De picturis principum apostolorum
by Peter Damian
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/145/de-picturis-principum-apostolorum/
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## THE ARGUMENT.

He brings forward the reason why the Apostle Paul is represented in paintings at the right hand, but Peter at the left — namely, because Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, which in Latin is interpreted *son of the right hand*; and he proves that a name of this sort suits him most aptly. He also adduces many prerogatives of the same Paul. Then at last he sets forth why the Church of Jerusalem, although Christ suffered in it, is not the head of all the Churches.

[0589B]To the lord DESIDERIUS, abbot of holy conversion [conversationis], and to the religious community, PETER, a sinful monk, offers his service in the Lord.

As soon as I learned that the lord Martin was setting out on the journey to you, I straightway ordered the notary to take down my words. But since, living in familiar company with you, venerable father, through the whole round of Lent, we conferred by living voice on whatever seemed to require conferring, and often made known to each other the things that were to be shared or handled, I now find nothing new that can be written to you, since I weigh how everything that could be necessary has been gone over again and again in our exchange of talk. What then am I to do? Shall I, who had begun to speak, fall stupidly silent for want of matter?

## ON THE PAINTINGS OF THE CHIEF APOSTLES.



## CHAPTER ONE. *Why Peter is placed at the left, and Paul at the right, in paintings.*

[0589C]

But while I look upon the hand of the scribe armed with the pen and poised for writing as usual, a sweet subject offers itself to me, one to which my mind is briskly summoned to dispute. For by that right hand of the notary there suddenly came to my mind the thing you yourself have very often asked of me, putting the question: namely, why, in the images of the paintings throughout all the provinces lying about Rome, Peter, who is first, is placed at the left, while Paul, the partner of his apostolate, is set at the right — whereas, according to the common understanding, the order of things demands this, that Peter, who is the chief of the apostolic senate, should by right hold the Lord's right side, [0589D] and Paul, who is the younger, the left? But it is very hard to suppose that [0590B] an age devoted to God and religious admitted so distinguished and so famous an ordering of the apostolic arrangement thoughtlessly and without consideration. Nor indeed is it to be believed that the emperor Constantine — nay rather, Pope Silvester — and after them the princes and priests, wakeful and skilled in the letter of ecclesiastical discipline, would have thought this ordering of such great princes something to be neglected, if they had judged it in any degree worthy of correction. Lest, therefore, the order of this holy history should appear disordered, let what seems right to us be briefly made known to your holiness.

That Paul was plainly of the tribe of Benjamin — who doubts it? Now Benjamin in Hebrew is called in Latin *son of the right hand*. What wonder, then, if he is placed at the right who draws the name of the right hand from [0590C] his father's right? Indeed, that the ancient history may be seen to fit blessed Paul clearly, not without cause does Scripture say: « That, as Rachel's soul was departing from her pain, and death already pressing upon her, she called her son's name Benoni, that is, *the son of my sorrow [n: (Gen. XXXV)]*. » But the father called him Benjamin, that is, *son of the right hand.* For by Rachel, who is called a sheep, or a beginning seen, the Church is not undeservedly signified. She indeed both lives innocently after the likeness of a sheep, and, through the pursuit of contemplation, burns inwardly to see the beauty of her Redeemer, who says to the Jews who ask about him: « I am the beginning, who also speak to you [n: (Joan. VIII)]. » When Benjamin, therefore, is born, his mother Rachel dies: while, as Saul draws near to the light of the new regeneration, the Church is cruelly assailed by him with [0590D] persecutions. So Luke in the Acts of the Apostles: « Saul, he says, [0591A] was laying waste the Church, entering into houses, and dragging away men, and delivering women *607* into custody [n: (Act. VIII)]. » Fittingly therefore does Rachel call him Benoni, that is, *the son of my sorrow*, whom Jacob names Benjamin, that is, *son of the right hand*: because Paul, who was the sorrow of his mother the Church, who in a manner slew her by assailing her while he was being born, was called by God the Father *son of the right hand*, since through him the divine power fought against the nations as though by its strong right hand, hurled the javelins of words with power, inflicted healing wounds upon hearts, and, the enemy being through him overcome and laid low, triumphed with glory. Hence it is that the same Paul says to the Galatians: « But when it pleased him who set me apart from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, that he might reveal [0591B] his Son in me, and that I should preach him among the nations, immediately I consented not to flesh and blood [n: (Gal. II)]. » Not undeservedly, then, is Paul called *son of the right hand*, through whom the whole multitude of the nations, which is to be set at God's right hand, is gathered to the sacraments of the faith. For girded with the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit [n: (Ephes. VI)], he fights to this day and to the end of the age against the madness of all vices and of wicked spirits, and, like the lightning hand of Christ, brandishing the swords of heavenly eloquence, strikes off the stiff necks of those who resist God. Rightly therefore does Paul hold the dignity of the right side beside the Redeemer, who is not doubted to exercise the power of the divine right hand. Or does he not in a manner confess himself to be the right hand of God fighting against the devil, when he says: « But I [0591C] so run, not as at an uncertainty; so I fight, not as one beating the air? » [n: (I Cor. IX.)]



