Ante-Nicene Volume 5

Hippolytus, A.D. 170-236

This is the Christ who, he says, in all that have been generated, is the portrayed Son of Man from the unportrayable Logos....
From ridge of rock, and each to other closely clings."
The expression "rock," he says, he uses of Adam. This, he affirms, is Adam: "The chief corner-stone become the head of the corner. For that in the head the substance is the formative brain from which the entire family is fashioned. "Whom," he says, "I place as a rock at the foundations of Zion." Allegorizing, he says, he speaks of the creation of the man....
The Refutation of All Heresies, Book V, Chapter II

... On account of this, he says, Jesus uses the words, "I am the true gate." Now he who makes these statements is, he says, the Perfect Man that is imaged from the unportrayable one from above. The Perfect Man therefore cannot, he says, be saved, unless, entering in through this gate, he be born again. But this very one the Phrygians, he says, call also Papa, because he tranquillized all things which, prior to his manifestation, were confusedly and dissonantly moved. For the name, he says, of Papa belongs simultaneously to all creatures—celestial, and terrestrial, and infernal—who exclaim, Cause to cease, cause to cease the discord of the world, and make "peace for those that are afar off," that is, for material and earthly beings; and "peace for those that are near," that is, for perfect men that are spiritual and endued with reason....
The Refutation of All Heresies, Book V, Chapter III
{I include this quote only because our word 'pope' is from the Latin 'papa', which = father. Roman Catholics often call the pope "Holy Father" (as well as call their priests "Father") in spite of the fact that Christ taught us that we ought to call no man on earth "father" (as a title of respect), for we have one Father in heaven (Matthew 23.7-10). Also, consider that Christ, in prayer, addressed the Father in heaven as "Holy Father" (John 17.11). Thus, out of reverence for God, man ought not to be given this as a title of respect. See also the comments of the Edinburgh Editors, Elucidation III}

... "And the conies, a feeble folk, have made their houses in the rocks." The Gentiles, that is to say, are built upon Christ, the spiritual rock, which is become the head of the corner....
... Who are meant by the "conies," but we ourselves, who once were like hogs, walking in all the filthiness of the world; but now, believing in Christ, we build our houses upon the holy flesh of Christ as upon a rock?
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus, Part I - Exegetical. Fragments from Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture, On Proverbs, From the Commentary of St. Hippolytus on Proverbs

2. ... And after him, it remains that "the stone" shall come from heaven which "smote the image" and shivered it, and subverted all the kingdoms, and gave the kingdom to the saints of the Most High. This "became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."
3. ... The stone that "smites the image and breaks it in pieces," and that filled the whole earth, is Christ, who comes from heaven and brings judgment on the world.
On Daniel, Part II, §§ 2, 3

31 (32). ... And after all these kingdoms which have been mentioned, the kingdom of God is represented by the stone that breaks the whole image....
34. "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut." Thou sawest, as it were, a stone cut without hands, and smiting the image upon its feet. For the human kingdom was decisively separated from the divine ... .
Scholia on Daniel, Chapter II, §§ 31 (32), 34

... then from heaven will come the stone that smites the image, and breaks it; and it will subvert all the kingdoms, and give the kingdom to the saints of the Most High. This is the stone which becomes a great mountain, and fills the earth, and of which it is written: "I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; and all peoples, nations, and languages shall serve Him: His power is an everlasting power, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed."
Other Fragments on Daniel

26. After a little space the stone will come from heaven which smites the image and breaks it in pieces, and subverts all the kingdoms, and gives the kingdom to the saints of the Most High. This is the stone which becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth, of which Daniel says: "I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and was brought near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; and all peoples, tribes, and languages shall serve Him: and His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed."...
28. ...the stone that smites the earth and brings judgment upon the world was Christ.
Part II, Dogmatical and Historical, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, §§ 26, 28

... Of this Spirit Gabriel also spoke to the Virgin, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." By this Spirit Peter spake that blessed word, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." By this Spirit the rock of the Church was stablished. This is the Spirit, the Comforter, that is sent because of thee, that He may show thee to be the Son of God.
Part II, Dogmatical and Historical, The Discourse on the Holy Theophany, § 9

