Now to express one of rank and his attendants, the Evangelists often use the phrase, a person _and those with him_. Thus, Luke vi. 4, "David and _those that were with him_;" and Matt. xii. 3 with Mark ii. 25, "Have ye not read what David did, when himself was a hungered and _those that were with him_?" Of our Lord and the Apostles it is said, Mark iii. 11, "And He made twelve, _that they should be with Him_:" and xvi. 10, "She went and told _them that had been with Him_." And Acts iv. 13, the chief priests "knew them," Peter and John, "that _they had been with Jesus_." And Matthew xxvi. 69, Peter is reproached, "Thou also _wast with Jesus_." Now just so the Evangelists speak of Peter. Our Lord having on one occasion left the Apostles for solitary prayer, S. Mark writes, i. 36, "And Simon _and they that were with him_ followed after Him." Again, the woman with the issue of blood having touched the Lord, when He asked, 'Who is it that touched Me?' S. Luke says, viii. 45, "all denying, Peter _and they that were with him_ said," &c. And on the occasion of the Transfiguration, "Peter and _they that were with him_," being James and John. Just as after the resurrection Luke writes, Acts ii. 14, "Peter standing up with the eleven;" verse 37, "They said to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles;" v. 29, "Peter and the Apostles answering said." And the angels to the holy women, Mark xvi. 7, "Go tell His disciples and Peter." It is then to be remarked that Peter is the _only_ Apostle who is put in this relation to the rest. _Never_ is it said "James," or "John and the rest of the Apostles," or, "and those with him." Peter is named, and the rest are added in a mass, and this happens in his case continually, never in the case of any other Apostle. No adequate cause can be alleged for this but the Primacy and superior rank of Peter, which was ever in the mind of the Evangelists, and is sometimes indicated by the prophetic name; for as often as Simon is called Peter, he is marked as the foundation of the Church, according to the Lord's prophecy. And long before contentions about the prerogatives of Peter arose, the ancient Fathers attributed it to his Primacy, that he was thus named expressly and first, the others in a mass, or in the second place. According, then, to the rule above-mentioned, Peter, by the mode in which the Evangelists speak of him, is distinguished from the other Apostles, and his position with regard to the rest is described in the very same phrase which is used to express the superiority of David over his men, and even of our Lord over the Twelve. And for this there seems no adequate cause, but that special association of Peter with Himself indicated in the name, and the promises accompanying it in Matt. xvi.