## CHAPTER II. *The prerogatives of Paul are related.*

Paul, caught up, ascended to the third heaven [n: (II Cor. XII)], where he also heard secret words which it is not lawful for men to speak. And who does not know that the earthly life bespeaks the left, while the heavenly signifies the right — as the bride says in the Canticles: « His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me? » [n: (Cant. II.)] For the left hand is said to be under the head because the present life, in any elect soul, is despised and trodden down beneath the mind, which is beyond doubt the head of the thoughts. But the bride is said to be embraced by the right hand of God because, when the faithful and holy soul [0591D] is kindled with the burning fire of its Creator, it is cherished on every side as though by certain divine embraces. He therefore who, still girt about with the frailty of the flesh, is known to have ascended to the heavenly life, is rightly named *son of the right hand*. This son of the right hand almighty God stretches out perpetually, as his own right hand, through the whole breadth of the world, and by it gathers the peoples of adoption into the unity of the faith. This right hand the supreme husbandman turns over the threshing-floor of his Church, and by it winnows the spiritual crops, that he may bring the cleansed grains of the mystic wheat into the heavenly barns. This right hand of his God stretches far out hither and thither, while Paul runs through the whole globe of lands to gather the nations into the sacrament of the faith. For with as strong [0592A] a charity as he burns, with so excessive a wandering does he shift himself from place to place. *608* He longs to pass to some men from others, because the goad of that very charity which fills him drives him on. For, set far from the Romans, he writes: « I make mention of you always in my prayers, beseeching, if by any means at length I may have a prosperous journey, by the will of God, of coming to you. For I long to see you [n: (Rom. I)]. » Detained at Ephesus, he writes to the Corinthians: « Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you [n: (II Cor. XXII)]. » Again, staying at Ephesus, he speaks to the Galatians, saying: « I would I were with you now, and could change my voice [n: (Gal. IV)]. » Shut up too at Rome in the keeping of a prison, because he is not permitted to go to the Philippians in his own person, he promises to send a disciple across, saying: [0592B] « I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know the things concerning you [n: (Philip. II)]. » Bound also with chains and held at Ephesus, he writes to the Colossians: « For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit [n: (Coloss. II)]. » See with how great a fire of brotherly love the apostolic heart is boiled down, with how great a longing it is constrained to sweat for the salvation of the nations! Here he is held in body; thither he is led in spirit: and he spends the affection of a father's love upon those present, and reaches it out to those absent. To those set before him he displays his works; to those who hear him he expresses his prayers. He is effectively present to those with whom he was not, and yet not absent from those with whom he was. We know his love better if we still weigh his words to the Corinthians. For he says: « I will come to [0592C] you when I shall have passed through Macedonia; for I shall pass through Macedonia, but with you perhaps I shall remain, or even winter [n: (I Cor. XVI)]. » What does it mean that he is so anxiously parceled out through so many places, unless that he is bound about all men by one charity? For charity, which is accustomed to unite what is divided, compels the one heart of Paul to be divided among many things. Yet it gathers that heart in God the more ardently, the more widely it scatters it through holy desires. In preaching, therefore, Paul wishes to say all things at once; in loving, he wishes to see all men at once; because both by remaining in the flesh he wishes to live for all, and by passing out of the flesh through the sacrifice of faith he wishes to profit all. Nor is it a wonder if the distinguished preacher glows more fervently in brotherly charity, if the abundance of true love overflows in him beyond all mortals; since the fountain of life [0592D] who calls him a vessel of election [n: (Act. IX)] determined to flow abundantly into him, and deigned to water him incomparably with the streams of his sacraments. Hence it is that he says: « Do you seek a proof of Christ, who speaks in me? » [n: (II Cor. XIII.)]

