07/13/2024
ETERNAL TRUTHS OF CHRIST'S HOLY CHURCH....
Church & Authority...What We Must Believe...
The Church is the "Kingdom of God on Earth"...not to be divided...
The Church is "Orthodox in Faith" and "Catholic in Communion"...
"While the bond of concord remains, and the undivided sacrament of the Catholic Church endures, every bishop disposes and directs his own acts, and will have to give an account of his purposes to the Lord." -- St. Cyprian in his Letter to Antonianus
"For neither does any of us set himself up as a bishop of bishops, nor by tyrannical terror does any compel his colleague to the necessity of obedience; since every bishop, according to the allowance of his liberty and power, has his own proper right of judgment, and can no more be judged by another than himself can judge another. But let us all wait for the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only one that has the power both of preferring us in the government of His Church, and of judging us in our conduct there." -- St. Cyprian in his Address to the Seventh Ecumenical Council
"Through the changes of time and successions, the ordering of bishops and the plan of the Church flow onwards; so that the Church is founded upon the bishops, and every act of the Church is controlled by these same rulers. Since this, then, is founded on the Divine Law, I marvel that some, with daring temerity, have chosen to write to me as if they wrote in the name of the Church." -- St. Cyprian to the Lapsed, Epistle XXVI
"...the Councils themselves, which are held in the several districts and provinces, must yield, beyond all possibility of doubt, to the authority of the Plenary (Ecumenical or General) Councils which are formed for the whole Christian world..." -- St. Augustine in his work 'On Baptism, Against the Donatists'
"...which by means of the Apostolic Sees, and the succession of bishops is spread abroad in an indisputably world-wide diffusion." -- St. Augustine in his Letter CC###II
"For on this very account the Lord said, 'On this rock I will build my Church,' because Peter had said, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' On this rock, therefore, He said, which thou hast confessed, I will build my Church. For the Rock (petra) was Christ; and on this foundation was Peter himself also built." -- St. Augustine of Hippo in his Tractate CXXIV, 'On the Gospel of John'
"Thou art therefore, saith He, Peter, and upon this Rock which thou hast confessed, upon this rock, which thou hast acknowledged, saying, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,' I will build my Church. Upon Me I will build thee, not Me upon thee." -- St. Augustine of Hippo in his Tractate CXXIV, On the Gospel of John'
"Where the bishop is to be seen, there let all his people be; just as wherever Jesus Christ is present, we have the Catholic Church." -- St. Ignatius of Antioch in his Letter to the Smyrnaeans
"It is not the case that there is one church at Rome and another in all the world beside. Gaul and Britain, Africa and Persia, India and the East worship one Christ and observe one rule of truth. If you ask for authority, the world outweighs its capital. Wherever there is a bishop, whether it be at Rome or at Engubium, whether it be Constantinople or at Rhegium, whether it be at Alexandria or at Zoan, his dignity is one and his priesthood is one. Neither the command or wealth nor the lowliness of poverty makes him more a bishop or less a bishop. All alike are Successors of the Apostles." St. Jerome in his Letter CXLVI to Evangelus
The East has always preserved the Cyprianic vision of the Early Church. St. Cyprian forcefully preached that St. Peter's primacy is shared by all the bishops and St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo & Doctor of the Church in the West, unequivocally stated time & time again that supreme universal jurisdiction of the Church resides in its Ecumenical or General Councils and NOT in a single Apostolic See!
St. Augustine had ample opportunity to express a belief in the supreme jurisdiction of the Roman Patriarchate...but he NEVER did so.
From before the Third Century, the Church in Rome was accepted as "First Among Equals." The "Chair of Peter" was the Undivided Church and not the "See of Rome" by itself.
St. Cyprian clearly taught St. Peter's primacy being perpetuated in ALL the canonical bishops of the Undivided Catholic Church. St. Cyprian's works pointedly exclude the notion of St. Peter's primacy being exercised by a single bishop to the exclusion of others.This form of Church government was the ONLY ONE recognized by the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, as is preserved by the Eastern Churches today.
It is this "pastoral conversion" of both the present day Papacy & Roman Curia that His Holiness Pope Francis is working to achieve! The Church must profess "Church and Authority" as it was given and inspired by the Holy Spirit to the Undivided Catholic Church at the Seven Ecumenical Councils...without any change or alteration!
+ + + + + This is why we are called, and gloriously part of, the Orthodox or "rightly believing" Early Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and, the Western Roman Patriarchate...which was the first to break from the Undivided Early Church...ceased to call themselves Orthodox, because they added various innovations, e.g. the "filioque" clause to the Nicene Creed and use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist.
Sadly, all of this, and much more, caused the original Orthodox Patriarchate of the West to develop doctrines which were farther and farther away from the Truths of the authentic "Deposit of Faith" [given by Our Lord Jesus to the Apostles and completed by the Holy Spirit, starting on that first Pentecost and completed during the course of the Seven Ecumenical Councils] and eventually resulting in a complete protesting against the Church of Rome - changing revealed Truths and adding innovations - causing more division in the Body of Christ with the Protestant Reformation!
