A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

524 A Source Book for Ancient Church History[478]Ch. 3. The dispensation of the truth therefore abides, and theblessed Peter, persevering in the strength of the rock which hehas received, has not abandoned the helm of the Church which heundertook. For he was ordained before the rest in such a way thatsince he is called the rock, since he is pronounced the foundation,since he is constituted the doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven,since he is set up as the judge to bind and to loose, whosejudgments shall retain their validity in heaven, from all thesemystical titles we might know the nature of his association withChrist. And still to-day he more fully and effectually performswhat is intrusted to him, and carries out every part of his dutyand charge in Him and with Him, through whom he has beenglorified. And so if anything is rightly done or rightly decreedby us, if anything is obtained from the mercy of God by dailysupplications, it is his work and merits whose power lives inhis see and whose authority excels. For this, dearly beloved,that confession gained, that confession which, inspired in theApostle's heart by God the Father, transcends all the uncertaintyof human opinions, and was endued with the firmness of a rock,which no assaults could shake. For throughout the Church Peterdaily says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,”and every tongue which confesses the Lord is inspired by theinstruction [magisterio] of that voice.(b) Leo the Great, Ep. 104, ad Marcianum Augustum, A. D. 452.(MSL, 54:993.)Condemnation of the twenty-eighth canon of Chalcedon.This and the two following epistles upon the twenty-eighthcanon of the Council of Chalcedon define the relation ofthe Roman see to councils, canons, and patriarchal sees.Apostolic sees may not be constituted by mere canon; politicalimportance of a place does not regulate its ecclesiastical