... First of all Peter, the rock of the faith, whom Christ our God called blessed, the teacher of the Church, the first disciple, he who has the keys of the kingdom, has instructed us to this effect ... .
Appendix to the Works of Hippolytus, Containing Dubious and Spurious Pieces, § X

Cyprian, A.D. 200-258

... Truly, Gospel witnesses, and truly, Christ's martyrs, resting upon His roots, founded with strong foundation upon the Rock, you have joined discipline with virtue, you have brought others to the fear of God, you have made your martyrdoms, examples. I bid you, brethren, very brave and beloved, ever heartily farewell; and remember me.
Epistle XV, § 4

1. Our Lord, whose precepts and admonitions we ought to observe, describing the honour of a bishop and the order of His Church, speaks in the Gospel, and says to Peter: "I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Thence, through the changes of times and successions, the ordering of bishops and the plan of the Church flow onwards; so that the Church is founded upon the bishops ... .
Epistle XXVI, § 1
{What Cyprian says here he speaks of the bishops as a whole. This in no way endorses Roman primacy, infallibility, or any other of Rome's claims.}

5. ... There is one God, and Christ is one, and there is one Church, and one chair founded upon the rock by the word of the Lord.
Epistle XXXIX, § 5
{The Edinburgh editors comment: Cyprian considers the universal episcopate as one cathredra, like "Moses' seat" (as in Matthew 23.2) in the Church of the Hebrews. This one chair he calls "Peter's chair."}

3. ... I assert this first of all, dearest brother, that grave men, and men who are once established upon the strong rock with solid firmness, are not moved, I say not with a light air, but even with a wind or a tempest, lest their mind, changeable and uncertain, be frequently agitated hither and thither by various opinions, as by gusts of wind rushing on them, and so be turned from its purpose with some reproach of levity....
8. ... Moreover, Cornelius was made bishop by the judgment of God and of His Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the suffrage of the people who were then present, and by the assembly of ancient priests and good men, when no one had been made so before him, when the place of Fabian, that is, when the place of Peter and the degree of the sacerdotal throne was vacant; which being occupied by the will of God, and established by the consent of all of us ... .
Epistle LI, §§ 3, 8

2. ... There ought to abide with us, dearest brother, an immoveable strength of faith; and against all the irruptions and onsets of the waves that roar against us, a steady and unshaken courage should plant itself as with the fortitude and mass of a resisting rock.... {Here faith is the rock}
7. ... Nevertheless, Peter, upon whom by the same Lord the Church had been built, speaking one for all, and answering with the voice of the Church, says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God:"...
{The comment of the Edinburgh editors #30: Cyprian could not have written this letter to Cornelius had he recognised in him, as a successor of Peter, any other than the gifts which he supposed common to all bishops.}
14. ... After such things as these, moreover, they still dare—a false bishop having been appointed for them by, heretics—to set sail and to bear letters from schismatic and profane persons to the throne of Peter, and to the chief church whence priestly unity takes its source ... .
Epistle LIV, §§ 2, 7, 14

... Moreover, it is again predicted and foretold before, that the Jews, if they should thirst and seek after Christ, should drink with us, that is, should attain the grace of baptism. "If they shall thirst," he says, "He shall lead them through the deserts, shall bring forth water for them out of the rock; the rock shall be cloven, and the water shall flow, and my people shall drink;" which is fulfilled in the Gospel, when Christ, who is the Rock, is cloven by a stroke of the spear in His passion ... .
Epistle LXII, § 8

... And the Lord also in the Gospel, when disciples forsook Him as He spoke, turning to the twelve, said, "Will ye also go away? "then Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the word of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure, that Thou art the Son of the living God." Peter speaks there, on whom the Church was to be built, teaching and showing in the name of the Church, that although a rebellious and arrogant multitude of those who will not hear and obey may depart, yet the Church does not depart from Christ ... .
Epistle LXVIII, § 8

