Friday, August 23, 2019

Edward Giles on 1 Clement and Ignatius' To the Romans


A very useful resource on the papacy is that of Anglican Edward Giles’ Documents Illustrating Papal Authority (1954). One can find a copy online on Archive.org. It is a much more balanced work than many other works from Catholics and non-Catholics on the papacy, such as the more superficial apologetic works and critical publications one will encounter online and elsewhere.

Commenting on 1 Clement 1, 56, 58-59, 63, Giles wrote:

The apology for delay at the beginning of the letter suggests that the Corinthian Christians had written to Rome for advice in their dispute about the authority of the ministry. The church of Corinth was founded by Paul, and John the apostle was probably still alive, but it is Rome, some 600 miles away, which intervenes, and Gore admits that the letter is written with a tone of considerable authority . . .The force of this may be a little weakened by the act that Julius Caesar had repopulated Corinth with Italian freemen in 46 B.C., so that it was racially close touch with Rome.

Roman Catholics are fond of quoting the great Anglican authority Lightfoot, who wrote, “It may perhaps seem strange to describe this noble remonstrance as the first step towards papal domination. And yet undoubtedly this is the case (Apostolic Fathers, Part I, Vol. I, p. 70). But Lightfoot also says that Clement writes as the mouthpiece of the Roman Church, and on terms of equality with the Corinthians, not as a successor of Peter (Ibid., pp. 69, 70). (Edward Giles, Documents Illustrating Papal Authority A.D. 96-454 [London: SPCK, 1952], 2-3)

On Ignatius, To the Romans 1, 3, 4, 9 and the meaning of “presides in the district of the Region of the Romans” and the Church of Rome “having the presidency of the love,” two phrases Roman Catholic apologists cite to show early papal primacy, Giles notes:

Here is early witness to the planting of the Roman church by Peter and Paul, but our main interest lies in the preface. Contrast the magnificent array of words with the simpler salutations to the other churches . . . What is the meaning of “presides in the district of the region of the Romans”? Does it indicate the place where the presiding church of Christendom is situated, or does it describe the limits of the jurisdiction of the Roman Church? Tertullian says “The very seats of the apostles preside over their own places” (Tertullian, De Praescriptione, 36) Again, “having the presidency of the love may mean that the Roman church presides over the whole church . . . But against this we see at the end of [To the Romans 4] the love and the Church are distinct. η αγαπη seems in some sense to denote the unity of the faithful.

Newman found no difficulty in the fact that the Pope is never mentioned by Ignatius. He thought that the occasion for the exercise of papal authority had not yet arisen (Development of Christian Doctrine [1845], p. 167). (Ibid., 5)