Augustine is a key witness against the claims of the Catholic Church and the historicity of Vatican I’s claims about the papacy as defined in Pastor Aeternus, wherein Peter is given a special privilege above that of the other apostles. As Burton-Murdoch writes, however:
St. Augustine constantly teaches that the power of the keys, and of binding and loosing, and the pastoral charge, when given to St Peter, were given to all the apostles and to the whole Church, St. Peter being its representative figurehead.
Peter appears in many places of Scripture, because he personates the Church, especially in the place where it is said 'I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven . . . ' whether then, did Peter receive the keys and Paul not? Did Peter receive them and did not John and James receive them? But when in signification Peter represented the person of the Church, what was given to the one man was given to the Church. Peter therefore bore the figure of the Church. (Sermo cxlix, 7)
The Church symbolized in its generality, was personified in the apostle Peter on account of the primacy of his apostleship. (Joann. tract., cxxiv, 5)
These keys not one man but the unity of the Church received. (Sermo ccxcv, 2)
Not without cause doth Peter sustain the person of this Church Catholic . . . . and when it is said unto him, it is said unto all, 'Lovest thou Me? Feed My sheep'. (De agone Christiano, xxx)
What was commended to Peter, what was enjoined on Peter, not Peter alone but also all the other apostles heard and held preserved, and most of all the partner of his death and of his day, the apostle Paul . . . They heard, and transmitted to us that we should hear. (Serm ccxcvi, 5)
His pastoral office He hath imparted to His members also; for both Peter is shepherd, and Paul is shepherd, and the other apostles are shepherds, and good bishops shepherds. (In Joann. tract., xlvii) (H. Burn-Murdoch, The Development of the Papacy [London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1954], 208)
Why have I wanted to make this little introduction? In order to suggest to you that in Peter the Church is to be recognised. Christ, you see, built his Church not on a man but on Peter’s confession. (Sermon 229)
