agree in
calling him pious and orthodox. For he only speaks in vain who thinks he ought to pursuade or
entrap persons like myself, and does not satisfy and implore the blessed Pope of the most holy
Catholic Church of the Romans, that is, the Apostolic See, which is from the incarnate of the Son of
God Himself, and also all the holy synods, accodring to the holy canons and definitions has
received universal and surpreme dominion, authority, and power of binding and loosing over all the
holy churches of God throughout the whole world." (Maximus, Letter to Peter, in Mansi x, 692).

St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (c. 638):

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Transverse quickly all the world from one end to the other until you come to the Apostolic See
(Rome), where are the foundations of the orthodox doctrine. Make clearly known to the most holy
personages of that throne the questions agitated among us. Cease not to pray and to beg them
until their apostolic and Divine wisdom shall have pronounced the victorious judgement and
destroyed from the foundation ...the new heresy. (Sophronius,[quoted by Bishop Stephen of Dora
to Pope Martin I at the Lateran Council]).

Stephen, Bishop of Dora in Palestine (645):

[addressed to Pope Martin I] And for this cause, sometimes we ask for water to our head and to
our eyes a fountain of tears, sometimes the wings of a dove, according to holy David, that we might
fly away and announce these things to the Chair [the Chair of Peter at Rome] which rules and
presides over all, I mean to yours, the head and highest, for the healing of the whole wound. For
this it has been accustomed to do from old and from the beginning with power by its canonical or
apostolic authority, because the truly great Peter, head of the Apostles, was clearly thought worthy
not only to be trusted with the keys of heaven, alone apart from the rest, to open it worthily to
believers, or to close it justly to those who disbelieve the Gospel of grace, but because he was also
commissioned to feed the sheep of the whole Catholic Church; for 'Peter,' saith He, 'lovest thou
Me? Feed My sheep.' And again, because he had in a manner peculiar and special, a faith in the
Lord stronger than all and unchangeable, to be converted and to confirm his fellows and spiritual
brethren when tossed about, as having been adorned by God Himself incarnate for us with power
and sacerdotal authority .....And Sophronius of blessed memory, who was Patriarch of the holy city
of Christ our God, and under whom I was bishop, conferring not with flesh and blood, but caring
only for the things of Christ with respect to your Holiness, hastened to send my nothingness
without delay about this matter alone to this Apostolic see, where are the foundations of holy
doctrine.

Sergius, Metropolitain of Cyprus (649 A.D.)

[ Writing to Pope Theodore ] O Holy Head, Christ our God hath destined thy Apostolic See to be an
immovable foundation and a pillar of the Faith. For thou art, as the Divine Word truly saith, Peter,
and on thee as a foundation-stone have the pillars of the Church been fixed. (Sergius Ep. ad
Theod. lecta in Sess. ii. Concil. Lat. anno 649)

St. Maximos the Confessor (c. 650)

The extremities of the earth, and everyone in every part of it who purely and rightly confess the
Lord, look directly towards the Most Holy Roman Church and her confession and faith, as to a sun
of unfailing light awaiting from her the brilliant radiance of the sacred dogmas of our Fathers,
according to that which the inspired and holy Councils have stainlessly and piously decreed. For,
from the descent of the Incarnate Word amongst us, all the churches in every part of the world
have held the greatest Church alone to be their base and foundation, seeing that, according to the
promise of Christ Our Savior, the gates of hell will never prevail against her, that she has the keys
of the orthodox confession and right faith in Him, that she opens the true and exclusive religion to

34
such men as approach with piety, and she shuts up and locks every heretical mouth which speaks
against the Most High. (Maximus, Opuscula theologica et polemica, Migne, Patr. Graec. vol. 90)

How much more in the case of the clergy and Church of the Romans, which from old until now
presides over all the churches which are under the sun? ... And so when, without fear, but with all
holy and becoming confidence, those ministers [the popes] are of the truly firm and immovable
rock, that is of the most great and Apostolic Church of Rome. (Maximus, in J.B. Mansi, ed.
Amplissima Collectio Conciliorum, vol. 10)

If the Roman See recognizes Pyrrhus to be not only a reprobate but a heretic, it is certainly plain
that everyone who anathematizes those who have rejected Pyrrhus also anathematizes the See of
Rome, that is, he anathematizes the Catholic Church. I need hardly add that he excommunicates
himself also, if indeed he is in communion with the Roman See and the Catholic Church of God
...Let him hasten before all things to satisfy the Roman See, for if it is satisfied, all will agree in
calling him pious and orthodox. For he only speaks in vain who thinks he ought to persuade or
entrap persons like myself, and does not satisfy and implore the blessed Pope of the most holy
Catholic Church of the Romans, that is, the Apostolic See, which is from the incarnate of the Son of
God Himself, and also all the holy synods, according to the holy canons and definitions has
received universal and supreme dominion, authority, and power of binding and loosing over all the
holy churches of God throughout the whole world. (Maximus, Letter to Peter, in Mansi x, 692).

