The Foundation of the Church

Goodness will certainly not be deprived of honor. No one should think that I, following the praise of brave men heard from you, will follow the laws of the wisdom of the outside. For we do not practice flattery through a composed art, but we strive to present to you, souls desiring virtue, the truth. Therefore, the silence of family lines and the pride of ancestors will not block the wordword. Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God (Romans 8:3). Nor shall we honor the sky-dwellers from the worldly and earth-bound, but rather the opposite: the obscure lives of fathers, the crude arts, and the shadow called poverty shall be remembered in praises.

For the glory of Christians, according to the gospel, is our humility. I am also terribly reproached by the praises of those from without, because they, wishing to ennoble those they win over, say nothing exceptional, but they sit by the graves and disturb those lying there, making the dead into a decoration for the living; through which they call upon the departed, while confessing they have nothing good to say to those being praised by them.

And besides this, if it were true that those descending from illustrious fathers are themselves good and inherit virtue as if by some nature, it would perhaps have been timely to make some mention of the parents; but since the successions of lineage are lied about, there is even more difference in outward affectations; for the philosopher is unrefined and the lover of pleasure is a philosopher, and it is useless to remember the toil of the forefathers; it is necessary to demonstrate, if anyone has achievements of virtue. And to learn that this has such a way, one cannot learn it from meddling elsewhere, but from our own Holy Scripture, having manifold and varied usefulness.

Know certainly the priest, that elder, the nourisher and teacher of the great Samuel; but he himself, being excellent, did not benefit the sons; and having been nourished by him who begot him and learning the laws of the priesthood every day. And from ungodly fathers again, I speak of Timothy, the brave dog of Paul the apostle, and he certainly did not follow as if by some nature of the parents.

Having judged by reason, he hated their impiety toward the holy law of piety, and a sweet fruit appeared from a bitter root. Half-men in communion and sheep in offspring.

Thus Absalom, having been a youth toward a lenient father and so well known for audacity, as much as the father was in kindness; or rather, if it is necessary to speak the truer thing, he exceeded by a great measure in wickedness the virtue of the one who begat him. And entirely, if anyone wishes to understand with the mind this opposition of children toward fathers, he will find myriads of the diligent from the evil and the wicked from the best. And very appropriately. For if nature and not manner were performing virtue or wickedness, the two would not be, but one side would have prevailed alone.

Let Peter be called the son of Jonah; as for whose son this is, it makes no difference to me. For I honor the one who begat through the actions of the son; and starting from below, I send the glory to the things above, just as the lamps of the night light the ceilings from the ground. He says, prophesying Isaiah, that the Father placed the Son as a cornerstone, indicating that the whole composition of the world has its seat and its foundation in Him.

And the Only-begotten again, as he says in the gospels, names Peter the foundation of the church: 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.' For truly this one is first like a great and enduring stone cast into the hollow of this world or the pit of lamentation, as David says, so that having supported all Christians remaining in building, he might lift them up to the height, which is the dwelling-place of our hope. Paul also calls Christ the foundation, saying: 'No one can lay a foundation other than the one laid, which is Jesus Christ.'

Our Savior, by the same designation, adorned even his first disciple, naming him a rock of faith. Therefore, through Peter, the foundation of the churches is saved, being unshakeable and unswerving, having become a true and faithful initiate of piety. Through the building of the righteous we have stood rooted, Christians from the setting sun until the rising. And having been moved by many trials since it was reported that the...