work in the various ministrations which are confided to them to develop the Christian life, of which charity is the sum.
Do we perceive, in these notions of the Church, a monarchy governed by a sovereign pontiff, absolute and infallible?
Now this Church which St. Paul regards as the depository of divine instruction — this Church as extended in its unity as in its universality — it is this that he calls "the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Tim. 3:15.)
"The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." (1 Peter 5:1, et seq.)
St. Peter, then, whom the Roman theologians would make the absolute prince of the Church, knew but one chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. As for himself, he was the colleague of the other apostles by his priesthood; he speaks neither of his primacy nor of his sovereignty. He does not raise himself above the other pastors of the Church, whom, on the contrary, he addresses as his equals and his brethren; justifying himself solely in giving them counsel, in that he was a witness of the sufferings of Jesus Christ and also of his future glory, which had been revealed to him upon Mount Tabor.
We have not met in Holy Scripture any text relating to the subject we are now considering, where Jesus Christ is not regarded as the sole head of the Church, nor in which the Church is not represented as a whole, one and identical, composed of the faithful as well as the pastors.
