The Primacy of St. Peter in the Gospels and Acts

• Jesus renames Simon "rock" (Jn 1:42, Mk 3:16, Mt 16:18), builds Church on that rock.
• Peter is identified as the "first" (Mt 10:2)
• Peter always heads the lists of apostles (Matt. 10:1-4, Mark 3:16-19, Luke 6:14-16, Acts 1:13)
• The Twelve Apostles are often identified as Peter and the rest (Luke 9:32; Mark 16:7; Acts 2:14, 2:37, 5:29; 1 Cor 15:5)
• Peter was given care of Christ's flocks (Jn 21:15).
• Peter is given the task to "strengthen the other apostles" (Lk. 22:32).
• The risen Christ first appeared to Peter (1 Cor 15:5; Luke 24:34).
• Peter heads the decision to elect Matthias to The Twelve (Acts 1:13-26)
• Peter was chosen by God to admit the Gentiles into the Church (Acts 15:7; Acts 10:47-48)
• The Angel of the Lord sends Cornelius the Gentile to Simon Peter with the instruction that "he will tell you what to do" (Acts 10:5-6).
• Peter inflicted the first punishment (Acts 5:1-11), and excommunicated the first heretic (Acts 8:18-23).
• Peter led the first council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), and announced the first dogmatic decision (Acts 15:7-11).
• Peter was first to preach to the crowds on Pentecost (Acts 2:14-40).
• Peter worked the first healing in the Church age (Acts 3:6-7).
• Peter figures prominently in important dramatic scenes (Matt. 14:28-32, Matt. 17:24-27, Mark 10:23-28).
• Peter was the one who generally spoke for the apostles (Matt. 18:21, Mark 8:29, Luke 12:41, John 6:68-69)

The Early Christians: On St. Peter the Rock

Jesus Christ (AD 30)

"Having looked upon him, Jesus saith, 'Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas, thou shalt be called Cephas,' which is interpreted, a rock." (John 1:42)

"Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona...I say also unto thee...You are Kepha (rock/stone), and on this Kepha (rock/stone) I will build my Church...And I give to you the keys of the kingdom" (Matthew 16:18-19 - emphasis on the Aramaic word Kepha, "rock." Aramaic is Christ's native language, and Kepha is used throughout.)

Tertullian (AD 155-230)

"Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter, who is called 'the rock on which the Church would be built' [Matt. 16:18] with the power of 'loosing and binding in heaven and on earth' [Matt. 16:19]?" (Demurrer Against the Heretics 22 [A.D. 200]).

"Do you presume...that the power of binding and loosing has thereby been handed on to you, that is, to every church akin to Peter? What kind of man are you, subverting and changing what was the manifest intention of the Lord in conferring this personally upon Peter... 'On thee,' He says, 'will I build My Church; and, I will give to thee the keys,' not to the Church.... In (Peter) himself the Church was reared; that is, through (Peter) himself; (Peter) himself essayed the key." (Tertullian. VII. On Modesty. Chapter XXI.-Of the Difference Between Discipline and Power, and of the Power of the Keys)

Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (AD 200-253)

"Peter, on whom the Church had been built by the Lord Himself, one speaking for all... (Cyprian. Ep. lv. Ad Cornel.)

"There is one baptism, and one Holy Ghost, and one Church, founded by Christ our Lord upon Peter, for an original and principle of unity (Cyprian. Ep. lxx. ad. Januar. et Ep. Numid)

Council of Ephesus, Third Ecumenical Council (AD 431)

"Philip, the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See [Rome], said: 'There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to today and forever both lives and judges in his successors'" (Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 431]).

Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (AD 200-253)

"Moreover, [Pope] Cornelius [AD 251-53] was made bishop by the judgment of God and of His Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the suffrage of the people who were then present...when the place of [Pope] Fabian [AD 236-50], that is, when the place of Peter and the degree of the sacerdotal throne was vacant...Then afterwards, when he had undertaken the episcopate, not obtained by solicitation nor by extortion, but by the will of God who makes priests; what a virtue there was in the very undertaking of his episcopate, what strength of mind, what firmness of faith -- a thing that we ought with simple heart both thoroughly to look into and to praise -- that he intrepidly sate at Rome in the sacerdotal chair at that time when a tyrant, odious to GodÕs priests, was threatening things that can, and cannot be spoken, inasmuch as he would much more patiently and tolerantly hear that a rival prince was raised up against himself than that a priest of God was established at Rome. Is not this man, dearest brother, to be commended with the highest testimony of virtue and faith?" (Cyprian. Epistle li - To Antonianus About [Pope] Cornelius and Novatia)

"There is one God, and Christ is one, and there is one Church, and one chair founded upon the rock by the word of the Lord." (Cyprian. Epistle XXXIX) [See slso "Treatise on Unity." Cyprian considers the universal episcopate as one cathredra, like "Moses' seat" in the Church of the Hebrews. This one chair he calls "Peter's chair."]

