Annotation CCXIX

”Feed my sheep.” — John 21:17

Whether the care of the predestined alone was committed to Peter.

The exposition of Thomas Cajetan, Ambrosius [Catharinus], in the third book, chastises with this censure: “CONCERNING the care given to Peter, Cajetan says thus: ‘Although the care of all Christians is understood to be committed to Peter, yet the predestined alone — who alone are the lambs and sheep of Jesus Christ — are set forth as to be fed and ruled by Peter; for to this tends the institution of the pastoral office.’ Thus he [Cajetan] — which [words] I doubt not to be both false and dangerous. For if the care is not committed to Peter by the Lord except over the predestined, then assuredly he will not have [it] over others — which is false and heretical. Moreover, we should be ignorant — nay, he himself would have been ignorant — over whom the care was committed to him; for he [Peter] did not know who were predestined, which it is foolish to confess. Moreover, the care of the angels is [exercised] indifferently for all, even the non-predestined; because to each one an angel is given for salvation — for they are ministering spirits, that we may obtain the inheritance of salvation. Moreover, if it was committed to him only over the predestined, he would not have had the power of binding, as [well as] of loosing, so that [things] should be bound also in heaven — which yet was explicitly given to him by the Lord — lest the Most

—[lest the Most Rever]end [Cajetan] be able to say [that] what he perhaps meant [was] that over the non-predestined he had care [only] indirectly, or implicitly. Moreover, Peter is the perfect Vicar of Christ; but Christ had from God power over all flesh — thus over Judas, as [well as] over Peter; and with the same doctrine and care he fed both. But that Judas did not repent was effected by his own malice, not by the Lord’s negligence or dereliction (which I shudder even to say). So, therefore, Peter received the care over my [sheep], so that, if anyone were lost through his negligence or sloth, his blood should be required at his hand — as the Lord threatens in Ezekiel.¹ For, by the mandate of the Lord, Peter owes care and vigilance to all without difference — as much to the non-predestined as to the predestined. But vain, and scandalous, are meditations of this kind, [being] built upon a false foundation.”