Summa de Ecclesia

Having attentively considered the arguments and motives which the makers of the aforesaid erroneous opinion adduce to gain credence for their sayings, we clearly see that they fell into this error because they used false foundations and not true principles.

¹ But one of their foundations is that the denomination of the members of the body of Christ simply must be taken according to the disposition of divine election.

² Another, that the members of Christ even in this life adhere to Christ by so indissoluble a bond that whoever is a member of Christ is indissolubly and perpetually his member.

³ Another, that the predestined who are now unbelievers are already even incorporated into Christ.

⁴ Another, that the number of the predestined alone is the holy universal Church which is the body of Christ. We shall confute these foundations as divine wisdom shall shine upon us, for when we shall have shown them to be false, at once it will appear clearer than light that their edifice will be ruinous, as founded upon sand, not upon the rock of truth.

⁵ Concerning the first it must be noted that to be called a member of Christ, a sheep, a son of God, is said in two ways in sacred scripture and among the holy doctors. In one way according to predestination alone, in another way according to present justice. Of the first way we have 1 John 2, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. Of the second way we have John 1, He gave them power to be made sons of God, and to Rom. 8, Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God. Of this also we have extended testimonies from Aug. in the book on correction and grace, which through a long treatise are placed on penance, dist. iv, ch. But the truth; and this under the name of sheep. Of these two ways we find express examples in the Gospel. John 10, where concerning those who are sheep of Christ and are named according to present justice the Lord says in the same place: My sheep hear my voice, and follow me. Behold, these sheep of Christ are so called according to present justice, because in act they hear the voice of the shepherd's teaching, and by obedience to the commandments they follow the shepherd. But concerning those who are called sheep only according to eternal predestination it is said in the same place: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Upon this Aug. in the sermon on the words of the Lord, and as adduced by holy Tho. in the continuous Gloss, says thus: For he spoke first of the fold of the kindred of the flesh of Israel. But there was another kind of sons of Israel; the predestined were still without among the gentiles, and not yet gathered, thus he.

In the same way must be distinguished concerning members: some are called members according to present justice, because by faith and charity they are incorporated into Christ. And rightly is such a one called a member of Christ according to present justice, because, as Jerome says on that passage of the psalm, The innocent and the upright have adhered to me, the Church adheres to Christ through justice. But others are called members only according to predestination, as sheep; for it is alike when Aug. says on John, homily 46, They are members of the one shepherd whose sheep they are.

Moreover it must be considered that this is the difference of this division, that to be a sheep or a member of Christ or a son of God according to predestination alone is to be a sheep or a member or a son of God in potency only and not in act, which from this is known clearer than light: because predestination, since it is a species of divine foreknowledge — for it is, as Aug. says, the foreknowledge of the benefits of God, as the Master deduces in book i, dist. xl. — posits nothing in the predestined by which he actually is or is to be denominated that to which he is said to be predestined, but is in the predestiner alone, as providence is in the provider and foreknowledge in the foreknower, but not in the things provided or foreknown. Hence the continuous Gloss on that passage John 11, That he might gather into one the dispersed sons, holds thus: These things were said according to predestination, for they were not yet his sheep nor his sons.

And conformably blessed Tho. of Aquino in the commentary on John, expounding the same place, that passage That he might gather into one the sons of God, says: This is not to be understood as if they had then already received the spirit of adoption, because, as Gregory says, they were not yet his sheep nor his sons by adoption. Likewise Nicholas of Lyra in like manner says thus: Not because they were already sons of God in act, but in potency to be reduced to act, because they were predestined.

Moreover, that this truth may become more splendid, it is argued in many ways. First thus. No one can be called a son of God by adoption in act and simply, nor a member of Christ, unless he actually has those things by which anyone is made a son of God by adoption, and those by which incorporation into the body of the Church or into Christ is perfected, however predestined anyone be to such things, because those predicates denote a thing not a being of reason. And by likeness it is clear, because however predestined anyone be to beatitude, he is not called actually blessed unless he has those things which formally make for beatitude, and so in the matter proposed. Since therefore predestination is not anything formal existing in the predestined by which anyone is called either a son of God or a member of Christ, it is impossible to say with truth that the denomination of the members of Christ simply or of the sons of God must be taken from the sole disposition of divine predestination, but it must be taken according to present justice, since one who according to present justice is a member of Christ actually has those things by which anyone is actually and simply called such.