## CHAPTER III. *Paul was marked out before all others by a wonderful privilege.*

This plainly the Savior of the world conferred upon blessed Paul by the privilege of a singular grace, which he granted beforehand to no mortal after the mystery of his Incarnation. For after that blessed and divine humanity of the Redeemer had been carried up to the session [0593A] of the Father's majesty, so that he was no longer bodily present among men, but rather presided over the powers of heaven, he taught him so effectively *609* not through a master but specially through himself, and made over to him the mysteries of all his own deeds, that not only did he in no way stand in need of the teaching of his predecessors, but he even surpassed them in the depth of all heavenly wisdom. Whence Peter himself, the first of the apostles, marvels at his wisdom, saying: « Our most dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, has written to you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest [n: (II Petr. III)]. » And that in learning the mysteries of the evangelical doctrine he had no man whatever for master, but God [0593B] specially for his teacher, he himself testifies, who speaks at the beginning of his Epistle to the Galatians, saying: « Paul, an apostle not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead [n: (Gal. I)]. » For the fountain of eternal life, like a boundless torrent, plunged itself wholly and all at once into the vessel of its own election — that fountain which poured out the streams of its wisdom upon the rest of the apostles through long intervals of time. And a little after: « For I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which was preached by me, that it is not according to man; for neither did I receive it from man, nor did I learn it, but by the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ [n: (Ibid.)]. » What therefore the Lord, while still mortal, taught Peter by many proofs, all this [0593C] he displayed at once to blessed Paul when he was already established in the glory of the Father's majesty. It is as if some teacher, while he is a private man, should teach disciples; but after he has climbed to the holding of the scepters of royal rule, then, the [sic: *clastibus*] of dependents being removed, chooses one distinguished man among many, whom he may instruct more nobly.

That the discourse, then, may run back to the point where it began: when blessed Peter is set at the right, the primacy which he obtained among the other apostles is honored. But when Paul occupies the place of the same right side, he gives off the sacred sign of the mystical figure in Benjamin, whose son he is. And yet neither is this without mystery, that blessed Peter holds the left of the Lord's side. For by him the active life is marked out. And as the contemplative life is expressed by the right, so the active [0593D] by the left. And that the present life, that is, the active, is figured by blessed Peter, is shown chiefly in this: that, as the evangelical history very frequently testifies, Peter loves the Lord more than all his fellow-disciples [n: (Joan. XX)], and yet the Lord bestows the prerogative of an altogether special love not upon Peter but rather upon John [n: (Joan. XIII)]. For by John the contemplative life is marked out, but by Peter, as has been said, the active. Because all the saints in this life, after the likeness of Peter, love God more and are as it were loved less, while for his sake they endure the hard troubles of labors, and yet, still girt about with mortal flesh, do not attain to the sweetness of his embraces. But those who are already with God, in this [0594A] in a manner love him less and are loved more, since both they feel no storms of labors for his sake, and yet they enjoy to the full the delights of his inmost intimacy. It is no wonder, then, if blessed Peter should sometimes seem to hold the left-hand part, who *610* also holds, on the authority of the Scriptures, the figure of the active life.



