Summa de Ecclesia

¹

AFTER the consideration of what is conveyed by the Church in name and in reality, and with the aspect under which we shall speak of the Church explained, it remains to treat of its conditions and properties, and most especially of those which the holy fathers attribute to it in the symbol of faith, saying: I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church, where the holy fathers hand down, teach and preach four things concerning the Church. First, that it is one, and this against three kinds of men: namely, against the conventicles of heretics, against schismatics, and against the excommunicated who despise the bonds of the Church. Second, that it is holy, against Christians of false name. Third, that it is catholic, that is universal, against those who stand apart and persist obstinately in their own opinion, receding from the common doctrine of the faith and of the holy fathers, of which sort are all heretics. Fourth, that it is apostolic, against the presumptuous devisers of novelties and the introducers of new sects and strange doctrines; let us speak of each in turn. That the Church is one, the Truth as teacher through the Holy Spirit attests in Cant. 4, saying: My dove is one, my perfect one is one. Concerning this it is to be noted that the unity of the Church is gathered from many sources. First, from the unity of the prince or head by whom it is ruled and governed, who is one, namely Christ the Lord our God, whom the Father gave as head over the whole Church which is his body, in Eph. 1. Second, the Church is called one from the unity of the faith by which it is enlightened and in which it is founded. For faith is a certain divine and admirable light in which we have been called, and the foundation of the Christian religion, as Chrysostom says. For all Christians believe the same thing in heart and confess it with the mouth, that is, in 1 Cor. 1: Say all the same thing, and let there be no schisms in your words; on account of this community of faith, says Aug. on John ², we are all one, according to that of the Apostle: You are all one in Christ Jesus — the Gloss: in faith in Christ. The blessed Jerome uses this reasoning writing to Evander the bishop, as is found in ch. Legimus, dist. 93: The Church of the city of Rome is not to be judged one thing in these matters, and that of the whole world another, nor those of Gaul and Britain. For Africa and Persia and the East and India and all the barbarian nations adore one Christ and observe one rule of truth. Third, the Church is called one from the unity of the sacrament of baptism by which it is sanctified, which is the same among all both as to the matter, concerning which John 3: Unless a man be born again of water, etc., and as to the form, concerning which Matt., last chapter: Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And as to the ultimate effect, Mark, last chapter: He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. Or as to the efficacy of the conferred gift, which is equal by whomsoever it is given, as Aug. says in ch. Sicut in bonos, De consec., dist. 4. By this unity of baptism, moreover, since it is the gate of the sacraments, is understood the unity of the other sacraments, concerning which see ch. Est unitas ecclesiae, De consec., dist. 4.

Of such unities in the Church the Apostle likewise speaks in Eph. 4, saying: One Lord, one faith, one baptism; where the Gloss says: You ought to keep unity, for you have one Lord, not three, that for their diverse wills you ought to be at discord, and thus we bid you believe and act in the same way. Likewise the Gloss on that of Cant. 5, My dove is one, says: as she is one although there are many and diverse persons, yet the faith in them is one, one baptism, one God, one work. Fourth, the Church is called one from the unity of hope, by which it is raised to heavenly goods and lifted into one expectation of blessedness, concerning which the Apostle in Eph. 4: You are called in one hope of your calling — the Gloss: to one separate thing, which is the effect of the calling. Fifth, the Church is one by the unity of charity by which it is bound together and given life, concerning which the Apostle says in Phil. 2: Having the same charity, being of one mind, feeling the same thing; concerning this unity which charity makes it is said in Acts 4, where it is recorded of the primitive Church that the multitude of believers had one soul and one heart in the Lord, because, as the Gloss says, they were joined to one another by the bond of charity. Likewise the Gloss on that, that is, on 1 Cor. 10, One bread and one body, says the Church is called one, because just as one bread is composed of many grains and one body of many members, so the Church of Christ is bound together of many of the faithful with charity joining them. Hence Augustine says in the book on baptism, as found in ch. Multae, I, q. 1, that charity is the proper gift of catholic unity and peace. Sixth, the Church is called one by the unity of the life-giving Spirit, for one and the same Spirit, namely the Holy Spirit, as the ultimate and principal perfection of the mystical body, as the soul in a body, is in all the members of the Church, dividing to each as he wills, for there are divisions of graces. But the same Spirit, says the Apostle in 1 Cor. 12. To this unity the same Apostle exhorts in Eph. 4, saying thus: Be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit — the Gloss: the unity of the Church which the Holy Spirit makes, that you may be one body by the work of the Holy Spirit. Likewise in the same place the Apostle speaks to our point thus: One body and one spirit — the Gloss: you ought to be one body, because one Spirit dwells in you by whom we are made one body. For just as one body of a man consists of many members and one soul quickens all the members, making in the eye that it see, in the ear that it hear, and so in the rest, so the Holy Spirit contains and quickens the members of the body of Christ which is the Church. Seventh, the Church is called one by the unity of the ultimate end, which is blessedness itself to which it is ordered. Hence also the same penny, by which the holy doctors understand blessedness, is read as assigned to all the faithful as the reward of their labors in Matt. 20, where it is said that when those who came about the eleventh hour came, they too received every man a penny — the Gloss says: because they come to the same eternity with those who were called from the beginning of the world; and Aug. on that of Ps. 85, All nations, says: Many nations and one nation; why one nation? Because one expectation in the end; why not one nation, if there is one homeland, Jerusalem. Eighth, the Church is one by the unity of one president, ruler and governor visibly abiding with it, of whom it is said in Joel 1: The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And the Lord says in John 10: Let there be one fold and one shepherd. This one president, pastor, ruler and governor in the whole universal Church, holding the place of Christ, is the supreme pontiff, as will be shown in what follows. Hence the blessed Cyprian, treating that of Matt. 16, Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, speaks thus of this unity: He builds the Church upon one, and although after his resurrection he grant to all the apostles an equal, that is a like, power when he said: As the Father sent me, so I send you; receive the Holy Spirit, yet to manifest unity he disposed by his authority that the origin of the same unity begin from one; and below: The beginning proceeds from unity, that the Church of Christ may be shown to be one; this is found in ch. Loquitur, XXIV, q. 1.