Summa de Ecclesia

¹

But since we have proposed to speak of the universal Church and according to the condition of the present state — because to speak of her and her members according to the condition of the future state surpasses the power of our understanding, since the number of the elect to be placed in supernal happiness is known to God alone — for the present we take the Church in that signification according to which she is described as the collection of Catholics or the whole company of the faithful. Of the faithful, I say, whether predestined or not, whether existing in charity or not, provided only they hold the Catholic faith whole, and have not been cut off from the Church by the censure of their pastor. But this mode of taking the universal Church is more fitting than that mode under which certain erring men taught that the holy and universal Church is to be called only the whole company of the predestined or of those having charity. A manifold reason for this fittingness can be assigned. First, because this mode of taking the universal Church — namely as denoting the collection or whole company of the faithful, whether good or evil — is more conformed to Sacred Scripture and to the sayings of the holy fathers. As the clearest proof of this, Christ is read in the Gospel to have compared the holy universal Church to many things which suffer the mixture of the evil together with the good, of which let us bring forward a few examples. For he says in Matt. 13: the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea and gathering of every kind of fishes. On this blessed Gregory says in his homily: the holy Church is compared to a net cast into the sea and gathering of every kind of fishes, because now she holds in common, as fishes mingled together, the good and the evil by the net of faith. But the shore of the holy Church, that is, the end, shows what the net draws. Likewise the same Gregory in another homily: the good alone are nowhere but in heaven, and the evil alone are nowhere but in hell; but this life, which is situated between heaven and hell, just as it subsists in the middle, so it receives of both parts in common — whom nevertheless the holy Church both now receives without distinction and afterwards separates at their going forth — thus Gregory; and it is found in 23, q. 4, ch. Haec autem vita. Likewise in the same chapter of the Gospel Christ compares the Church to a field in which, together with the good seed, tares were found to have sprung up; and in Matt. 3 the Church is read to be compared to a threshing-floor for this reason, that just as on the threshing-floor grains are mingled together with chaff, so in the universal Church the evil are contained together with the good. Hence blessed Aug., On Faith to Peter, ch. 4, says thus: hold most firmly and doubt in no way that the threshing-floor of God is the Catholic Church, and that within her even unto the end of the world the chaff of the wheat is contained — that is, that the evil are mingled with the good in the communion of the sacraments — and that in every profession, whether of clerics or of monks or of laymen, there are good together with evil — thus Aug. Moreover for this reason the holy and universal Church is read to be compared by Christ to the ten virgins, of whom five were foolish and five wise, Matt. 25. On this blessed Gregory says: the present Church is called the kingdom of heaven, and because the holy Church is gathered manifoldly from both sexes, she is declared like to ten virgins — in which, because the evil are mingled with the good and the reprobate with the elect, she is rightly said to be like the wise and the foolish virgins — thus Gregory. Moreover for this reason the Church is said to be figured by Noah's ark, in which tame animals are read to have been placed together with wild, and clean with unclean — where the Gloss on Gen. ch. 8 says thus: that all kinds of animals are enclosed in the ark signifies that the Church is gathered from all races and nations; as in Peter's dish the animals were clean and unclean, so in the sacraments of the Church the good and the evil mingle. And on that word, he sent forth the dove after the raven, it adds thus: the ark contains the raven and the dove, so the Church the good and the evil. The second reason of fittingness is that to this mode of taking the name Church the name and notion of universal and Catholic distinction more fittingly belongs, since by the embrace of its universality it contains more than the other modes — indeed all other modes of taking the name Church are as it were parts of it. For just as in secular polity, within the embrace of the whole commonwealth one multitude is part of another — as the domestic multitude is part of the civil multitude, as is shown in 1. Politics, and the civil multitude is part of the multitude of the kingdom, by whose embrace all are included — so in the commonwealth of the Christian religion, under this amplitude of the name Church according to which it denotes the whole company of all who agree in the Catholic faith and the fellowship of the sacraments, all other modes are comprehended according to which the name Church is taken more particularly. And thus to this mode of taking the Church the name and notion of universal and Catholic distinction more fully belongs. The third reason of fittingness is that from this the essence of the people of God is manifested ampler and more extensive, since it redounds to the glory of God himself, according to Prov. 14: in the multitude of the people is the dignity of the king, and in the fewness of the folk the dishonor of the prince. But in Baruch 3 it is said: O Israel, how great is the house of the Lord, and vast the place of his possession. But of this most ample multitude of the people of God the Lord thus speaks to Abraham in Gen. 13: I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; and below in ch. 15 he says: look up at heaven and number the stars of heaven if thou canst; and he said to him: so shall thy