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.
Caput V: Chapter V. In which the distinction is given by which the just faithful and sinful faithful are said to be in the Church, and the objections raised are answered.
Caput VI: Chapter VI. Proving that the Church is one, and on its manifold unity.
Caput VII: Chapter VII. In which objections are raised against what was said on the unity of the Church.
Caput VIII: Chapter VIII. In which the objections raised are answered.
Caput IX: Chapter IX. In which it is shown that the Church is holy.
Caput X: Chapter X. In which objections are raised against what was said on the holiness of the Church.
Caput XI: Chapter XI. In which the objections raised are answered.
Caput XII: Chapter XII. In which a certain way of speaking about the holiness of the Church is disapproved.
Caput XIII: Chapter XIII. That the Church is to be called Catholic.
Caput XIV: Chapter XIV. In which objections are raised against what was said, that the Christian faith is to be called Catholic.
Caput XV: Chapter XV. In which the arguments already made are answered.
Caput XVI: Chapter XVI. Where objections are raised against what was said, that the Church is to be called Catholic.
Caput XVII: Chapter XVII. In which the objections of the preceding chapter are answered.
Caput XVIII: Chapter XVIII. In which it is shown by arguments that the Church is called Apostolic.
Caput XIX: Chapter XIX. In which some objections are raised against what was said, that the Church is to be called Apostolic.
Caput XX: Chapter XX. How the words 'We believe in one holy Church' are to be understood.
Caput XXI: Chapter XXI. In which the error of those who say that men can be saved outside the unity of this holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is refuted.
Caput XXII: Chapter XXII. When the Church began, and on its ages.
Caput XXIII: Chapter XXIII. In which objections are raised against what was said on the antiquity of the Church.
Against what was said of the antiquity of the Church, there were certain foolish heretics who presumed to say the Church simply did not exist among the fathers of the Old Testament. Their arguments are some of those that follow, which they take from certain authorities of sacred Scripture wrongly understood.
1 First, they argue from Paul's words in Gal. 3: So the law was our schoolmaster in Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. From this it seems, they say, that before the coming of Christ faith did not exist among the ancients; therefore consequently neither did the Church, which is called the gathering of the faithful.
2 Second, from the same Apostle's words in Heb. 11, where, speaking of the ancient fathers, he says: All these died according to faith, not having received the promises. Therefore it seems what was said before, namely that the ancient fathers did not have faith, and consequently that among them there was no Church.
3 Third, they argue the same from Matt. 16: You are Peter, and upon this rock, namely of the confession of faith, I will build my Church. From this word of Christ they gather that the Church did not exist before the coming of Christ, but was afterwards founded by Christ himself upon Peter's confession.
4 Fourth, it is argued thus: the Gloss on Ps. 9, That they may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion, says: The daughter of Sion is the Church, for Sion begot all the churches of the world, because there he was born whence faith began. Therefore there follows what was said before.
5 Fifth, it is argued from Aug. on Ps. 147, saying: The Church began from Jerusalem, and goes through all nations.
6 Sixth, it is argued from what Aug. says in treatise 2 on the canonical epistle of John: There the Church was begun, where the Holy Spirit came from heaven and filled a hundred and twenty in one place.
7 Seventh, it is argued through what the Gloss holds on Ps. 40, where, treating the verse, Shall he who sleeps rise again no more, it says: As from the side of the sleeper Adam, who was the figure of the future Christ, a rib was taken from which Eve was formed; so Christ slept the sleep of death, that from the side of the sleeper, from which flowed blood and water, which are the sacraments of our redemption, the bride Church might be formed. And the same is found in the Gloss on Eph. 4.
8 Eighth, it is argued that the Church existed not only from the beginning of the human race but even before the constitution of the world, from the Apostle's words in Eph. 1: He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, as he chose us in him before the constitution of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in his sight in charity. Therefore it seems the antiquity of the Church was not well assigned above, since she was said to have begun only from the beginning of the human race.