Historic Christianity records that St. Peter was the rock upon which Christ built his church, the apostle to whom Jesus entrusted his keys of his kingdom. The following dialogue looks at the biblical and historical record concerning St. Peter and answers common questions about the founding of the Church.

In Matthew 16:17-19, Jesus says:

"Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona...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 to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven."

The grant of the keys was given to Simon alone. Jesus, in the presence of all the disciples, addresses Simon: "I give to you (singular, to Peter) the keys to the kingdom of heaven."

Objection: But as the parallel passages show (Matt. 18:18,19; Jn. 20:22,23), those promises also applied to the other disciples. That means there's no necessity in Jesus' words to apply the "keys" to Peter exclusively.

Preteristvision: It helps to look at the Old Testament precedent for this act of Christ. When Shebna had possessed the King's keys, he was "head over the house of David" (Isa 22:15,22) and ruler of the King's government (Isa 22:21-22). Likewise when Eliakim received the King's keys (Isa 22:22) as Shebna's successor, he received the King's government (Isa 22:21-22). And so scripture declares that the House of David was on his shoulders (Isa 22:22), and the throne of David's house and all glory, so that what he opened none could shut and what he shut none could open (Isa 22:22-24). Therefore, when St. Peter received the Keys from the King of Israel, he likewise received this same authority over the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 16:18). It is an exegetical necessity that St. Peter is the prime minister (keyholder) of the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 16:18). Simon is the only apostle Christ prophetically renamed "rock" (Jn 1:42, Mk 3:16,) -- the rock upon which to build His Church" (Mt 16:18). And such was understod by the early church fathers:

Tertullian: "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 [A.D. 200]).

Cyprian of Carthage: "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...' [Matt. 16:18-19]. On him [Peter] he builds the 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 [cathedra], 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 [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair...If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] 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; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).

Eusebius: "[Peter], that powerful and great one of the Apostles, who, on account of his excellence, was the leader of all the rest" (Hist. Eccl. lib. ii.c.14)

"[Peter], the very head of the Apostles" (Com. in Ps. lxviii. 9, tom. v. p.737)

Ambrose: "[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]?" (The Faith 4:5 [A.D. 379]).

Origen: "Look at [Peter], the great foundation of the Church, that most solid of rocks, upon whom Christ built the Church" [Matt. 16:18]. (Homilies on Exodus 5:4 [A.D. 248]).

The Council of Ephesus: "Philip, the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See [Rome], said: 'There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to today and forever both lives and judges in his successors'" (Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 431]).

Objection: Can we agree that Jesus was not speaking to Peter exclusively when He said to him, "upon this rock I will build My church"?

Preteristvision: Jesus was speaking to Peter exclusively at Matt 16:18-19: "I also say to you [singular] that you [singular] are Peter (Kepha, Aramaic), and upon this rock (Kepha) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you [singular] the keys of the kingdom of heaven."

Objection: Peter was not the sole "foundation stone" (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20; Rev. 21:14).

Preteristvision: Correct. Yet he was the sole keyholder, signifying that "what Peter opened no man could shut and what Peter shut no man could open" (cf. Isa 22:22/Rev 3:7). Peter's receipt of the keys signified that "the house of David was laid on his shoulders," that the king's "government was given into his hand" (Isa 22:21-22). As theologian F.F. Bruce writes:

"And what about the 'keys of the kingdom'? The keys of a royal or noble establishment were entrusted to the chief steward or majordomo; he carried them on his shoulder in earlier times, and there they served as a badge of the authority entrusted to him. About 700 B.C. an oracle from God announced that this authority in the royal palace in Jerusalem was to be conferred on a man called Eliakim...(Isaiah 22:22). So in the new community which Jesus was about to build, Peter would be, so to speak, chief steward." -- F.F. Bruce, The Hard Sayings of Jesus (Intervarsity 1983), 143-144

So, Jesus, Israel's King, gave Peter the keys to the Kingdom. We know exactly what this action meant for Shebna and Eliakim at Isa. 22:15-24 (i.e., it appointed them ministers over the house of David with prime authority), and we know that Jesus himself identifies His keys as those granted to Shebna and Eliakim (compare Rev 3:7 to Isa 22:22). Therefore, Christ's grant of His keys to Simon Peter means what it also meant when they were formerly granted to Shebna and Eliakim. In receiving the keys from Christ, Peter received Christ-delegated authority over the Kingdom--authority to "open so man can shut and shut so no man can open" (Rev 3:7/Isa 22:22). Surely every Hebrew that heard Christ's words to Peter understood the reference and the meaning.

