Petrus

“ After this prayer the dead rose up, and with bended knees said to Peter, "I saw Jesus Christ, and he sent his angels forth at thy prayer, that they might lead me to life." The people then crying with one voice said, "There is one God that Peter preaches:" and would burn the magician, but Peter forbade them, saying, that Jesus had taught them the rule, that they should requite evil with good. Simon, ðaða he ðam folce ætwunden wæs, getígde ænne ormǽtne ryððan innan ðam geate þær Petrus inn hæfde, þæt he fǽrlice hine abítan sceolde. ”

“ And I unworthy wyth yow preyen here schalle.
Petrus. I take this upon me, Poule, for youre sake.
Now, almythty God, that sittiste above cherubyn halle;
In synge of thyn holy cros oure handis we make,
Besekyng thy mercy may upon us falle,
And why we ben thus met, yif it lyke, us lare.
Johannes. A! holy brether, alle welcom ye are:
Why ye be met here I schal you declare;
ffor Mary, Goddys moder, by message is sent,
That from this wrecchid world to blysse sche schal fare,
And at here deying sche desyryth to have us present.
Petrus. A! ”

“ So we must put off our shoes of carnality, and go out from ourselves, as the adder casteth her slough, if we will tread upon holy ground, and press to come where God is. Peter, so long as he staid in the high Priest's hall among the enemies of Christ, became as one of them, and had quite forgotten that Christ was his Master, and so denied him, whom a little before he had promised to die for. ”

“ Hear, O Apostolic Head, O shepherd of the sheep of Christ, set over them by God, O door-keeper of the kingdom of heaven, O rock of the faith, upon which the Catholic Church is built. For Peter art thou, who adornest and governest the See of Peter. To thee, said Christ our God, 'and thou, in thy turn, one day confirm thy brethren.' Behold the time, behold the place, help us, thou who art ordained by God for this. Stretch forth thy hand as far as may be: power thou hast from God, because thou art the chief of all. ”

“ And Peter answereth and saith unto him, "Thou art the Christ."
And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying:
"Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." ”

“ Peter is the doorkeeper of the great city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, that he has the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and has received strict orders not to admit any soul, under any circumstances, who has been cursed by a holy priest, unless that curse has been removed by the same priest in the tribunal of penance. ”

“ Peter, on which Roman Catholics ground the scriptural proof of his Primacy. "For it is evident that Peter, in many places of the Scriptures, represents the Church, (personam gestet Ecclesiæ) chiefly in that place where it is said, 'I give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.' What! did Peter receive those keys, and Paul not receive them? Did Peter receive them, and John and James not receive them, and the rest of the Apostles? ”

“ As all other churches are made to bow to the supremacy of Rome, so all the Apostles must be subordinate to Peter. This is so obvious that the work is overdone. On the day of Pentecost he is put forward to explain the miracle of the cloven tongue, and show that it was in accordance with what the prophet Joel had foretold—which if Peter did say what he is made to say, only proved his ignorance of what the prophet meant. His miraculous powers are wonderful. He cured a man forty years old, who had been lame from his birth, so that he leaped and walked. ”

“ It was the ship of Peter; he governed it, and he drew the fish to land and brought them to our Lord. This signifies that Peter (with his successors, the Popes) is the visible head of the Church, and that, as such, he brings the faithful to our Lord in heaven (on the eternal shore) . The number of the fishes caught shows that Peter (the Pope) and the apostles (the bishops and priests) , working under his guidance, will gain many souls for Christ. The apostles had toiled the whole night and had caught nothing, till Jesus came and helped them in a wonderful way. ”

“ But as to the question of the equality of the Apostles, Peter is pre-eminent over the rest, who merited to hear from the Lord, 'Thou shalt be called Cephas—Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.' And not from any one else, but from the very Son of God and the Virgin, he was the first to receive the honour of the pontificate in the Church of Christ, to whom also, after the resurrection of the Son of God, was said by the same, 'Feed My lambs,' noting by the name of lambs the prelates of the churches. ”

“ And when Saint Peter the apostle became a martyr, this apostle came and took him down from the honorable Cross, and he wrapped him in fine and costly cloths and laid him in the house of one of the believers. And certain men informed the Emperor Nero that he was a disciple of Saint Peter, and the emperor had him brought, and he questioned him about it, and the saint confessed that he was a disciple of Saint Peter the apostle, and he confessed that our Lord Jesus Christ was God indeed. ”

“ In Fact, Jesus Christ, as God, gives Men a Share of his Dignities: He is the High-priest, and he honours Men with the Dignity of the Priesthood: ’Tis he that is the true Peter, and he communicates this Quality of Peter to another. Thus he makes his Servants Sharers of what is proper and particular to himself: He establish’d St. Peter to be the Pastor and Head of all Believers, and was willing that he should have the same Power as himself, to govern his Church. ”

“ Since Peter, the great head of the Apostles, was manifestly invested not only with the keys of heaven to open to those who believe and to close to those who disbelieve the gospel, but he first had the charge to feed the sheep of the whole Catholic Church—to convert and confirm his spiritual brethren of the same order, as he received this dignity over all, given to him providentially by God Himself for our sakes incarnate. ”

“ Peter gives to those who are to care for souls, from whence you may confidently infer and clearly prove, that the Pope, along with his bishops, is Antichrist, or an enemy of Christ, since he does nothing of that which St. Peter here requires, and neither teaches nor practices it himself, but even acts the counterpart, and will not only not feed the sheep or let them be fed, but is himself a wolf and tears them, and yet makes it his boast that he is the vicar of the Lord Christ. He certainly is that, for since Christ is not there, he, like the devil, sits and rules in Christ's place. ”

