Saturday, August 24, 2024

Lateran Council AD 649 Eastern delegates on the Papacy

The following are excerpts taken from Fr Richard Price's translation of the Acts of the Lateran Council of 649 that reflect a high view of the papacy:

The Council quotes a letter to the former Pope by the Archbishop of Cyprus

Christ our God founded your apostolic see, O sacred head, as a divinely fixed and immovable support and conspicuous inscription of the faith. For you, as the divine Word truly declared without deceit, are Peter, and on your foundation the pillars of the church are fixed; to you he committed the keys of the heavens and decreed that you are to bind and loose with authority on earth and in heaven. You have been made the destroyer of profane heresies, as the leader and teacher of the orthodox and unimpeachable faith.--Archbishop Sergius of Cyprus, AD 643, Letter to Pope Theodore, as read at Lateran AD 649.

Archbishop Sergius eventually would compromise with the heretical Emperor rather than keep strict orthodoxy of duothelitism. Yet, this doesn't change the fact he said this words.

Now we have monks from the East at the council:

we who are now present beg, entreat and beseech all you  most holy fathers and the apostolic and sovereign see not to overlook the petitions of Christians over so many years and from all quarters addressed  equally to God and to your most holy selves, nor the pleas presented with  tears on this matter by our humble selves, whether present or absent,  but canonically and in council to vindicate the most holy faith that is  under attack from the aforesaid men, and (after God) to keep it safe for  all, uncontaminated by innovation and resplendent as before with pious teaching for the benefit of orthodox priests, laymen and monks throughout the world, since the hearts of all rely on you (after God), knowing that under Christ you are the supreme head of the churches.--Greek Hegumens and Monks to the Lateran Council AD 649 and the Pope

Patriarch Paul of Constantinople, though not touching directly on the issue of the papacy, does state Peter is the pre-eminent, head apostle:

We, therefore, accepted the  conscientious proposal of the said God-beloved men: knowing what the  pre-eminent head of the apostles teaches, that we should be ‘ready to give  an answer to everyone who requests a word from us concerning the hope  that is in us’, and combining in ‘good conscience’ courtesy and the fear of  God, we shall set out our view of this single question in this letter, shunning  and eschewing verbosity and repetition as tedious and inappropriate for the present time.  

Bishop Stephen of Dora:

this authoritatively from the first and from of old, on the basis of its  apostolic and canonical authority, for the reason, evidently, that the truly  great Peter, the head of the apostles, was deemed worthy not only to be entrusted, alone out of all, with ‘the keys of the kingdom of heaven’ for both opening them deservedly to those who believe and shutting them  justly to those who do not believe in the gospel of grace, but also because  he was the first to be entrusted with shepherding the sheep of the whole  catholic church. As the text runs, ‘Peter, do you love me? Shepherd my sheep.’ And again, because he possessed more than all others, in an exceptional and unique way, firm and unshakeable faith in our Lord, [he was deemed worthy] to turn and strengthen his comrades and spiritual brethren when they were wavering, since providentially he had been adorned by the God who became incarnate for our sake with power and priestly authority over them all.


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