Objection: But there is no evidence that Peter had any unique kingly authority over any under-apostles or that he was king or head of the universal church.

Preteristvision: Just as there is explicit evidence that Shebna received unique, king-delegated authority over the house of David (22:15,21-22); and just as there is explicit evidence that his successor, Eliakim, later received unique, king-delegated authority over the house of David (22:21-24); so likewise there is explicit evidence that Simon Peter received unique, king-delegated authority over the house of David (Matt 16:18-19): "I also say to you that you are Peter (Kepha), and upon this rock (Kepha) I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 16:18-19).

Objection: But there is no evidence that Peter was the first of a 2,000-year line of Roman kings.

Preteristvision: Not kings, but rather prime ministers, viceroys. Peter was not "King" (although, patriarchs and tribal rulers of Israel were properly called "princes" -- Gen 17:20; Num 7:2,84; Num 31:3; Num 34:22-28).

Objection: Did any other apostles or prophets or believers have the authority to open so that "no man could shut," and to close so that "no man could open"?

Preteristvision: The power to "open so none can shut, and to shut so none can open" (Isa 22:22-24/Rev 3:7) speaks of exclusive, king-delegated authority over the house of David, the Kingdom of God.

Objection: As far as Peter being the "rock" in Matt. 16:18,19 and the first of a 2,000-year line of Roman kings, the church fathers are not "quite unanimous." They're not very Roman Catholic either. Tertullian said that the "keys" meant that Peter was "the first to unbar...the entrance to the heavenly kingdom." He said that the power of binding and loosing that was committed to Peter referred only to Peter's preaching of the gospel (On Modesty, chapter 21).

Preteristvision: Tertullian also says: "Do you presume...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 intention of the Lord in conferring this personally upon Peter... 'On thee,' He says, 'will I build My Church; and, I will give to thee the keys,' not to the Church.... In (Peter) himself the Church was reared; that is, through (Peter) himself; (Peter) himself essayed the key." (Tertullian. VII. On Modesty. Chapter XXI.-Of the Difference Between Discipline and Power, and of the Power of the Keys). And Tertullian also points to Peter's doctrinal authority to "loose those parts of the law which were abandoned" and to "bind those which were reserved."

Objection: Augustine said that Christ was the "rock" in Matt. 16:18,19 and that Peter "signified the church."

Preteristvision: Augustine teaches that Peter contains the Church in himself, and he even connects this to Rome and to Peter's headship of the apostles:

"Number the bishops from the See of Peter itself. And in that order of Fathers see who succeeded whom. That is the rock against whom the gates of hell do not prevail." (Augustine. Psalmus contr. Partem Donati, str. 18).

"The Roman Church, in which the primacy of the Apostolic See has always been in force" (Augustine. Epist. xlii).

"To be unwilling to give the primacy to the Roman Church either stems from the utmost impiety or from rash arrogance" (Augustine. De Util. Cred. c.17).

"Peter...head of the Apostles, doorkeeper of heaven and foundation of the church." (Augustine. Ep 36)

"This same Peter...bearing the figure of the Church... holding the chief place in the Apostleship..." (Augustine. Sermon XXVI)

Objection: Cyprian taught that Peter was a symbol of unity and that all the apostles were equal to Peter in honor and power. He used the term "chair" to refer to all bishops everywhere.

Preteristvision: Cyprian's writings support the primacy of Peter. Cyprian writes:

"Peter, on whom the Church had been built by the Lord Himself, one speaking for all... (Cyprian. Ep. lv. Ad Cornel.)

"There is one baptism, and one Holy Ghost, and one Church, founded by Christ our Lord upon Peter, for an original and principle of unity (Cyprian. Ep. lxx. ad. Januar. et Ep. Numid)

"Moreover, [Pope] Cornelius [AD 251-53] was made bishop by the judgment of God and of His Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the suffrage of the people who were then present... when the place of [Pope] Fabian [AD 236-50], that is, when the place of Peter and the degree of the sacerdotal throne was vacant....Then afterwards, when he had undertaken the episcopate, not obtained by solicitation nor by extortion, but by the will of God who makes priests; what a virtue there was in the very undertaking of his episcopate, what strength of mind, what firmness of faith--a thing that we ought with simple heart both thoroughly to look into and to praise--that he intrepidly sate at Rome in the sacerdotal chair at that time when a tyrant, odious to God's priests, was threatening things that can, and cannot be spoken, inasmuch as he would much more patiently and tolerantly hear that a rival prince was raised up against himself than that a priest of God was established at Rome. Is not this man, dearest brother, to be commended with the highest testimony of virtue and faith?" (Cyprian. Epistle li - To Antonianus About [Pope] Cornelius and Novatia)

