Summa de Ecclesia

Name: Summa de Ecclesia
Author: Juan de Torquemada

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.

Caput XXXVII: Chapter XXXVII. Why she is also called bride, and on the time of her espousal.

¹ FURTHERMORE the Church is also recorded as being called the spouse of Christ, whence Cant. 4: Come from Lebanon, my spouse, you shall be crowned, and Cantic. 5: Come into my garden, my sister, my spouse. The Church herself is called a spouse because she is joined to Christ by the indissoluble bond of mutual love. Of this mutual love the spouse herself speaks thus in Cant. 7: I am for my beloved, and his turning is toward me. Upon this word Bern. in sermon 69 on the Canticle beautifully says this: What is the spouse but the congregation of the just, what is she but the generation of those who seek the face of the spouse? For he does not attend to her without her attending to him in return, and on this account he put both, both I am his and he is mine. He is mine because he is kind and merciful. I am his because I am not ungrateful. He gives me grace for grace, I give him grace in return for grace. He acts for my liberation, I for his honor. He acts for my salvation, I for his will. He is mine and not another's, because I am his one dove; I am his and to no other, for I do not hear the voice of others, nor do I assent to those who say to me, behold here is Christ, behold there he is; thus far Bern. Furthermore blessed John openly and beautifully describes this holy spouse in Apoc. 21, saying thus: I saw the holy city Jerusalem coming down from heaven from God, prepared as a spouse adorned for her husband. And there follows: I heard a great voice from the throne saying, behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he shall dwell with them. Treating this word, blessed Bern. on the Canticle says thus: To what end, I believe, but to acquire for himself a spouse from among men; you may wonder, he came to the spouse and he did not come without the spouse, he sought the spouse and the spouse was with him. Were there two? Far be it. For he says, my dove is one; but just as from the different flocks of sheep he wished to make one, that there might be one fold and one shepherd, so, though he had a spouse clinging to him from the beginning, the multitude of angels, it pleased him also to call together the Church from among men and to unite her to her who is from heaven, that there might be one spouse and one bridegroom.

² Of her betrothal, however, it is said in Oseae 2: I will betroth you to me forever, and I will betroth you to me in justice and judgment and mercy and compassion, and I will betroth you in faith, and you shall know that I am the Lord, where the Gloss says: Three times he puts, I will betroth you. For first he betrothed her to himself in Abraham, to whom he said in Gen. 17: You therefore shall keep my pact, and your seed after you in their generations: this is my pact, which you shall observe between me and you, and your seed after you: every male kind among you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of the foreskin, that it may be a sign of the covenant between me and you; the interlinear Gloss: as a testimony, namely, that I am the Lord your God, and you are my people divided from the nations. Secondly she was betrothed under Moses on Mount Sinai at the giving of the law, whence the Gloss, namely on Osee 2, thus subjoins. Secondly he betrothed her on Mount Sinai, giving her for betrothal gifts the justice, and judgment, and mercy of the law. Whence in Exod. 19 it is said: God came down upon Mount Sinai, and called Moses on the top of it. And below: And the Lord spoke all these words: For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; thou shalt not have strange gods before me, etc.; the Gloss: there shall be no other gods to thee besides me. Thirdly, as the said Gloss in the place adduced above, she was betrothed at the coming of the Son of God, which is in the faith of the Trinity, in which faith believers know at once that he is God.

↑ Top of work

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.

Caput XXIV: Chapter XXIV. In which the solution to the arguments of the preceding chapter is given.

Caput XXV: Chapter XXV. From whom the Church began.

Caput XXVI: Chapter XXVI. In which objections are raised against the foregoing.

Caput XXVII: Chapter XXVII. In which the objections already made are answered.

Caput XXVIII: Chapter XXVIII. That after the Church began it has not ceased to be, and that in it faith, holiness, doctrine, prelacy, and the sacraments will endure to the end of the age.

Caput XXIX: Chapter XXIX. In which some objections are raised against what was said on the duration of the Church.

Caput XXX: Chapter XXX. In which the objections already made are answered.

Caput XXXI: Chapter XXXI. Why the Church is called heaven, earth, field, and net.

Caput XXXII: Chapter XXXII. On the reasons why the holy Church is called the vineyard of God, and the garden, fountain, and well of living waters.

Caput XXXIII: Chapter XXXIII. In which the reasons are given why the Church is called Ship, House, City, and an army in battle array.

Caput XXXIV: Chapter XXXIV. On the reasons why the Church is called a Kingdom, and on the twelve things by which the glory of the magnificence of the kingdom of the Church is shown.

Caput XXXV: Chapter XXXV. On the reasons why the Church is called the tabernacle and temple of God.

