And Cyprian would set forth the same _mode_ of communion, when he speaks of the _coherence of bishops_, by which both the _Catholic episcopate_ is made _one, and the Church one and Catholic_. For as the _several communities draw the unity of the body from the unity of the prelates_ to whom they are subject; so all prelates, and the communities subject to them, constitute _one Catholic episcopate and one Catholic Church_, because they cohere with the _principal_ church, _the root and matrix_, which is the Church of Peter, _upon whom_ the Lord founded the whole building, and whom He instituted _to be the fountain and source of Catholic unity_.[122] These words are a clue to understand [123]Tertullian's meaning, when, already become a Montanist, he called the Catholic Church, whose discipline he was attacking, _the Church near to Peter_--"Concerning your opinion, I now enquire whence you claim this right to the Church. If because the Lord said to Peter, 'Upon this rock I will build My Church,' 'to thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven,' or 'whatsoever thou shalt bind or loose on earth, shall be bound or loosed in heaven,' you, therefore, pretend that the power of binding and loosing is derived to you, that is, to all the Church near to Peter; how do you overthrow and change the manifest intention of the Lord in conferring this on Peter[124] _personally_, 'Upon thee I will build My Church,' and 'I will give to thee the keys,' not to the Church, and 'whatsoever thou bindest or loosest,' not what they bind or loose." Now he used this mode of speaking because it was customary with Catholics, who were wont to exhibit _nearness with Peter_ as the characteristic of the Church, and the necessary condition for sharing that power, whose plenitude and native source Christ had lodged in Peter. This certain and undoubting judgment of Catholics, Tertullian himself, before his error, had clearly expressed in his book, De Scorpiace, c. x., where he says, "For if you yet think the heaven shut, remember that the Lord here (Matt. xvi. 19) left its keys to Peter, and _through him to the Church_." Nearness, then, with Peter, and [125]_consanguinity of doctrine_ thence proceeding, are no less necessary to the Church, that it may be the Catholic Church which Christ founded and built upon Peter, than that it be partaker in those gifts which, again, He Himself granted only to unity, as it is effected in Peter and by Peter.