Innocent III: Letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople
Letter ‚Apostolicae Sedis primatus,‘ 12 Nov. 1199
This document is not only a testimony to the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, but also an outstanding example of medieval argumentation on this matter from the pen of one of the most significant popes of that era. Innocent III expressed a similar doctrine in a letter of 23 Nov. 1199 to Gregory, the Catholicos of the Armenians, and in a letter of 24 Nov. 1199 to Leo, the King of the Armenians.
(PL 214,776D–778B; 779A–780B; PoR 871 878). Ausg.: PL 214,758D–761B (= Briefe II 209); 216 1186C–1188D.– Reg.: PoR 862.
The primacy of the Apostolic See, which was instituted not by man, but by God, or rather by the God-man, is indeed confirmed by many testimonies of both the Gospels and the Apostles, from which in turn the canonical statutes emerged, which unanimously declare that the most holy Church, consecrated in the blessed Prince of the Apostles, Peter, surpasses the others as teacher and mother, as it were. For he
deserved… to hear: ‚You are Peter… I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven‘ [Mt 16:18f].
For although the first and principal foundation of the Church is the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, according to the saying of the Apostle: ‚For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ‘ [1 Cor 3:11], yet the second and secondary foundation of the Church is Peter, though not the first in time, yet primary in authority among the others, of whom the Apostle Paul says: ‚You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets‘ [Eph 2:20]…
Truth itself also pronounced his primacy when it said to him: ‚You shall be called Cephas‘ [Jn 1:42]: although this is translated as ‚Peter‘ (= ‚rock‘), it is nevertheless explained as ‚head‘, so that, just as the head among the other members of the body holds the primacy, since in it lives the fullness of the senses, so too Peter among the Apostles and his successors among all prelates of the Church excel by the primacy of dignity, the others being so called to a share in the solicitude that they lose nothing of the fullness of their power. To him the Lord entrusted His sheep to be fed by a thrice-repeated word, so that whoever does not wish to have him as shepherd, also in his successors, is considered a stranger to the Lord’s flock. For He did not distinguish between these and those sheep, but said simply: ‚Feed my sheep‘ [Jn 21:17], so that it might be known that absolutely all are entrusted to him.
… [Jn 21:7 is explained allegorically:] For since the sea signifies the world [according to Ps 104:25]…, Peter, by casting himself into the sea, expressed the privilege of the unique pontifical power, by which he had received the governance of the whole world, while the other apostles were contained as in a vessel, since the whole world had not been entrusted to any of them, but to each one individual provinces or rather particular churches.
… [A similar allegorical proof is derived from Mt 14:28–31:] By walking upon the waters of the sea, Peter showed that he had received power over all peoples.
The Lord confesses that He had prayed for him, when, at the moment of His Passion, He says: ‚I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren‘ [Lk 22:32]; by this He obviously indicated that his successors would at no time deviate from the Catholic faith, but would rather call others back and also strengthen the doubtful, thereby granting him the power to strengthen others in such a way that He imposed on the others the necessity of obeying. …
To him, as you… have read, it was also said: ‚Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven‘ [Mt
16:19]. But if you find that this was also said to all the Apostles at the same time, it was yet not to the others without him; rather, you will recognize that to him alone, without the others, was the power to bind and loose granted by the Lord, so that he was able, without the others, to do that which the others were not able to do without him, by virtue of the privilege conferred on him by the Lord and the plenitude of power granted. …
Peter saw the heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending, as it were a great sheet, let down by the four corners from heaven to the earth, in which were all manner of four-footed beasts, and creeping things of the earth, and fowls of the air [Acts 10:9–12].… And a voice came to him again a second time: ‚What God has cleansed, you must not call common‘. By this it is obviously indicated that Peter was set over all peoples, since that vessel signifies the world, and the totality of its contents signifies all peoples, both Jews and Gentiles. …