Cyprian of Carthage, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The Lord spoke to Peter alone, "upon this rock I will build my Church," and gave him the keys; to the same he said after the resurrection, "Feed my sheep." Yet to all the apostles after his rising he gave an equal power: "As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you." He did the first that he might set forth unity, arranging by his own authority that the origin of that unity should begin from one.1
The rest of the apostles were also what Peter was, endowed with a like partnership of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity.1 That is the whole of what the Lord's words give me. The beginning is from one so that the Church may be shown to be one, as the dove of the Song of Songs is one, the only one of her mother.1 Nothing in it makes one apostle the judge of the others, for they were what he was.
I draw the same lesson for the bishops who preside today. The episcopate is one, each part of which is held by each one for the whole.2 The Church is one, though spread abroad in a multitude by her fruitfulness, as there are many rays of the sun but one light, many branches but one root, many streams but one spring.2 The unity is kept in the source, and the source is not a single bishop set above his brethren, but the one Church from whose womb we are born.2
When I say that the bishop is in the Church and the Church in the bishop, I speak of every bishop in his own flock, and I add that the Church, which is Catholic and one, is not cut nor divided, but is bound together by the cement of priests who cohere with one another.3 The bond is the coherence of colleagues. It is not the sentence of one over the rest.
Rome I honour as I honoured Cornelius. When I wrote of his ordination I said that the place of Fabian, that is, the place of Peter and the degree of the sacerdotal throne, was vacant, and that it was filled by the judgment of God and of Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, the suffrage of the people, and the agreement of his fellow-bishops throughout the world.4
Observe the order of the proof. I was not appealing from the chair to the other bishops. I was showing that the chair had been rightly filled by the common consent of the whole college, and that whoever is made bishop afterward, outside that unity, is profane, an alien, and without.4 The throne of Peter is the sign of the Church's unity, and a man shows himself a true occupant of it by holding that unity with his colleagues, not by ruling them.
Each bishop answers for his own flock to the Lord, who made him a bishop; so I wrote of Cornelius, that he must be known not from the lies of detractors but from the judgment of the Lord God and the testimony of his fellow-bishops.4 Peter himself, when the multitude departed, answered in the name of the Church, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" He spoke for the Church, which does not depart from Christ, and not as a magistrate over the other disciples.3
Christ built the Church on Peter so that unity might be shown to begin from one; the other apostles were what Peter was, with an equal share of honour and power.5 The episcopate is one, and each bishop holds his part of it for the whole; each answers for his own flock to the Lord, and none sets himself up as bishop of bishops. Rome is the chair of Peter and the chief church from which priestly unity takes its source, and its bishop is a brother to be honoured, supported, warned and, where he defends heretics, resisted.678
The Lord speaks to Peter, saying, 'I say unto thee, that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church'... Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
The episcopate is one, each part of which is held by each one for the whole. The Church also is one, which is spread abroad far and wide into a multitude by an increase of fruitfulness.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop;... the Church, which is Catholic and one, is not cut nor divided, but is indeed connected and bound together by the cement of priests who cohere with one another.The Epistles
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... when the place of Fabian, that is, when the place of Peter and the degree of the sacerdotal throne was vacantThe Epistles
Moreover, too, the Apostle Paul, more openly and clearly still manifesting this same thing, writes to the Ephesians, and says, "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water." But if the Church is one which is loved by Christ, and is alone cleansed by His washing, how can he who is not in the Church be either loved by Christ, or washed and cleansed…The Epistles
This happens, beloved brethren, so long as we do not return to the source of truth, as we do not seek the head nor keep the teaching of the heavenly Master. 4. If any one consider and examine these things, there is no need for lengthened discussion and arguments. There is easy proof for faith in a short summary of the truth.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her." Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith?Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
Unless all these, who are in communion with me, as you have written, are polluted with the pollution of my lips, and have lost the hope of eternal life by the contagion of my communion. Pupianus alone, sound, inviolate, holy, modest, who would not associate himself with us, shall dwell alone in paradise and in the kingdom of heaven. 8.The Epistles
The ground of the oldest dispute over his text, claimed for papal primacy and for collegial episcopacy alike, and for both by those who hold that he wrote the fourth chapter twice.