... since both baptism is one and the Holy Spirit is one, and the Church founded by Christ the Lord upon Peter, by a source and principle of unity, is one also....
Epistle LXIX, § 3

3. Neither must we prescribe this from custom, but overcome opposite custom by reason. For neither did Peter, whom first the Lord chose, and upon whom He built His Church, when Paul disputed with him afterwards about circumcision, claim anything to himself insolently, nor arrogantly assume anything; so as to say that he held the primacy, and that he ought rather to be obeyed by novices and those lately come. Nor did he despise Paul because he had previously been a persecutor of the Church, but admitted the counsel of truth, and easily yielded to the lawful reason which Paul asserted, furnishing thus an illustration to us both of concord and of patience, that we should not obstinately love our own opinions, but should rather adopt as our own those which at any time are usefully and wholesomely suggested by our brethren and colleagues, if they be true and lawful....
Epistle LXX, § 3
{This good spirit evinced by Peter and lauded by Cyprian has been sorely lacking in the Roman church, which has built its entire structure upon its own 'customs' (traditions), and arrogantly claimed primacy, supremacy, infallibility, at times with murderous hatred toward those who refuse to submit to its errors and falsehoods (Inquisition, etc). They simply cannot claim affinity with Peter through apostolic succession when their history belies the claim.}

... For first of all the Lord gave that power to Peter, upon whom He built the Church ... .
Epistle LXXII, § 7

7. … But as no heresy at all, and equally no schism, being without, can have the sanctification of saving baptism, why has the bitter obstinacy of our brother Stephen [bishop of Rome] broken forth to such an extent, as to contend that sons are born to God from the baptism of Marcion; moreover, of Valentinus and Apelles, and of others who blaspheme against God the Father; and to say that remission of sins is granted in the name of Jesus Christ where blasphemy is uttered against the Father and against Christ the Lord God?
Epistle LXXIII, § 7
{Cyprian here speaks out against Stephen, bishop of Rome, for receiving the baptism of heretics and blasphemers as the equivalent of Christian baptism in the Church.}

6. But that they who are at Rome do not observe those things in all cases which are handed down from the beginning, and vainly pretend the authority of the apostles; any one may know also from the fact, that concerning the celebration of Easter, and concerning many other sacraments of divine matters, he may see that there are some diversities among them, and that all things are not observed among them alike, which are observed at Jerusalem, just as in very many other provinces also many things are varied because of the difference of the places and names. And yet on this account there is no departure at all from the peace and unity of the Catholic Church, such as Stephen has now dared to make; breaking the peace against you, which his predecessors have always kept with you in mutual love and honour, even herein defaming Peter and Paul the blessed apostles, as if the very men delivered this who in their epistles execrated heretics, and warned us to avoid them. Whence it appears that this tradition is of men which maintains heretics, and asserts that they have baptism, which belongs to the Church alone.
16. But what is the greatness of his error, and what the depth of his blindness, who says that remission of sins can be granted in the synagogues of heretics, and does not abide on the foundation of the one Church which was once based by Christ upon the rock, may be perceived from this, that Christ said to Peter alone, "Whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And again, in the Gospel, when Christ breathed on the apostles alone, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained." Therefore the power of remitting sins was given to the apostles, and to the churches which they, sent by Christ, established, and to the bishops who succeeded to them by vicarious ordination....
17. And in this respect I am justly indignant at this so open and manifest folly of Stephen, that he who so boasts of the place of his episcopate, and contends that he holds the succession from Peter, on whom the foundations of the Church were laid, should introduce many other rocks and establish new buildings of many churches; maintaining that there is baptism in them by his authority. For they who are baptized, doubtless, fill up the number of the Church. But he who approves their baptism maintains, of those baptized, that the Church is also with them. Nor does he understand that the truth of the Christian Rock is overshadowed, and in some measure abolished, by him when he thus betrays and deserts unity....
19. But with respect to the refutation of custom which they seem to oppose to the truth, who is so foolish as to prefer custom to truth, or when he sees the light, not to forsake the darkness?—unless most ancient custom in any respect avail the Jews, upon the advent of Christ, that is, the Truth, in remaining in their old usage, and forsaking the new way of truth. And this indeed you Africans are able to say against Stephen, that when you knew the truth you forsook the error of custom. But we join custom to truth, and to the Romans' custom we oppose custom, but the custom of truth; holding from the beginning that which was delivered by Christ and the apostles....
Epistle LXXIV, §§ 6, 16, 17, 19
{Stephen, bishop of Rome, was perhaps the first to attempt to claim primacy and supreme authority by virtue of his holding the episcopate of Rome as a claimed successor of Peter. He is here castigated by Firmilian in a letter to Cyprian. At the Council of Carthage (also here), presided over by Cyprian in 257 A.D., 87 bishops gathered to uphold Christian orthodoxy and to oppose the heterodoxy and presumptions of Stephen.}