"There is one God, and Christ is one, and there is one Church, and one chair founded upon the rock by the word of the Lord." (Cyprian. Epistle XXXIX) [See slso "Treatise on Unity." Cyprian considers the universal episcopate as one cathredra, like "Moses' seat" in the Church of the Hebrews. This one chair he calls "Peter's chair." ]

"On him [Peter] he builds the Church...and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra]...If he [should] 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 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251])

"Having had a pseudo-bishop set up for themselves by heretics, they dare to sail, and to carry letters from schismatic and profane men to the chair of Peter, and to the principal Church whence the unity of the priesthood took its rise; nor do they consider that the Romans are those (whose faith was praised in the preaching of the Apostle) to whom faithlessness cannot have access." (Cyprian. Ep. lv. ad Cornel)

"For first to Peter, upon whom He built the Church, and from whom He appointed and showed that unity should spring, the Lord gave this power that should be in heaven which he should have loosed on earth." (Cyprian. Ep. lxxiii ad Fubaian)

Objection: Ambrose said that Peter's primacy was of confession and faith, not of ruling over the other apostles. ÊHe said that "the faith," which Peter preserved, is the foundation of the church.

Preteristvision: St. Ambrose said more than that about Peter and the primacy of Rome:

"But to that same Peter He said on an earlier occasion, '...Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' How could He not confirm his faith, unto whom of His own authority He gave the kingdom, and whom when He styles a Rock, He pointed out the foundation of the church?" (Ambrose. T. ii. l. iv. De Fide, c.v.n 56)

"It is to Peter that he says: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church'. Where Peter is, there is the Church. And where the Church is, no death is there, but life eternal" (Ambrose. Commentary on Twelve Psalms of David 40:30 [A.D. 389])

"Peter is called the 'rock' because, like an immovable rock, he sustains the joints and mass of the entire Christian edifice" (Ambrose. Sermon 4)

"He called the Bishop to him, and not accounting any grace true which was not of the true faith, he inquired of him whether he agreed with the Catholic bishops, that is, with the Roman Church (Ambrose. De Excessa Frat. n. 46, tom. ii) "From this Church [of Rome] the rights of venerable communion flow unto all." (Ambrose. Epist. xi. n. 4)

Objection: Chrysostom said that the "rock" was the faith of Peter's confession: "For He that hath built His Church upon Peter's confession, and has so fortified it, that ten thousand dangers and deaths are not to prevail over it.... And I say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; that is, on the faith of his confession'" (Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, 82.3, 54.3).

Preteristvision: Chrysostom says Peter was chief apostle, ruler of the whole world:

"He [Peter] 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...And if any 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 world." (Chrysostom. In Joan. Hom. lxxxviii. n. 1 tom. viii)

"Peter himself the head or crown of the Apostles, the first in the Church, the friend of Christ...and when I name Peter I name that unbroken rock, that firm foundation, the great apostle, the first of the disciples." (Chrysostom. T. ii. Hom. iii. de Paenit. n. 4)

"Peter, the leader of the choir of the 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. de. Dec. Mill. Talen. n. 3)

"God allowed him [Peter] to fall, because he meant to make him ruler over the whole world, that, remembering his own fall, he might forgive those who would slip in the future." (Chrysostom. Hom. quod frequenter conveniendum sit 5, cf. Hom. 73 in Joan. 5)

"Did He not rebuke him when he had fallen this grave fall? Nay, He passed it over and appointed him first of the apostles." (Chrysostom. In Psalm CXXIX) "Peter, the leader of the choir, the mouth of all the apostles, the head of that tribe, the ruler of the whole world, the foundation of the Church, the ardent lover of Christ" (Chrysostom. Hom. on 2 Tim 3.1)

"Peter so washed away that denial as to be enve made the first Apostle, and to have the whole world committed to him." (Chrysostom. Tom. i. Orat. viii. n. 3)

And the other early Christians agree to this.

St. Jerome says: "I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built. Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark of Noah will perish when the flood prevails" (Jerome. Letters 15:2 [A.D. 396]).

