The following comes from Jacques
Lefèvre d'Étaples, Commentarii initiatorii in quatuor Evangelia. In
Evangelium secundun Matthaeum. In Evangelium secundum Marcum. In Evangelium
secundum Lucam. In Evangelium secundum Johannem. Jacobo Fabro Stapulensi autore
(Coloniae, 1541), 126-27
English translation:
"This blessedness is attributed to Peter, not
insofar as it comes from Peter himself, but insofar as he was instructed by the
heavenly Father in this matter, because the heavenly Father deigned to reveal
it to him. Nor ought that blessedness to be attributed to him in any other way
than through contemplation of Him from whom it proceeds. For from whom could it
come except from God, who alone is blessed, and who alone is the mighty King of
those who reign and the Lord of those who rule?
And from this solid confession of the truth—which comes
from God the Father and is firmer than every rock—Simon received the surname
'Peter.' Upon this rock, namely the faith of that unshaken truth, that Christ
is the Son of the living God, he founded his Church; so firmly, indeed,
that against this most steadfast confession of faith the gates of hell shall
not prevail, because they cannot overcome anyone who is fortified by this
immovable rock and this most steadfast faith.
Moreover, that 'the rock' is to be understood as Christ
and the Word of God, the Lord himself makes clear when he says in chapter seven
of this Gospel:
'Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine and
does them shall be compared to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.'
And he immediately adds:
'The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew
and beat upon that house, and it did not fall.'"
"For it had been founded upon the firm rock.
See, then, in what manner he calls himself and his own
word the rock, indeed the firm rock, upon which the immovable
house—that is, the Church—is built.
Lest anyone should say that Peter is the rock upon
which the Church has been founded, the Lord himself afterwards made it
sufficiently clear to Paul that Peter is not the rock, and much less the firm
rock, when he said to him,
'Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me,
because you do not savor the things that are of God, but those that are of
men.'
Paul likewise explains that Christ is the rock
when he says,
'They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them,
and the rock was Christ.'
And even if Peter is said (as some wish) to derive his
name from the rock, just as a Christian derives his name from Christ,
nevertheless a Christian is not Christ himself; therefore Peter likewise is not
the Rock.
Furthermore, the Lord promised that he would give to
Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which are the keys of faith, the keys
of binding and loosing:
'Whatever Christ handed down as things to be believed
are to be believed; and whatever he commanded to be done are to be done. These
he has bound upon earth, and they are bound also in heaven. Whatever, however,
he declared not to be believed or not to be done, he loosed upon earth, and
they are likewise loosed in heaven.
But these keys of faith and unbelief, of binding and
loosing—or rather, whatever faith binds (for what is not of faith binds
nothing)—were not Peter's, but Christ's.
'I will give you,' he says, 'the keys of the kingdom of
heaven.'
Peter therefore did not bind or loose according to his
own judgment, but according to the judgment of Christ, whose will is altogether
perfect and can never err.
Nor did Peter alone receive them from the Lord; rather,
all those likewise received them who, according to the will of Christ the Lord,
built the Church upon Christ through faith.
Furthermore, we may understand that the keys of the
kingdom of heaven are to be taken as the doctrine of faith, the doctrine of
Christ, and the Word of God, from the eleventh chapter of Luke:
'Woe unto you lawyers! For you have taken away the key
of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter, and those who were entering you
hindered.'
For what is the key of knowledge except the
understanding of the Law, which they had arrogated to themselves? Yet by human
traditions they had obstructed that understanding, and they prevented and
hindered those who sincerely desired to enter into the true understanding of
the Law.
But the Lord did not then give these keys of
understanding of the New Law to Peter, for he said, 'I will give you.'
Rather, he gave them later, in spirit and in truth: partly when he said to the
apostles,
'Receive the Holy Spirit,'
and partly when he opened their understanding so that
they might understand the Scriptures; and then, more fully and abundantly,
after his ascension, when the Holy Spirit was sent from heaven.
These keys, nevertheless, are the pontifical power of
binding and loosing rightly understood.
But Christ is speaking here of this faith—that he
himself is the Son of the living God—which is one of the keys of heavenly
doctrine, and which he willed to be the foundational principle in his Church.
And what else is this, objectively considered, than
Christ himself, who is the Rock itself and the immovable foundation of the
whole Church? In us, however, it is the infusion of the eternal Father.
Indeed, we ought especially to admire that he did not
yet openly declare this revelation of the Father—which is Christ himself.