## CHAPTER IV. *Why blessed Paul has no chair of his own.*

But one thing appears distinguished in blessed Paul: that whereas all the apostles, distributed among the regions of the earth, hold their own chairs, he, while holding none in particular, seems in some measure to preside over all in common. [n: ( Vide scholia ad calcem opusculi. )] Plainly, because he himself founded the universal [0594B] Church over the whole globe of lands, it is fitting that, as he scattered the seed of faith among all, so also he should hold among all the right of one presiding. For he says to the Corinthians: « By the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace in me has not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God with me [n: (I Cor. XV)]. » And to the Romans: « I have, he says, glory in Christ Jesus toward God, in the obedience of the nations: by word and deeds, in the power of signs and of wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that from Jerusalem round about even to Illyricum I have filled up the Gospel of Christ. And so I have preached this Gospel, not where Christ has been named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation; but as it is written: They to whom it was not announced of him shall see; and they who [0594C] have not heard shall understand [n: (Rom. XV; Isa. LII)]. This, then, is the reason why Paul holds no chair in particular: because — if we dare to compare lesser things with the highest — after the likeness of Christ, saving the right of the other apostles, he seems to preside over all the Churches.

Further, however, as far as concerns the common understanding: since the Lord suffered at Jerusalem, not the Roman but rather the Jerusalem Church ought to be set over all the Churches. Yet, since by the authority of the canons the Roman Church holds the first place, the Alexandrian the second, the Antiochene the third, the Constantinopolitan the fourth, and the Jerusalem Church now the fifth, it is clear that the Lord and Savior does not preside over any one chair by a special right, but that as one shepherd he presides universally over all. [0594D] It is plain, then, that the order of the Churches has been arranged according to the privilege of Peter, not according to the incomparable excellence of the Redeemer. For what all the apostles obtain according to their measure by the grace of a gift conferred, all this Christ possesses by the sovereignty of a majesty that is his by nature. Paul therefore holds a certain likeness, if one may say so, with Christ, in that he presides not over one Church only, but over all. Not without cause, then, does blessed Paul hold the right side in the paintings, since not only the weightier heap of fruits demands it, but also the sacred sign of a figural understanding. My mind swells still to write more upon this theme, but the bearer of the letter, who hastens to hurry to you, and would rather [0595A] fly than run, does not permit me to have even the least delays for writing. May the divine mercy give you commandment, most beloved, that your holy brotherhood cease not to pray for me.

## *611* SCHOLIA.

*Plainly, because he himself* (Paul) *founded the universal Church over the whole globe of lands, it is fitting that, as he scattered the seed of faith among all, so also he should hold among all the right of one presiding.* In this Epistle the blessed Peter Damian seems to attribute more than enough to Paul: for although the things he reports of that Apostle's deeds are true, they must nevertheless be understood with caution, since the shepherd and prince of the whole world is Peter only, not Paul. Wherefore the eulogy is indeed true [0595B] which the Church attributes to him when she says: a preacher in the whole world; « true is what he himself affirms: (My daily pressing care, the solicitude of all the Churches [n: (II Cor. XI)]. » But nevertheless it is most certain that that great [sic: *bonorem*] which, at first appearance, Cardinal Damian pays to Saint Paul belongs more fittingly to Saint Peter *612* [0596A] — of whom Leo the Great [n: ( epist. ad Anast. Thess. )] says: « Among the most blessed apostles, he says, in a likeness of honor, there was a certain distinction of power; and although the election of all was equal, yet to one it was given to be preeminent over the rest: and from this pattern the distinction of bishops also arose. » Saint John Chrysostom [n: (hom. 87 in Joan.)]: Why at last, the others being passed over, does he address Peter alone concerning these things? He was the mouth of the apostles, and the prince, and the summit of that very company; and for that reason Paul too went up to see him rather than the others. And so we shall understand Damian according to the mind of Gregory the Great [n: (GREG. in lib. I Reg., cap. 4)], so that, as regards the apostolic office of preaching the Gospel and of loosing sins, we may reckon that all the apostles equally — not Paul alone — were sent into the whole world, [0596B] yet with a certain subordination to Peter, who was set over the universal flock, as Saint Cyprian teaches at length in *On the Unity of the Church*, and in Epistle 55 to Pope Cornelius.

*Blessed be the name of the Lord.*