John VI, Patriarch of Constantinople:

The Pope of Rome, the head of the Christian priesthood, whom in Peter, the Lord commanded to
confirm his brethren. (John VI, Epist. ad Constantin. Pap. ad. Combefis, Auctuar. Bibl. P.P.
Graec.tom. ii. p. 211, seq.)

St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople

Without whom [the Romans presiding in the seventh Council] a doctrine brought forward in the
Church could not, even though confirmed by canonical decrees and by ecclesiastical usage, ever
obtain full approval or currency. For it is they [the Popes of Rome] who have had assigned to them
the rule in sacred things, and who have received into their hands the dignity of headship among the
Apostles. (Nicephorus, Niceph. Cpl. pro. s. imag. c 25 [Mai N. Bibl. pp. ii. 30]).

Sixth Ecumenical Council: Constantinople III, 680-681

THE LETTER OF POPE AGATHO TO THE EMPEROR.

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And that no one may be ignorant of this pious intention of yours, or suspect that we have been
compelled by force, and have not freely consented to the carrying into effect of the imperial
decrees touching the preaching of our evangelical faith which was addressed to our predecessor
Donus, a pontiff of Apostolic memory, they have through our ministry been sent to and entirely
approved by all nations and peoples...

Therefore, most Christian lords and sons, in accordance with the most pious jussio of your God-
protected clemency, we have had a care to send, with the devotion of a prayerful heart (from the
obedience we owe you, not because we relied on the [superabundant] knowledge of those whom
we send to you), our fellow-servants here present, Abundantius, John, and John, our most
reverend brother bishops, Theodore and George our most beloved sons and presbyters, with our
most beloved son John, a deacon, and with Constantine, a subdeacon of this holy spiritual mother,
the Apostolic See, as well as Theodore, the presbyter legate of the holy Church of Ravenna and
the religious servants of God the monks. For, among men placed amid the Gentiles, and earning
their daily bread by bodily labour with considerable distraction, how could a knowledge of the
Scriptures, in its fullness, be found unless what has been canonically defined by our holy and
apostolic predecessors, and by the venerable five councils, we preserve in simplicity of heart, and
without any distorting keep the faith come to us from the Fathers, always desirous and
endeavouring to possess that one and chiefest good, viz.: that nothing be diminished from the
things canonically defined, and that nothing be changed nor added thereto, but that those same
things, both in words and sense, be guarded untouched? To these same commissioners we also
have given the witness of some of the holy Fathers, whom this Apostolic Church of Christ [i.e.
Rome] receives, together with their books, so that, having obtained from the power of your most
benign Christianity the privilege of suggesting, they might out of these endeavour to give
satisfaction, (when your imperial Meekness shall have so commanded) as to what this Apostolic
Church of Christ [Rome], their spiritual mother and the mother of your God-sprung empire, believes
and preaches, not in words of worldly eloquence, which are not at the command of ordinary men,
but in the integrity of the apostolic faith, in which having been taught from the cradle, we pray that
we may serve and obey the Lord of heaven, the Propagator of your Christian empire, even unto the
end. Consequently, we have granted them faculty or authority with your most tranquil mightiness,
to afford satisfaction with simplicity whenever your clemency shall command, it being enjoined on
them as a limitation that they presume not to add to, take away, or to change anything; but that
they set forth this tradition of the Apostolic See in all sincerity as it has been taught by the apostolic
pontiffs, who were our predecessors.

And briefly we shall intimate to your divinely instructed Piety, what the strength of our Apostolic
faith contains, which we have received through Apostolic tradition and through the tradition of the
Apostolical pontiffs, and that of the five holy general synods, through which the foundations of
Christ's Catholic Church have been strengthened and established;

This is the apostolic and evangelic tradition, which the spiritual mother of your most felicitous
empire, the Apostolic Church of Christ, holds. This is the pure expression of piety.

This is the true and immaculate profession of the Christian religion, not invented by human
cunning, but which was taught by the Holy Ghost through the princes of the Apostles. [Does

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"princes of the Apostles" refer to the Popes, since they are the successors of Peter, and Peter is
often called the "Prince of the Apostles"? Or perhaps Peter and Paul?]

And therefore I beseech you with a contrite heart and rivers of tears, with prostrated mind, deign to
stretch forth your most clement right hand to the Apostolic doctrine which the co-worker of your
pious labours, the blessed apostle Peter [is Pope Agatho referring to himself here?], has delivered,
that it be not hidden under a bushel, but that it be preached in the whole earth more shrilly than a
bugle: because the true confession thereof for which Peter was pronounced blessed by the Lord of
all things, was revealed by the Father of heaven, for he received from the Redeemer of all himself,
by three commendations, the duty of feeding the spiritual sheep of the Church; under whose
protecting shield, this Apostolic Church of his [i.e. Rome] has never turned away from the path of
truth in any direction of error, whose authority, as that of the Prince of all the Apostles, the whole
Catholic Church, and the Ecumenical Synods have faithfully embraced, and followed in all things;
and all the venerable Fathers have embraced its Apostolic doctrine, through which they as the
most approved luminaries of the Church of Christ have shone; and the holy orthodox doctors have
venerated and followed it, while the heretics have pursued it with false criminations and with
derogatory hatred.

