Summa de Ecclesia

¹ To these objections it is not difficult to answer. On this it is to be considered that we can speak of the Church in two ways. In one way, as she is the gathering of the faithful, where one is called faithful from faith in Christ simply; and in this way, as has been said, the Church began from the beginning of the human race, from when saints began to exist on earth. In a second way, discourse can be held of the Church as she is the gathering of the faithful, where one is called faithful from faith in Christ already born of the Virgin and consummating the sacrament of human redemption; and speaking of the Church in this way, various sayings of the holy fathers are found concerning the very beginning of the Church, as deduced in the arguments, which can nevertheless be reduced to harmony. On this it is to be noted that we can speak of the beginning of the Church in four ways. In one way, with respect to the first believers through mental or interior calling; and speaking in this way, it seems to be said that the Church began from the time of the conception or nativity of Christ, which time the Apostle names the fullness of time in Gal. 4, because in it were fulfilled the things foretold and promised concerning Christ, as the Gloss says. In this consideration the Church is to be said to have had her beginning above all from the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of the Lord, who is believed to have first held faith in the Word of God made incarnate in act, whence in Luke 1 Elizabeth, commending her singularly for faith, says: Blessed are you who believed, for the things spoken to you by the Lord shall be accomplished in you. Her faith and most constant holiness was always most firm and never interrupted, so that of her is said Ecclus. 26: As the sun rising in the highest places of God to the world, so is the beauty of a good woman for the ornament of her house, the Gloss: namely of the Church. It follows: A lamp shining upon the holy candlestick, and the beauty of the face upon a stable age. Pillars of gold upon bases of silver, and firm feet upon the soles of a stable woman. Eternal foundations upon solid rock, and the commandments of God in the heart of a holy woman. And there were many other believers in Christ from the beginning of his nativity, as was Joseph, spouse of the Virgin Mary; then the one announcing that the Savior of the world was born, Luke 2; then the shepherds to whom the angel appeared in the very night of the nativity, which shepherds are said to have been the firstfruits of the Jews; and the Magi themselves, who were led to Christ with a star as guide, as is said in Matt. 2, who, as Aug. says, were the firstfruits of the Gentiles. The just also believed, namely Simeon and Anna, when Christ was presented in the temple, as is said in Luke 2. Second, we can speak of the beginning of the Church with respect to the first believers, called through the preaching and doctrine of Christ; and speaking in this way, it seems to be said that the Church began in the first calling and gathering of the disciples of Christ, which took place after the baptism at the river Jordan, of which we read in John 1, where Andrew, John, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael are read to have been called to the faith of Christ. Hence the Gloss on Gen. 36 says: The synagogue first clung to Christ when Peter and Andrew and the other disciples of John became disciples of Christ. Hence blessed Aug., treating that text of Ps. 71, From the river even to the ends of the world, says: but when he now says from the river, he has expressed evidently that Christ wished thence to commend his power already; hence he began to gather disciples from the river, namely the Jordan, where over the baptized Only-begotten, when the Holy Spirit descended, a voice sounded from heaven: This is my beloved Son. Hence therefore his doctrine beginning and the authority of his teaching is spread even to the ends of the world, when the gospel of the kingdom is preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations — thus Aug. In a third way we can speak of the Church with respect to the firmness of faith in her and the promulgation of the same, and the spreading of the Church through the world; and speaking of the Church in this way, we say that she began when, with the mysteries of human redemption consummated and fulfilled, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost upon the believing disciples, and they were confirmed and made solid in the faith of Christ, according to that of the prophet in Ps. 73: I have confirmed the pillars thereof; the Gloss: namely the apostles, who had wavered in the passion. And thus is to be understood the saying of Aug. on the canonical epistle of John, adduced in the sixth argument, where he says: The Church was begun where the Holy Spirit came from heaven and filled in one place 120. To this understanding also is referred that saying of Aug., who, treating that text of Ps. 49, Out of Sion the loveliness of his beauty, speaks thus: that is, it began from Jerusalem, because thence it began to be announced. From Jerusalem it began, because the apostles going out thence announced the loveliness of Christ's beauty through the whole world. Hence Isa. 2: Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. For from Sion began the glory of the gospel. Thence the spouse, beautiful in form above the sons of men, began to be announced, because there the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles. And Aug. concludes on the same passage, saying: Hence the gospel, thence preaching; thence the world filled. And from this time some doctors say the Church began to be called catholic. In a fourth way we can speak of the Church with respect to the power of the sacraments by which the Church is formed; and speaking in this way, we say that since the sacraments have their power from the passion of Christ — according to that to Rom. 3: Whom God the Father has set forth, namely Christ, a propitiator through faith in his blood — the Church is said to have begun from the passion of Christ, since she is said to have been then made and formed, as is had from the Gloss on Ps. 40, adduced in argument 7. Hence the Gloss — and it is Aug. — on Eph. 4 says: Adam slept that Eve might be made; Christ dies that the Church might be made. While Adam sleeps, Eve is made from his side; with Christ dead, his side is pierced with a lance, that the sacraments may flow forth by which the Church is formed. With these noted, answer is made to the objections.