Caput XXXVI: Chapter XXXVI. On the reasons why the Church is called Woman, Beloved, and Dove, Perfect, Sister, and Daughter.

Caput XXXVII: Chapter XXXVII. Why she is also called bride, and on the time of her espousal.

Caput XXXVIII: Chapter XXXVIII. In which the solution to a certain difficulty concerning what was said on the time of the espousal of the Church is given.

Caput XXXIX: Chapter XXXIX. On the gifts and presents with which Christ adorned his bride the Church, singularly even above the angels.

Caput XL: Chapter XL. That the Church is called the spouse of Christ and the mother of the faithful.

Caput XLI: Chapter XLI. That although the Church is said to be the spouse of Christ and the mother of all the faithful, she does not cease to be wholly a virgin.

Caput XLII: Chapter XLII. That the Church is called queen.

Caput XLIII: Chapter XLIII. On the reasons why the Church is called a body, namely the mystical body of Christ.

Caput XLIV: Chapter XLIV. On the variety of the members of the Church and their signification.

Caput XLV: Chapter XLV. In which objections are raised against what was said on the head of the body of the Church.

Caput XLVI: Chapter XLVI. In which the objections already made are answered.

Caput XLVII: Chapter XLVII. In which it is shown how Christ can be called a member of the Church, and how not.

Caput XLVIII: Chapter XLVIII. That Christ as man was the head of the faithful, not only of those who came after the Incarnation, but also of those who from the beginning preceded the Incarnation.

Caput XLIX: Chapter XLIX. In which objections are raised against what was said, that Christ as man was the head of the faithful who preceded the Incarnation.

Caput L: Chapter L. In which the objections already raised are answered.

Caput LI: Chapter LI. In which, on the foregoing, one recent error is refuted.

Caput LII: Chapter LII. In which it is shown how it belongs to Christ alone as God to be head of the Church, and how not to him alone but to others.

Caput LIII: Chapter LIII. In which it is shown that Christ is head of the faithful not only as to souls but also as to bodies.

Caput LIV: Chapter LIV. In which the opinion of some is set out, with their arguments, who say that only the elect are members of Christ or of the mystical body which is the holy Church of God.

Caput LV: Chapter LV. In which the aforesaid opinion is refuted, with its foundations.

Caput LVI: Chapter LVI. In which two other ways of speaking or of marking out the members of the body of Christ are set out.

Caput LVII: Chapter LVII. In which the truth of the difficulty raised is shown: namely, of which men Christ is head, and who are to be called members of his body, which is the Church.

Caput LVIII: Chapter LVIII. In which the objections made to the contrary by those who say that only the elect are members of the body of Christ are answered.

Caput LIX: Chapter LIX. In which the arguments of the others are answered, who in second and third place spoke otherwise concerning the members of Christ in ch. 56.

Caput LX: Chapter LX. In which it is shown what the union of the members of the Church with one another is, and on the manner of the union of the members with the head.

Caput LXI: Chapter LXI. In which it is shown what the efficient cause of this union of the members of the Church with one another is.

Caput LXII: Chapter LXII. In which it is shown whether the true body of Christ is better than the mystical body of Christ, or the converse.

Caput LXIII: Chapter LXIII. On the quality and manner of the union by which the body of Christ which is the Church is said to be united to Christ the head.

Caput LXIV: Chapter LXIV. How the saying that Christ and his body which is the Church are one man is to be understood.

Caput LXV: Chapter LXV. How the saying that Christ and his body which is the Church are one person is to be understood.

Caput LXVI: Chapter LXVI. How the saying of the saints that Christ and his body which is the Church are one Christ is to be understood.

Caput LXVII: Chapter LXVII. How the saying of the saints that the body of Christ, indeed that any member of it, is Christ is to be understood.

Caput LXVIII: Chapter LXVIII. How the predications of those things said of Christ in Sacred Scripture by reason of the aforesaid mystical unity are to be understood.

Caput LXIX: Chapter LXIX. On the fittingness of the distinction and manifold variety of states and offices in the Church.

Caput LXX: Chapter LXX. In which objections are raised against the variety and diversity of states and offices in the Church of God.

Caput LXXI: Chapter LXXI. In which the answer to the objections already made against the variety and diversity of states and offices in the Church of God is given.

Caput LXXII: Chapter LXXII. On the threefold diversity principally found in the body of the Church.

Caput LXXIII: Chapter LXXIII. What is meant by the name state.

Caput LXXIV: Chapter LXXIV. That the difference of states pertaining to spiritual servitude or liberty is reckoned according to beginners, proficients, and the perfect.