On the Unity of the Catholic Church 4
Summary: Christ built the church on Peter to show its unity; the other apostles had equal honour and power, but the church begins from one and is one.
Textual problem in this passage: the printed text is uncertain or disputed here. See the notes.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:212–213
Quae si quis consideret et examinet, tractatu longo adque argumentis opus non est. probatio est ad fidem facilis conpendio ueritatis. loquitur Dominus ad Petrum: ego tibi dico, inquit, quia tu es Petrus et super istam petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et portae inferorum non uincent eam. dabo tibi claues regni caelorum: et quae ligaueris super terram erunt ligata et in caelis, et quaecumque solueris super terram erunt soluta et in caelis. super unum aedificat ecclesiam, et quamuis apostolis omnibus post resurrectionem suam parem potestatem tribuat et dicat: sicut misit me pater et ego mitto uos. accipite Spiritum sanctum: si cuius remiseritis peccata, remittentur illi: si cuius tenueritis, tenebuntur, tamen ut unitatem manifestaret, unitatis eiusdem originem ab uno incipientem. sua auctoritate disposuit. hoc erant utique et ceteri apostoli quod fuit Petrus, pari consortio praediti et honoris et potestatis, sed exordium ab unitate proficiscitur, ut ecclesia Christi una monstretur. quam unam ecclesiam etiam in cantico canticorum Spiritus sanctus ex persona Domini designat et dicit: una est columba mea, perfecta mea, una est matri suae, electa genetrici suae. hanc ecclesiae unitatem qui non tenet tenere se fidem credit? qui ecclesiae renititur et resistit in ecclesia se esse confidit? quando et beatus apostolus Paulus hoc idem doceat et sacramentum unitatis ostendat dicens: unum corpus et unus spiritus, una spes uocationis uestrae, unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptisma, unus Deus.
English · Claude translation
If anyone considers and examines these things, there is no need of long discussion and arguments. The proof for faith is easy by a summary of the truth. The Lord speaks 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 shall not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven." Upon one he builds the church; and although after his resurrection he gives equal power to all the apostles and says, "As the Father has sent me, I also send you. Receive the Holy Spirit: if you forgive anyone's sins, they will be forgiven him; if you retain anyone's, they will be retained," yet, to make unity manifest, he arranged by his own authority that the origin of that same unity should begin from one. The other apostles too were certainly what Peter was, endowed with an equal fellowship both of honour and of power; but the beginning proceeds from unity, so that the church of Christ may be shown to be one. This one church the Holy Spirit also designates in the Song of Songs, in the person of the Lord, and says: "My dove is one, my perfect one; she is the only one of her mother, the chosen one of her that bore her." Does he who does not hold this unity of the church believe that he holds the faith? Does he who strives against and resists the church trust that he is in the church? For the blessed apostle Paul too teaches this same thing and shows the sacrament of unity, saying: "One body and one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God."
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- This is chapter 4 as printed by Hartel (the "received text"). Some manuscripts preserve a second form of the chapter, the so-called primacy text, which speaks of a primacy given to Peter and of one chair (cathedra); scholars debate whether Cyprian wrote both forms. The quotations are Matt 16:18–19, John 20:21–23, Song 6:9 (6:8 Vulg.), and Eph 4:4–6. The digital text's stray "u t" before "misit" is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR: stray letters.; OCR: words run together.): sicut u t misit → sicut misit; columbamea → columba mea.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Unit. eccl. 4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-unitate/4/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Unit. eccl. 4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-unitate/4/).
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