Christ cannot be passed by, who said: Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church,[1] these things which have been said are approved by events, because in the Apostolic See the Catholic Religion has always been kept undefiled and her holy doctrine proclaimed. Desiring, therefore, not to be in the least degree separated from the faith and doctrine of that See, we hope that we may deserve to be in the one communion, which the Apostolic See preaches, in which is the entire and true solidity of the Christian religion.[2] And, with the approval of the second Council of Lyons, the Greeks professed that the Holy Roman Church enjoys supreme and full Primacy and pre-eminence 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 or 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 judgment.[3] Finally, the Council of Florence defined:[4] That 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.[5]
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 be preserved genuine and pure where- ↑ S. Matthew xvi. 18.
- ↑ From the Formula of S. Hormisdas, subscribed by the Fathers of the Eighth General Council (Fourth of Constantinople), a.d. 869. Labbé's 'Councils,' vol v. pp. 583, 622.
- ↑ From the Acts of the Fourteenth General Council (Second of Lyons), a.d. 1274. Labbé, vol. xiv. p. 512.
- ↑ From the Acts of the Seventeenth General Council of Florence, a.d. 1438. Labbé, vol. xviii. p. 526.
- ↑ ii John xxi. 15-17.
