To tell you the truth, I had never heard of the decretals until I saw them mentioned somewhere on FR quite a while ago. I read the non C links given and I would like to post a "C" link that I found in my travels for the truth. This is one of the more concise "counterpoint" sites that I have come across. I thought you might like to read the other side in case you haven't done so.
The Papacy and the Early Fathers
A Response by Scott Windsor
This webpage is a response to another one located at: http://www.christiantruth.com/forgeries.html written by William Webster. I was pointed to Webster's website by James White (Alpha and Omega Ministries) who challenged me on a document known as "The Donation of Constantine" (Donatio Constantini) and also known as the Psuedo-Isidorian Decretals (or False Decretals). They were alleged to be given by the Emperor Constantine to Pope Sylvester I (314-35). The document is without a doubt a forgery, being written somewhere between 750 and 850 A.D.The fact that this document is a forgery is not debated by Catholics. The point that White and Webster try to make is that the entire doctrine of the papacy hinges on and/or was created due to this forged document. This could not be further from the truth. Anyone who would hold to this belief is either grossly misinformed or just plain dishonest in their portrayal of the Catholic Church and the papacy. (See Addendum)
In order for the claims of White and Webster to be true, then the papacy and all evidence of a Petrine Primacy and succession of such must come after 750 – 850 A.D. It then becomes the challenge of Catholic apologists to show that such teachings came earlier. On this webpage we will show definite proof that such evidence does indeed exist and totally discredit anyone who would hold that the "Donation of Constantine" is the basis for the papacy.
Scriptural Foundation:
Matthew 16:18 – "And I say to thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Here we have Jesus bestowing upon Peter (whose name means "rock") the foundation of the Church. In fact, in the Aramaic, which is what Jesus was likely speaking when speaking to His Apostles, and also the likely original language that the book of Matthew was written in, there is no distinction between the name "Peter" (Kepha) and the term for "rock" (kepha). Hence, if we stuck closer to the original language (instead of transliterating it to Greek and then English), that same verse would read something like: "… thou art Kepha, and upon this kepha will I build My Church." This one verse alone is enough for one who has The Faith, but for the Protestant opposition, they require more so let us go on.
Testimony from the Early Fathers:
"In 517 the Eastern bishops assented to and signed the formula of Pope Hormisdas, which states in part: ‘The first condition of salvation is to keep the norm of the true faith and in no way deviate from the established doctrine of the Fathers. For it is impossible that the words of our Lord Jesus Christ who said, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church" [Matt. 16:18], should not be verified. And their truth has been proved by the course of history, for in the Apostolic See the Catholic religion has always been kept unsullied.’" (qtd in This Rock, October 1998).
A.D. 220 – Tertulian: "…that the power of binding and loosing has thereby been handed on to you, that is to every church akin to Peter? What kind of man are you, subverting and changing what was the manifest intent of the Lord when He conferred this personally upon Peter? On you, He says, I will build my Church; and I will give to you the keys, not to the Church; and whatever you shall have bound or you shall have loosed, not what they shall have bound or they shall have loosed. " [Modesty, qtd in Jurgens 387]
A.D. 190/210 – St. Clement of Alexandria: "Nor does the kingdom of heaven belong to the sleeping and the lazy; rather, the violent take it by force… On hearing these words, the blessed Peter, the chose, the pre-eminent, the first among the disciples, for whom alone with Himself the Savior paid the tribute, quickly grasped and understood their meaning." [Who is the Rich Man That is Saved? qtd in Jurgens 436]
A.D. 226 – 232 et postea - Origen: "Peter, upon whom is built the Church of Christ, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, left only one Epistle of acknowledged genuinity. Let us concede also a second which, however, is doubtful." [Commentaries on John, qtd in Jurgens 479a] (This was a comment on the epistles of St. Peter, which later were both confirmed as genuine. As a side note, this discredits those who adhere to sola scriptura as well, since here, two centuries after Christ, they are still debating which books belong to the Canon of Sacred Scripture).
A.D. 244 – Origen: (Speaking about Peter) "Look at the great foundation of the Church, that most solid of rocks, upon whom Christ built the Church! And what does the Lord say to him? ‘O you of little faith,’ He says, ‘why did you doubt!’ (Matt. 14:31)" [Homilies on Exodus, qtd in Jurgens 489]
A.D. 251 – St. Cyprian of Carthage: "The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ He says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys to the kingdom of heaven: and whatever things you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven.’ | first edition | And again He says to him after His resurrection: ‘Feed my sheep.’ On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His Own Authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair.’" [The Unity of the Catholic Church, qtd in Jurgens 555-556]
A.D. 254 – St. Cyprian of Carthage: "You have written also that on my account the Church now has a portion of itself in a state of dispersion. In truth, the whole people of the Church are collected together and made one and joined to each other in an indivisible harmony. They alone have remained outside who, were they within, would have to be ejected. … And the Lord too, in the Gospel, when the disciples abandoned Him while He was speaking, turned to the twelve and said, ‘And do you too wish to go away?’ Peter answered Him saying, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the word of eternal life: and we believe that you are the Son of the Living God.’
