- 14 - If it occasionally happened that an Apostle or the disciple of an Apostle ordained someone as bishop, this was done only after a spirit of God had named the person to be so ordained. Moreover, no bishop was another’s superior and no Apostle had any greater powers than his fellows. Galatians 2: 6: ‘It matters not to me’, says Paul, ‘in what high esteem the Apostles were held. God takes no account of a person’s rank.’ In the same epistle he relates how on one occasion he had opposed the Apostle Peter vigorously and had reproached him before the entire community, claiming that his behaviour was not in keeping with the true gospel. Had it sufficed for God to reveal the gospel to Peter as the first infallible pope, the early Christian churches would have had no need of visits by God’s spirits, since in Peter they would have had an infallible source of the truth. Moreover, why was Paul not sent to Peter in order that he might receive the truth from him? The distance between them was not great. Why was he, as he himself says, taught by Christ himself?
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