Summa summae S. Thomae, Tomus III

Confirmation by the supreme Pontiff must necessarily be added to a general council, so that it may be ratified and firm.

Proof. First, from Julius I, Pelagius II, and the fourth synod, whose texts we cited in art. 1 of this dissertation, according to which no council is ratified and firm unless it is supported by the authority of the Roman Pontiff. And it is supported by his confirmation as its means.

Proof. Second, from the usage and practice of the Church. All general councils celebrated up to now have been confirmed by the supreme Pontiff, and several requested his confirmation. This is an open indication that this confirmation was judged necessary; otherwise why would it have been given so accurately, so consistently, and requested so often?

Proof. Third. A general council is not ratified and firm in its decrees except insofar as it represents the universal Church. Yet it does not represent the universal Church unless it has its head, the Roman Pontiff, judging with it; nor is the Roman Pontiff considered to judge unless while he confirms the decrees of the council. Therefore.

At once, however, a not slight difficulty occurs. A general council legitimately convoked, with the apostolic legates sitting with and judging with the council, who act in the place of the Roman Pontiff and preside in his name, represents the whole Church; for it is united to its head. Therefore by this very fact its decrees are ratified and firm, and they need no further confirmation from the Pontiff.

For the unfolding of this difficulty, it must be observed that apostolic legates are sent to councils sometimes with an instruction of the supreme Pontiff concerning the questions to be defined, which is customary when few things are to be defined; sometimes without an instruction, which happens when more things are to be defined, as at the Council of Trent. With this observation premised, to the proposed difficulty

I answer. First, if the legates have an instruction and do not follow it in defining together with the council, the definition is not ratified and infallible; for since they do not then act as legates of the Pontiff, the council is not, in defining, joined to its head, nor consequently does it represent the Church.

Second, if however they follow their instruction exactly, we judge, whatever some may say, that the definition of the council is ratified and infallible, because then it has its head joined to it, namely the supreme Pontiff expressly consenting with it, and thus it represents the whole Church.

Nor should you say that this instruction of the Pontiff is not a definition ex cathedra, since otherwise the votes of the bishops would not be free; but only the definition of the Pontiff ex cathedra is infallible. I grant indeed that this instruction, while it is given, is not a definition ex cathedra; but while the council consents to it, and the decree is formed according to it, it begins to be a definition ex cathedra, and it is the definitive sentence not only of the council but also of the Pontiff, which he cannot retract. For the legates are sent precisely so that, if the council assents to the instruction, the decree be formed; if it does not assent, the decree be suspended, and in the meantime the Pontiff be consulted.

Nevertheless, in this case we judge the confirmation of the supreme Pontiff necessary, not that the decrees of the council acquire infallibility, which they already have, but that it become known to the Church that everything was duly observed in the council, and that the decrees were formed according to the instruction and mind of the Pontiff: which cannot otherwise be certainly known, since sometimes the legates, besides the public instructions, hold secret ones, which perhaps they did not produce, or at least could not produce.

Third, if however the legates are present at the council without an instruction of the supreme

Pontiff, whatever the council defines, even with them assenting, is not of infallible authority, unless the confirmation of the supreme Pontiff is added; because the Pontiff cannot confer on legates the privilege of infallibility. For it is annexed to the supreme pontificate itself, or to the dignity of the head and supreme shepherd of the Church, for whom alone Christ prayed, that his faith should not fail; but the Pope cannot make legates supreme Pontiffs and supreme shepherds of the Church.

It is confirmed. The legates with an instruction of the Pontiff can depart from it and err. Therefore they can equally err without an instruction.

But the argument made before returns. A council legitimately convoked, with the apostolic legates presiding, represents the whole Church. Yet the whole Church cannot err. Therefore.

I answer. I distinguish the antecedent. A council legitimately convoked, with the apostolic legates presiding, represents the whole Church incompletely and imperfectly, I concede; completely and perfectly, I deny. For the consent of the head with the body is not yet had, seeing that the legates, although they preside in the name of the Pontiff, are nevertheless not the head and Pontiff with the privilege of infallibility, and he himself has not yet opened his mind concerning what is defined.

You will ask how many general councils there are.

I answer. Twenty are commonly counted: eight celebrated in the East, namely Nicaea I, to which Sardica is joined, Constantinople I, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople II, Constantinople III, Nicaea II, and Constantinople IV; eleven celebrated in the West after the schism of Photius, namely the four Lateran councils, the two of Lyons, Vienne, Constance, Florence, Lateran V, and Trent. Some add Pisa.

[In the time of the great schism, this council was convoked by the cardinals of both obediences and assembled at Pisa, in the year 1409, to extinguish the schism through the election of a Pontiff whose authority would be acknowledged by the universal Church. But the evil was not thereby removed, rather increased; for to the two pontiffs Gregory XII and Benedict XIII, pertinacious in retaining the papacy, was added a third, namely Alexander V, and peace was restored to the Church only through the election of Martin V made at the Council of Constance.

Some expunge this council from the number of general councils, because it was not convoked by the authority of the Pontiff. But it seems that, in the case of schism, when the Pontiff is doubtful, the Church has the right of convoking a council, if not ultimately to define matters of faith and morals, at least to provide herself with a certain head, as was done in the following Council of Constance: otherwise Christ would not have provided sufficiently for the necessity and security of his Church.

If this council was legitimate because of the present necessity, the chief reason why it is not commonly reckoned among the general councils seems to be that, the schism not being extinguished, it lacked the approval customarily given by a certain Pontiff, which lacking, a council, however legitimate it may be, lacks formal ecumenicity.

The twentieth is the Vatican Council, convoked by Pius IX by letters dated June 29, 1868. It was opened on December 8, 1869, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of God, and suspended by the same Pontiff, on account of "the calamitous condition of affairs," on October 20, 1870. "Therefore," says the Pontiff in the apostolic letters, "since we perceive with great sorrow of soul that affairs have been brought to such a pass that the Vatican Council cannot entirely continue its course in such a time, after mature deliberation, of our own motion, by apostolic authority, in the tenor of these presents, we suspend the celebration of the same ecumenical Vatican Council until another more opportune and fitting time, which is to be declared by this Holy See, and we announce it suspended, beseeching God, the author and defender of his Church, that, all impediments at last removed, he may the sooner restore liberty and peace to his most faithful Spouse." — May God bring it about that, the storm at last calmed by which the Church is shaken on every side, this most sacred synod, gathered again in the Holy Spirit, may happily bring to the desired end the work auspiciously begun and mournfully interrupted!]