Annotatio CLXXXI
”There is none that doeth good, [there is] not even one.” — Psalm 52:4
Hilary, in the commentaries on the Psalms, expounding this little verse, so excuses Peter’s denial that he says he did not lose the firmness of [his] faith:1 because, although from the trepidation of the flesh — which he could not restrain — his tongue burst forth into the denial of Christ,2 yet the firm faith of confessing Christ even unto martyrdom did not depart from his mind. Prudentius, in the hymn to the cock-crow, subscribes to Hilary in these verses: “The denier wept, at last, for the wickedness slipped from his mouth, while his mind remained innocent, and his soul preserved the faith.” By another way also [Hilary] strives to wrest this same denial of Peter to a pious sense, in the commentaries on Matthew. St. Jerome reprehends him in this matter, as thou shalt be able to see in Annotation 160 of the following book.