For he actually has the spirit of adoption by which anyone is made actually a son of God, according to that passage to Rom. 8, Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God; which is also that by which anyone is incorporated into the body of the Church, according to that passage to Eph. 4, One Spirit, one body; the Gloss: It is the Holy Spirit by whom we are made one body. And so one who according to present justice is such is actually joined to Christ by the joint of faith and by the bond of charity, which are those things by which the members of the body are connected and bound together, as the Gloss says on that passage to Eph. iv, Christ the head, from whom the whole body compacted and connected through the common joint. Compacted namely through faith, and connected by the bonds of charity. Moreover such a one actually receives the influx of grace from Christ, and only as a member from the head: therefore it seems that the denomination simply by which anyone is denominated a member, a sheep, or a son of God must be taken not from the sole disposition of divine election, but according to present justice.

And that this must necessarily be professed is what we can gather openly in many places from holy scripture itself, which cannot lie. For it is said John first: He gave them power to be made sons of God. The Gloss: Wonderful power, that those who were sons of the devil should be called sons of God and brothers of Christ, freed through him. But it is clear that this cannot be understood according to predestination, because with respect to it, since it is immutable, no power has been given to us that according to it we be made sons of God. For Aug. says that the number of the predestined is certain, which can neither be increased nor diminished; therefore it is impossible that the denomination of the sons of God be derived from the sole disposition of divine predestination.

Likewise the Apostle writing to those of Thessalonica says: You are sons of light and sons of God, 1 Thess. 5. Likewise 1 John 3, Now we are sons of God. But it is manifest that they spoke to believers believing in God, who according to present justice are sons of God, but not to the predestined alone, since those were unknown: therefore the foundation of theirs is false, in which they say that the denomination of the sons of God or of the members of Christ must be taken according to the disposition of divine election.

Likewise Rom. 12, Being many we are one body in Christ, but each members one of another, having gifts according to the grace given to us, etc. This cannot be referred to the predestined alone, as is clear. Moreover the Apostle 1 Cor. 5, Know you not that your bodies are members of Christ? and 1 Cor. 12, For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. The sense is according to the Gloss of Aug.: We, washed in one Spirit, were led into one body. Likewise in the same place the Apostle subjoins: But you are the body of Christ. The Gloss: By the unity of faith of Christ the head. Since these words of the Apostle are directed to all believers in Christ, and not to the predestined alone, it is manifestly clear that the denomination of the sons of God simply and of the members of Christ must be taken according to present justice and not according to divine predestination, whose subjects are unknown to us; therefore that foundation of theirs is false.

But this appears manifest from the fact that through justification men are said to begin to be sons of God and members of Christ, and through a fall or withdrawal from that justification they cease to be such, who in the time of justification were said to be members of Christ or sons of God. For it is said to Eph. 5, For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord; walk as sons of light. Where the Gloss says: Before you were sons of the devil, prince of darkness, now justified through faith and baptism you are sons of God by adoption, which is the true light. And to Rom. 5, Being justified by faith let us have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have access into this grace wherein we stand, and glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God.

Moreover Aug. plainly sets this down in book iii against the Donatists, saying thus: The wicked who are tolerated within with groaning, although they do not pertain to the same unity of the dove, and to that glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or anything of this kind. Yet if they are corrected, and confess that they themselves approached baptism, they are not rebaptized; but they begin to pertain to the dove, through whose groaning their sins are loosed, from whose peace they were held estranged, thus Aug. Likewise the same in book 2 against Cresconius, ch. 21, Those condemned by Christ are now not in the body of Christ which is the Church: since Christ cannot have condemned members, and so they themselves baptize outside the Church, all these monstrous things: far be it that all should be reckoned among the members of that one dove, far be it that they should be able to enter within the bounds of the garden enclosed, whose keeper he is, which cannot be deceived; yet those who confess and are corrected, then enter, then are cleansed; then they are among the trees of the garden enclosed, they are numbered among the members of the one dove, thus Aug. Behold how openly the most illustrious doctor Aug. sets down that wicked men, until they are corrected, do not pertain in number, namely and in merit, to the unity of the Church, so that they begin to be of the number of the trees of the garden enclosed.

