Summa de Ecclesia
Juan de Torquemada (1388–1468)
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.
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.
Having shown how Christ is head of the faithful as to their souls, into which he flows the sense of faith and the motion of charity, we must ask how he is also to be called head of the faithful as to their bodies, and it seems by some arguments that he is not. First thus. Christ as God is head of the Church insofar as he flows into the Church spiritual sense and the motion of grace, but the body of man is not capable of such spiritual sense and motion: therefore God does not seem to be head of men according to their bodies but only according to their souls.
Second thus. Between head and members and conversely there must be a certain proportion, but the bodies of other men are not continuous with the body of Christ: therefore he is not head of men as to their bodies but only as to their souls.
Third thus. As to our bodies we share in common with the brutes; if therefore Christ were head of men as to their bodies, it would follow that he would also be head of brute animals, which is unfitting.
Fourth thus. Christ drew his body from other men, as is clear from Matt. 1 and Luke 3, where the series of the generation of Jesus Christ according to the flesh is described, but the head is first among the other members, as has been said: therefore Christ is not head of the faithful as to their bodies. On the contrary it is argued from that passage of the Apostle to Phil. 3, He shall reform the body of our lowliness made like to the body of his glory. Second from that passage 1 Cor. 6, Know you not that your bodies are members of Christ, where the Gloss of Aug. says thus. Mark that he says our members are members of Christ, since Christ is our head because he was made for us, but his body is the Church. If therefore Christ had received only the human soul, his members would be nothing but our souls, but because he also received a body, through which he is also head to us, since we consist of soul and body, our bodies are indeed his members: for because he received a body, he is also head of bodies, thus the Gloss. We answer by saying that Christ is head of the Church or of the faithful both as to their souls and as to their bodies, but principally of souls and secondarily of bodies. And this both by reason of conformity to the members which was made through the assumption of human nature, for he assumed a body with a soul. And by reason of the spiritual influence which reaches the body through the soul insofar as the body is the instrument of the soul operating according to grace. But to see how the humanity of Christ has influence on men not only as to their souls but also as to their bodies, and how not only the souls of the faithful but also their bodies are susceptible of such influence, it must be noted, as holy Tho. notes in the third part, that the human body has a natural order to the rational soul which is its proper form and mover, and insofar as it is its form it receives from the soul life and the other properties befitting the human body according to its species; but insofar as the soul is mover of the body, the body serves the soul instrumentally. Thus therefore it must be said that the humanity of Christ has power of inflowing insofar as it is joined to the Word, to which the body is united through the soul, whence the whole humanity of Christ according to soul and body flows into men, both as to soul and as to body, but principally as to soul, secondarily as to body, and this in two ways. In one way insofar as the members of the body are presented as weapons of the justice existing in the soul through Christ, as the Apostle says to Rom. 6. In another way insofar as the life of glory is derived from the soul to the body, according to that passage Rom. 8, He who raised Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies because of his Spirit dwelling in you. With these things established we must speak to the arguments.
To the first it must be said that the spiritual sense of grace, although it does not reach the body first and principally, nevertheless reaches it secondarily and instrumentally, for as has been said, although the body does not receive the spiritual influence immediately, it nevertheless receives it through the soul. Hence with respect to each part of human nature, namely soul and body, Christ is head of the Church.
To the second it is answered by denying the minor; for we say that our bodies in some way have continuation to the body of Christ, not indeed according to quantity, as is clear, nor according to natural perfection, because the soul of Christ is one thing and the soul of each man another, according to which natural perfection is considered, but according to the perfection of sanctification which is the Holy Spirit, who was most fully in Christ. For the perfection of the body, as master Alexander says in the third book, is not only the soul but the Holy Spirit whose temple our bodies are, according to that passage 1 Cor. 6, Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit. But what the soul perfects as to the being of nature, the Holy Spirit perfects as to the being of sanctification, and the Holy Spirit is the same who sanctifies the body of Christ and sanctifies our bodies when we are in the faith and charity of Christ. Hence from this spiritual sanctification there remains in our body a certain order to the glorious resurrection, as holy Tho. says and the aforesaid Alexander in the third book. Hence the Apostle to Rom. 8 proves from this the glorious resurrection of bodies, saying: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he shall quicken also your mortal bodies because of his Spirit dwelling in you. To the third it is answered by denying the consequence, because we do not share in common with the brutes as to our bodies without also differing much from them even as to our bodies: for the body of a brute animal has no relation to a rational soul such as the human body has, and therefore the human body has a certain order to sanctification which the bodies of brutes do not have, and therefore since the argument is not alike it does not proceed.
To the fourth it is answered by denying the consequence, since although Christ drew the matter of his body from other men, yet all men draw the immortal life of the body from him, according to that passage 1 Cor. 15, As in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive, and so since he himself flows into all men both as to their souls and as to their bodies, it follows that he must be called head of all both with respect to souls and with respect to bodies.