For this is the rule of the true faith, which this spiritual mother of your most tranquil empire, the
Apostolic Church of Christ, has both in prosperity and in adversity always held and defended with
energy; which, it will be proved, by the grace of Almighty God, has never erred from the path of the
apostolic tradition, nor has she been depraved by yielding to heretical innovations, but from the
beginning she has received the Christian faith from her founders, the princes of the Apostles of
Christ, and remains undefiled unto the end, according to the divine promise of the Lord and
Saviour himself, which he uttered in the holy Gospels to the prince of his disciples: saying, "Peter,
Peter, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed
for thee, that (thy) faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Let your
tranquil Clemency therefore consider, since it is the Lord and Saviour of all, whose faith it is, that
promised that Peter's faith should not fail and exhorted him to strengthen his brethren, how it is
known to all that the Apostolic pontiffs, the predecessors of my littleness, have always confidently
done this very thing: of whom also our littleness, since I have received this ministry by divine
designation, wishes to be the follower, although unequal to them and the least of all. [What follows
describes what Honorius was condemned for (a dereliction of the duty to "preach the truth"), which
is not something that is prevented by Papal infallibility.] For woe is me, if I neglect to preach the
truth of my Lord, which they have sincerely preached. Woe is me, if I cover over with silence the
truth which I am bidden to give to the exchangers, i.e., to teach to the Christian people and imbue it
therewith. What shall I say in the future examination by Christ himself, if I blush (which God forbid!)
to preach here the truth of his words? What satisfaction shall I be able to give for myself, what for
the souls committed to me, when he demands a strict account of the office I have received?...
Wherefore the predecessors of Apostolic memory of my littleness, learned in the doctrine of the
Lord, ever since the prelates of the Church of Constantinople have been trying to introduce into the
immaculate Church of Christ an heretical innovation, have never ceased to exhort and warn them
with many prayers, that they should, at least by silence, desist from the heretical error of the
depraved dogma, lest from this they make the beginning of a split in the unity of the Church...

Therefore the Holy Church of God, the mother of your most Christian power, should be delivered
and liberated with all your might (through the help of God) from the errors of such teachers, and the

37
evangelical and apostolic uprightness of the orthodox faith, which has been established upon the
firm rock of this Church of blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, which by his grace and
guardianship remains free from all error, [that faith I say] the whole number of rulers and priests, of
the clergy and of the people, unanimously should confess and preach with us as the true
declaration of the Apostolic tradition, in order to please God and to save their own souls.

And indeed the apostolic predecessors of my humility admonished, begged, upbraided, besought,
reproved, and exercised every kind of exhortation that the recent wound bright receive a remedy,
moved thereto not by a mind filled with hatred (God is my witness) nor through the elation of
boasting, nor through the opposition of contention, nor through an inane desire to find some fault
with their teachings, nor through anything akin to the love of arrogance, but out of zeal for the
uprightness of the truth, and for the rule of the confession of the pure Gospel, and for the salvation
of souls, and for the stability of the Christian state, and for the safety of those who rule the Roman
Empire. Nor did they cease from their admonitions after the long duration of this domesticated
error, but always exhorted and bore record, and that with fraternal charity, not through malice or
pertinacious hatred (far be it from the Christian heart to rejoice at another's fall, when the Lord of all
teaches, "I desire not the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live;" and who rejoiceth
over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety-and-nine just persons: who came down from
heaven to earth to deliver the lost sheep, inclining the power of his majesty), but desiring them with
outstretched spiritual arms, and exhorting to embrace them returning to the unity of the orthodox
faith, and awaiting their conversion to the full rectitude of the orthodox faith: that they might not
make themselves aliens from our communion, that is from the communion of blessed Peter the
Apostle, whose ministry, we (though unworthy) exercise, and preach the faith he has handed
down, but that they should together with us pray Christ the Lord, the spotless sacrifice, for the
stability of your most strong and serene Empire.