2. ... Finally, these persons He calls strong and stedfast; these He declares to be founded in robust security upon the rock, established with immoveable and unshaken firmness, in opposition to all the tempests and hurricanes of the world. "Whosoever," says He, "heareth my words, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, that built his house upon a rock: the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."...
4. ... There is easy proof for faith in a short summary of the truth. The Lord speaks to Peter, saying, "I say unto thee, that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And again to the same He says, after His resurrection, "Feed my sheep." And although to all the apostles, after His resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, "As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they shall be remitted unto him; and whose soever sins ye retain, they shall be retained; " yet, that He might set forth unity, He arranged by His authority the origin of that unity, as beginning from one. Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power ... .
Treatise I, §§ 2, 4

2. ... what more to wish for and to hold fast, than to stand with roots strongly fixed, and with our houses based with solid mass upon the rock unshaken by the storms and whirlwinds of the world, so that we may come by the divine precepts to the rewards of God?...
10. ... Peter also, to whom the Lord commends His sheep to be fed and guarded, on whom He placed and founded the Church, says indeed that he has no silver and gold, but says that he is rich in the grace of Christ ... .
Treatise II, §§ 2, 10

... Moreover, the Holy Spirit in the Psalms manifests that Christ is called the day. "The stone," says He, "which the builders rejected, is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us walk and rejoice in it."...
Treatise IV, § 35

... Peter ... upon whom by the Lord's condescension the Church was founded ... .
Treatise IX, § 9

... With the seven children is manifestly associated also the mother, their origin and root, who subsequently begat seven churches, she herself having been first, and alone founded upon a rock by the voice of the Lord....
Treatise XI, On the Exhortation to Martyrdom, § 11

... Also in the same place: "Every one who heareth my words, and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock....
Treatise XII, Third Book, § 96

... For neither does any of us set himself up as a bishop of bishops, nor by tyrannical terror does any compel his colleague to the necessity of obedience; since every bishop, according to the allowance of his liberty and power, has his own proper right of judgment, and can no more be judged by another than he himself can judge another. But let us all wait for the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only one that has the power both of preferring us in the government of His Church, and of judging us in our conduct there.
¶ Fortunatus of Tuccaboris said: Jesus Christ our Lord and God, Son of God the Father and Creator, built His Church upon a rock, not upon heresy ... .
{The bishop here contrasts the rock and heresy, indicating that the 'rock' is Peter's true faith}
¶ Castus of Sicca said: He who with contempt of the truth presumes to follow custom, is either envious and malignant in respect of his brethren to whom the truth is revealed, or is ungrateful in respect of God, by whose inspiration His Church is instructed.
¶ Libosus of Vaga said: In the Gospel the Lord says, "I am the truth." He said not," I am the custom." Therefore the truth being manifest, let custom yield to truth; so that, although for the past any one was not in the habit of baptizing heretics in the Church, let him now begin to baptize them.
{contrast these two preceding passages with Rome's practice of elevating her own customs (traditions) to the level of Scripture in order to establish doctrine/dogma.}
¶ Zosimus of Tharassa said: When a revelation of the truth is made, let error give place to truth; because Peter also, who previously circumcised, yielded to Paul when he preached the truth.
The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian

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