Summa de Ecclesia

¹

Now that the antiquity of the Church has been treated, we must consider from whom, that is, from which person, the Church is to be said to have begun, since different writers speak differently on this matter. For some say from the angels; others from Adam; others from Abel; others again from the apostles. On this point we must consider that we can speak of the Church in several ways. In one way, as denoting a certain multitude or community constituted of angels, saints, and men; or as denoting one society of angels and holy men ordered under one prince, God, just as Aug., speaking on psal. xxxvi, says that of faithful men and angels is made one city under one king, and a certain one province under one emperor. And speaking in this way, if the opinion of those who say that the creation of the angels preceded in time the creation of man holds, we must say that the Church began from the angels: for since, as the Apostle testifies in Heb. 11, he who approaches God must believe, and the angels in the first state of their condition were in the state of approaching God, we must confess that they had faith in their creation. Moreover, that they were created in grace is testified by blessed Aug. in 12. On the City of God, saying that God in the angels was at once founding nature and bestowing grace. Hence blessed Bernard says in homily 27 on the Song of Songs: when God had a bride cleaving to him from the beginning, the multitude of angels, it pleased him also to gather a Church from men and to unite it to her who is of heaven, so that there is one bride and one bridegroom — thus Bernard. In a second way we can speak of the Church as denoting the whole company of faithful men who are wayfarers, according to what Aug. says on psal. 4: the Church was assumed from the human race so that Christ might be the head of the Church. And this consideration, as Master Alexander of Hales says in his fourth book on the Sentences, is the consideration of the Church which has sacraments; and speaking of the Church in this way, the common opinion of the saints is that the Church began from Abel. Hence Aug. in book xv On the City of God: from the beginning of the world there proceeded two cities, one of God, the other of the devil, one heavenly, the other earthly; hence of the sons of Adam one builds the earthly and diabolical city, the other the heavenly: the first was Cain, the second Abel. Likewise on psalm. cxlii, speaking of the city of God, that is, the Church, he says: this city has its beginning from Abel himself, as the evil city has from Cain. Several reasons confirm this opinion. First, because his faith was first manifested as accepted in the sacrifice which he offered to God: for this was the first sacred sign on man's part which Sacred Scripture records. But that the force and efficacy of this reason may be understood, we must consider that in the state of the law of nature natural knowledge alone did not suffice man for salvation, since the perfection of the rational creature consists not only in what belongs to it according to its nature, but also in what is attributed to it from a certain supernatural perfection of the divine goodness. Hence too the ultimate happiness of man consists in a certain supernatural vision of God, to which vision man cannot attain by the light of natural reason alone, but through teaching by a higher teacher, the heavenly Father of lights, according to John 6: everyone who has heard from the Father and learned comes to me. Therefore for the attainment of supernal happiness natural knowledge does not suffice, but supernatural knowledge is required, which is called the faith of certain things that are above reason, of which the Apostle says in Hebrews 11: faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. But after the fall of human nature, faith in the restorer through whom the medicine of the disease was to come was required; and therefore in that state not only works which are of the dictate of the natural law were necessary, but also certain others which were protestations and signs of the things pertaining to restoration. These were the sacraments of that time, such as sacrifices, tithes, and oblations. Hence, since the sacrifice offered to God is first read to have been offered by Abel, and thus faith in the Redeemer was first protested by sensible signs, the Church is rightly said to have begun from him.

The second reason. Every religion, as Augustine says against Faustus, always had certain outward signs in which men came together to worship God; but these signs in the Christian religion are the sacraments according to the variety of times. Hence, since Abel was the first who is read to have worshipped God with a sensible sign, the Christian religion is rightly said to have begun from him. The third reason is the continuation of holiness. Indeed, since the Holy Spirit says of the Church in Song 4: thou art all beautiful, my love, and there is no spot in thee; and the holy fathers profess in the creed that the Church is holy, we must assert that the Church began from him in whom first justice and holiness flourished, continued without interruption and undefiled, as a sign that such the Church was to be. That is why the Church is not fittingly said to have begun from Adam and Eve, who fell from holiness, but from Abel, who first of all kept unbroken holiness, and after whom faith and holiness of life are believed to have remained ever undefiled in some one or some members of the Church. The fourth reason is that Abel himself first bore the type of the Church with respect to the integrity of virginity and the beauty of innocence, in which the holiness of the Church shines most brightly; for he was a virgin and innocent. Of the virginity of the Church the Apostle says in 2 Cor. 11: for I espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ; the Gloss: the virginity of the heart is incorrupt faith. He calls her a virgin because all are one virgin on account of the unity of faith.

The fifth reason, because Abel was the first martyr, and the Church is wont to be dedicated in the blood of martyrs, for they strengthened the faith of the Church; hence Cyprian says in his sermon to the martyrs: O most brave martyrs, the strength of our body.

The sixth reason, because Abel is the first just man commended by Christ, as is found in Matt. 23, where Christ says: from the blood of Abel the just, etc. On this word blessed Jerome says in his homily: Abel is proved just not only from the saying and sentence of Christ, but from the testimony of Genesis, where the gifts accepted by God from him are narrated.

The seventh reason, because Abel, as Aug. says in his book On the Wonders of the World, was both virgin and martyr and teacher of the faith; and thus in him were figured the three principal persons of the Church, namely pastors, virgins, and martyrs. Hence the Church is rightly said to have received its beginning from him.

The eighth reason, because in Abel there first took place the distinguishing or separation of the holy Church of God from the church of the wicked, since in him the separation from Cain took place; for as was adduced above, Aug. says in book xv On the City of God: from the beginning of the world there proceeded two cities, one of God, the other of the devil, one heavenly, the other earthly. Abel builds the heavenly, Cain the earthly.

In a third way we can speak of the Church according to the state of the New Testament, and in this way she is said to have begun from the apostles and the other believers, as is clear from what was said above; and Nicholas of Lyra also says this on psalm. lxxxvi. This is also gathered most clearly from what the apostle Paul says of himself and the other apostles of Christ in 2 Thess. 2: God chose us as firstfruits; the Gloss: that we might be the firstfruits of all believers, unto salvation and unto sanctification of the spirit and faith of the truth. On this point there are also other testimonies above in ch. xviii, concerning the first reason why the holy Church is called apostolic.