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
Index I: Full index
Prologus I: Prologue
Liber I: Book I — On the Universal Church
Caput I: Chapter I. On the name Church and how it differs from the name synagogue.
Caput II: Chapter II. On the various senses of the name Church.
Caput III: Chapter III. In which sense the discussion of the Church is to be taken in what follows, where it is shown that in the Church the good and the wicked are mingled together.
Caput IV: Chapter IV. In which objections are raised against what was said, that in the holy and universal Church the good and the wicked are contained together.
IT WILL PERHAPS SEEM1 to some that the holy and universal Church is not to be called the Church which contains the good together with the evil, but the one which contains only the good, which is argued in many ways. First, from the word concerning the holy and universal Church found in Cant. 4: A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, a well of living waters, which word Aug. in book 5 against the Donatists says is not to be understood except of the saints and the just, not of the covetous, not of fraudulent robbers and drunkards; therefore it seems that the holy and universal Church contains only the just and the holy. The same is argued, second,2 from the word in the same chapter of the Canticle which the spouse speaks to his bride, that is, Christ to the Church: You are all beautiful, my friend, and there is no spot in you. It is plain that if the holy and universal Church is all beautiful and without spot, she will not have the foul and deformed in morals, stained with the filth of sins, mingled with the good who shine resplendent in beauty of adornment alone. The same is argued, third,3 from the word of the Apostle in Eph. 5: Christ loved the Church and delivered himself for her that he might sanctify her; there follows, that he might present her having neither spot nor wrinkle nor anything of the kind. But she would have spot and wrinkle if she had the evil mingled with the good.
4 Fourth, it is shown from the fact that, as Aug. says, the ark of the Lord, which signified the Church, was made of sethim wood, which is incorruptible and like white thorn, whence it seems that the Church also consists only of saints and not of all the faithful in general.
5 Fifth, it is argued from the fact that in the creed the holy fathers said that the Church is holy; but if the Church is holy, and holiness, as Dionysius witnesses in ch. 12 on the divine names, is a purity free from all uncleanness and perfect and altogether spotless, it does not seem that the Church can truly be called holy if she contains evil men defiled with the stains of sins.
6 Sixth, it is argued from the word of Hiero. in his commentary on the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, who, treating the text, The Church is subject to Christ, says: The Church of Christ is glorious, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor anything of the kind; therefore one who is a sinner and stained with any filth cannot be called of the Church of Christ nor said to be subject to Christ, in the decree on Penance, dist. 1, c. 6, Ecclesia.
7 Seventh, it is argued by the authority of blessed Aug. in book 4 against the Donatists, who, speaking of evil men who renounce the world in words and not in deeds, says: Nor are those devoted to the Church who seem to be within and live against Christ, that is, act against the nature of Christ, nor are they to be judged as belonging at all to that Church which he cleanses for himself by the laver of the water of life in the word, that he may present her to himself glorious, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor anything of the kind.
8 Last, it is argued from the word of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 6: What agreement has light with darkness? Since the evil are said to be darkness and the good light, according to the word in Eph. 5: For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord, therefore it seems that the good and the evil are not to be reckoned together nor comprehended in the unity of the holy and universal Church.