70 ST PAUL'S FAMOUS REBUKE OF ST PETER. position that St Peter was his superior in office.' If that had been, Porphyry with good colour of reason might have objected procacity [petulance] to St Paul, in taxinghis betters; for he then, indeed; had showed us no commendable pattern of demeanour towards our go- vernors, in so boldly opposingSt Peter, in so openly censuring him, in so smartly confutinghim. More unseemly, also, it had been to report the business as he does in writing to the Galatians: for to divulge the miscarriages of supe- riors, to revive the memory of them, to register them, and transmit them down to all posterity, to set forth our clashing and contests with them, is hardly allowable; if it may consist with justice and honesty, it does yet little savour of gravity and modesty. It would have been more seemly for St Paul to have privately and humbly remonstrated to St Peter, than openly and downrightly to have re- prehended him; at least, it would have become him in cold blood to have represented his carriage more respectfully, consulting the honour of the universal pastor, whose reputation was like to suffer by such a representation of his proceedings. Pope Pelagius II. would have taught St Paul better manners, who says that " they are not to be approved, but reprobated, who reprove or accuse their pre- lates."' AndPope Gregory would have taught him another lesson, namely, that " though the evils of their superiors may displease good subjects, yet they take care to conceal them from others; "aand, " Sub- jects are to be admonished that they do not rashlyjudge the life of their superiors, should they happen to see them act blamably," &c.' It is plain that St Paul was more bold with St Peter than any man now must be with the pope; for let the pope commit never so great crimes, yet should "nomortal," says the canon law, "presume to reprove his faults."Grat. Dist. xl. cap. 6. But if St Peter were not in office superior to St Paul, but his col- league and equal in authority, although preceding him in standing, repute, and other advantages, then St Paul's free proceeding toward him was not onlywarrantable but wholesome, and deserving, for edi- fication, to be recited and recorded, as implying an example how colleagues upon occasion should with freedom and sincerity admonish their brethren of their errors and faults; St Peter's carriage, in pa- tiently bearing that correption [reproof] also affording another good pattern of equanimity in such cases. To which purpose St Cyprian, Hier. ad Aug., Ep. xi., in Prol. ad Gal. 2 Non aunt consentiendi, sed reprobandi, qui pr£elatos suos reprehendunt vel accu- sant.Pelag. IL, Ep. ii. Bonis subditis sic prcepositorum suorum mala displicent, ut tarnen heat ab aliis occultent.Greg. M. Moral. xxv. 15. Admonendi aunt subditi, ne preepositorum suorum vitam temere judicent, siquid eos fortasse agere reprehensibiliter vident, &o. Greg. Past., part iii. cap. 1, Adroon. 5.
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