Ante Nicene: Best Excerpts

Contained here are some of the choice excerpts of the Ante-Nicene Historical Writings. While the other Historical Writings pages attempt to excerpt all of the passages from the 38-volume Edinburgh Series of the Church Fathers, that relate to the bishopric of Rome and its interaction with the rest of the Church, and to the understanding of the early Church concerning who/what is the rock on which the Church is built, this page contains some of the choicest of those excerpts from the Ante-Nicene series.

Pastor of Hermas, A.D. 160

And in the middle of the plain he showed me a large white rock that had arisen out of the plain. And the rock was more lofty than the mountains, rectangular in shape, so as to be capable of containing the whole world: and that rock was old, having a gate cut out of it ... .
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter II

... and the six men commanded them to build a tower above the rock.
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter III

... Now the tower was built upon the great rock, and above the gate.... And the rock and gate were the support of the whole of the tower....
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter IV

"First of all, sir," I said, "explain this to me: What is the meaning of the rock and the gate? ""This rock," he answered, "and this gate are the Son of God."...
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter XII

"And the tower," I asked, "what does it mean? ""This tower," he replied, "is the Church."...
Pastor of Hermas, similitude ninth, chapter XIII

Clearly from this—one of the most loved of the earliest writings of the Church—it is obvious that the Rock upon which the Church is being built is Christ. If we understand this to be the apostolic teaching, every papal claim to legitimacy evaporates for, if Peter is not the rock on which the Church is built, the entire papal edifice has no foundation to support it.

Clement of Alexandria, A.D. 153 - 217

... "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not even one thing."Certainly He is called "the chief corner stone; in whom the whole building, fitly joined together, groweth into an holy temple of God," according to the divine apostle.
The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Book VI, Chapter XI

Tertullian, A.D. 145 - 220

... Was anything withheld from the knowledge of Peter, who is called "the rock on which the church should be built," who also obtained "the keys of the kingdom of heaven," with the power of "loosing and binding in heaven and on earth?"...
Prescription Against Heretics, Chapter XXII

... in order "to lay that only foundation, which is Christ?" Of this work the Creator also by the same prophet says, "Behold, I lay in Sion for a foundation a precious stone and honourable; and he that resteth thereon shall not be confounded."... His Christ, as destined to be the foundation of such as believe in Him, upon which every man should build at will the superstructure of either sound or worthless doctrine ... because it is by fire that the test is applied to the building which you erect upon the foundation which is laid by Him, that is, the foundation of His Christ....
Against Marcion, Book V, Chapter VI

... The Pontifex Maximus—that is, the bishop of bishops—issues an edict: "I remit, to such as have discharged (the requirements of) repentance, the sins both of adultery and of fornication." O edict, on which cannot be inscribed, "Good deed!" And where shall this liberality be posted up? On the very spot, I suppose, on the very gates of the sensual appetites, beneath the very titles of the sensual appetites {note: i.e. at the door of the house of prostitution}. There is the place for promulgating such repentance, where the delinquency itself shall haunt. There is the place to read the pardon, where entrance shall be made under the hope thereof. But it is in the church that this (edict) is read, and in the church that it is pronounced; and (the church) is a virgin! Far, far from Christ's betrothed be such a proclamation!...
Tertullian, On Modesty, Chapter I
{This is cutting irony here by Tertullian. Pontifex Maximus, the title of the pagan high priest, is being applied to the bishop of Rome, and, bishop of bishops, a ridicule of their ambitious claims. It is clear that Tertullian does not acknowledge any primacy or preeminence of honor or jurisdiction for the Roman bishop.}

If, because the Lord has said to Peter, "Upon this rock will I build My Church", "to thee have I given the keys of the heavenly kingdom; " or, "Whatsoever thou shall have bound or loosed in earth, shall be bound or loosed in the heavens," you therefore presume that the power of binding and loosing has derived to you, that is, to every Church akin to Peter, what sort of man are you, subverting and wholly changing the manifest intention of the Lord, conferring (as that intention did) this (gift) personally upon Peter? "On thee," He says, "will I build My Church; "and," I will give to thee the keys," not to the Church; and, "Whatsoever thou shall have loosed or bound," not what they shall have loosed or bound. For so withal the result teaches. In (Peter) himself the Church was reared; that is, through (Peter) himself; (Peter) himself essayed the key ... .
Tertullian, On Modesty, Chapter XXI

Origen, A.D. 185 - 254

... He has a diviner appearance, which they behold, if there happens to be (among them) a Peter, who has received within himself the edifice of the Church based upon the Word, and who has gained such a habit (of goodness) that none of the gates of Hades will prevail against him ... .
Origen Against Celsus, Book VI, Chapter LXXVII

... Last of all, before we come to the word Logos, Christ was a stone, set at naught by the builders but placed on the head of the corner, for the living stones are built up as on a foundation on the other stones of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself our Lord being the chief corner-stone, because He is a part of the building made of living stones in the land of the living; therefore He is called a stone....
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book I, § 41

... And Peter, on whom the Church of Christ is built, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, left only one epistle of acknowledged genuineness. Suppose we allow that he left a second; for this is doubtful....
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book V, § 3

Hippolytus, A.D. 170-236

... 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

1. Our Lord ... describing the honour of a bishop and the order of His Church ... 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."... so that the Church is founded upon the bishops ... .
Epistle XXVI, § 1

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

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:"...
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, §§ 7, 14

... 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

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 ... . 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 ... even herein defaming Peter and Paul the blessed apostles ... . 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 ... who ... 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.... 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?... 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

4. ... 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, § 4

10. ... Peter also, to whom the Lord commends His sheep ... 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, § 10

... 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.
The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian

Victorinus of Pettau

... Even though the floods of the nations and the vain superstitions of heretics should revolt against their true faith, they are overcome, and shall be dissolved as the foam, because Christ is the Rock by which, and on which, the Church is founded....
Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, From the Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Chapters

Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions

XLVI. Now concerning those bishops which have been ordained in our lifetime, we let you know that they are these:-James the bishop of Jerusalem, the brother of our Lord ... . Of Alexandria, Annianus was the first, ordained by Mark the evangelist; the second Avilius by Luke, who was also an evangelist. Of the church of Rome, Linus the son of Claudia was the first, ordained by Paul; and Clemens, after Linus' death, the second, ordained by me Peter....
Book VII, Chapter XLVI - Who Were They that the Holy Apostles Sent and Ordained?

Early Liturgies

XXXIII. The Priest by himself standing: That they may be to all that partake of them for remission of sins, and for life everlasting, for the sanctification of souls and of bodies, for bearing the fruit of good works, for the stablishing of Thy Holy Catholic Church, which Thou hast founded on the Rock of Faith, that the gates of hell may not prevail against it; delivering it from all heresy and scandals, and from those who work iniquity, keeping it till the fulness of the time.
The Divine Liturgy of James, § XXXIII
{Here the 'rock' is the faith by which Peter made his confession.}

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