Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

244 Corporate Re-union.
that the Church did in fact confer it upon the
Roman See in honour of the prince of the
Apostles, who in that city sealed his testimony
by a glorious martyrdom. We Latins, on the
other hand, while we claim a still higher founda
tion for the Papal Primacy, may at least be
fairly entitled to ask of our Oriental brethren,
why in the acknowledging as they do, that the
Primacy of the Christian Church, was by the
consent of the whole Episcopate conferred upon
S. Peter s successors, the Bishops of the Roman
See, they should at any subsequent period have
thrown off their communion with that Apostolic
See, without at any rate (on their own principle)
calling upon the whole Church to ratify their
act, and to transfer the Primacy of Peter to
some other see ? This the Greeks have never
done : they have indeed accused the Popes of
heresy, and have over and over again asserted,
that, by falling into heresy, the Popes have ipso
facto incurred the loss of that Primacy, which
(on their own showing) the Universal Church
had originally conferred UDOU them : but if
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there were true ground for this assertion, how
comes it that they have never been able to con
vene an Oecumenical Council to confirm the
charge, O and to ratify their
7 ^ conclusion that the
Primacy should be transferred to some other
see ? Is it. that when JESUS CHRIST Himself
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instituted a Primacv even amongst His Own
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