76 TESTIMONIES FROM THE FATHERS. apostles were indeed that which Peter was, endowed with equal con- sortship of honour and power; "' and again, " Although our Lord gives to all the apostles after his resurrection an equal power, and says, ` As the Father sent me, so I send you?' " What can be more plain than that of St Chrysostom: " St Paul shows that each apostle enjoyed equal dignity ?"3 How, again, could St Chrysostom more clearly signify his opinion than when, comparing St Paul to St Peter, he calls St Paul isórtwov ocúTW, "equal in honour to him;" adding, orasov yap ovase épc TiaS, "for I will not as yet say any thing more:" as if he thought St Paul indeed the more honourable ?-Chrys. in Gal. ii. 8. Vide Tert. de Prcescr. cap. xx. How, also, could St Cyril more plainly declare his sense to be the sane, thanwhen he called St Peter and St John korí/.povç &XXhaor;, "equal to one anether in honour ? "' Did not St Jerome also sufficiently declare his mind in the case when he says of the apostles, that " the strength of the church is equally settled upon them ? "' Does not Dionysius (the supposed Areopagite) call " the decade of the apostles co-ordinate with their foreman," St Peter?' in confor- mity, I suppose, to the current judgment of his age. What can be more full than that of Isidore, whose words show how long this sense continued in the church: "The other apostles received an equal share of honour and power, who also, being dis-. persed in the whole world, preached the gospel; and to whom, on their departure, the bishops succeeded, who are constituted through the whole world in the sees of the apostles ? "' By consequence, the fathers do assert this equalitywhen theyaffirm, as we before showed, the apostolical office to be absolutely supreme; when also they affirm, as afterwards we shall show, all the apostles' Hoc erant utique et cæteri apostoli quod fuit Petrus, pari consortio praediti et honoris et potestatis. 2 - quamvis apostolisomnibus post resurrectionem suamparem potestatem tribuat, ac dicat, &c. Cypr. de Uis. Eccl. 3 Lsrxrù;, Er, rs7; aini; Ëxaçra; ávrixavosv á ia;.Chrys. in Gal. ii. 8. ' Ilirpo; zai 'Imávv,; ioórtfcor áa .,'X,,;, ,,,j zee) rivrávroXor zai Jyrat paA, dACt. Con. Eph., part i. p. 209. "Peter and John were equal in honour one to another, as were also the apostles and holy disciples." Did Tertullian think St Paul inferior to St Peter when he said, "It is well that Peter is even in martyrdom equalled to Paul ?" Bene quodPetrus Paulo et in martyrio adæquatur.Tert. de Prcescr. xxiv. 6 At- dicis super Petrum fundatur ecclesia, licet id ipsum alio loco super omnes apostolos fiat, et exaequo super eos ecclesia; fortitudo solidetur.Hieron. in Jovin., i. 14. "Butyou will say the church is founded upon Peter, though the same thing in another place is affirmed of all the apostles, and that," &c. 3 'o rmv t,,d,ewv zopvrQa7c, tctrà vPc ótt.orayav; abri; rai ispapxrxñ; l sálatDionys. de Eccl. Hier., cap. v. 7 Cmteri apostoli cum Petro par consortium honoris et potestatis acceperunt, qui etiam in toto orbe dispersi evangelium pra;dicaverunt, quibusque decedentibus succes- serunt episcopi, qui sunt constituti per totum mundum in sedibus apostolorum.Isid. hisp. de Of., ii. b.
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