Summa de Ecclesia

¹

Having shown that the Church is one, it now remains for us to show that the Church is holy. She is described as holy by the holy fathers in the Nicene council, to distinguish her from the congregation of the wicked, which is not holy but impious, of which it is said in Ps. 25: I have hated the church of the wicked. Of the Church of Christ, on the other hand, it is said in the second-to-last psalm: Let his praise be in the church of the saints, where the Gloss of Aug.: The church of the saints is the Catholic Church; the church of heretics is not to be called the church of the saints. The Church is called holy, moreover, because sanctified by the Holy Spirit, which holiness the Holy Spirit poured forth upon her, as Albert the Great says, in the sacraments, virtues, and gifts which he gives unto the perfection of holiness. But since "holy" has several meanings, it must be considered in what ways the Church of Christ is and is called holy. For this it is to be noted that "holy" is the same as "clean," and to this meaning corresponds the name hagios in Greek, which is interpreted as though "without earth," in which way blessed Dionysius, defining holiness in ch. 12 of the Divine Names, speaks thus: Holiness is free from all uncleanness, and perfect, and altogether spotless. In this meaning the Church is holy, because clean from the filth and corruption of sin. Plainly, since Christ her spouse is beautiful above the sons of men, and the holy of holies, so does he have a holy spouse, who says, Lev. 2: Be holy, because I am holy, whence in Cant. 4 he speaks thus to the Church: Thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee. And the Apostle in 1 Cor. 3 says: The temple of God is holy, which you are. Second, "holy" is the same as "firm," whence among the ancients those things were called holy which were fortified by laws; whence "holy" is also said of what has been established by law. In this sense the Church of Christ is holy. First, indeed, because ordained by God through eternal predestination and divine law, as Paul the Apostle attests, who speaks thus to the Eph. 2: He chose us, the Gloss: by predestining, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in his sight in charity, the Gloss: not by our merits, but by his charity. Second, in this meaning the Church is called holy and established, so that she cannot be violated, since she will never fail from the faith and charity which is in Christ. Whence in Ps. 76 the prophet says: He built his sanctuary as of unicorns in the earth which he founded forever, where the Gloss of Jerome: that is, he established the Church herself with singular strength, so that she should stand immovable forever and ever. And in Ps. 103 the same prophet speaks thus to the Lord: Thou hast founded the earth upon thy stability; it shall not be moved forever and ever. Upon which word blessed Aug. speaks: By earth I understand the Church; what is her firmness upon which she is founded, but the foundation of which the Apostle says: Other foundation no man can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. There therefore we are established by merit, because there those established shall not be moved forever and ever, for nothing is firmer than this foundation. Of this immovable firmness of the Church, Christ gave promise to Peter, whom he had disposed to set over his whole Church, saying in Matt. 16: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock, that is, upon this confession of faith, I will build my Church, and there follows: and the gates of hell, that is, sins, threats, flatteries, and heresies, as the Gloss says, shall not prevail against her, the Gloss: that is, they shall not separate her from my faith and charity. Of this unchangeable firmness the most blessed Paul is witness, saying to the Rom. 8: I am sure that neither death shall separate us from the charity of Christ. In a third way "holy" is the same as "tinged or sprinkled or cleansed with blood," for among the ancients nothing was called holy unless it had been sprinkled with the blood of a sacrificial victim. In ancient times also men who wished to be purified were tinged with the blood of a victim, as Isidore says. Whence the Apostle writes to the Heb. 9: Almost all things are cleansed with blood according to the law, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. By reason of this meaning above all the Church of God comes to be called holy, she who, sprinkled with the blood of Christ, received the cleansing of sins and put on the beauty of holiness. Whence in 1 Pet. 2 it is said: A holy nation, a purchased people, the Gloss: that is, sprinkled with the blood of Christ. And the Apostle says to the Eph. 5: Christ loved the Church and delivered himself for her, that he might sanctify her, and in Apoc. 1 John the Apostle says: He loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood. Fourth, "holy" is the same as "applied to divine services," just as men, places, days, vessels, and vestments dedicated to divine worship are called holy. Of men it is thus found in Exod. 30: Aaron and his sons thou shalt anoint, and shalt sanctify them, that they may exercise the priesthood unto me, and in 2 Esdras, ch. 11, it says: Esdras to the ministers of the house of the Lord: You are holy unto the Lord, and the vessels are. Of place it is said in Ps. 95: Adore the Lord in his holy court. Of vessels it is said in Exod. 30: The ark of the testimony with its vessels, the candlestick and its furnishings, and all the household stuff pertaining to their worship thou shalt sanctify, and they shall be holy of holies. Of