Summa de Ecclesia

¹

In response we say that, just as the whole Church is called one mystical body by likeness to the natural body of man, as we declared above, so Christ is called the head of the Church according to the likeness of the human head, in which four conditions are to be found with respect to the other members individually. The first is that it excels them in dignity in three ways: in loftiness of position, because it is the first part of man beginning from above; second, in the nobility of its proper power, since the nobler powers, such as imagination, memory, and the like, have their place in the head; third, in perfection, because in the head all the senses are gathered together, whereas in the other members there is only the sense of touch.

The second condition of the human head is that the animal powers in the other members are from the head, and thus it is called the principle of the other members, giving them sensation and motion.

The third is that it directs the other members in their acts, on account of the imagination and the senses which abound wholly in it.

The fourth condition or property is that it is conformed in nature to the other members. Hence blessed Ambrose in book vi of the Hexameron speaks of the head thus. First of all let us recognize that the structure of the human body is an image of the world indeed, and as heaven towers above, so air, and earth and sea, are as certain members of the world, so also we behold the head standing out above the remaining joints of our body and being the most excellent of all, as heaven stands forth, as a citadel amid the other walls of the city; in this citadel a certain royal wisdom dwells, according to the prophetic saying, that the eyes of the wise man are in his head. This wisdom is the safer, and from it vigor and prudence are conveyed to all the members.

By reason of the first property, namely perfection, everything that is most perfect in any nature, or worthier in any genus, is called the head, as the lion among animals, and hence in Isa. xi it is said: The old and honorable man is himself called the head. By reason of the second property, every principle is called the head, as a spring is the head of rivers, and the beginning of roads the head of the road, according to Jer. ii: At every head of the road you have set up your brothel for yourself. By reason of the third property every ruler is called the head, as king, leader, pontiff, according to 1 Kings xv: When you were little in your own eyes, you were made head among the tribes of Israel. As to these three properties of the head, therefore, Christ can be called the head both according to the human nature and according to the divine. According to the divine it is clear, first, by reason of excellence of dignity and perfection, because according to the divine nature the fullness of all divinity is in him, as the Apostle says to the Col. ii. Hence he is above all, God blessed forever, Rom. ix. Second, it is clear by reason of the second property, because from him inasmuch as he is God all spiritual grace is in us. Third, it is clear by reason of the third property, because God himself moves, rules, and directs us into himself.

These properties of the head also befit Christ according to the human nature. First, because the human nature in Christ is most worthy, both by reason of loftiness, since it is exalted even to union in the divine person, and by reason of its proper operation, since it performed the most worthy act in the Church, to redeem it and to build it in his blood, and by reason of perfection, because all grace is in him, as all the senses are in the head, according to John i: We saw him full of grace and truth. The second property of the head also befits him according to the human nature, because through Christ we have received the sense of faith and the motion of charity. John i: Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Likewise there: Of his fullness we have all received. The third property of the head likewise befits him, for he himself is our king and pontiff, Heb. 4: We have a pontiff who has penetrated the heavens, Jesus the Son of God; he indeed directed us by doctrine and example. Jesus began to do and to teach, Acts i. But the fourth condition befits Christ in the human nature only, and this completes in him the character of the head, because Christ according to the human nature has a homogeneous perfection with the others, and is a principle as it were univocal, and is a conformed rule of one genus. Hence, speaking commonly, Christ according as he is God can be called the head of the Church together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but speaking properly he is the head according to the human nature, and by the grace of headship, according to which the aforesaid properties befit him, and especially according as he flows into the other members, of which the prophet says in Ps. cxxxii: Like ointment on the head which descended from the head into the beard. The beard, that is, into the first who clung to Christ the head, and it descended even to the hem of the garment, that is, through all the states of the Church even to the end of the world.

²

Now it remains to answer the arguments. To the first, where it is objected that he should rather be called the heart of the Church than the head, it is said that he should rather be called the head than the heart for three reasons. First, and this is the reason of Saint Thomas in the third part, because the head has a manifest eminence with respect to the exterior members, but the heart has a certain hidden influence, and therefore to the heart is compared the Holy Spirit, who invisibly gives life to the Church and unites her to the head. Likewise Christ is compared according to the visible nature by which as man he is preferred to men. The second reason is the one Saint Thomas assigns in the third book of the Sentences, because the heart is the principle of all the members as to being, as the Philosopher says, but the head is the principle of the other powers which pertain to sensation and motion, and because when we say that Christ is the principle of the members of the Church we do not mean as to natural being according as they are men, but as to faith and charity by which the members of the Church are united, therefore he is more fittingly called the head than the heart. The third reason, and it is that of Master Alexander of Hales in the third book, is that, as Aug. says in the book on the Spirit and the Soul, the power of the soul with respect to the body is threefold. One is natural, which operates in the liver, as are the nutritive, digestive, retentive, expulsive, and augmentative powers. The second is the vital power, which operates in the heart. The third is the animal power, which operates in the brain, whence motion and sensation are in the members. The operations of the natural power are altogether involuntary and are not subject to reason. The animal operations are altogether subject to reason, and therefore receive command from the soul. The vital operations are partly subject to reason and partly not, and therefore are partly voluntary and partly natural. Since, however, the motion which is from Christ the head into the body of the Church is altogether according to voluntary motion, which is simply neither natural nor vital, therefore, although there are some likenesses on account of which Christ could be called the heart of the Church, nevertheless Christ should rather be called the head of the Church metaphorically than the heart or the liver. Hence the Apostle Paul himself in his epistles often calls Christ the head of the Church, but not the heart.