"On him [Peter] he builds the Church...and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra]...If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" (Cyprian. The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251])

"Having had a pseudo-bishop set up for themselves by heretics, they dare to sail, and to carry letters from schismatic and profane men to the chair of Peter, and to the principal Church whence the unity of the priesthood took its rise; nor do they consider that the Romans are those (whose faith was praised in the preaching of the Apostle) to whom faithlessness cannot have access." (Cyprian. Ep. lv. ad Cornel)

"For first to Peter, upon whom He built the Church, and from whom He appointed and showed that unity should spring, the Lord gave this power that should be in heaven which he should have loosed on earth." (Cyprian. Ep. lxxiii ad Fubaian)

"There is one God and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that one altar and that one priesthood. Whoever has gathered elsewhere is scattering" (Letters 43[40]:5 [A.D. 253]).

Firmilian, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia (AD 232-269)

"But what is his error...who does not remain on the foundation of the one Church which was founded upon the rock by Christ [Matt. 16:18], can be learned from this, which Christ said to Peter alone: 'Whatever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed in heaven' [Matt. 16:19]" (Bishop Firmilian. collected in Cyprian's Letters 74[75]:16 [A.D. 253]).

"[Pope] Stephen [I]...boasts of the place of his episcopate, and contends that he holds the succession from Peter, on whom the foundations of the Church were laid [Matt. 16:18]...[Pope] Stephen...announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter" (ibid., 74[75]:17).

Council of Chalcedon, Fourth Ecumenical Council (AD 451)

"Wherefore the most holy and blessed Leo, archbishop of the great and elder Rome, through us, and through this present most holy synod, together with the thrice blessed and all-glorious Peter the apostle, who is the rock and foundation of the Catholic Church, and the foundation of the orthodox faith, has stripped him [Dioscorus] of the episcopate" (Chalcedon. Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 451])

Letter of Clement to James (AD 221)

"Be it known to you, my lord, that Simon [Peter], who, for the sake of the true faith, and the most sure foundation of his doctrine, was set apart to be the foundation of the Church, and for this end was by Jesus himself, with his truthful mouth, named Peter" (Letter of Clement to James 2 [A.D. 221]).

Origen (AD 182-251)

"Look at [Peter], the great foundation of the Church, that most solid of rocks, upon whom Christ built the Church [Matt. 16:18]. And what does our Lord say to him? 'Oh you of little faith,' he says, 'why do you doubt?' [Matt. 14:31]" (Homilies on Exodus 5:4 [A.D. 248]).

Ephraim the Syrian (AD 306-373)

"[Jesus said:] 'Simon, my follower, I have made you the foundation of the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because you will support all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on earth a Church for me. If they should wish to build what is false, you, the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain from which my teaching flows; you are the chief of my disciples'" (Homilies 4:1 [A.D. 351]).

Optatus (AD 367)

"You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat, the same who was head--that is why he is also called Cephas ['Rock']--of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all" (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (AD 400)

"Number the bishops from the See of Peter itself. And in that order of Fathers see who succeeded whom. That is the rock against whom the gates of hell do not prevail." (Augustine. Psalmus contr. Partem Donati, str. 18).

"The Roman Church, in which the primacy of the Apostolic See has always been in force" (Augustine. Epist. xlii).

"To be unwilling to give the primacy to the Roman Church either stems from the utmost impiety or from rash arrogance" (Augustine. De Util. Cred. c.17).