holy days it is written in 2 Esdras 10: For the day of the Lord is holy. Of vestments it is said in Exod. 28: Thou shalt make holy vestments for Aaron thy brother, and for his sons. In this meaning the Church of God is deservedly called the holy Church, she who is wholly dedicated to the service and worship of the one true God; indeed, in her alone is the true worship of God, which is perfected by faith, hope, and charity, as Aug. says in ch. Extra, 1, q. 1: Outside the Catholic Church there is no place of true sacrifice. Fifth, holiness is called a certain religion or observance of justice in those things which pertain to God. Whence Andronicus, as holy Thomas says, defines holiness thus: Holiness is the virtue making the faithful keep those things which are just toward God, of which in Luke 1: Let us serve the Lord in holiness and justice before him all our days. In this sense the Church is called holy, because the highest, pure, and immaculate religion is observed in her; she is holy in vows, holy in sacrifices, holy in ministries, holy in ceremonies, holy in each of the observances which pertain to the worship and reverence of the holy divinity. Sixth, the Church of God is called holy because she is spiritually favored and endowed with all virtues, graces, and gifts. Whence in Ps. 64 it is said: We shall be filled with the good things of thy house; the Gloss of Cassiodorus: that is, of the present Church, which abounds with the good things of diverse spiritual gifts. What are those good things? Those good things are holiness in herself, and equity toward one's neighbor, whence there will follow: Holy is thy temple, wonderful in equity, the Gloss: that is, of the Church. For she herself is the house and temple of God, holy in herself and wonderful in equity toward her neighbor. Seventh, the Church of God is called holy because she lives, is ruled, and is governed by the best, most just, and most sacred laws; of the divine law the Apostle says to the Rom. 8: The law is holy, and the commandment holy. And in the psalm it is written: The law of the Lord is immaculate, converting souls; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones. The public laws, moreover, established for the government of the Church by the holy fathers, are holy, and are confirmed with such truth, on account of their holiness, that blessed Pope Agapetus, writing to all bishops in ch. Sic, dist. 21, says: All sanctions of the apostolic see are to be received as though established by the very divine voice of Peter. Whence violators of the sacred canons, as holy Pope Damasus says in ch. Violatores, 25, q. 1, are gravely judged by the holy fathers, and are condemned by the Holy Spirit, by whose prompting and gift they were dictated, since they do not incongruously seem to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Eighth, the Church of God is called holy according as "holy" means endowed with the knowledge of the just. For Aristotle says, as Albert the Great reports in the book of praiseworthy goods: Holiness is the virtue of knowledge doing those things which are just toward God; Wisd. 1: He gave them the knowledge of the saints. In this meaning above all the Church is holy, she who alone has the knowledge of the saints and the notice of the divinity. Whence the Lord says of the Church in Zach. 8: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am returned to Sion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, and the sanctified mountain, wherefore, as blessed Greg. says in the Morals, and as is found in ch. Quia, 24, q. 1: Because from the Catholic Church alone is the truth seen, the Lord bears witness that his place is with her, concerning which it is to be seen: Moses is set upon the rock, that he may contemplate the face of God, because unless one has held the solidity of faith, he does not acknowledge the divine presence, of which solidity the Lord said: Upon this rock I will build my Church. Ninth, the Church of God is called holy because she has sacraments by which men are sanctified. For a sacrament is so called from consecrating or sanctifying, because, with the divine power working in them, they are instruments of the cleansing and sanctification of souls. Whence to the Eph. 5 it is said: Christ loved the Church, and there follows: that he might sanctify her, cleansing her by the laver of water in the word of life, and Aug. on John, speaking of the power of the sacrament of baptism, says: What force is in water, that it touches the body and washes the heart? Tenth, the Church is called holy because she has been patterned after the holy and glorious triumphant Church, our mother, which is above in the heavens, whence in Apoc. 21 the most blessed Apostle John says: I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and I heard a voice from heaven saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he shall dwell with them, etc. Which word Bernard, treating it in book 3 of the Consideration, ch. 13: Do not deem vile this form which is on earth; it has its form in heaven, says the man who said: I saw the holy city Jerusalem, etc. By these things the error and blasphemy of certain pseudo-prophets is most openly refuted, who with polluted mouth, speaking with diabolical boldness against the holiness of the Church, have presumed to say that the Church is not holy but a harlot, against whom stand the things we have adduced a little before, and above all that in Cant. 4: Thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee, and that continuous profession of faith which the universal Church makes, saying: I believe one holy Church, etc.