which is the entire and true solidity of the Christian religion[1]
And, with the approval of the Second Council of Lyons, the Greeks professed that: "the holy Roman Church enjoys supreme and full primacy and princedom over the whole Catholic Church, which it truly and humbly acknowledges that it has received with the plenitude of power from our Lord Himself in the person of Blessed Peter, Prince and Head of the Apostles, whose successor the Roman Pontiff is; and as the Apostolic See is bound before all others to defend the truth of faith, so also, if any questions regarding faith shall arise, they must be defined by its judgement,"[2]
Finally, the Council of Florence defined that:[3] "the Roman Pontiff is the true Vicar of Christ, and the head of the whole Church and the father and teacher of all Christians; and that to him in Blessed Peter was delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ the full power of feeding, ruling and governing the whole Church."[4]
To satisfy this pastoral duty, our predecessors ever made unwearied efforts that the salutary doctrine of Christ might be propagated among all the nations of the earth, and with equal care watched that it might
- ↑ From the Formula of St Hormisdas, subscribed by the Fathers of the Eighth General Council (Fourth of Constantinople), A.D. 869. Labbe's Councils, vol. v, pp. 583, 622.
- ↑ From the Acts of the Fourteenth General Council (Second of Lyons), A.D. 1274. Labbe, vol. xiv, p. 512.
- ↑ From the Acts of the Seventeenth General Council (that of Florence), A.D. 1438; Labbe, vol. xviii, p. 526.
- ↑ John xxi, 15-17.