St. Theodore the Studite of Constantinople (759-826)

[ Writing to Pope Leo III ] Since to great Peter Christ our Lord gave the office of Chief Shepherd
after entrusting him with the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, to Peter or his successor must of
necessity every novelty in the Catholic Church be referred. [Therefore], save us, oh most divine
Head of Heads, Chief Shepherd of the Church of Heaven. (Theodore, Bk. I. Ep. 23)

[ Writing to Pope Paschal ] Hear, O Apostolic Head, divinely-appointed Shepherd of Christ's sheep,
keybearer of the Kingdom of Heaven, Rock of the Faith upon whom the Catholic Church is built.
For Peter art thou, who adornest and governest the Chair of Peter. Hither, then, from the West,
imitator of Christ, arise and repel not for ever (Ps. 43:23/44:23). To thee spake Christ our Lord:
'And thou being one day converted, shalt strengthen thy brethren.' Behold the hour and the place.
Help us, thou that art set by God for this. Stretch forth thy hand so far as thou canst. Thou hast
strength with God, through being the first of all. (Letter of St. Theodore and four other Abbots to
Pope Paschal, Bk. ii Ep. 12, Patr. Graec. 99, 1152-3)

[ Writing to Emperor Michael ] Order that the declaration from old Rome be received, as was the
custom by Tradition of our Fathers from of old and from the beginning. For this, O Emperor, is the
highest of the Churches of God, in which first Peter held the Chair, to whom the Lord said: Thou art
Peter ...and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Theodore, Bk. II. Ep. 86)

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I witness now before God and men, they have torn themselves away from the Body of Christ, from
the Supreme See [Rome], in which Christ placed the keys of the Faith, against which the gates of
hell (I mean the mouth of heretics) have not prevailed, and never will until the Consummation,
according to the promise of Him Who cannot lie. Let the blessed and Apostolic Paschal [Pope St.
Paschal I] rejoice therefore, for he has fulfilled the work of Peter. (Theodore Bk. II. Ep. 63).

In truth we have seen that a manifest successor of the prince of the Apostles presides over the
Roman Church. We truly believe that Christ has not deserted the Church here [Constantinople], for
assistance from you has been our one and only aid from of old and from the beginning by the
providence of God in the critical times. You are, indeed the untroubled and pure fount of orthodoxy
from the beginning, you the calm harbor of the whole Church, far removed from the waves of
heresy, you the God-chosen city of refuge. (Letter of St. Theodor & Four Abbots to Pope Paschal).

John VI, Patriarch of Constantinople (715):

The Pope of Rome, the head of the Christian priesthood, whom in Peter, the Lord commanded to
confirm his brethren. (John VI, Epist. ad Constantin. Pap. ad. Combefis, Auctuar. Bibl. P.P.
Graec.tom. ii. p. 211, seq.)

St. Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople (758-828):

Without whom (the Romans presiding in the seventh Council) a doctrine brought forward in the
Church could not, even though confirmed by canonical decrees and by ecclesiastical usuage, ever
obtain full approval or currency. For it is they (the Popes of Rome) who have had assigned to them
the rule in sacred things, and who have received into their hands the dignity of headship among the
Apostles. (Nicephorus, Niceph. Cpl. pro. s. imag. c 25 [Mai N. Bibl. pp. ii. 30]).

Seventh Ecumenical Council: The Second Council of Nicea, 787

THE DIVINE SACRA SENT BY THE EMPERORS CONSTANTINE AND IRENE TO THE MOST
HOLY AND MOST BLESSED HADRIAN, POPE OF OLD ROME.

They who receive the dignity of the empire, or the honour of the principal priesthood from our Lord
Jesus Christ, ought to provide and to care for those things which please him, and rule and govern
the people committed to their care according to his will and good pleasure. Therefore, O most holy
Head (Caput), it is incumbent upon us and you, that irreprehensibly we know the things which be
his, and that in these we exercise ourselves, since from him we have received the imperatorial
dignity, and you the dignity of the chief priesthood....

As then you are the veritable chief priest (primus sacerdos) who presides in the place and in the
see of the holy and superlaudable Apostle Peter, let your paternal blessedness come to us, as we
have said before, and add your presence to all those other priests who shall be assembled
together here, that thus the will of the Lord may be accomplished.

THE IMPERIAL SACRA READ AT THE FIRST SESSION.

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We have received letters from Hadrian, most Holy Pope of old Rome, by his Legates -- namely,
Peter, the God-beloved Archpresbyter, and Peter, the God-beloved Presbyter and Abbot -- who will
be present in council with you; and we command that, according to synodical custom, these be
read in the hearing of you all; and that, having heard these with becoming silence, and moreover
the Epistles contained in two octavos sent by the Chief Priest and other Priests of the Eastern
dioceses by John, most pious Monk and Chancellor of the Patriarchal throne of Antioch, and
Thomas, Priest and Abbot, who also are present together with you, ye may by these understand
what are the sentiments of the Church Catholic on this point.

SESSION II. PART OF POPE HADRIAN'S LETTER. [This version not read at the council. For the
version that was, see below.]