"Peter...head of the Apostles, doorkeeper of heaven and foundation of the church." (Augustine. Ep 36)

"This same Peter...bearing the figure of the Church...holding the chief place in the Apostleship..." (Augustine. Sermon XXVI)

St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (AD 340-397)

"But to that same Peter He said on an earlier occasion, '...Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' How could He not confirm his faith, unto whom of His own authority He gave the kingdom, and whom when He styles a Rock, He pointed out the foundation of the church?" (Ambrose. T. ii. l. iv. De Fide, c.v.n 56)

"It is to Peter that he says: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church'. Where Peter is, there is the Church. And where the Church is, no death is there, but life eternal" (Ambrose. Commentary on Twelve Psalms of David 40:30 [A.D. 389])

"Peter is called the 'rock' because, like an immovable rock, he sustains the joints and mass of the entire Christian edifice" (Ambrose. Sermon 4)

"He called the Bishop to him, and not accounting any grace true which was not of the true faith, he inquired of him whether he agreed with the Catholic bishops, that is, with the Roman Church (Ambrose. De Excessa Frat. n. 46, tom. ii)

"From this Church [of Rome] the rights of venerable communion flow unto all." (Ambrose. Epist. xi. n. 4)

Pope Damasus I (AD 305-383)

"Likewise it is decreed...the holy Roman Church has not been placed at the forefront [of the churches] by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven...' [Matt. 16:18-19]. The first See, therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it" (Damasus I. Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382]).

St. Jerome (AD 347-420)

"I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built. Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark of Noah will perish when the flood prevails" (Jerome. Letters 15:2 [A.D. 396]).

"But, you [Jovinian] will say, 'it was on Peter that the Church was founded' [Matt. 16:18]. Well...one among the twelve is chosen to be their head in order to remove any occasion for division" (Against Jovinian 1:26 [A.D. 393])

Pope Leo I (AD 445)

"Our Lord Jesus Christ...has placed the principal charge on the blessed Peter, chief of all the apostles....He wished him who had been received into partnership in his undivided unity to be named what he himself was, when he said: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church' [Matt. 16:18], that the building of the eternal temple might rest on Peter's solid rock, strengthening his Church so surely that neither could human rashness assail it nor the gates of hell prevail against it" (Letters 10:1 [A.D. 445]).

Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (AD 300s)

"That powerful and great one of the Apostles, who, on account of his excellence, was the leader of all the rest" (Hist. Eccl. lib. ii.c.14)

"The very head of the Apostles" (Com. in Ps. lxviii. 9, tom. v. p.737)

St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople (AD 347-407)

"He [Peter] was the chosen one of the Apostles, and the mouth of the disciples, and the leader of the choir. On this account, Paul also went up on a time to see him rather than the others...And if any one should say, How then did James receive the throne of Jerusalem? This I would answer, that He appointed this man (Peter) teacher not of that throne, but of the world." (Chrysostom. In Joan. Hom. lxxxviii. n. 1 tom. viii)

"Peter himself the head or crown of the Apostles, the first in the Church, the friend of Christ...and when I name Peter I name that unbroken rock, that firm foundation, the great apostle, the first of the disciples." (Chrysostom. T. ii. Hom. iii. de Paenit. n. 4)

"Peter, the leader of the choir of the Apostles, the mouth of the disciples, the pillar of the church, the buttress of the faith, the foundation of the confession, the fisherman of the universe." (Chrysostom. T. iii. Hom. de. Dec. Mill. Talen. n. 3)

"God allowed him [Peter] to fall, because he meant to make him ruler over the whole world, that, remembering his own fall, he might forgive those who would slip in the future." (Chrysostom. Hom. quod frequenter conveniendum sit 5, cf. Hom. 73 in Joan. 5)

"Did He not rebuke him when he had fallen this grave fall? Nay, He passed it over and appointed him first of the apostles." (Chrysostom. In Psalm CXXIX)

"Peter, the leader of the choir, the mouth of all the apostles, the head of that tribe, the ruler of the whole world, the foundation of the Church, the ardent lover of Christ" (Chrysostom. Hom. on 2 Tim 3.1)

"Peter so washed away that denial as to be enve made the first Apostle, and to have the whole world committed to him." (Chrysostom. Tom. i. Orat. viii. n. 3)

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (AD 315-386)

"Peter, also the foremost of the Apostles and the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven..." (Cyril of Jerusalem. Catech. xvii. n. 27)

Counting Apostolic Succession from St. Peter

Irenaeus of Lyons (AD 189)

"The blessed apostles [Peter and Paul], having founded and built up the church [of Rome], they handed over the office of the episcopate to Linus" (Against Heresies 3:3:3 [A.D. 189]).

Tertullian (AD 155-230)

"[T]his is the way in which the apostolic churches transmit their lists: like the church of the Smyrneans, which records that Polycarp was placed there by John, like the church of the Romans, where Clement was ordained by Peter" (Demurrer Against the Heretics 32:2 [A.D. 200]).

