Summa de Ecclesia

¹

Since, however, from what was said above concerning ch. xxii, the Church began to be from the beginning of the human race, and that the body of the Church must be believed never at any time to have been without a head, it now remains to be shown that Christ, from the beginning from which holy men began to be on earth, was thus always the head of the Church, not only according to the Godhead but also according to the humanity. That Christ according to the Godhead was the head of the Church before the incarnation has no doubt, since God himself is its principle, founder, and illuminator. For all who are generated from the beginning of the human race even to the end are illuminated by the power of the Godhead and are compacted as members into one body of the Church. That according to the humanity also Christ was the head of all the faithful who preceded his incarnation is clear in many ways. First, because the Church is founded upon faith in the humanity of Christ. 1 Cor. iii: No one can lay another foundation besides that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus, the Gloss: the faith of Christ which works through love. Hence the Gloss on Col. i: He is the head of the body of the Church, asks, Since the Church began from Abel, how is Christ as man the head of those who were before? and in answering says: Well, because he himself is the principle of the Church according to the Godhead, that is, the founder of the Church, because he illuminated by the power of his Godhead and bestowed by his mercy all the just who are generated from Abel to the last just man according to the humanity. He can also be called the principle of the Church because it is founded upon faith in his humanity, thus far the Gloss. Since therefore the Church is founded upon faith in the humanity of Christ, and the same faith was of the fathers before the incarnation and after, Eph. iiii: One God, one faith, for only the time has been changed, as Aug. says, for what is believed by us to have already been done was believed by others to be future. It is manifest that Christ was the head of the faithful preceding the incarnation as of those following.

And it is confirmed. For either he is called the head of the Church, the incarnation having taken place, on account of the nature assumed, in which he was made conformed to men in nature; or on account of faith in his humanity. Not in the first way, because by that reckoning he would equally be called the head of unbelieving men as of faithful just men, which would be unfitting. If in the second way, on account of the faith by which he is believed God and man, but the faith remains the same in the saints before the incarnation and after. For Aug. says in the book on Marriages and Concupiscence: The same faith in the Mediator which saves us made the just saved before, the little with the great; because just as we believe Christ incarnate, so they believed him to come, and as we believe him dead, so they believed him to die, and as we believe him risen, so they too believed him to rise, and we and they believe him to come to the judgment of the living and the dead; therefore it seems that Christ according as he is man should be called the head of the preceding just as of those who were after the incarnation.

In testimony of this, in Mark xi it is read that those who went before and those who followed cried out saying: Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Upon this the venerable Bede says, and it is had in the Gloss: those who went before and those who followed cried out; the Jewish people went before, the Gentile followed. And because all who are faithful, or were, have believed and do believe in Christ, both those who go before and those who follow cried Hosanna, which in Latin is rendered save. For from him all the former also sought salvation. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, since there is one faith, one hope of all; they awaited him and believed him to come, and we believe him to have come, thus far the Gloss. And blessed Gregory on Ezekiel: Those who went before and those who followed cried Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, because all the elect who could be in Judea or who are now in the Church have believed and do believe in the mediator of God and men; therefore it is manifest that the head of the preceding and the following faithful was and is one and the same, namely Christ, whom all acclaimed as savior.

This is likewise clear from the Apostle speaking of Christ thus in 1 Tim. iiii: Who is the savior of all men and especially of the faithful, the Gloss: whom he saves here and in the future according to body and soul. And blessed John the Evangelist speaking of Christ says thus: He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only but also for those of the whole world, 1 John ii, where the Gloss of Aug: Not for ours only who live in the flesh, but for the whole Church. To save men, however, or to be the propitiation for sins befits Christ according as he is the head; therefore it remains that Christ even according as he is man was the head of all the faithful who even preceded his incarnation. Hence Aug. on Ps. xxxvi, treating the words, I have been young and now am old: Our head is Christ, we are the body of that head. Are we alone, and not also those who were before us? All who from the beginning of the age were just have Christ as head; for they believed him to come whom we now believe to have come, and in whose faith both they and we were healed, so that he might be the head of the whole city of Jerusalem, the faithful from the beginning even to the end being numbered together.

Moreover, since the Church, as has been said, is called one body by likeness to the natural human body, in which the members joined together by nerves and junctures are said to be one by continuity, the members of the Church must necessarily be said to be continued together according to before and after in time from the beginning of the Church even to the end of the age. This, however, is only through faith in Christ, which, as has been said, is one in all the saints; therefore it seems that Christ from the beginning of the Church even to the end of the age should be called the head of the Church.

Further, this is shown by a likeness. Among the evil, the head followed some members in time, and nevertheless is called their head; much more therefore will this be so among the good members which receive the influx of sensation and motion from the head. But so it is among the evil, that although some members preceded the head in time, they are nevertheless called members of its future head, as blessed Isidore says in the book on the Highest Good, that before antichrist comes many of his members have preceded, and by the merit of transgression they anticipate their own head; therefore much more must it be believed concerning the members of the Church that, although some preceded the incarnation of Christ in time, nevertheless Christ should be called their head. From these things which have now been determined, the error of those saying that Christ in the incarnation began to be the head of the Church, and that only after the incarnation did men begin to be incorporated into Christ, is openly refuted.