fence against those who have falsified his doctrine, when he tells them that the apostolate belongs equally to all the Apostles. "That it is the first of all dignities, that the apostle is at the summit of the hierarchy, that none is before and none above him." The Romish theologians make the most capital of this passage on the election of St. Matthias: "Peter always speaks first, because he is full of zeal; because it is to him that Christ has committed the care of the flock; and "because he is the first among the Apostles." A little further on, asking whether Peter would not, himself, have designated some one to take the place of Judas, he adds, "Without doubt he could have done this, but he refrained in order not to seem to do a favour to the one he would name."
In the first place, these expressions that "Peter always speaks first, because he is full of zeal and because he is first among the Apostles," are the best evidence that Chrysostom never meant to say, because he was the chief of the Church. And thus the third because, inserted between the other two, "because it is to him that Christ has committed the care of his flock," is no longer susceptible of the meaning attached to it by the Romanists; unless one would make the good Father contradict himself, not only in this passage, but in all his writings. This is abundantly confirmed by the explanation thart the great Patriarch gives of the words, "feed my lambs, feed my sheep," upon which our adversaries most rely when they claim that it was to Peter alone that these words were addressed, and that to him alone was confided the care of the flock. "This," writes St. Chrysostom, "was not said to the Apostles and bishops only, but also to each one of us, however humble, to whom has been committed the care of the flock."[1] Thus, according to St. Chrysostom, these words were
- ↑ Upon St Matthew, 77th homily.
