Summa de Ecclesia

D. IOANNIS DE TURRE CREMATA

Of the Holy Roman Church, cardinal priest of the title of Saint Mary across the Tiber, commonly called of Saint Sixtus

PROLOGUE

In which the author himself clearly explains to us both the reason for his undertaking, why he composed this work, and the division of his Summa, which he has distinguished into four books.

Behold, the bed of Solomon is surrounded by sixty valiant men of the most valiant of Israel, all holding swords in their hands, and most skilled in war. The sword of each one is upon his thigh, because of fears in the night. Canticles iii. Among the other signs of his singular love by which the heavenly bridegroom, the Son of God, may easily be seen to embrace with sincere love his bride, the holy universal Church, this stands forth as an evident sign, that for her, against the ancient serpent, the most pernicious enemy of human salvation, there has been chosen, by the provident dispensation of the supernal counsel, for her guard, garrison, and firm defense of protection, that heavenly primacy of unconquered valor which we also call angelic, that most invincible soldiery of virtue, concerning which the Lord says through Isaiah ch. 62: Upon thy walls, Jerusalem, I have set watchmen. Next comes the earthly soldiery, namely the company of Catholic doctors, whose study and industry must have it as their chiefest care to defend the Church against the snares of the tempter, so that the Catholic faith may be kept immaculate in her, untouched by every contagion of errors, against heretics, and peace and unity may stand undisturbed against schismatics, concerning whom the Lord himself has spoken through Zechariah.¹

I will surround my house, that is, as the Gloss explains, the Church, with those who fight for me, whom the Holy Spirit, describing the soldiers of Christ guarding the faith and peace of the Church, from the greatness of strength of soul, from the most fervent zeal of faith, from strenuousness in battle, from breadth of wisdom, and finally from tireless providence, calls in the words set forth: Behold, sixty valiant men surround the bed of Solomon. Certainly if ever it was urgent for the soldiers of Christ, whom we have said to be the Catholic doctors, girt with strong swords and furnished with the most powerful arms, to surround the bed of Solomon and to enclose it with most vigilant guard, lest any, taken by simplicity of mind or led by error, or deceived by any cunning of deceitful craft, should perish from the camp of the Church, it is incumbent upon them above all in these our last days. For there should be the greater vigilance and the greater confidence, the subtler and sharper the cunning with which the adversaries lie in wait. For there have risen in this our sorrowful time certain pestilent men, puffed up with the spirit of ambition, who, stirred up by diabolical impulse and by exceeding deceit, have with pernicious daring introduced false doctrines, utterly foreign to the doctrines of the holy fathers, concerning both ecclesiastical and secular power, by which, most fiercely assailing the universal Church, they grievously afflict her with great wounds, for these men desire with their vain disputations to tear asunder the unity of the Church, to confound the brightness of her nobility, indeed to subvert the order divinely given, and foully to obscure the beauty of her adornment; moreover they have striven to depress and shake the glory of the primacy of the Apostolic See, which is the teacher of the faith and the mother of all churches, and its supreme authority divinely granted. Therefore they so disturb the whole body of the Church that nothing of the frame of that body seems to escape unshaken and unwounded. Since therefore the sacrilegious assertions of these impious men rage with such impiety against the Church of God and the Apostolic See that they are opposed not only to evangelical truth but ways have been prepared through them for many schisms and errors, perils of souls, dissensions of princes, and scandals of peoples, anyone may clearly understand that they seem to have attempted to undermine not some portion of the Church but the very foundations of the Christian religion. Wherefore the Catholic doctors must deservedly meet them with swift haste and resist them as speedily as possible with the impregnable arms of faith. For as Pope Leo says, in such cases silence is not free from suspicion, for truth would confront falsehood if falsehood displeased. Hence we, John de Turrecremata, of the Holy Roman Church, cardinal priest of the title of Saint Mary across the Tiber, commonly called of Saint Sixtus, moved by zeal for the faith and for the honor of the bride of Christ, the universal Church, desiring to do what satisfies our duty and our station, though not sufficiently skilled for so great a matter, lest we also be held guilty of the fault of silence in this most grave cause, against the adversaries of this Church of God and of the primacy of holy Peter, according to the strength of the talent entrusted to us from above, have composed, with the help of the Lord, a book which we have judged should be called a Summa against the adversaries of the Church and of the primacy of the apostle Peter. In it we show, from the roots of divine Scripture and the irrefragable opinions of the holy fathers, that the aforesaid assertions of impious men are abundantly, as we judge, refuted and to be driven from the hearts of the faithful, and, with answers subjoined to their vain objections, we have left the bed, that is the Church of Christ, protected by the shields hanging from the tower of David and fortified against their assault, according to our strength. Moreover, we have written these things in rude speech, following the scholastic manner, for as Aug. says against the Manichaean, the vanity of heretics is to be convicted not by ornate and polished speech but by manifest facts.

This Summa we have distinguished into four books.² Of these the first bears the title concerning the universal Church. The second concerning the Roman Church and the primacy of its pontiff. The third concerning universal councils. The fourth concerning schismatics and heretics. But although in these our writings, as in all others whatsoever, we have always endeavored to write of things not according to the appetite of our own will but as much as with studious diligence and with the highest fidelity we could receive from the treasuries of the Lord or from the holy fathers or the most renowned professors of sacred theology, nevertheless, because we wish to have said nothing at all with unbending obstinacy except what must be said according to the rule of orthodox faith or the most approved opinions of the holy fathers, this work, now completed with the help of the divine power, we offer to be corrected and amended to our holy lord Nicholas, the fifth Pope, who in this our age sits most worthily in the chair of Peter by the gift of divine grace with great brightness of merits, whose faith, as blessed Sixtus his predecessor says in ch. Memor, 24, q. 1, favors the heresy of none but destroys all heresies, saying with blessed Jerome: This is the faith, most blessed Pope, which we have learned in the Catholic Church and which we have always held, in which if anything has perchance been set down with too little skill or too little caution, we desire it to be corrected by you, who hold both the see and the faith of Peter. But if our confession is approved by the judgment of your apostolate, whoever wishes to blame me will prove himself unskilled and malevolent, or not Catholic but a heretic.