it is sufficient for me that I am the bridegroom's friend that standeth and heareth with joy[1] the bridegroom's voice," John 3:27–29. And the bridegroom said: "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you," John 15:14. Thus it is evident that it would be the highest arrogance and folly for any man, Christ excepted, to call himself the head and the bridegroom of the holy catholic church.
But the reason for Christ's appointing Peter after himself as captain and shepherd was the pre-eminence of virtues fitting him to rule the church. For otherwise the Wisdom[2] of the Father would have unwisely appointed him the bishop of his church. And as all moral virtues are bound together in a class—in genere—it is evident that Peter had a certain pre-eminence in the entire class of virtues. But there were three virtues in which Peter excelled, namely, faith, humility, and love. Faith, which properly is the foundation of the church, excelled in Peter because of what the best of Masters ordained, Matt. 16:16, in answer to that question which he asked about himself: ‘Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" To this Peter replied for all, saying: "Thou art the Son of the living God." Here he confessed
Christ's humanity by which he meant that Christ was the Messiah promised to the fathers. The second part confesses Christ as the natural Son of the living God, and so Peter confessed Christ to be very God and very man. And among all the articles of faith, this one appertains most to the edification of the church, for, according to St. John, the Son of God overcometh the world: "Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" I John 5:5. For, when this foundation is laid, the belief follows that all things which Christ did or taught are to be accepted without any detraction by the whole church.
