the beginning of the Faith' from its Founders, the chief of the Apostles of Christ, it abides untainted to the end, according to the divine promise of our Lord and Saviour Himself, which in the Holy Gospels He uttered to the Prince of His disciples: Peter, Peter, behold, Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And thou, when thou art converted, confirm thy brethren.'[1]
It was to this that the Fathers answered in acclamation: 'Peter hath spoken.'
On this evidence two things are to be observed: First, that Agatho's declaration of the untainted orthodoxy of the Apostolic See until his day refutes the attempt of those who would fasten heresy on Pope Honorius, his predecessor.
Next, that the Fathers so little distinguished 'inter sedem et in eâ sedentem,' that they identify Agatho and the See as one and the same. They address him αἱς πρωτοθρόνῳ σοι τῆς οἰκουμενῆς ἐκκλησίας, ἐπὶ τὴν στερεὰν πέτραν ἑστῶτι. 'To thee, therefore, as the first See of the Universal Church, we leave what is to be done,' &c.[2]
20. It may perhaps be said that the language of Anselm of Havelburgh, quoted above, gives no proof of the mind of the Eastern Church. I will therefore add one more testimony, at a period when as yet
- ↑ Labbe, Concil. tom. vii. pp. 659, 662. Ed. Ven. 1729.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 1110. So S. Jerome: 'Ego Beatitudini tuæ, id est Cathedræ, consocior,' Opp. tom. iv. P. 2, p. 19; and S. Prosper, inter Opp. S. Aug. tom. x. App. p. 176, Paris, 1690: 'Sacrosancta Petri Sedes per universum orbem Papæ Zosimi sic ore loquitur.' S. Peter Damian writes to the Pope: 'Vos Apostolica Sedes, Vos Romana estis Ecclesia.' Opp. tom. iii. p. 221.
