Summa summae S. Thomae, Tomus III

[Under this title the Vatican synod determined the nature and extent of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, constit. Pastor aeternus, cap. 3. To this definition nothing seems to need to be added.

« Wherefore, resting on clear testimonies of the sacred letters, and adhering both to the express and perspicuous decrees of our predecessors

the Roman Pontiffs, and of the general councils, we renew the definition of the ecumenical council of Florence, by which all the faithful of Christ must believe that the holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff hold the primacy over the whole world, and that the Roman Pontiff himself is the successor of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, and the true Vicar of Christ, and head of the whole Church, and father and teacher of all Christians; and that to him, in blessed Peter, full power was handed over by our Lord Jesus Christ to feed, rule and govern the universal Church, as is contained also in the acts of the ecumenical councils and in the sacred canons. »

« We teach therefore and declare that the Roman Church, by the disposition of the Lord, holds the principate of ordinary power over all others, and that this power of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, which is truly episcopal, is immediate; toward which shepherds and faithful of whatever rite and dignity, whether taken singly or all together, are bound by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, not only in matters that pertain to faith and morals, but also in those that pertain to discipline and the regime of the Church spread throughout the whole world; so that, preserving unity both of communion and of profession of the same faith with the Roman Pontiff, the Church of Christ may be one flock under one supreme shepherd. This is the doctrine of catholic truth, from which no one can deviate without loss of faith and salvation. »

« So far is this power of the supreme Pontiff from obstructing that ordinary and immediate power of episcopal jurisdiction by which the bishops, who have been placed by the Holy Spirit and succeeded to the place of the Apostles, feed and rule, each one his own, their assigned flocks as true shepherds, that the same is asserted, strengthened and vindicated by the supreme and universal Shepherd, according to that saying of St. Gregory the Great : « My honor is the honor of the universal Church. My honor is the solid vigor of my brethren. Then am I truly honored when due honor is denied to no single one ¹ »

« Moreover, from that supreme power of the Roman Pontiff of governing the whole Church there follows for him the right, in the exercise of this his office, of communicating freely with the shepherds and flocks of the whole Church, that they themselves may be taught and ruled by him in the way of salvation. Wherefore we condemn and reprove the opinions of those who say that this communication of the supreme head with the shepherds and flocks can lawfully be impeded, or render it subject to secular power, so that they contend that what is established by the Apostolic See or by its authority for the regime of the Church has no force or value unless confirmed by the pleasure of the secular power. »

« And since by divine right of the apostolic primacy the Roman Pontiff presides over the universal Church, we teach also and declare that he is the supreme judge of the faithful², and that in all causes pertaining to ecclesiastical examination recourse can be had to his judgment³; but that the judgment of the Apostolic See, whose authority is greater than none, is to be retracted by no one, nor is it lawful for anyone to judge its judgment⁴. Wherefore they stray from the right path of truth who affirm that it is lawful to appeal from the judgments of the Roman Pontiffs to an ecumenical council, as to an authority superior to the Roman Pontiff. »

« If anyone therefore shall say that the Roman Pontiff has only the office of inspection or direction, but not full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole Church, not only in matters that pertain to faith and morals, but also in those that pertain to discipline and the regime of the Church spread throughout the whole world; or that he has only more considerable parts, but not the whole fullness of this supreme power; or that this power of his is not ordinary and immediate, whether over all and singular churches, or over all and singular shepherds and faithful : let him be anathema. »

Under this censure must be reckoned the following propositions reproved in the Syllabus of the principal errors of our age published by mandate of Pius IX : XIX. « The Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely free, nor does she possess her own constant rights bestowed on her by her divine Founder; but it belongs to civil power to define what are the rights and limits within which the Church may exercise those same rights. » — XX. « Ecclesiastical power ought not to exercise its authority without the permission and assent of civil government. » — XXVIII. « It is not lawful for bishops, without the permission of government, even to promulgate the apostolic letters themselves. » — XXXIV. « The doctrine comparing the Roman Pontiff to a free and acting prince in the whole Church is a doctrine which prevailed in the middle age. » — XXXV. « Nothing forbids that by the sentence of some general council or by the act of all peoples the supreme pontificate be transferred from the Roman Bishop and City to another bishop and another city. » — XXXVII. « National Churches can be instituted withdrawn from the authority of the Roman Pontiff and plainly divided from it. » — XXXVIII. « The excessive arbitrariness of the Roman Pontiffs contributed not a little to the division of the Church into eastern and western. » — XLIX. « Civil authority can prevent the free and mutual communication of sacred prelates and the faithful people with the Roman Pontiff. » — LIV. « Kings and princes are not only exempted from the jurisdiction of the Church, but are also superior to the Church in settling questions of jurisdiction. » — LV. « The Church must be separated from the State, and the State from the Church. » These propositions, and others detracting more or less from the rights of the Roman primacy, already reproved before, were by the foregoing definition of the Vatican synod again pierced through and respectively condemned.]