“ Peter, therefore, was an apostle of that very God whose was also Paul; and Him whom Peter preached as God among those of the circumcision, and likewise the Son of God, did Paul [declare] also among the Gentiles. For our Lord never came to save Paul alone, nor is God so limited in means, that He should have but one apostle who knew the dispensation of His Son. ”

“ Jesus said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Peter, today, even this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice."
Then said Peter, rising and clasping his hands, "Even if I should die with thee, I would never deny thee," and the other ten disciples said altogether with a loud voice, "Master, we also will always remain faithful to thee; none of us will ever deny thee." ”

“ Just as no one is so insane as to set himself up as surpassing the merits of the Apostle Peter, because, taught by the epistles of the Apostle Paul, and confirmed by the custom of the Church herself, he does not compel the Gentiles to Judaize, as Peter once had done. ”

“ Paul to St. Peter: It appertaineth to me to pray, and to thee for to command. Then said Nero: This man is very God, and ye be two traitors. Then said St. Peter to St. Paul: Paul, brother, lift up thine head and see how Simon flyeth. Then St. Paul said to St. Peter when he saw him fly so high: Peter, why tarriest thou? perform that thou hast begun, God now calleth us. Then said Peter: I charge and conjure you angels of Sathanas, which bear him in the air, by the name of our Lord Jesu Christ, that ye bear ne sustain him no more, but let him fall to the earth. ”

“ The Acts of Peter are valuable for our knowledge of the Ancient Catholic Church. They bring before us the Christian Church in its religious thinking, feeling and working at the end of the second century. Only a Catholic writer could present such a picture.
We first give the Coptic fragment. We then give Peter's affairs with Simon at Rome, or the Actus Vercellenses, which begin with Paul's abode at Rome and his taking leave of the congregation there (chaps. I–III) . The next section (chaps. IV–XXXII) treats of Simon, the Magician, and the struggle which Peter had with him. ”

“ And Peter knew that [he was possessed of] a spirit of devils, and then and there he rebuked him, and Satan went out of him, and the man was healed and he followed the apostles into the city. Now there was above the gate of the city an exceedingly high pillar, and when they came to that gate Peter entreated God, saying, “I beseech Thee, O my Lord Jesus Christ, that this gate, and this high pillar and the things which are on it may fall down upon the earth in such a manner that the hand of a man may touch them.” ”

“ The great Apostle Peter, who appeared to have been the master spirit of the Church on the day of Pentecost, when men began to inquire what they should do to be saved, answered the inquirers in this way, "Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." ”

“ Again, the third time, Jesus asked, "Simon Peter, lovest thou me more than these?" Peter was grieved because the Lord asked the same question with renewed earnestness the third time, as it he doubted his assurance, and said, "Yes, Lord. thou knowest all things, thou knowest I love Thee." Jesus saith unto him,"Feed my sheep. Now you have tried your hand at fishing, Peter, and you see that when the Lord was not with you, you caught nothing. I called you from your fishing in the beginning, and said to you henceforth to leave your nets, and I would make you fishers of men." ”

“ Here Peter in the plainest and strongest terms declares Christ to be the rock on which the Church is built. The scribes and Pharisees rejected Him, as had been foretold, but the common people who heard Him gladly embraced His message of salvation, and rested their faith on what He had taught them and done for them. Peter evidently did not understand the text in Matthew as the Catholics understand it. Peter in his Epistle is really a heretic in what he says about the rock, and if the Catholics could spare him from under the Church, they ought to burn him. ”

“ There is one incident which must in any case be accepted as it is found in both narratives. This is the denial of Peter. It appears that Peter did not stay with the disciples and neither returned home immediately to Galilee (according to the Galilean tradition) nor sought hiding in Jerusalem (according to the Jerusalem tradition) , but followed the Lord at a distance and was a witness of at least part of the trial before the Sanhedrim. He was detected and accused of being a disciple, which he denied, and so fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus that he would deny Him before the cock crowed. ”

“ To none other but Peter, "to me hath God shown to call no man common or unclean." Now the undoubted knowledge of this dispensation must appear of the greatest moment, whether in itself, or as concerns the Jews, of whom the earliest church consisted, or the Apostles, by whose ministry it was to be extended. And yet, by that providence which is ever over His Church, the wisdom of God so ruled it, that through Peter alone the Apostles should be taught when they were first to approach the Gentiles, and discharge their office of witnesses before [Pg 141] all nations without distinction. ”

“ While Peter [48] was "passing through all," that is, exercising his general supervision as primate of the Church, God sent His angel "in a vision manifestly" to "a certain man in Cesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of that which is called the Italian band, a religious man, and fearing God with all his house, giving much alms to the people, and always praying to God." And the angel says to him: "Thy prayers and thine alms are ascended for a memorial in the sight of God, and now send men to Joppa, and call hither one Simon, who is surnamed Peter; he will tell thee what thou must do." ”

“ Further, he gathers up to himself the Church which is made out of Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles; as the foundation he sustains the whole; and when constructed, he binds it together. Lastly, Luke, without having recorded a single speech of any other Apostle, has given five of Peter, thus showing that Peter's words, as well as his actions, had a higher importance than theirs in the history of the Church's birth and growth; for, indeed, in the history of the head that of the body is included. ”