Excerpt from The Dublin Review, Vol. 19: July, 1896

I. Dr. Bright begins, in reference to St. Peter, with a very cursory glance at Holy Scripture, in which he repeats the argument ea: silentio, which was first used against the Petrine supremacy by certain Dutch Protestants. Papal supremacy, he says, must (sic) have found expression in Apostolic writ ings. But it is not found, so he thinks, in the Acts of the Apostles, or the Epistles of St. Paul. Therefore, it did not exist. Those of our readers who are acquainted with Mr. Allies' work, St. Peter, his Name and Office, will find it hard to realise the state of mind which can dismiss the Scrip tural argument with this bold assertion. They will remember that St. Peter stands out in the first half of the Acts in a way which again and again suggests that he had taken the place of our Lord in the government of the kingdom founded by Him. The fact is, that considering on the one hand the plain account in the Gospels of the appointment of St. Peter to be the chief ruler of the Church under Christ, and, on the other hand, the purpose for which the Acts appear to have been written, more is said about Peter than one might have considered necessary. One purpose for which the Acts appear to have been written by St. Luke was that of upholding the authority of St. Paul, whose Apostolate had been questioned and indeed denied. The book is not a narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, but merely of Acts (there is no definite article in the Greek title). It consists of a selection for a purpose. It was to bring out the genuine Apostleship of St. Paul, not as against, or in contrast with, St. Peter, but as against those who would not place him amongst the twelve. There is, therefore, no reason to expect this or that feature of the government to be emphasised, except so far as it would bear upon the purpose of the book.

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