There speaks Peter, upon whom the Church would be built, teaching in the name of the Church and showing that even if a stubborn and proud multitude withdraws because it does not wish to obey, yet the Church does not withdraw from Christ. The people joined to the priest and the flock clinging to their shepherd are the Church.’" [Letter of Cyprian to Florentius Pupianus, qtd in Jurgens 587]
A.D. 306 – 373 – St. Ephraim: "Simon, My follower, I have made you the foundation of the holy Church. I betimes called you Peter, because on you will support all its buildings. You are the inspector of those who will build on earth a Church for Me. If they should wish to build what is false, you the foundation, will condemn them. You are the head of the fountain from which My teaching flows, you are the chief of My disciples. Through you will I give drink to all peoples. Yours is that life-giving sweetness which I dispense. I have chosen you to be, as it were, the first-born in My Institution, and so that, as the heir, you may be executor of my treasures. I have given you the keys of My kingdom. Behold, I have given you authority over all My treasures!" [Homilies, qtd in Jurgens 706]
A.D. 461 – St. Leo I: "From the whole world only one, Peter, is chosen to preside over the calling of all nations, and over all the other Apostles, and over the Fathers of the Church. Thus, although among the people of God there are many priests and many pastors, it is really Peter who rules them all, of whom, too, it is Christ who is their chief ruler. Divine condescension, dearly beloved, has granted to this man in a wonderful and marvellous manner the aggregate of its power; and if there was something that it wanted to be his in common with other leaders, it never gave whatever it did not deny to others except through him. [Sermons, qtd in Jurgens 2191]
Circa A.D. 391 – 430 – St. Augustine of Hippo: "Before His suffering the Lord Jesus Christ, as you know, chose His disciples, whom He called Apostles. Among the Apostles almost everywhere Peter alone merited to represent the whole Church. For the sake of representing the whole Church, which he alone could do, he merited to hear: ‘I will give to you the keys to the kingdom of Heaven.’" [Sermons, qtd in Jurgens 1526]
Well, there are many more but the above is plenty of proof and far more than is needed to show that the authority of Peter and the Apostolic See clearly pre-existed the Donation of Constantine forgery. Another point of fact to make here is that if the papacy was not already recognized as authoritative, this forgery would have been cast off as ludicrous. The fact that they existed for a time before Pope Nicholas I cited them indicates that there was credibility to the concept.
Why was the Donation of Constantine written in the first place? Was it to shore up the papacy? No, on the contrary, it was to "support the local bishops against their metropolitans and other authorities, so as to secure absolute impunity and the exclusion of all influence of the secular power." (Dollinger, qtd in This Rock, 22 - October 1998).
Acknowledgements:
My thanks go to Steven O’Reilly, freelance writer for This Rock, from Snellville, Georgia. O’Reilly wrote the article which appears in This Rock, in the October 1998 issue. His article helped send me in the proper direction. I also wish to thank Michael Forrest, who sent the article to me.
Source for most of my quotes: The Faith of the Early Fathers , Volumes 1 and 3, by William A. Jurgens. The Liturgical Press, 1970.
For a more in depth treatment of the Donation of Constantine, check The Catholic Encyclopedia online at: http://www.knight.org/advent/cathen/05118a.htm
What made them change their minds? Did they take their marbles and go home for no reason? Or was the ol' switcheroo in effect?
A.D. 220 – Tertulian
Oh, Tertullian is a valid source for the papacy but not baptism, right?
whatever you shall have bound or you shall have loosed
Jesus, of course, did confer exactly the same power to the other disciples in John.
the first among the disciples
I don't dispute Peter's special place in Scripture or among the Apostles. The conclusions your church draws from said special place is very disputable.
A.D. 226 – 232 et postea - Origen
Isn't Origen a heretic? Why are you quoting heretics? And of course, Origen says elsewhere that all who have the same faith as Peter are rocks upon which the church is built.
St. Cyprian of Carthage
I need to check this quote from Cyprian. Doesn't sound familiar. Not doubting it, just trying to place it in context as I read "On the Unity of the Church" just the other day at this doesn't ring a bell.
As for St. Ephraim You are the head of the fountain from which My teaching flows, you are the chief of My disciples.
This fits well with what seems to be the meaning of the keys. I shall post my thoughts on those shortly. Thanks for your post. Of course, you do recognize that the idea of the primacy of the Roman see is clearly developed over time and does not achieve an explicit statement until relatively late. The schism between the East and West seems to be a good point of study. Why did the Eastern bishops assent to something that they later decided was beyond the pale? Am I reading that right? Am I misunderstanding the conflict?