But the faithful are said to be corrected in justification, in which through penance faults are amended, and the very order of the powers of the soul to one another, and of the higher powers to God, which had been perverted through sin, is repaired. Hence it is manifest that the denomination of the members of Christ simply or of the sons of God is not to be taken from the disposition of divine election or predestination, which is also shown by this argument. If predestination suffices for denominating anyone to be actually and simply a member of Christ, this consequence necessarily holds: this man is predestined by God; therefore he is a member of Christ from eternity, as we say that one predestined or elect is also loved from eternity. Whence the Apostle to Eph. 1, He chose us in himself that we should be holy and immaculate; but this is false, that anyone be a member of Christ from eternity, since no body exists from eternity; therefore that from which it follows is false, namely that anyone is called actually and simply a member of Christ or a son from divine predestination alone. With these things by which the first foundation of the adversaries has now been confuted well considered, it is easy to show the falsity of the second, in which they say that the members of Christ adhere to Christ by so indissoluble a bond that whoever is a member of Christ is indissolubly and perpetually a member of Christ.

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The falsity of this foundation, although it be manifest from what was said above, because if from justification anyone begins to be made a member of Christ, and through a fall from it ceases to be, it is clear that no one in this life, unless he were confirmed in grace, is to be called indissolubly a member of Christ; is nevertheless shown from other things. And we ask what the adversaries of the truth understand by that indissoluble bond: either predestination, or grace, or formed faith. The first cannot be called a bond, because since predestination, as we have said, posits nothing in the predestined, it cannot be called a connective or unitive bond of anything. For although predestination argues a certain necessity of order or of consequence, so that one predestined necessarily will attain that to which he is predestined, yet it does not posit in act anything in the predestined by which he can actually be called a member united or incorporated to Christ, or a son of God, and the like. But if they call that bond faith or charity, as is the teaching of the Apostle, since man can fall from these, as is most often customary. Hence Apoc. 2 is said: I have against you a few things, that you have left your first charity. No one can by reason of such bonds or ties be called or made perpetually a member of Christ unless these perpetually persevered in him, which is not common to all. Moreover the Apostle Paul openly confutes this error to Rom. 8, saying: If anyone has not the spirit of Christ, he is not his, the Gloss: namely a member. But not all those who have the spirit of Christ always have it, since it happens that they sin mortally; and those who do not have it sometimes have it, since it happens that they are justified. Hence the Gloss on what follows, The body indeed is dead because of sin, that is in sins; but the Spirit lives because of justification, says thus: The soul which before had been impious lives, because it is joined to God who is life, and this because of justification, that is through remission of sins which is from the Holy Spirit. Likewise in the same chapter the same Apostle says: For the Spirit himself renders testimony to our spirit that we are sons of God. The Gloss, which is of Aug., says: The Holy Spirit, because he is common to Father and Son, and the union of both through whom is made the society and unity by which we are made one body of the only Son of God; for unity compacts us, which charity makes, which is from the Holy Spirit. It follows: For nothing ought a Christian so to fear as to be separated from the body of Christ, in that place. Therefore it is manifest that the aforesaid foundation is false, in which they say that whoever is a member of Christ is indissolubly and perpetually his member.

From these things is also most clearly evident the falsity of the third foundation of the adversaries of the truth, in which they say that the predestined who are now unbelievers are also incorporated into Christ, which is also shown by many other arguments. First thus: The Apostle says 1 Cor. 12 that in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. The sense is, as the Gloss says, all we baptized, that is washed, were led in one Spirit into one body. Therefore by the Holy Spirit alone is anyone said to be incorporated into Christ, or by the bond of charity which through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is diffused in our hearts. To Rom. 5. Therefore those who do not have the Holy Spirit, such as are the predestined existing as unbelievers, cannot be said to be incorporated or members of Christ. The consequence is manifest. It is clear also from that passage of the Apostle to Rom. 8 adduced above: If anyone has not the spirit of Christ, he is not his, the Gloss: namely a member.

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Second thus: If the predestined even existing as unbelievers are incorporated into Christ or are members of Christ, it follows that such are one mystical person with Christ; indeed that they are Christ himself, according to that passage of the Apostle 1 Cor. 12, Since there are many members, they are one body, so also Christ; where Aug. says in the Gloss. All the faithful are Christ, I will not say the body of Christ, because they themselves are Christ, both greater and lesser; for the head is Christ. He is called Christ because of the ineffable union of head and members, thus the Gloss. If therefore the predestined existing in unbelief or in heresy are members of Christ, it follows that those who are actually unbelievers and heretics are Christ himself, as one person with Christ, which is not only heretical but dreadful to Christian ears. Hence the Apostle 2 Cor. 6: But what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as the Lord says.