The Little Labyrinth (AD 211)

"Victor...was the thirteenth bishop of Rome from Peter" (The Little Labyrinth [A.D. 211], in Eusebius, Church History 5:28:3)

Cyprian of Carthage (AD 251)

"The Lord says to Peter: 'I say to you,' he says, 'that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. ... ' [Matt. 16:18] On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity....If someone [today] does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" (The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; first edition [A.D. 251]).

"Cornelius was made bishop by the decision of God and of his Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the applause of the people then present, by the college of venerable priests and good men, at a time when no one had been made [bishop] before him--when the place of [Pope] Fabian, which is the place of Peter, the dignity of the sacerdotal chair, was vacant. Since it has been occupied both at the will of God and with the ratified consent of all of us, whoever now wishes to become bishop must do so outside. For he cannot have ecclesiastical rank who does not hold to the unity of the Church" (Letters 55:[52]):8 [A.D. 253]).

"With a false bishop appointed for themselves by heretics, they dare even to set sail and carry letters from schismatics and blasphemers to the Chair of Peter and to the principal church [at Rome], in which sacerdotal unity has its source" (ibid., 59:14).

Firmilian (AD 253)

"[Pope] Stephen [I] . . . boasts of the place of his episcopate, and contends that he holds the succession from Peter, on whom the foundations of the Church were laid [Matt. 16:18] . . . Stephen . . . announces that he holds by succession the throne of Peter" (collected in Cyprian's Letters 74[75]):17 [A.D. 253]).

Eusebius of Caesarea (AD 312)

"Paul testifies that Crescens was sent to Gaul [2 Tim. 4:10], but Linus, whom he mentions in the Second Epistle to Timothy [2 Tim. 4:21] as his companion at Rome, was Peter's successor in the episcopate of the church there, as has already been shown. Clement also, who was appointed third bishop of the church at Rome, was, as Paul testifies, his co-laborer and fellow-soldier [Phil. 4:3]" (Church History 3:4:9-10 [A.D. 312]).

Pope Julius I (AD 341)

"[The] judgment [against Athanasius] ought to have been made, not as it was, but according to the ecclesiastical canon. It behooved all of you to write us so that the justice of it might be seen as emanating from all....Are you ignorant that the custom has been to write first to us and then for a just decision to be passed from this place [Rome]? If, then, any such suspicion rested upon the bishop there [Athanasius of Alexandria], notice of it ought to have been written to the church here. But now, after having done as they pleased, they want to obtain our concurrence, although we never condemned him. Not thus are the constitutions of Paul, not thus the traditions of the Fathers. This is another form of procedure, and a novel practice....What I write about this is for the common good. For what we have heard from the blessed Apostle Peter, these things I signify to you" (Letter on Behalf of Athanasius [A.D. 341], contained in Athanasius, Apology Against the Arians 20-35).

Council of Sardica (AD 342)

"[I]f any bishop loses the judgment in some case [decided by his fellow bishops] and still believes that he has not a bad but a good case, in order that the case may be judged anew...let us honor the memory of the Apostle Peter by having those who have given the judgment write to Julius, Bishop of Rome, so that if it seem proper he may himself send arbiters and the judgment may be made again by the bishops of a neighboring province" (canon 3 [A.D. 342]).

Optatus (AD 367)

"You cannot deny that you are aware that in the city of Rome the episcopal chair was given first to Peter; the chair in which Peter sat, the same who was head--that is why he is also called Cephas ["Rock"]--of all the apostles; the one chair in which unity is maintained by all" (The Schism of the Donatists 2:2 [A.D. 367]).

Epiphanius of Salamis (AD 375)

"At Rome the first Apostles and bishops were Peter and Paul, then Linus, then Cletus, then Clement, the contemporary of Peter and Paul" (Medicine Chest Against All Heresies 27:6 [A.D. 375]).

Pope Damasus I (AD 382)

"Likewise it is decreed:...[W]e have considered that it ought to be announced that...the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the conciliar decisions of other churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven' [Matt. 16:18-19]. The first see [today], therefore, is that of Peter the apostle, that of the Roman Church, which has neither stain nor blemish nor anything like it" (Decree of Damasus 3 [A.D. 382]).

Jerome (AD 383)

"[Pope] Stephen . . . was the blessed Peter's twenty-second successor in the See of Rome" (Against the Luciferians 23 [A.D. 383]).