If you persevere in that orthodox Faith in which you have begun, and the sacred and venerable
images be by your means erected again in those parts, as by the lord, the Emperor Constantine of
pious memory, and the blessed Helen, who promulgated the orthodox Faith, and exalted the holy
Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church your spiritual mother, and with the other orthodox Emperors
venerated it as the head of all Churches, so will your Clemency, that is protected of God, receive
the name of another Constantine, and another Helen, through whom at the beginning the holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church derived strength, and like whom your own imperial fame is spread
abroad by triumphs, so as to be brilliant and deeply fixed in the whole world. But the more, if
following the traditions of the orthodox Faith, you embrace the judgment of the Church of blessed
Peter, chief of the Apostles, and, as of old your predecessors the holy Emperors acted, so you, too,
venerating it with honour, love with all your heart his Vicar, and if your sacred majesty follow by
preference their orthodox Faith, according to our holy Roman Church. May the chief of the
Apostles himself, to whom the power was given by our Lord God to bind and remit sins in heaven
and earth, be often your protector, and trample all barbarous nations under your feet, and
everywhere make you conquerors. For let sacred authority lay open the marks of his dignity, and
how great veneration ought to be shown to his, the highest See, by all the faithful in the world. For
the Lord set him who bears the keys of the kingdom of heaven as chief over all, and by Him is he
honoured with this privilege, by which the keys of the kingdom of heaven are entrusted to him. He,
therefore, that was preferred with so exalted an honour was thought worthy to confess that Faith on
which the Church of Christ is rounded. A blessed reward followed that blessed confession, by the
preaching of which the holy universal Church [this apparently refers to Rome] was illumined, and
from it the other Churches of God have derived the proofs of Faith. For the blessed Peter himself,
the chief of the Apostles, who first sat in the Apostolic See, left the chiefship of his Apostolate, and
pastoral care, to his successors, who are to sit in his most holy seat for ever. And that power of
authority, which he received from the Lord God our Saviour, he too bestowed and delivered by
divine command to the Pontiffs, his successors, etc. We greatly wondered that in your imperial
commands, directed for the Patriarch of the royal city, Tarasius, we find him there called Universal:
but we know not whether this was written through ignorance or schism, or the heresy of the wicked.
But henceforth we advise your most merciful and imperial majesty, that he be by no means called
Universal in your writings, because it appears to be contrary to the institutions of the holy Canons
and the decrees of the traditions of the holy Fathers. For he never could have ranked second, save
for the authority of our holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, as is plain to all. Because if he be
named Universal, above the holy Roman Church which has a prior rank, which is the head of all
the Churches of God, it is certain that he shews himself as a rebel against the holy Councils, and a
heretic. For, if he is Universal, he is recognized to have the Primacy even over the Church of our

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See, which appears ridiculous to all faithful Christians: because in the whole world the chief rank
and power was given to the blessed Apostle Peter by the Redeemer of the world himself; and
through the same Apostle, whose place we unworthily hold, the holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman
Church holds the first rank, and the authority of power, now and for ever, so that if any one, which
we believe not, has called him, or assents to his being called Universal, let him know that he is
estranged from the orthodox Faith, and a rebel against our holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

SESSION II. PART OF POPE HADRIAN'S LETTER. [as read at the council in Greek]

If the ancient orthodoxy be perfected and restored by your means in those regions, and the
venerable icons be placed in their original state, you will be partakers with the Lord Constantine,
Emperor of old, now in the Divine keeping, and the Empress Helena, who made conspicuous and
confirmed the orthodox Faith, and exalted still more your holy mother, the Catholic and Roman and
spiritual Church, and with the orthodox Emperors who ruled after them, and so your most pious
and heaven-protected name likewise will be set forth as that of another Constantine and another
Helena, being renowned and praised through the whole world, by whom the holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church is restored. And especially if you follow the tradition of the orthodox Faith of the
Church of the holy Peter and Paul, the chief Apostles, and embrace their Vicar, as the Emperors
who reigned before you of old both honoured their Vicar, and loved him with all their heart: and if
your sacred majesty honour the most holy Roman Church of the chief Apostles, to whom was
given power by God the Word himself to loose and to bind sins in heaven and earth. For they will
extend their shield over your power, and all barbarous nations shall be put under your feet: and
wherever you go they will make you conquerors. For the holy and chief Apostles themselves, who
set up the Catholic and orthodox Faith, have laid it down as a written law that all who after them
are to be successors of their seats, should hold their Faith and remain in it to the end.

[After the above letter had been read:] Peter and Peter the most beloved-of-God presbyters who
held the place of Hadrian, the most holy pope of Rome, said: We ourselves received such letters
from our apostolic father and delivered them to the pious lords.

And when the most blessed Pope heard it, he said: Since this has come to pass in the days of their
reign, God has magnified their pious rule above all former reigns. And this suggestion (anaforan)
which has been read he sent to our most pious kings together with a letter to your holiness and
with his vicars who are here present and presiding.

Tarasius the most holy patriarch said: The divine Apostle Paul, who was filled with the light of
Christ, and who hath begotten us through the gospel, in writing to the Romans, commending their
zeal for the true faith which they had in Christ our true God, thus said: "Your faith is gone forth into
all the world." It is necessary to follow out this witness, and he that would contradict it is without
good sense. Wherefore Hadrian, the ruler of Old Rome, since he was a sharer of these things, thus
borne witness to, wrote expressly and truly to our religious Emperors, and to our humility,
confirming admirably and beautifully the ancient tradition of the Catholic Church. ....

