THE CHURCH: the Series Part IIIb: the Papacy Its Origin, its Past Visibility, its Authenticity Today Exercise of Judicial Power Consistent with the miraculous atmosphere of the apostolic church, Peters first exercise of judicial power carried with it a divine sanction that terrifies us even centuries after the original event. The more fervent among the early Christians sold their possessions and turned over the proceeds to a fund for the poor. Among these were a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira who had sold a piece of land and by fraud kept back part of the price. Acts 5:3-11 But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart so that you lied to the holy Spirit and retained part of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain yours? And when it was sold, was it not still under your control? Why did you contrive this deed? You have lied not to human beings, but to God. When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men came and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him. ~ After an interval of about three hours, his wife came in, unaware of what had happened. Peter said to her, Tell me, did you sell the land for this amount? She answered, Yes, for that amount. Then Peter said to her, Why did you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen, the footsteps of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out. At once, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men entered they found her dead, so they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. The correlation between Peters judgment and Gods visitation illustrated the ratification which Christ had promised to make in heaven for whatever His vicar would bind upon earth. Moreover it showed the area of morality over which the Church, by divine right, has jurisdiction: not only the gross external crimes that affect the common good, but secret sins and even those which involve a broken pledge to God. Visitation of the Christian Communities For some time after Sauls miraculous conversion to Christianity, and partly because the Christians were relieved of his persecuting zeal. Acts 9:31-41 The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the holy Spirit it grew in numbers. As Peter was passing through every region, he went down to the holy ones living in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been confined to bed for eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed. He got up at once. And all the inhabitants of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated means Dorcas). She was completely occupied with good deeds and almsgiving. Now during those days she fell sick and died, so after washing her, they laid (her) out in a room upstairs. ~ Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, Please come to us without delay. So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs where all the widows came to him weeping and showing him the tunics and cloaks that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to her body and said, Tabitha, rise up. She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. He gave her his hand and raised her up, and when he had called the holy ones and the widows, he presented her alive. This shows the extent of the Churchs development within a few years of the Ascension and the recognized need for a center of unity that was more than local, by having all the communities defer to the Church of Jerusalem, which at that time was governed by Simon Peter. 46-49 AD) Presiding at the Council of Jerusalem Pauls evangelization conflicted with the Jerusalem converts from Judaism which he called the Judaizers; The conflict provoked the most serious crisis in apostolic Christianity; Finally settled by what is properly regarded as the first ecumenical council in the Church; Peter presided and gave the decisive judgment. According to the Judaizers, unless a man was (1) circumcised and (2) kept the Law of Moses down to the smallest detail, he could not be saved. Paul and Barnabas who had remarkable success in converting the gentiles led the opposition. The basic question: whether after baptism it was still necessary to follow the Mosaic dispensation. Paul, who demanded a show-down, the Apostles and presbyters called a meeting in Jerusalem Acts 15:6-12 The apostles and the presbyters met together to see about this matter. After much debate had taken place, Peter got up and said to them, My brothers, you are well aware that from early days God made his choice among you that through my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the holy Spirit just as he did us. He made no distinction between us and them, for by faith he purified their hearts. Why, then, are you now putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they. The whole assembly fell silent, and they listened while Paul and Barnabas described the signs and wonders God had worked among the Gentiles through them. One aspect of the issue which Peter settled deserves special emphasis. The immediate problem was only whether the Mosaic code was binding on the converts from paganism. Peter decided it was not. But he went beyond this decision to make a sweeping declaration that even for Judaeo-Christians, the Law of Moses was no longer efficacious. He was stating in so many words that the Old Covenant had come to an end and that rules and regulations that had bound and bound together for centuries the Israelites were now abrogated and that salvation must be sought independently of them. St. Peter in Rome St. Peters stay in Rome and his martyrdom in that city are closely tied in with the origins of the papacy. They serve as a link to unite the original community in Antioch where the disciples were first called Christians. Vatican Council I ( ) Blessed Peter even to this time governs and exercises judgment in his successor, the bishops of the holy Roman See, which he established and consecrated with his blood. Those who question the historical fact are afraid of its doctrinal implications. And although the opposition is weakening in the light of recent excavations which confirm the written tradition, the issue is still disputed by critics of the Roman Primacy. First Epistle of St. Peter The presence of Peter in Rome is affirmed at the end of his first epistle, written in 63/64 A.D. 1 Peter 5:13 The Church which is at Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you; and so does my son Mark. All the evidence identifies Babylon as Rome. Babylon was already in ruins; no suggestion for five centuries that Peter had ever been there; The tradition connecting him with Rome is one of the strongest in the Church. From early writings (Revelation, Jewish writings, etc.) of the first century, it was known that this name was a cryptic designation for the city of Rome. Eusebius of Caesarea ( ) They say that Peter makes mention of Mark in his first epistle, which, they say, he wrote also in Rome, as he indicated when he calls the city figuratively Babylon. (Church History, II,15) Clement of Rome to the Corinthians Another authentic witness to Peters stay and martyrdom in Rome from his third successor, Clement I. This most famous document of Christian antiquity outside the Scriptures. St Clement of Rome (c. 96) Through envy and malice, the greatest and most righteous pillars of the Church were persecuted and contended even unto death. Let us set before our eyes the good Apostles. There was Peter, who by reason of malicious envy endured not one nor two but many trials, and so, having been martyred, he passed to his appointed place of glory. Amid envy and strife, Paul pointed out the way to the prize of patient endurance.... Unto these men of holy lives was gathered a vast multitude of the elect, who through many indignities and tortures endured the envy and set a noble example in the midst of us. Through envy women were persecuted as Danaides and Dirces, suffering cruel and unholy insults; they steadfastly finished the course of faith and received a noble price. (Epist. ad Cor. V, 1) Gaius the Presbyter on the Tombs of the Apostles An outstanding witness to Peters living and dying in Rome is the presbyter Gaius, a contemporary of Pope Zephyrinus (b. ?