Third thus: It is clear that all unbelievers and sinners, as long as they lie in unbelief and crimes, are members of the devil, and are said to be one body with him, who is king over all the sons of pride. Job 40, of whom all the wicked are said to be his body and members, according to that passage Job 41: His body is as molten shields, where the Gloss says: the body of Leviathan is all the wicked. If therefore the predestined, unbelieving and wicked in act, are the body of Christ or members of Christ, and in act members of the devil, it follows that one and the same is the body of Christ and the body of the devil, which is most absurd. For the Apostle says 2 Cor. 6: What agreement has Christ with Belial? Where the Gloss says that we are members of Christ, they of the devil, and Christ and the devil do not agree.

Fourth thus. The Apostle says 1 Cor. 6: Know you not that those who adhere to a harlot are made one body with her? They shall be, he says, two in one flesh; but he who adheres to God is one spirit with him. Therefore predestined fornicators are one body with the harlot. If therefore such are also the body of Christ, at once someone is both the body of Christ and the body of a harlot, which is absurd, since the Apostle says in the same place: What participation has justice with iniquity? Fifth the same is shown manifestly from that passage 1 John: Little sons, let no man seduce you: he who does justice is just, even as he is just; he who commits sin is of the devil. Whosoever is born of God commits no sin, for his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he is of God. In this the sons of God and the sons of the devil are manifest; everyone who is not just is not of God. These are the words of blessed John. From this it is manifestly concluded that the predestined existing in the sin of unbelief or in mortal sin are sons of the devil. But who would dare to call such incorporated into Christ, unless one who lacks sense and does not understand what he says? Hence Aug. in the letter to Cresconius adduced above: Christ cannot have condemned members. And the Apostle in the same place says: What society has light with darkness?

Sixth this argument is confirmed. If the predestined when they are unbelievers or heretics or schismatics or stained by any other mortal sin are incorporated into Christ, it is asked by what means. Not by a natural bond, because the union or incorporation of the members of Christ with Christ is not natural, as is that by which the natural members of Christ are united to his natural body. Nor by the bond of hypostatic union, as the humanity of Christ is united to the Son of God, because the Son of God, as Damascene says, does not receive nature in the universal but in the atom, that is in the individual. Therefore such a means or bond must be understood spiritually. But this does not seem to be understood as anything but what holy scripture posits and the holy doctors, namely the Holy Spirit, which is charity itself, which as Aug. says compacts the whole body of Christ, and without which the members neither cohere among themselves nor to Christ the head. Hence the Gloss on that passage Col. 2: Not holding the head, from which the whole body through joints and bands etc., says: Through joints, that is through charity, without which the members neither cohere among themselves nor serve nor live. And Aug. on the Song of Job says: Love alone discerns between the sons of God and the sons of the devil; the sons of God are not discerned from the sons of the devil except by charity. But unbelievers, blasphemers and the wicked in act do not have such a means, however predestined they be, though they will have grace and glory in the future. Therefore the aforesaid foundation is seen to be heretical.

Seventh thus. If all the predestined, both wicked and just, were actually incorporated into Christ, there would be great contrariety in the body of Christ, which would be most unfitting to say. The consequence is yet manifest, because in faith there would be contrariety, namely between those who would be believers and unbelievers. Contrariety also in spirit, because some enlivened by the Spirit of God as just, some by the spirit of the devil as wicked. The falsity and unfittingness is clear from that passage of Aug. in treatise iii on the Canonical John, saying: Whoever is not contrary to Christ adheres in his body, and is reckoned his member; if members are never contrary to one another, the integrity of the body consists of all the members, thus Aug. Eighth thus: If the predestined even existing as unbelievers or wicked are members of Christ, either living or not living, one must be granted. If dead it cannot be, because, as Hugh of St Victor says, and catholically, in the body of Christ nothing is dead. If they say that they are living, this cannot be, because the members of the body of Christ are not said to live except through the Spirit of God, through whom life is diffused into the members, whence to Rom. 8 is said: But the Spirit lives because of justification, the Gloss: because he is joined to God who is life through remission of sins which is from the Holy Spirit. Likewise to Rom. 1 is said: The just lives by faith, and John 20, that believing they may have life; but the predestined do not actually have this life as long as they remain unbelievers and wicked and the like who are in mortal sin. Therefore the aforesaid foundation cannot stand in truth.

