Summa summae S. Thomae, Tomus III

The Church can be considered in two ways: 1° as the congregation of all the faithful, both prelates and subjects; 2° as it is a congregation of prelates and doctors alone. This is called the Church representative and teaching; the first is called the Church believing. The question is whether each is infallible, the first in believing, the second in teaching, or, as others say, whether the Church has infallibility both active and passive. The heretics concede infallibility to the invisible Church; they deny it to the visible one. But we attacked the supposition of this distinction above, asserting one perpetually visible Church. Hence

I say: the visible Church cannot fail or err in matters of faith and morals to be believed.

Omitting various texts of the Old Testament, I prove it 1° most clearly from the New Testament. Matt., XVI, 18: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, namely one visible founded upon a visible man, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Ibid., XXVIII, 20: Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. Upon these words St. Thomas says in the Catena: « He does not say he will be with those men alone, but with all who believe after them; for the Apostles were not going to remain until the consummation of the world: but he speaks as to one body of believers. » Luke, I, 32: He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Other testimonies will be brought forward in the following conclusion.

It is proved 2°. The holy Fathers concur: Chrysostom, serm. de Pentecost.; Ambrose, lib. de Salomon.; Jerome, in cap. 4. Isa.; Augustine, lib. de Symbolo ad Catechum., c. 6, and others.

It is proved 3° by reason. 1° Outside the Church there is no salvation. Therefore, if the visible Church should fail, salvation becomes impossible; for who can enter an invisible Church? 2° If the Church could fail, no one would be sure about his faith, not even the Lutherans and Calvinists themselves; for their Church can equally fail, and how do they know that it has not failed, since the failure, as they say, happens to men who do not notice it? 3° As we argued in the preceding article, if the Roman Church had failed, as the heretics contend, they ought to assign wherein it failed, by what author, in what place, at what time; for all these things are marked out in so notable a change as this would be. At these things, however, they fall silent.

I say 2°: the Church represented in her pastors, whether spread through the world or gathered into one, cannot err in matters of faith and morals proposed and defined.

It is proved from the preceding conclusion. If the Church represented in her pastors, whether spread through the world or gathered together, could err in matters of faith and morals proposed and defined, it would follow that all the faithful, or the Church taken for the congregation of all the faithful, could err in believing and fail. The consequent is false, as has been proved. Therefore also the antecedent. It is proved 2° from consequence, because the faithful do not believe, nor ought they to believe anything other than what all the pastors propose to them; for Christ instituted them to feed, govern and teach the subject flock in matters of faith and morals. Acts, XX, 28: The Holy Spirit has placed bishops to rule the Church of God. Matt., XXVIII, 19: Teach all nations. He commanded that all hear them and obey them. Luke, X, 16: He who hears you hears me. Matt., XVIII, 17: If he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican. Hence whatever we said concerning the infallibility of the Church in believing proves its infallibility in teaching.

To these add the following passages from Scripture. Christ addressing the Apostles, and in them their successors the bishops, says John, XIV, 16 and 17: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth. Ibid., 26: He will teach you all things and suggest to you all things whatsoever I have said to you. Likewise, ibid., XVI, 13: When he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will teach you all truth. And the Apostle, 1 Tim., III, 15: That you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth.

I said 1°: « The Church, whether dispersed or gathered together; » because, since the promises of infallibility were made to the Church, and it is ever the same Church, whether dispersed or gathered together, in either state it enjoys the privilege of infallibility. And certainly Christ was not speaking of the Church gathered in councils when he said: Behold I am with you all days, since councils are not gathered on all days, but most rarely.

I said 2°: « In matters of faith and morals. » With regard to morals, the conclusion must be understood of morals pertaining to the common salvation of all the faithful. Hence the Church cannot err, either by defining something to be good and honorable which is evil and dishonorable, and conversely something to be dishonorable and evil which is good and honorable, or by commanding something harmful to the common salvation of the faithful, or forbidding what is necessary or useful to it. The reason is 1° because this would be to err in faith; for faith approves every virtuous and honorable thing and reproves every vicious and shameful thing. 2° It would be against the holiness of the Church. 3° The Church would feed the flock badly; for the faithful are fed not only with the doctrine of faith but also of morals.

With regard, however, to morals concerning private persons and particular facts, whose knowledge depends on the fallible testimony of men, the Church can err by an error of fact, not of law.

[On the canonization of saints and on the sense of the books, that is, on dogmatic facts, there are special and serious difficulties, of which below. But also

You will ask whether the Church is infallible in the approval of religious Orders.

I answer. In the approval of a religious Order two judgments intervene. The first is that this Religion is good, conformed to the Gospel and useful for acquiring perfection. In this judgment the Church cannot err: otherwise she would err in the common doctrine of morals, since she proposes this Religion to all as good and as a way to perfection. The other is the judgment whether here and now it is expedient to admit this order. It is not so established that this judgment is infallible, because it depends not on knowledge alone, but on prudence. But at least one who asserted, against the common sense of the Church, that this judgment were erroneous, would not escape the mark of rashness.]

You will object several things from the Old Testament, from which it appears that the ancient Church or Synagogue sometimes failed. Therefore.

I answer: these do not stand against our conclusion, which concerns the Church of Christians after Christ was born, and not the Church of the Old Testament. And this for two reasons: 1° because promises such as Christ made to the Church of the New Testament were not made to the Church of the Old Testament; for it was not said to it: Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world, nor: The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 2° Because the Church of the Old Testament was not confined within the Synagogue; for salvation could be had outside it, as is clear from Job, Melchisedech, the Ninevites and others. Outside the Church of the New Testament, however, salvation cannot be had. Hence it is necessary that it always subsist visibly. Moreover, we do not concede that the Church of the Old Testament or the Synagogue perished except at that time when it ought to cease and be changed into a new one; for it was not destined to endure forever. Hence to each of the things objected we answered in our greater Work.

I insist 1°: The very Church of the New Testament itself perished at the time of Christ's passion, since not only the Synagogue and the whole Jewish nation but even the Apostles themselves fell away from Christ, as Christ had foretold to them, Matt., XXVI, 31: All of you will be scandalized in me on this night. Therefore.

I answer: 1° our conclusion concerns the Church of Christ formed. Now it was formed only on the day of Pentecost. 2° I deny the antecedent and its proof. For many at the time of Christ's passion believed in him; and as for the Apostles, they suffered scandal not by losing their faith but by not confessing it outwardly as they ought.

I insist 2°: In the time of Arianism, especially at the council of Rimini, the Church fails. Hence Jerome, in his dialogue against Lucifer, says: « The whole world groaned and marveled to find itself Arian. » Therefore.

I answer: I deny the antecedent. To prove it: Jerome said this hyperbolically, so as to mean nothing other than that many bishops and laity inadvertently and unintentionally admitted a formula of faith which, though it sounded pious and, the circumstances being attended to, bore before it a Catholic sense, nevertheless contained latently the Arian poison through the intention of its authors. Hence he says « marveled, » because it happened unintentionally and inadvertently. On this argument I discoursed at length in the third Digression of the history annexed to the prefatory question de Trinitate, in the greater Work.