² To the first it is said that the reasoning does not hold, since, as the Apostle says, When faith came, etc., he does not speak of the coming of the faith of Christ simply, as though it had not existed before. For from the beginning of the human race there was faith in the mediator of God and men, since the Apostle says: Without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb. 11; and in the same chapter, speaking of the ancient fathers, he says: The saints through faith conquered kingdoms, wrought righteousness, etc. But he speaks of the coming of faith according to manifestation; hence the Gloss has it thus: But when faith came, that is, after it was revealed, which before had been hidden in the ancients; and Nicholas of Lyra expounds: Faith came, that is, the time of revealed faith; or it is to be expounded: Faith came, that is, that was fulfilled which was believed to be to come, just as a promise is said to have come because what was promised has been fulfilled. And thus although among the ancients faith was not so revealed and fulfilled in many in the way as with the coming of the time of grace, nevertheless always from the beginning of the human race there was faith. Hence Aug. in book 18 of the City of God says: Without doubt the doctrine and the Christian religion then became known through his bodily presence, when Christ began to have disciples, that is, after he was baptized in the river Jordan by the ministry of John. For on his account had that prophecy gone forth: and he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the world; but before he had suffered and risen from the dead, faith had not been defined to all, that is, for by the resurrection of Christ indeed it was defined.

Ad secundam³ it is answered in the same way, that the reasoning proceeds from a bad understanding of what the Apostle says. For when the Apostle says the ancients died according to faith, this does not mean the ancient fathers did not have faith, since the same Apostle most commends them for faith in the same chapter; but they are then said to have died according to faith because, having faith as companion or ally, they died. Hence the Gloss expounds thus: according to faith, that is, adhering to faith.

To the third⁴ it is to be said by denying the consequence, for the Church is not said to be built by Christ upon that confession of Peter, You are Christ, the Son of God, etc., as though the Church simply had not existed before. She was plainly built upon the same faith, since all the faithful from the beginning of the world were founded and solidified in the same faith as we, for they believed with certainty him to be to come whom we believe has come. Hence in Matt. 21 the crowds that went before and that followed cried out the same, saying: Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, in which, as Jerome says, cited in the continuous Gloss, he shows both peoples, both those who believed in the Lord before the Gospel and those who believed after the Gospel, praising with harmonious voice of confession of Jesus; and Chrysostom: Those indeed, prophesying of Christ to come, cried out; but these, praising, cry out of the already accomplished coming of Christ. But she was said by Christ to be built upon the aforesaid confession of Peter with respect to those who would believe in Christ. For in this way the Church is daily built, when some are newly incorporated through faith into the body of Christ, as in Eph. 4 it is said: He gave some apostles, etc., there follows: for the building up of the body of Christ, the Gloss: namely that they build up into the body of Christ those who are still estranged. And below in the same chapter the Apostle adds: makes increase of the body unto the building up of itself, the Gloss: because those who are not the body he builds up into his own city or society.

To the fourth⁵ the solution is clear from what was said, for Sion is said to have begotten all the churches because the apostles, going out thence, preached the Gospel through the whole world. Hence faith is not said to have simply begun there, nor the Church of God, which existed before from the beginning of the human race, but with respect to the promulgation and spreading of the faith through all nations, faith or the Church is well said to have taken its beginning there, because thence the Gospel was derived through the apostles and the other disciples of Christ to all the ends of the earth. To the fifth the answer is given in the same way.

To the sixth⁶ the same solution is given.

To the seventh⁷ the solution is also clear from what was said. For the Church, with respect to the power of the sacraments by which she is formed, and which receive their power from the passion of Christ, is said to have taken her beginning from the passion of Christ, although faith itself simply, or the Church herself, existed from the beginning, as has often been repeated.

To the eighth⁸ it is to be said that in this place we speak of the Church according to her presence in the nature of things, and not according to the predestination or disposition which she had from eternity with divine wisdom. For according to predestination, as Bernard says on the Song, the Church of the elect was never not with God. If an unbeliever marvels at this, let him hear something more marvelous: she never existed without grace, never unloved. Why should I speak boldly what that ready bringer of supernal counsels opened to me from the heart of God? I say a little of what, like many other things, he did not fear to divulge from the riches of his goodness, this secret too: He blessed us, he says, 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, and in his sight in charity. So Bernard. And Origen on the Song says: Do not think the bride or Church is so called only from the coming of the Savior in the flesh, but from the beginning of the human race and from the very constitution of the world; nay, with Paul as guide, to trace the origin of this mystery from higher still, even before the constitution of the world, for so he himself says: As he chose us in Christ before the constitution of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate, etc.