Damasus I says: "Likewise it is decreed...the holy Roman Church has not been placed at the forefront [of the churches] by the 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...' [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" (Damasus I. Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382]).

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says: "Peter, also the foremost of the Apostles and the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven..." (Cyril of Jerusalem. Catech. xvii. n. 27)

Firmilian says: "But what is his error...who does not remain on 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]" (Bishop Firmilian. collected in Cyprian's Letters 74[75]:16 [A.D. 253]).

Firmilian also says"[Pope] Stephen [I]...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]... [Pope] Stephen...announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter" (ibid., 74[75]:17).

Council Of Calcedon says: "Wherefore the most holy and blessed Leo, archbishop of the great and elder Rome, through us, and through this present most holy synod, together with the thrice blessed and all-glorious Peter the apostle, who is the rock and foundation of the Catholic Church, and the foundation of the orthodox faith, has stripped him [Dioscorus] of the episcopate" (Chalcedon. Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 451])

Objection: Of all the church fathers who interpret Matt. 16:18,19, not one of them interpreted that passage to refer to a line of Roman kings as Peter's successors.Ê

Preteristvision: To close, the church fathers said much about this continuous succession from St. Peter:

Irenaeus of Lyons says: "The blessed apostles [Peter and Paul], having founded and built up the church [of Rome], they handed over the office of the episcopate to Linus" (Against Heresies 3:3:3 [A.D. 189]).

Tertullian says "[T]his is the way in which the apostolic churches transmit their lists: like the church of the Smyrneans, which records that Polycarp was placed there by John, like the church of the Romans, where Clement was ordained by Peter" (Demurrer Against the Heretics 32:2 [A.D. 200]).

The Little Labyrinth records: "Victor...was the thirteenth bishop of Rome from Peter" (The Little Labyrinth [A.D. 211], in Eusebius, Church History 5:28:3)

Cyprian of Carthage says: "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....' [Matt. 16:18] On him [Peter] he builds the 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 [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity....If someone [today] does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] 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; first edition [A.D. 251]).

Cyprian of Carthage also says: "Cornelius was made bishop by the decision of God and of his Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the applause of the people then present, by the college of venerable priests and good men, at a time when no one had been made [bishop] before him--when the place of [Pope] Fabian, which is the place of Peter, the dignity of the sacerdotal chair, was vacant. Since it has been occupied both at the will of God and with the ratified consent of all of us, whoever now wishes to become bishop must do so outside. For he cannot have ecclesiastical rank who does not hold to the unity of the Church" (Letters 55:[52]):8 [A.D. 253]).

Cyprian of Carthage says again: "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" (ibid., 59:14). Firmilian "[Pope] Stephen [I]...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]...Stephen...announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter" (collected in Cyprian's Letters 74[75]):17 [A.D. 253]).

Eusebius of Caesarea says: "Paul testifies that Crescens was sent to Gaul [2 Tim. 4:10], but Linus, whom he mentions in the Second Epistle to Timothy [2 Tim. 4:21] as his companion at Rome, was Peter's successor in the episcopate of the church there, as has already been shown. Clement also, who was appointed third bishop of the church at Rome, was, as Paul testifies, his co-laborer and fellow-soldier [Phil. 4:3]" (Church History 3:4:9-10 [A.D. 312]).

Pope Julius I says: "[The] judgment [against Athanasius] ought to have been made, not as it was, but according to the ecclesiastical canon. It behooved all of you to write us so that the justice of it might be seen as emanating from all. ...Are you ignorant that the custom has been to write first to us and then for a just decision to be passed from this place [Rome]? If, then, any such suspicion rested upon the bishop there [Athanasius of Alexandria], notice of it ought to have been written to the church here. But now, after having done as they pleased, they want to obtain our concurrence, although we never condemned him. Not thus are the constitutions of Paul, not thus the traditions of the Fathers. This is another form of procedure, and a novel practice....What I write about this is for the common good. For what we have heard from the blessed Apostle Peter, these things I signify to you" (Letter on Behalf of Athanasius [A.D. 341], contained in Athanasius, Apology Against the Arians 20-35).

Council of Sardica says: "If any bishop loses the judgment in some case [decided by his fellow bishops] and still believes that he has not a bad but a good case, in order that the case may be judged anew...let us honor the memory of the Apostle Peter by having those who have given the judgment write to Julius, Bishop of Rome, so that if it seem proper he may himself send arbiters and the judgment may be made again by the bishops of a neighboring province" (canon 3 [A.D. 342]).

