The words of S. Augustin[1] were there before us: Peter 'personated [the Church] because of the primacy he held among the Disciples;' and of S. Optatus,[2] that 'Peter alone received the keys;' and of S. Leo, that our Lord has willed that whatsoever He gave to the Apostles they should possess alone through Peter;[3] and of S. Ambrose, 'where Peter is, there is the Church.'[4] In the midst of this nineteenth century, when faith is waxing faint even in nations once Catholic, and men have been deriding, and foretelling the downfal of the successor of S. Peter, as a relic of mediaeval superstition, and the shadow of an old usurpation, the bishops of the world come together, to reaffirm their faith in the supremacy and prerogatives of the Prince of the Apostles, in the person of his successor; and their absolute adherence and submission to his Chair and to his authority.
In this assembly of bishops in Rome there was also contained the recognition and fulfilment of some of the highest obligations of the episcopate. By a law of great antiquity, resulting from the primacy of jurisdiction and the plenitude of pastoral care which was committed to S. Peter, and in him to his successors, the bishops, as pastors of the flock, are bound to appear personally, at fixed intervals of time,
