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"Not one key in all that bunch": Laud against the papal supremacy

On this Saint Peter's Day, words from William Laud - in debate with his papalist opponent - on how the claims of the papal supremacy overthrow the apostolic order:

For he tells us the Bishop of Rome is S. Peter's Successor, and therefore to him we must have recourse. The Fathers, I deny not, ascribe very much to S. Peter: But 'tis to S. Peter in his own person. And among them, Epiphanius is as free, and as frequent in extolling S. Peter, as any of them: And yet did he never intend to give an Absolute Principality to Rome in S. Peter's right ... But that S. Peter was any Rock, or Foundation of the Church, so as that he and his Successors must be relied on in all matters of Faith, and govern the Church like Princes, or Monarchs, that Epiphanius never thought of. And that he did never think so, I prove it thus. For beside this apparent meaning of his Context (as is here expressed) how could he possibly think of a Supremacy due to S. Peter's Successor, that in most express terms, and that twice repeated, makes S. James the Brother of our Lord, and not S. Peter, succeed our Lord in the Principality of the Church. And Epiphanius was too full both of Learning and Industry, to speak contrary to himself in a Point of this moment.

... And he still tells us, the Bishop of Rome is S. Peter's Successor. Well. Suppose that. What then? What? Why then he succeeded in all S. Peter's Prerogatives which are Ordinary, and belonged to him as a Bishop, though not in the Extraordinary, which belonged to him as an Apostle. For that's it which you all say, but no man proves ... Peter in his Ordinary Power was never made Pastor of the whole Church: Nay, in his Extraordinary, he had no more powerful Principality than the other Apostles had. A Primacy of Order was never denied Him by the Protestants: And an Universal Supremacy of Power was never granted him by the Primitive Christians. Yea, but Christ promised the Keys to Saint Peter, S. Mat. 16. True, but so did he to all the rest of the Apostles, S. Mat. 18. and S. Joh. 20. And to their Successors, as much as to His. So 'tis I give the Keys to thee and them, not to thee to exclude them. Unless any man will think Heaven-Gates so easy, that they might open and shut them without the Keys. And S. Augustine is plain: If this were said only to S. Peter, then the Church hath no power to do it; which God forbid! The Keys therefore were given to S. Peter, and the rest, in a Figure of the Church, to whose power, and for whose use They were given. But there's not one Key in all that Bunch, that can let in S. Peter's Successor, to a more powerful Principality universal than the Successors of the other Apostles had.

From A relation of the conference between William Laud, late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mr. Fisher the Jesuite.

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