Fr. Jorg Alexoff, editor, The Church Fathers and Apostolic Succession ,Catholic Mission Press,
Imprimatur Sept. 14, 1941 + Samuel A. Stritch, D.D. Archbishop of Chicago

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Apostolicity from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)

The intention of Christ

The intention of Christ is apparent from the Bible passages, which tell of the conferring of the
mission upon the Apostles. “As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you: (John, xx, 21). The
mission of the Apostles, like the mission of Christ, is a Divine mission; they are the Apostles, or
ambassadors, of the Eternal Father. “All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth. Going,
therefore, teach ye all nations; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you, and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world: (Matt., xxviii, 18).
This Divine mission is always to continue the same, hence it must be transmitted with its Divine
character until the end of time, i.e. there must be an unbroken lawful succession which is called
Apostolicity. The Apostles understood their mission in this sense. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the
Romans (x, 8-19), insists upon the necessity of Divinely established mission. “How shall they
preach unless they be sent?” (x, 15). In his letters to his disciples Timothy and Titus, St. Paul
speaks of the obligation of preserving Apostolic doctrine, and of ordaining other disciples to
continue the work entrusted to the Apostles. “Hold the form of sound words, which thou hast heard
from me in faith and in the love which is in Christ Jesus” (II Tim., i, 13). “And the things which thou
hast heard from me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men, who shall be fit to
teach others also” (II Tim., ii, 2). “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order
the things that are wanting and shouldst ordain priests in every city, as I also appointed thee”
(Titus, i, 5). Just as the Apostles transmitted their mission by lawfully appointing others to the work
of the ministry, so their successors were to ordain priests to perpetuate the same mission given by
Jesus Christ, i.e. an Apostolic mission must always be maintained in the Church.

The writings of the Fathers constantly refer to the Apostolic character of the doctrine and mission of
the Church. See St. Polycarp, St. Ignatius, (Epist. ad Smyrn., n. 8), St. Clement of Alex., St. Cyril of
Jerusalem, St. Athanasius (History of Arianism), Tertullian (Lib. de Praescipt, n. 32, etc). We quote
a few examples which are typical of the testimony of the Fathers. St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haeres, IV,
xxvi, n. 2): “Wherefore we must obey the priests of the Church, who have succession from the
Apostles,” etc. - quoted above. St.Clement (Ep. I, ad. Cor., 42-44): “Christ was sent by God the
Father, and the Apostles by Christ....They appointed the above-named and then gave them
command that when they came to die other approved men should succeed to their ministry.” St.
Cyprian (Ep. 76, Ad Magnum): “Novatianus is not in the Church, nor can he be considered a
bishop, because in contempt of Apostolic tradition he was ordained by himself without succeeding
anyone.”. Hence authoritative transmission of power, i.e. Apostolicity, is essential. In all theological
works the same explanation of Apostolicity is found, based on the Scriptural and patristic testimony
just cited. Billuart (III, 306) concludes his remarks on Apostolicity in the words of St. Jerome: “We
must abide in that Church, which was founded by the Apostles, and endures to this day.: Mazella
(De Relig. et Eccl., 359), after speaking of Apostolic succession as an uninterrupted substitution of
persons in the place of the Apostles, insists upon the necessity of jurisdiction or authoritative
transmission, thus excluding the hypothesis that a new mission could ever be originated by anyone
in the place of the mission bestowed by Christ and transmitted in the manner described. Billot (De
Eccl. Christi, I, 243-275) emphasizes the idea that the Church, which is Apostolic, must be
presided over by bishops, who derive their ministry and their governing power from the Apostles.

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Apostolicity, then, is that Apostolic succession by which the Church of today is one with the Church
of the Apostles in origin, doctrine, and mission.

The history of the Catholic Church from St. Peter, the first Pontiff, to the present Head of the
Church, (then St. Pius X) is an evident proof of its Apostolicity, for no break can be shown in the
line of succession. Cardinal Newman (Diff. of Anglicans) says: “Say there is no church at all if you
will, and at least I shall understand you; but do not meddle with a fact attested by mankind.” Again
“No other form of Christianity but this present Catholic Communion has a pretence to resemble,
even in the faintest shadow, the Christianity of antiquity, viewed as a living religion on the stage of
the world;” and again,: “The immutability and uninterrupted action of the laws in question
throughout the course of Church history is a plain note of identity between the Catholic Church of
the first ages and that which now goes by that name.” If any break in the Apostolic succession had
ever occurred, it could be easily shown, for no fact of such importance could happen in the history
of the world without attracting universal notice. Regarding questions and contests in the election of
certain popes, there is no real difficulty. In the few cases in which controversies arose, the matter
was always settled by a competent tribunal in the Church, the lawful Pope was proclaimed, and he,
as the successor of St. Peter, received the Apostolic mission and jurisdiction in the Church. Again,
the heretics of the early ages and the sects of later times have attempted to justify their teaching
and practices by appealing to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, or to their early communion with
the Catholic Church. Their appeal shows that the Catholic Church is regarded as Apostolic even by
those who have separated from her communion.