-217). Gauis opposed the heretic Proclus, who taught that the church of Hierapolis in Asia Minor possessed the graves of the Apostle Philip and his daughters. Gaius (c. 200) But I can point out the tombs of the Apostles. For if you go to the Vatican Hill or to the Ostian Way, you will find the tombs of those who have founded his church. Eusebius of Caesarea ( ) Quotes Gaius, further explaining that Peters crucifixion and Pauls beheading in Rome are confirmed by the fact that the names of Peter and Paul are preserved in the cemeteries there to this day. Consequently he interprets Gaius as identifying the places where the bodies of the aforesaid Apostles are laid. (Church History, II, 25) St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 115-c. 202) Matthew issued a Gospel among the Hebrews in their tongue, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome and establishing the Church. After their death, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, transmitted to us in writing the things that Peter had preached. (Adv. Haer, III, 1) Confirmatory evidence was discovered on the Appian Way in the catacombs under the Basilica of St. Sebastian, formerly called the Basilica of the Apostles. Inscriptions have been cut into the walls of the catacomb by the Christian faithful, invoking the intercession of Sts. Peter and Paul. 191 inscriptions (graffiti) have been discovered, 33 of them in Greek and the rest in low Latin. Peter and Paul, keep us in mind.Peter and Paul, pray for a great sinner.Peter and Paul save Vincent.I, Tomius Coelius, offered a libation to Peter and Paul. Supporting archeological data indicates that the bodies of the two Apostles were temporarily removed from the Vatican (for Peter) and the Via Ostia (for Paul) to this out of the way cemetery on the Appian Way, most probably in 258, the year of the general desecration of Christian burial places during the persecution of Valerian. They remained there until the early fourth century when peace was given to the Church by the Emperor Constantine, who had the bodies restored to their original tombs and built two great basilicas on the hallowed sites. Tomb of St. Peter at the Vatican The testimony in favor of Peters sojourn and martyrdom in Rome is so conclusive that practically no one denies it. A further question is whether the present St. Peters Basilica can be scientifically established as the burial place of the first Apostle. Excavations at the Vatican begun and continued to the present day give full credence to the traditional belief that under the columns of Bernini and the Confessio Petri lies the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. Besides the definitive report published by the Vatican, at least a dozen volumes have come out on the subject. (Toynbee and Perkins, The Shrine of St. Peter and the Vatican Excavations, London, 1956) The evidence falls into two classes, literary and archeological, which are mutually dependent. The literary evidence covers three items in particular: that by the year 200 there was a shrine on the Vatican Hill which people venerated as the burial place of St. Peter; that eleven of the first fourteen successors of the first pope were buried next to the body of the Blessed Peter in the Vatican; that around 335 A.D. the Emperor Constantine built a gigantic church on the Vatican in honor of the Prince of the Apostles. (Liber Pontificalis, c. 700) The archeological evidence centers on the Necropolis under St. Peters Basilica; recent excavations under the Basilica of St. Peter have unearthed a large cemetery, both pagan and Christian, together with a monumental shrine that was certainly dedicated to the first Apostle. a brief catalog of these findings will help to estimate their value on a purely scientific basis. The first discovery--an unusually thick wall of considerable size, whose purpose was to make level the sloping hillside and furnish a substructure for the Basilica of Constantine. Near the wall and immediately below the present high altar of St. Peters was found a sizeable monument with a shallow niche about ten feet square, which is traditionally associated with funerary shrines. Built into a red wall of its own, the monument can be dated to 160 A.D., from the stamp of Marcus Aurelius on some of the bricks in the pavement. Under the monument and directly below the niche were found reburied bones which the excavators identified as human. Under the monument and directly below the niche were found reburied bones which the excavators identified as human. A preliminary examination showed them to be those of a person of advanced age and powerful physique. Significantly, the red wall at this very spot, and only here, does not go so deep into the ground, as though to avoid disturbing a grave. Buried in a recess in front of the monument were found innumerable coins, probably votive offerings, including six that were minted before the shrine was constructed and seventy-seven ranging from 80 to 300 A.D. Scores of Chi-Rho monograms on the walls and one invocation of St. Peter right next to the monument confirm that fact that this was a place of Christian worship and prayer. The Bones of St. Peter: A Fascinating Account of the Search for the Apostle's Body by John Evangelist Walsh (Paperback - Mar 1985) Neighboring on the monument is a series of graves of varying antiquity, from the first and second centuries, including one that bears the stamp of Vespasian who died in 79 A.D. Their location suggests they were deliberately aligned with the monument in subordinate relation to a central tomb which lay underneath. Moreover since they are all inhumations, they should be considered Christian and not pagan, because at this early date the pagans generally cremated their dead. Therefore already in the first century Christians had themselves buried around the grave of the first Apostle. Whether any of these include the eleven popes said to have been interred next to the body of St. Peter is still an open question. Pope Pius XII (1956) Although the monumental proof of Peters residence and death in Rome is not essential to the Catholic faith, we had widely-known excavations carried out under the Basilica. Their result--the discovery of Peters tomb under the cupola, just beneath the present Papal altar--is admitted by the great majority of critics. (Discorsi di Pio XII) End of Part 3b: The Church-The Papacy, Perpetuation, Powers Go to Part 4a: The Church-Recognizing the True Church; How Do We Know It?