Summa de Ecclesia
Juan de Torquemada (1388–1468)
First published 1561
Torquemada's Summa de Ecclesia from the Venice 1561 edition, Books I-IV with the Florentine union apparatus, in Latin with a new English translation.
Titulus I: Title page
Privilegium I: Privilege
Epistola I: Dedicatory letter
Cardinal Vitellius to Pius IV, Supreme Pontiff.
Many men outstanding in learning and piety, most blessed Father, both Greek and Latin, have indeed written on the authority of the Apostolic See and of the Roman Pontiff; but no one has written better, more fully, or more effectively than Ioannes de Turrecremata, Cardinal of the title of Saint Sixtus, of whom many works survive, written diligently and learnedly — but most outstanding of them all is the Summa which he composed on the Church: a most useful work indeed, and most necessary for refuting the calumnies of the adversaries of the apostolic Church. But the usefulness of his book is perceived the less, the fewer it is known to — through no fault of the author, for he wrote for all — but because the book itself, printed once many years ago, is found nowhere, or rarely. Since therefore I observed that so useful and indeed necessary a work is desired by many, and that its reading is of the greatest moment for defending the truth of the Catholic Church — especially in these times, in which the more and stronger arms are needed, the more numerous the enemies themselves are and the more heaped up their malice — I have not suffered this lamp to lie hidden under a bushel, but have taken care that it be set upon a candlestick, that it may give light to all who are in the house: that is, that the book itself, printed anew, may be read by many. I have taken care that this book be dedicated to your Holiness, since a work in which the power of the Catholic Church is discussed befits no one better than you, who are the head, ruler and teacher of the whole Church and of all Christians, as Vicar of Christ and successor of Peter. And so there is no doubt that Your Holiness will gladly receive this Summa, in which are compendiously contained the arguments by which the dignity of the Church is so defended and the objections of the adversaries so dispelled, that unless one should wish to be of obstinate mind, he will have nothing further that he can contradict.