"Clement, of whom the apostle Paul writing to the Philippians says 'With Clement and others of my fellow-workers whose names are written in the book of life,' the fourth bishop of Rome after Peter, if indeed the second was Linus and the third Anacletus, although most of the Latins think that Clement was second after the apostle" (Lives of Illustrious Men 15 [A.D. 396]).

"Since the East, shattered as it is by the long-standing feuds, subsisting between its peoples, is bit by bit tearing into shreds the seamless vest of the Lord...I think it my duty to consult the chair of Peter, and to turn to a church [Rome] whose faith has been praised by Paul [Rom. 1:8]. I appeal for spiritual food to the church whence I have received the garb of Christ....Evil children have squandered their patrimony; you alone keep your heritage intact" (Letters 15:1 [A.D. 396]).

"I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Damasus I], that is, with the chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built. Whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is profane. Anyone who is not in the ark on Noah will perish when the flood prevails" (ibid., 15:2).

"The church here is split into three parts, each eager to seize me for its own. . . . Meanwhile I keep crying, 'He that is joined to the chair of Peter is accepted by me!'...Therefore, I implore your blessedness [Pope Damasus I]...tell me by letter with whom it is that I should communicate in Syria" (ibid., 16:2).

Ambrose of Milan (AD 388)

"[T]hey [the Novatian heretics] have not the succession of Peter, who hold not the chair of Peter, which they rend by wicked schism; and this, too, they do, wickedly denying that sins can be forgiven [by the sacrament of confession] even in the Church, whereas it was said to Peter: "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven" [Matt. 16:19]" (Penance 1:7:33 [A.D. 388]).

St. Augustine (AD 402)

"If all men throughout the world were such as you most vainly accuse them of having been, what has the chair of the Roman church done to you, in which Peter sat, and in which Anastasius sits today?" (Against the Letters of Petilani 2:118 [A.D. 402]).

"If the very order of episcopal succession is to be considered, how much more surely, truly, and safely do we number them from Peter himself, to whom, as to one representing the whole Church, the Lord said, "Upon this rock I will build my church..." [Matt. 16:18]. Peter was succeeded by Linus, Linus by Clement, Clement by Anacletus, Anacletus by Evaristus..." (Letters 53:1:2 [A.D. 412]).

Council of Ephesus (AD 431)

"Philip the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See said: 'There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the Apostles, pillar of the faith, and foundation of the Catholic Church, received the keys of the kingdom from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, and that to him was given the power of loosing and binding sins: who down even to to-day and forever both lives and judges in his successors. The holy and most blessed pope Celestine, according to due order, is his successor and holds his place, and us he sent to supply his place m this holy synod'" (Acts of the Council, session 3 [A.D. 431]).

Pope Leo I (AD 445)

"As for the resolution of the bishops which is contrary to the Nicene decree, in union with your faithful piety, I declare it to be invalid and annul it by the authority of the holy Apostle Peter" (Letters 110 [A.D. 445]).

"[T]he Lord says, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood have not revealed it to you, but my Father, who is in heaven. And I say to you, that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it...' [Matt. 16:18]. The dispensation of truth therefore abides, and the blessed Peter persevering in the strength of the rock, which he has received, has not abandoned the helm of the Church" (Sermons 3:2-3 [A.D. 450]).

"Whereupon the blessed Peter, as inspired by God, and about to benefit all nations by his confession, said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Not undeservedly, therefore, was he pronounced blessed by the Lord, and derived from the original Rock that solidity which belonged both to his virtue and to his name [Peter]" (The Tome of Leo [A.D. 449]).

Council of Chalcedon (AD 451)

"After the reading of the foregoing epistle [The Tome of Leo], the most reverend bishops cried out: 'This is the faith of the fathers! this is the faith of the Apostles! So we all believe! thus the orthodox believe! Anathema to him who does not thus believe! Peter has spoken thus through Leo! ...This is the true faith! Those of us who are orthodox thus believe! This is the faith of the Fathers!'" (Acts of the Council, session 2 [A.D. 451]).

Peter Chrysologus (AD 449)

"We exhort you in every respect, honorable brother, to heed obediently what has been written by the most blessed pope of the city of Rome, for blessed Peter, who lives and presides in his own see, provides the truth of faith to those who seek it. For we, by reason of our pursuit of peace and faith, cannot try cases on the faith without the consent of the bishop of Rome" (Letters 25:2 [A.D. 449]