Optatus says: "You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat, the same who was head--that is why he is also called Cephas ["Rock"]--of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all" (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).

Epiphanius of Salamis says: "At Rome the first Apostles and bishops were Peter and Paul, then Linus, then Cletus, then Clement, the contemporary of Peter and Paul" (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies 27:6 [A.D. 375]).

Pope Damasus I says: "Likewise it is decreed:...we have considered that it ought to be announced that...the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the 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 [today], therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it" (Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382]).

Jerome says: "[Pope] Stephen....was the blessed Peter's twenty-second successor in the See of Rome" (Against the Luciferians 23 [A.D. 383]).

Jerome says again: "Clement, of whom the apostle Paul writing to the Philippians says 'With Clement and others of my fellow-workers whose names are written in the book of life,' the fourth bishop of Rome after Peter, if indeed the second was Linus and the third Anacletus, although most of the Latins think that Clement was second after the apostle" (Lives of Illustrious Men 15 [A.D. 396]).

Jerome adds: "Since the East, shattered as it is by the long-standing feuds, subsisting between its peoples, is bit by bit tearing into shreds the seamless vest of the Lord...I think it my duty to consult the chair of Peter, and to turn to a church [Rome] whose faith has been praised by Paul [Rom. 1:8]. I appeal for spiritual food to the church whence I have received the garb of Christ....Evil children have squandered their patrimony; you alone keep your heritage intact" (Letters 15:1 [A.D. 396]).

Jerome adds: "I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built. Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark on Noah will perish when the flood prevails" (ibid., 15:2).

Ambrose of Milan says: "They [the Novatian heretics] have not the succession of Peter, who hold not the chair of Peter, which they rend by wicked schism; and this, too, they do, wickedly denying that sins can be forgiven [by the sacrament of confession] even in the Church, whereas it was said to Peter: "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven" [Matt. 16:19]" (Penance 1:7:33 [A.D. 388]).

Augustine says: "If all men throughout the world were such as you most vainly accuse them of having been, what has the chair of the Roman church done to you, in which Peter sat, and in which Anastasius sits today?" (Against the Letters of Petilani 2:118 [A.D. 402]).

Augustine also says: "If the very order of episcopal succession is to be considered, how much more surely, truly, and safely do we number them from Peter himself, to whom, as to one representing the whole Church, the Lord said, "Upon this rock I will build my church..." [Matt. 16:18]. Peter was succeeded by Linus, Linus by Clement, Clement by Anacletus, Anacletus by Evaristus" (Letters 53:1:2 [A.D. 412]).

The Council of Ephesus says: "Philip the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See said: 'There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the Apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to to-day and forever both lives and judges in his successors. The holy and most blessed pope Celestine, according to due order, is his successor and holds his place, and us he sent to supply his place m this holy synod'" (Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 431]).

Pope Leo I says: "As for the resolution of the bishops which is contrary to the Nicene decree, in union with your faithful piety, I declare it to be invalid and annul it by the authority of the holy Apostle Peter" (Letters 110 [A.D. 445]).

Pope Leo I also says: The 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" (Sermons 3:2-3 [A.D. 450]).

Pope Leo I adds: "Whereupon the blessed Peter, as inspired by God, and about to benefit all nations by his confession, said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Not undeservedly, therefore, was he pronounced blessed by the Lord, and derived from the original Rock that solidity which belonged both to his virtue and to his name [Peter]" (The Tome of Leo [A.D. 449]).

The Council of Chalcedon records: "After the reading of the foregoing epistle [The Tome of Leo], the most reverend bishops cried out: 'This is the faith of the fathers! this is the faith of the Apostles! So we all believe! thus the orthodox believe! Anathema to him who does not thus believe! Peter has spoken thus through Leo!...This is the true faith! Those of us who are orthodox thus believe! This is the faith of the Fathers!'" (Acts of the Council, session 2 [A.D. 451]).

Peter Chrysologus says: "We exhort you in every respect, honorable brother, to heed obediently what has been written by the most blessed pope of the city of Rome, for blessed Peter, who lives and presides in his own see, provides the truth of faith to those who seek it. For we, by reason of our pursuit of peace and faith, cannot try cases on the faith without the consent of the bishop of Rome" (Letters 25:2 [A.D. 449]