exaggerations. They use the words of strict law, and of exact rights. They express the first principles of the Divine unity and authority of the Church of God. When Bellarmin enumerates the eight-and-twenty prerogatives of S. Peter, he is defining the exclusive primacy of power and office which lies at the foundation of the Church, and endures to this day. To pass over all others, there are five prerogatives exclusively belonging to him, which descend to his successors. He was the first of the Apostles, and is so always designated. He had a special name which, both in prophecy and by promise, made him the rock of foundation. He had, first and alone, the plenitude of all power. He had a special stability of faith, by the singular assistance of the prayer of our Divine Lord; and an office, of which that stability is the condition, to confirm his brethren; and lastly, he had the supreme and sole charge of the whole flock on earth. In virtue of these prerogatives Peter became, and, in his successor, is to this day, the source of mission, the centre and bond of Churches, the note of unity, the test of truth, the fountain of jurisdiction.
If there be, then, any truth evidently declared in Scripture and in universal tradition, in the writings of Fathers, and in the decrees of Councils, it is that which may be summed up in the following propositions:—
(1.) That to Peter, first and alone, was given by our Divine Lord the plenitude of all power, both of
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