Ninth thus: This opinion of men takes away the fruit of the passion of Christ, as it seems; therefore such an opinion is in no way to be tolerated by the faithful. The assumption seems manifest from that passage of the Apostle to Rom. 5: When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. If we were enemies of God before and were reconciled through the death of his Son, we must necessarily confess that the predestined either were not sons of God reconciled by death, or were before enemies; if enemies, therefore not adhering to Christ, therefore not incorporated into Christ, therefore not members of Christ, unless one would wish to say without reason that as enemies of Christ they are members of Christ, and that the body of Christ is compacted from enemies of Christ.

Tenth thus: The Apostle to the Ephesians in the second chapter, speaking of the incorporation of the two peoples, namely of Jews and gentiles into one body of Christ, says thus: That he might make, that is join the two, namely peoples, in himself into a new man, making peace, that he might reconcile both in one body through the Cross, killing enmities in himself, the Gloss. Behold as if enmity removed and the law emptied he makes peace between them, and reconciles both to God the Father. From this it is clear that these two peoples in a certain order of understanding were first reconciled to God the Father and then united in one body of Christ. Therefore those who are still enemies of God through unbelief or other sins which divide between God and men, according to that passage Isa. 59: Your iniquities have divided between you and your God, cannot be said to be united to God or incorporated into Christ, even if they are predestined to be incorporated in their own time.

Moreover this assertion is rendered false from this, that it makes vain and empty all the exhortations and admonitions which sacred scripture universally makes, that men be converted to God, draw near to God and be united to him. For it is said Zach. 1: Be converted to me and I will be converted to you; and James 4: Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Likewise in Isaiah we have, introduced by the Apostle 2 Cor. 6: Go out from the midst of them, the Gloss: you who are in the midst of their wickedness, and be separated, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, the Gloss: before cast out, and I will be to you a father, and you shall be to me sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty. From these it is most clearly evident that it is false that the predestined, unbelieving or existing in sin, to whom such exhortations are made, are actually incorporated into God or united.

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But the falsity of the fourth foundation, in which they say that the whole number of the predestined alone is called the universal Church, we have sufficiently shown around ch. 3 of this work; its falsity is also clear from what was said already in the confutation of the other foundations. With these foundations confuted it is now easy to see that all their propositions set down above are false and erroneous, and were deservedly condemned by the universal Church in the council of Constance, as is clear from the letter of Martin the Pope of happy memory which he writes to all the prelates of Germany.

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The first is that not all justified believers are members of Christ, but only the elect who will finally reign forever with Christ. The falsity is clear from what was said, which also appears from that which the Apostle says, 1 Cor. 12: But you are the body of Christ, and members of member, the Gloss: by the unity of faith of Christ the head. But it is clear that he speaks to all believers in Christ, but not to the predestined alone. Likewise from that passage to Eph. 5: We are members of his body, which word Aug. treating on Ps. 36 says thus: We are in his body, if our faith be sincere in him, and our hope certain, and charity kindled in his body, and we are his members.

But that the first part of that proposition is false and erroneous is shown by reason thus. Two things are principally required, as we gather from the teaching of the holy doctors, for anyone to be called a member of the body of Christ. The first is conformity of nature, the second is conformity of the life of grace, which two are noted in Cant. 4 where it is said: A garden enclosed, my sister spouse. By the name of sister indeed conformity of nature is designated, but by the appellation of spouse the union of grace. The first of these is less principal, both because it is common to the good and the evil, and because it cannot be one in number, but only one in species or genus, in all things united. But the second, which is conformity of grace, is more principal and most complete, because the Spirit, fount of grace, is one in number, who in our head Christ and in all his members flows spiritual life into all.

With this presupposed, the argument runs as follows: All the justified faithful, whether foreknown or predestined, have conformity in nature with Christ, which is the first point; they have moreover conformity in the life of grace in the same Spirit, which was the second; therefore all such are truly and simply to be called members of Christ. This is clear from the supposition, since for being a member of Christ nothing is required except those two things, whence the Apostle, writing to the Romans, who yet are not believed to have all been predestined, says: Being many, we are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another, having gifts according to the grace which has been given to us, at Rom. xii.

The falsity of the second part of that proposition becomes manifest from the same root, speaking of the predestined who are held in unbelief or in the filth of other sins. For since such predestined are united to Christ by no union except conformity of nature, which is common to the predestined and the foreknown and which is not union simply, it follows that such have nothing whereby they are to be named members of Christ simply and in act, or to be of the body of Christ, which is the Church. Hence the Apostle uses this reasoning at Rom. viii. when he says: If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, the Gloss: a member.