seed be — the Gloss: that is, the Christian people, whose father thou shalt be in faith — where the seed of Abraham is compared now to the sand of the sea on account of the carnal and dry, unfruitful in good works, and now to the stars of heaven on account of those who shine like stars with virtues, as the Gloss says. But this amplitude of the Christian people could not be known if the holy and universal Church were deemed to be only the whole company of the predestined or only the collection of those existing in charity. For the worship of the Christian religion and the sacrament of the Catholic faith itself, in which the Catholic society agrees, has more of notice and experience with us than the writing of predestination, and even than the state of charity. For it is not so given to us to know someone to be predestined or joined to Christ by charity, as it is granted to us to know whether someone is of the Christian religion. Hence Aug. in his book On Baptism — and it is found, On consecration, dist. 4, ch. Est unitas ecclesiae — which spreads widely, namely in the fellowship and communion of the sacraments, which embraces the chaff together with the grains — where the Gloss says: there is a unity which spreads widely; but the unity of the Church which is in the charity of faith does not spread so widely, but embraces only the good; but according to the unity of the sacraments, also the evil — thus the Gloss. The fourth reason, because through this each one knows whether he belongs to the Church or not — in which no small consolation accrues to the faithful, that each one can have knowledge with himself whether he belongs to the Church of Christ. For each one knows and truly recognizes whether he has faith or not — which concerning predestination or the state of charity is by no means granted to know. For Aug. says: nothing is more certain to man than his faith by which it is believed, which is farthest from sense. Likewise Aug. in his book On the Trinity — and it is set down by the Master in iii of the Sentences, dist. 23: each one, he says, would see his faith in his own heart, whether he believes, or its absence if he does not believe — not as bodies which we see with bodily eyes or through their images, nor as the soul which we conjecture from movements of the body; faith is not so seen in the heart in which it is by him whose it is, but we hold it by most certain knowledge — thus he. And holy Thomas in his 3rd book on the same passage of the Master says: it is one thing concerning charity and another concerning faith, since he who has faith can know that he has it — which does not happen concerning charity. From which thing it is known and clear to each one whether he himself belongs to the universal Church — which is to be held by the faithful as a very great dignity and singular grace. The fifth reason of fittingness is that through the aforesaid mode of taking the name Church greater peace and concord is kept in the people of God. For if only the predestined and those existing in the charity of Christ were said to belong to the Church, since it would be unknown who such were, no doubt many schisms and very many divisions would arise among the faithful — as we have known by experience at the time when this pestiferous teaching was taught by certain heretics. Hence the Lord said to his disciples that the tares were not to be rooted up, but to be allowed with the wheat until the time of harvest, Matt. 13. And Aug. on psal. 119, treating that verse, with those who hated peace, says thus: who are they who hated peace? They who tore unity asunder. For if they had not hated peace, they would have remained in unity. And below the Catholic voice says: unity is not to be abandoned, the Church of God is not to be cut asunder; God will judge concerning the good and the evil afterwards. The evil cannot at once be separated from the good; they are to be borne for a time. The evil can be with us on the threshing-floor; they cannot be in the barn. And perhaps he who today appears evil will tomorrow be good, and he who today prides himself on goodness will tomorrow be found evil — thus he. And Aug. in his book On Baptism — found in ch. Quantus, 23, q. 3 — says thus: how great a swelling of arrogance it is, how great a forgetfulness of humility and levity, and how great a boasting of arrogance, that anyone should believe he can do what the Lord did not grant even to the apostles — namely, that he thinks he can discern the tares from the wheat.

The sixth reason is that from this the principate of the Church is more established in the minds of the faithful, and plainly strengthened: if the predestined alone were believed to belong to the Church of God, men believing that the principate of the Church befits only those who are of the Church, the faithful would have no certainty of prelateship, unless a singular revelation were made concerning it — which uncertainty or doubt is in no way to be held concerning the principate and the president of the Church, which shines to all as a most bright city set upon a mountain, Matt. 5. To this that saying of Jerome seems to apply excellently, found in 24, q. 1, ch. Omnibus, where it is thus said: all things considered, I think I say not rashly that some are so in the house of God that they themselves are the house of God — which house both received the keys and the power of loosing and binding — thus there. Indeed, if the Church consisted only of the predestined, the pontificate of the keys of the Church would waver with the same uncertainty with which the certainty of the predestined is weak with us. Rightly, therefore, the whole company of the faithful, without other limitation or determination, obtained the name and notion of the universal Church — although, as was said, the Church is taken in other modes, yet less universally. From this also it is made most manifest how reasonably the error of those who say that the holy and universal Church is only the whole company of the predestined or of the elect was condemned.