ch of Alexandria, or of
Antioch, to request his interference at a dangerous juncture. It bears
witness, not to the present Papal, but to the Patriarchal, system. It
tallies exactly with the spirit of him who wrote elsewhere, to the lapsed,
"Our Lord, whose precepts and warnings we are bound to observe, regulating
the honour of the Bishop, and the constitution of his Church, speaks in the
Gospel, and says to Peter, 'I say unto thee that thou art Peter,' &c.
Thence, according to the change of times and successions, the ordination of
Bishops and the constitution of the Church has descended, _so that the
Church is established upon the Bishops, and every act of the Church is
directed by the same, its governors_. This being established by Divine
law,"[17] &c. It is evident that, if the see of Peter, so often referred to
by St. Cyprian, means the local see of Rome, it also means the see of every
Bishop who holds that office, whereof Peter is the great type, example, and
source.

But it was reserved for a more celebrated controversy, fully to bring out
St. Cyprian's view of the relation of the Bishop of Rome to the rest of the
Episcopal body: I mean, of course, the controversy whether heretics should
be admitted into the Church by rebaptization or by the imposition of hands.
I most fully believe, be it observed, that Cyprian acknowledged the Roman
Primacy, that he admitted certain high prerogatives to be lodged in the
Roman Pontiff, as St. Peter's successor, which did not belong to any other
Bishop. It is this very thing which makes his conduct the more remarkable.
He took a very strong view on one side of the controversy in question: and
St. Stephen took an equally strong one on the other. St. Stephen, we all
know, turned out to be right. That fervent Pontiff, it may be remarked,
when St. Cyprian would not give up his view, seemed inclined to treat him
much as St. Gregory the Seventh did a refractory Emperor, or St. Innocent
the Third, the dastard tyrant John. This may be very satisfactory to the
modern defenders of Papal omnipotence, but St. Cyprian's conduct is not so
at all. St. Cyprian called a Council of Bishops of the provinces of
Carthage and Numidia; they attended to the number of seventy-one, and
decided that heretics should be rebaptized. St. Cyprian informs the Pope of
the decision of himself and his colleagues. After saying that they had
found it necessary to hold a council, he proceeds--[18]"But I thought I
ought t