and fifth centuries fearlessly assert, or frankly allow, that
the prerogatives of Rome were derived from apostolic times, and that
because it was the See of St. Peter." I confess that these words set me
upon the search, and that I have found such testimonies in abundance; but
then they are invariably to the Bishop of Rome _as holding the first see,
not as_ Episcopus Episcoporum: _they bear witness to the Patriarchal
system, not to the Papal_. For instance, all lovers of truth would be
obliged to Mr. Newman to point out, in all the works of St. Augustin, a
single passage which is sufficiently distinct and specific to justify the
Papal claims, nay, which does not consider the Pope the first Bishop, and
_no more_. It is little to say I have searched for such in vain. But in a
Western Father, whose extant writings are so voluminous, and whose personal
history is almost a history of the Church during the nearly forty years of
his episcopate, and who continually gives judgment on all matters
concerning the Church's government and constitution, it would seem
impossible but that such a testimony should be found, if a thing so
wondrous as is the Papal Power then existed. On the contrary, St. Augustin,
continually explaining those often cited passages of Scripture, on which
mediaeval and later Roman writers ground the Papal prerogatives, that is,
Thou art Peter, &c., Feed my sheep, &c., says specifically, that Peter
represents the Church. One of these passages we have already quoted. Take
another. "And I say unto thee, because thou hast said to me; thou hast
spoken, now hear; thou hast given a confession, receive a blessing;
therefore, and I say unto thee, that thou art Peter; because I am the Rock,
thou art Peter; for neither from Peter is the Rock, but from the Rock,
Peter; because not from the Christian is Christ, but from Christ the
Christian. And upon this Rock I will build my Church; _not upon Peter,
which thou art, but upon the Rock which thou hast confessed_. But I will
build my Church, _I will build thee, who in this answer representest the
Church_."[35] Again, in a passage which conveys that old view of Cyprian,
that every Bishop's chair is the chair of St. Peter. "For as some things
are said which would seem to belong personally to the Apostle Peter, yet
cannot be clearly understood unless when they are referred to the Church,
which he is admitted, in figure, to have represented, on account of the
Primacy which he held am