³

To the second, where it is objected that Christ is not the head according to the divine nature, the answer is that according to that property of the head which is conformity of nature to the other members of the body, Christ is not the head of the Church, but indeed according to the other three properties set down above.

⁴

To the other part of the same argument, where it is objected that Christ is not the head according to the human nature. The answer is that to give the Holy Spirit is twofold: by authority and by ministry. To give by authority indeed belongs to God alone, but by ministry even holy men are said to give the Holy Spirit inasmuch, namely, as through their ministry he is given by God, as Paul says in Gal. iii: He who gives us the Spirit, the Gloss: by ministry, not by authority; and in this way it befits Christ according as he is man to give the Holy Spirit, not authoritatively but instrumentally or ministerially, inasmuch as his humanity was the instrument of the Godhead; and thus his actions from unity with the Godhead are salutary to us, inasmuch as they cause grace in us, both by merit and by a certain efficacy. Aug., however, denies that Christ according as he is man gives the Holy Spirit by authority, but not instrumentally or ministerially, since in this way it befits even other saints, as has been said, to give the Holy Spirit.

⁵

To the third, where it is objected that grace is not by transmission, it must be said that in this, that of the fullness of Christ we have all received, there is something like transmission although it is not properly transmission, and this suffices. There is therefore likeness as to the uncreated Spirit himself, who is one in number in the head and in the members, and in some way descends from the head to the members undivided but one. There is, however, unlikeness as to the gift itself, according as the Holy Spirit dwells in us, because that is not transmitted from subject to subject. But for someone to have the likeness of the head, the likeness stated suffices, not that of transmission.

⁶

To the fourth, where it is objected that the head flows only into united members, it must be said, as Bonaventure says in the third book, that this has truth in the case of a head which has a determinate power and cannot unite members to itself nor make a member out of a non-member, but it has no truth or place in Christ the head, who can do this according to the divine nature, and according to the human can merit and obtain it, and thus first flow sensation and motion and continue them.

⁷

To the fifth, where it is said that a head has no other head. It must be said that in metaphorical expressions likeness need not be observed in all respects, for thus it would not be likeness but the truth of the thing. A material head therefore has no other head, because the human body is not part of another body, but a body so called by likeness, that is, some ordered multitude, is part of another multitude, as the domestic multitude is part of the civil multitude, and therefore the father of the family, who is the head of the domestic multitude, has above him the head who is the ruler of the city; and in this way nothing prevents God from being the head of Christ, though he himself is the head of the Church. It must nevertheless be noted that God is called the head of Christ not according to the complete character of the head, for he is his head according as he is his principle. He is a principle, however, according to humanity and divinity, but inasmuch as he is his principle according to humanity, the fourth condition of the head, which is conformity in nature, is lacking. Inasmuch, however, as he is his principle according to divinity, the first is thus lacking, because the Father does not have greater dignity than the Son, who are of the same majesty, honor, and glory.

⁸

To the sixth, where it is objected that the head receives influence from the heart, it must be said, as Master Alexander of Hales says in the third book, that it is not in all respects alike with the material head and body and the spiritual, because in the material head it is so that, while it flows into the body and into each of its members, the head itself needs the other members. Hence the other members flow into it. For as sensation flows from the head to the body, so life flows from the heart to the head, and likewise nourishment flows from the liver to the head, without which the head cannot be. Hence head and members serve one another mutually, whence the material head stands not only in the character of flowing into the other members but also in that of receiving from them, because they stand in mutual need, so that the members need the head and conversely. Hence 1 Cor. xii: The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of your works, nor the head to the feet, You are not necessary to me. But Christ according to the humanity, who is the spiritual head with respect to the spiritual body, namely the Church, does not need his members, whence he stands to them only in the character of flowing into them and not of receiving from them, and thus the character of the head befits him rather from this side, in which principle and origin are implied with respect to the mystical body, than it befits the material head with respect to its body.

⁹

To the seventh the answer is by denying the consequence. For since Christ, God and man, is one, from the fact that Christ is called the head of the Church according to the Godhead and the humanity, it does not follow that the Church has two heads.

¹⁰

To the eighth the answer is that whatever of perfection is in faith and hope wholly befits Christ; only as to that which is of imperfection is it denied of him.