Summa de Ecclesia

There were certain recent German doctors who presumed to teach that the Church is called holy not by reason of its individuals, since in her many wicked men are mingled with the good, but by reason of the form, which they say is identity of faith. For they imagine that, just as by reason of the unity of faith, which they call the formal principle of the Church, she ever remains one and unvaried while the material parts of the Church herself continually succeed one another and are varied according to merits and demerits, so by reason of that form she ever remains holy and immune; and this, as they say, is identity of faith as to the things believed and identity of society or communion as to the sacraments. For faith as to the things believed, and the sacraments, cannot be defiled. And thus they say that, just as the Catholic Church ever remains one by reason of the unity of faith, so she is ever holy by reason of that same faith, which ever remains right, ever sound, and holy and immune from all contagion of error, of which they say the Apostle spoke in Eph. 5: Christ loved his Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, etc. But, always saving better judgment, although the Catholic Church is called holy on account of purity of faith and communion of the sacraments, nevertheless the aforesaid doctors, describing the Catholic Church as holy on this ground alone, do not speak fully of the holiness of the Church, nor in the way holy Scripture speaks, and in which the holy fathers of the Church confessed her holy in the Nicene Creed. For the Lord says in Lev. 19: Be holy, for I am holy. And it is manifest that he speaks to men themselves. And in 1 Cor. 3 the Apostle says: The temple of God is holy, which you are. Likewise in Song 4 it is said: You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you, the Gloss: namely of criminal fault. Likewise in Song 6: One is my perfect one, my dove, the Gloss: because she is perfected with all virtues and charisms; and so the holiness of the Church is not referred to faith alone. Moreover, the same is shown by the authority of the above-named holy fathers, who speak of holiness not only as it bespeaks integrity of faith, without the wrinkle of unbelief, but as it bespeaks cleansing from the contagion of mortal sin through the habit of divinely infused virtues, which sanctify and adorn the souls of the faithful. Hence Aug. on Ps. 44: The beauty of the house of God is in the saints. Further, this is made clear for this reason, that if unformed integrity of faith sufficed to denominate the Church holy, then certainly any sinful believer possessing integrity of faith could be called holy, which is false, as blessed Aug. says in his book On Grace and Free Will: Holiness is a most perfect will and a most serene purity; and again: You are holy if you have a holy affection, for holiness consists in righteousness and in works. Finally, the holy doctors, as we touched on above, say the Church is holy in her true members, not in the untrue or dead ones, such as sinful believers who yet preserve integrity of faith. Likewise the saints say the Church is holy in the grain, not in the chaff, by which sinful believers are designated on the Lord's threshing floor. Moreover, the most blessed Aug., doctor of the Church and hammer of heretics, says the contrary, who, as we recalled above, both in his book of Retractations and in the Enchiridion and in On the Gift of Perseverance says that the Church in this world is not wholly without spot and without wrinkle; and yet, if the holiness of the Church were taken from integrity of faith alone, what Aug. took care to establish with so many irrefutable testimonies would be false. Lastly, if integrity and sincerity of faith alone sufficed to name the Church holy, it would seem to some that the congregation of schismatics and excommunicated persons, since they appear to guard the Catholic faith still most intact, would come to be named holy, which is utterly absurd. But the authority of Paul in Eph. 5, which they adduce in support of their false opinion, cannot assist their imagining either according to the letter or according to the Gloss. Plainly, what the Apostle says, that Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, cleansing her with the laver of water in the word of life, etc., does not regard the holiness of faith, which was always holy because it rests on divine truth and emanates from the light of divine wisdom, but refers to faithful persons washed in holy baptism and adorned with the ornaments of holy virtues, who are the members of the Church, as is most clear. Therefore concerning the holiness of the Church we must hold and confess, not as those recent masters, speaking without authority, presumed to teach, but according to the judgment of the holy doctors, which we have fully noted in the preceding chapters.