Apostolicity is not found in any other Church. This is a necessary consequence of the unity of the
Church. If there is but one true Church, and if the Catholic Church, as has just been shown, is
Apostolic, the necessary inference is that no other Church is Apostolic. (See above quotations from
Newman, “Diff. of Anglicans”). All sects that reject the Episcopate, by the very fact make Apostolic
succession impossible, since they destroy the channel through which the Apostolic mission is
transmitted. Historically, the beginnings of all these Churches can be traced to a period long after
the time of Christ and the Apostles. Regarding the Greek Church, it is sufficient to note that it lost
Apostolic succession by withdrawing from the jurisdiction of the lawful successors of St. Peter in
the See of Rome.

The same is to be said of the Anglican claims to continuity (MacLaughlin, “Divine Plan of the
Church”, 213; and, Newman, “Diff. of Anglicans,” Lecture 12.) for the very fact of separation
destroys their jurisdiction. They have based their claims on the validity of orders in the Anglican
Church. Anglican orders, however, have been declared invalid. But even if they were valid, the
Anglican Church would not be Apostolic, for jurisdiction is essential to the Apostolicity of mission. A
study of the organization of the Anglican Church shows it to be entirely different from the Church
established by Jesus Christ.

It is very clear that without this One Mark - Apostolicity, it is impossible to have the other three.
Only be found in the church which has elected the successor to the last Pope - Pius XII, died Oct.
9th 1958.

With the Vatican II came the fall of all that was considered Holy. It would be obvious to anyone who
would take the time to study the events that the rise of the Antichrist System, known as

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the Novus Ordo Church had begun long before Vatican II. Working from within as a cancer to await
their time and seizer of the Vatican and lead the many blind down a winding pathway to
destruction.

In order for Apostolicity to continue it was necessary for the Remnant to call a Conclave and elect a
true successor to Peter. The reasons that moved the above mentioned faithful to elect a new
successor of Peter are known facts that have taken place in the Church as a consequence of the
Second Vatican Council, its "popes", its reforms, its new Canon Law, its new Catechism. Here we
will state reasons for this election in terms of what happened in the Novus Ordo Church:

Intrinsic Heresies: It is notorious that the Second Vatican Council, according to what has been
thoroughly studied and debated for years, preached, as doctrines revealed by God, falsehoods,
already condemned many times by the infallible Magisterium of the Catholic Church, such as:

o the natural "right" of refusing the truth in religious matters;

o the "juridical equality" and "ecumenism" between the true and false religion;
o the "collegiality" in the supreme power of jurisdiction in the Church instead of the
divine right monarchy.

These heresies are reflected in the Liturgical Reform, in the alterations of the catechism and in the
1983 Canon Law; and they are the basic doctrines of a new and false religion, that worships the
free will of human beings instead of the truth and the laws of God.

They openly contradict the doctrines of traditional Councils, specially those of the Council of Trent
and of the I Vatican Council, the Apostolic Constitution "Auctorem Fidei", and many Encyclicals by
Orthodox Popes, like "Mortalium Animos", "Quanta Cura", Quas Primas", "Libertas", "Immortale
Dei", "Notre Charge Apostolique", etc.

Vacancy of the Holy See.-A direct consequence of the several heresies, publicly and
stubbornly professed by the conciliar "popes", for many years, in spite of many warnings by
Catholics from all regions of the earth, is the automatic vacancy of the Holy See.

Whereas, according to the definition by Paul IV (1559) in the Bull "Cum Ex Apostolatus Officio",
the heretical pope, "ipso facto", without any other providence of action or law disposition "he
loses the papal position." That definition is founded in the traditional doctrine as expressed in
the II Constantinople Council, according to which the heretic, even if he has not received the
anathema from others "he inflicts the anathema to himself."

This is also confirmed by the Canon Law itself, for all the dignities and positions in the Church,
according to Canon 188.4, that says: "the heretic 'ipso facto' and without any other statement",
"by a tacit resignation", "leaves vacant any ecclesiastical position". Then, he loses "penitus et
in totum", entirely and totally his position, either formally or materially, and so "he should not be
considered anywhere as a legitimate one", because the heretic is "unable and incapacitated" of
being a subject of ordinary jurisdiction. Thus, Paul IV teaches. Therefore "the popes of Vatican
II, because of their heresies, by themselves (ipso facto), lost all and whatever power they could
have over the faithful, and they have left vacant their positions.