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Furthermore, the falsity and error of the second proposition, in which they say that when some are justified they do not begin to be members of Christ, though they were not before they were justified, although it was shown sufficiently a little before in this chapter, in the refutation of the first foundation of these errors, is nevertheless also shown from many other things. And first from what was said to Peter, Acts x.: Kill and eat; concerning which Augustine, on Ps. cxxiii., says that it was said because no one enters into the body of the Church unless, first slain, he dies: what he was, that he may be what he was not; otherwise he who is not slain and is not eaten by the Church can be in the number of the people that is seen by human eyes; but in the number of the people that is known to God, and of whom the Apostle says: The Lord knoweth who are his, he cannot be unless eaten, nor will he be able to be eaten unless first slain. A pagan comes; idolatry still lives in him; he must be inserted into the members of Christ; that he may be inserted, he must be eaten; but he cannot be eaten by the Church unless, first slain, he renounces the world; then he is slain, he believes in God, then he is eaten.

Second, against it is 1 Pet. ii.: Who hath called us out of darkness into his admirable light, who once were not the people of God, but now are the people of God. Third, what the Apostle says at Eph. iv.: That the increase of the body may be made in the measure of every member unto the edifying of itself in charity, the Gloss: those who are not the body he builds into his own city or society. Fourth, Col. ii.: From whom the whole body, by joints and bands supplied and knit together, groweth, the Gloss: in virtues and members unto the increase of God; the Gloss says: unto the increase of God, for God is as it were increased by men returning from error, as he was diminished by those deserting. Fifth, at Eph. iv. it is written: And he gave some apostles, and there follows: for the perfecting of the body of Christ, the Gloss: that they may build into the body of Christ those who are still strangers. Augustine also says in the letter to Dardanus: Men are born, not from works of justice which they did, but by being reborn through grace they are transferred, as from a mass of ruin to the firmament of the building, into the structure of Christ as into the living structure of the temple of God, which is his Church, these are his words.

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The falsity of the third proposition, in which they say that not even any, when they fall from justification through mortal fault, cease to be members of Christ, though they were members of Christ, is sufficiently manifest from what has been said, for since such, by sinning mortally, are deprived of the Holy Spirit, by whom the body of Christ is both one and living, it is most plain that they cease to be members of Christ simply or in act.

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The falsity also of the fourth proposition, in which they say that the predestined always remains a member of Christ, though he fall from the grace of present justification, is clear from what has been said.

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Furthermore, that this proposition is also false and erroneous, in which they say that Paul, Augustine, and the thief, when they were unbelievers and were persecuting Christ, were sheep and members of Christ, is clear from what has been said, so that there is no need to add anything else, but only to bring against them Augustine speaking in a certain sermon on the conversion of Paul: Elisus¹⁴ was a servant, and was made a believer. Elisus was a wolf, and was made a lamb. Elisus was a persecutor, and was made a preacher. Elisus was a son of perdition, and was raised up as a vessel of election, these are Augustine's words.

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Finally, that the sixth proposition is false and erroneous, in which it is said that Judas, at the time when, justified with the other apostles, he was following Christ, was not a sheep of Christ nor a member of Christ, is also openly gathered from what has been said, from the fact that Judas is believed to have been baptized just as the other apostles are believed to have been baptized by Christ, as Augustine says, and as is found in De con. di. iv., ch. Quando ab Hierosolymis, and the following chapter. But whosoever have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ, at Gal. iii.; and consequently they were made his members. It must necessarily be affirmed that Judas, in the time of his justification, was a member of Christ. Of this opinion blessed Augustine gives a celebrated testimony, speaking of Judas on Ps. xli., which is inscribed To the persecution of Absalom, son of David, against his father, where he speaks thus: Let us recognize how his son also persecuted Christ, for he had sons of whom he said: The children of the bridegroom do not fast as long as the bridegroom is with them; but when the bridegroom shall have been taken away from them, then the children of the bridegroom shall fast; therefore the apostles are the children of the bridegroom, and among them the persecutor, the devil Judas. And below: Judas, a son of the bridegroom, persecuting the bridegroom, these things there. Behold, a most open testimony that Judas, for the time of his justification, was a son of the bridegroom and consequently a member of Christ.