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Duty of Ending the Vacancy.- St. Pius X and other great Popes teaches that, in case of vacancy of
the Holy See, the duty of the Church, "the holiest and most serious of all duties", is to extinguish
the vacancy in a "provident and prudent way". On the other hand "God does not command
impossible things", but only what seems difficult He makes possible by prayer: "God helps so that
we can".

That duty existed for everybody in the present situation of rampant heresy and general apostasy.
However, the prudence of some opposed the prudence of others, as far as the fulfillment of this
duty was concerned after more than 30 years of vacancy, and even this prudence caused
dissensions among those who wanted to fulfill such duty and who are faithful. Nevertheless, the
divine precept and the "Magisterium" of the Church plus the help of God prevailed over the
prudence of the first ones and so notices were sent to faithful in all nations that there was a plan to
fill the vacancy. Though only a few Brave Souls actually attended the Conclave.

The Suppletory Right: The theologians and the "general principles of the law" teach that, when the
Cardinals appointed by papal human laws, do not exist, the duty of ending the vacancy concerns to
all residential bishops. And in case of schisms or negligence among them, if they do not fulfill the
divine precept, by suppletory right, the duty of electing the successor of Peter concerns to the
whole Church, who must free the Church of the extreme affliction of a perennial or excessively
prolonged headless. In the first centuries of the Church all the Roman faithful participated with the
clergy in choosing the successor of Peter. No human law could prevent the fulfillment of what is for
the Church an absolute necessity by divine right: to have a successor of Peter.

Convocation for the Election: Therefore, a group of faithful took for themselves the task of sending
previous notification to all groups of those who call themselves Catholics and faithful, that there
was the intention of assembling the faithful remnant to fulfill the duty imposed by divine right.
Among those who were notified and invited, some did not want to go; while others, who really
wanted to go and supported the election, were not able to attend. Some people preferred their
personal prudence rather than the prudence supported by the duty to be fulfilled. The faithful
Catholic World was juridical notified that the divine precept was going to be fulfilled by human
actions.

A study will show that on July 16, 1990 a Conclave was held in Belvue, Kansas. The results of this
Conclave were the election of a New Pope to sit on the Throne of Peter. This Conclave had
summoned the assembly to elect the Pope in July of 1990; invitations were extended to all
orthodox Catholics to join, but received only six respondents. They then formed the assembly
which elected Mr. David Bawden, as the new Pope. He chose the name Michael I.

It is will be obvious that over the last sixteen years the Holy Father Michael I, has faced many
challenges, he certainly has not be accepted by people who fight against him. These people are
the blind followers of Vatican II, some who think it is possible that the Church of Christ may be
ruled by heretics, some who are attached to the errors of the "material pope", and those who are in
favour of a perennial headless in the Church or long for a new Revelation, that will establish a new
hierarchy of Holy Orders and of Jurisdiction.

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With the election of Pope Michael I, we have again the possibility of proper Jurisdiction and we
have Apostolicity. It is with this in mind that we must exhort all Catholics in the world to return to
Catholic Tradition, to the doctrines and perennial rites of our ancestors, and to repudiate the
heresy, its rites and those who profess them. If anyone inadvertently was deceived by the heresies
of these times, please, break with them while there is still time.

The schismatic spirit of those who are introducing "new sects of destruction" led by their "own
prudence", under the false name of "traditionalism". Be aware that the sin of schism is not lesser
than the sin of heresy and that automatically ("ipso facto") places the person who committed it
outside the Church and, remember that "outside the Church there is no salvation".

Let us remember that the only source of Jurisdiction comes for everybody through the true
successor of Peter, Pope Michael l, and not through the public heretics... we must be united with
those who are already united among themselves and with the visible Head of the Catholic Church,
the True Vicar of Christ, Pope Michael I. It does not matter that we many be a "little flock" (pusillus
grex) if we are loyal to the Catholic Truth and to the perennial Tradition of the Church.
We must meditate before God and take the decision of the faith and government under the true
Pastor, the Shepard of the Flock and Vicar of Christ to the World.

The Canon Law Commentary of Wernz-Vidal explains: "Finally, one cannot consider as
schismatics those who refuse to obey the Roman Pontiff because they would hold his person
suspect or because of widespread rumors, doubtfully elected." Wernz-Vidal, Iuris Canonicum,
Rome, Gregorian Univ., 1937, Vol. II, p. 398.

1917 Code of Canon Law: "1325.1 Obligation to Profess the Faith - The faithful are bound to
profess their faith openly whenever under the circumstances silence, evasion, or their manner of
acting would otherwise implicitly amount to a denial of the faith, or would involve contempt of
religion, an offense to God, or scandal to the neighbor."

We say with our dear Brother in Lúcio Mascarenhas “Habemus Papam! Pope Michael
Good News for Sedevacantists ! ! ! The Vacancy is Ended!! The Crisis Is Over !!

Now is the time for all Good Catholics to Rally around the Pope, and help restore the Church!!”

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