Summa de Ecclesia

¹

Having dispatched what was to be said concerning the unity of the universal Church, and concerning its head Christ our blessed Savior, discourse must next be held concerning the manifold distinction and variety of states, dignities, offices, and degrees with which we behold the universal Church herself shine, adorned with wondrous beauty. Indeed, in the first place, the universal Church consists of two parts: namely the laity and the clergy. For these two orders, namely the laity and the clergy, as Hugh of St. Victor says in his Sacraments, the universal Church herself embraces as the two sides of one body. The laity too, because they handle earthly things and the necessities of earthly life, are understood as the left part of the body. The clergy, however, because they dispense what pertains to spiritual life, are as it were the right part of the body of the Church. Of these sides there seems to be written by the prophet in Ps. 127, where it is said: Your wife shall be as a fruitful vine on the sides of your house — where the Gloss of Augustine says thus: The wife of Christ is the Church, which is fruitful not in all, but on the sides of your house; the sides of the house, that is, of the Church of Christ, are those who cling to him.

²

Further, just as the natural body of man requires for its integrity not only diversity of sides but also distinction of many organs, distributed with various powers and deputed to various acts, so the mystical body of Christ cannot consist for its integrity except of many members distinguished by a multiform variety. Hence the Apostle, 1 Cor. 12: If all the members were one member, where would the body be? etc. Which, as the Gloss says, cannot consist except of diverse things — as if to say, if all the members were one member, not only would the multitude of senses perish but also the body. So if in the Church all were of one office and dignity, neither members nor body would be discerned — thus the Gloss. Hence there follows in the Apostle: But now there are many members indeed, yet one body, which consists of them all. Moreover, since the militant Church is exemplified from the triumphant, according to that of Exod. 18, See and make all things according to the pattern shown to you, and the Apostle says that all these are exemplars of heavenly things, Heb. 9 — and what is exemplified ought to imitate that from which it is exemplified — it follows that just as that supernal mother of ours, Jerusalem, the triumphant Church, is distinguished by a manifold variety of orders, dignities, offices, and rewards, so the militant Church in its own way, adorned with a multiform variety of graces, virtues, and merits, as well as of dignities and offices, is distinguished. Hence in her praise the Prophet, speaking in Ps. 44, says: The queen stood at your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety — where the Gloss says: The queen, that is, the Church, is adorned with the doctrine of the apostles, the confession of the martyrs, the purity of virgins, and the lament of penitents. This variety of graces and virtues with which the Church shines adorned was figured in the ancient tabernacle, which we read was distinguished with a multiform variety of vessels and ornaments. Hence the Gloss on Exod., ch. 28, says: The ancient tabernacle with its ornaments and vessels signifies the Church distinguished with a beautiful variety of virtues and persons. The fittingness of this manifold variety of the Church of God is gathered, according to the doctrine of blessed Thomas in 2. 2., q. 183, from three things.

³

First, because the very difference and multiplicity of states, offices, and degrees makes for the perfection of the Church herself; for just as in the order of natural things the perfection which is found in God simply and uniformly could not be found in the universality of creatures except difformly and multiply, so also the fullness of grace which is gathered in Christ as in a font overflows in diverse ways to his members, so that the body of the Church may be perfect — and this is what the Apostle says, Eph. 4: And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and others evangelists, and others pastors and doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, that is, of the Church. Second, the diversity of offices and states pertains to the necessity of the actions which are necessary in the Church; for diverse persons must be deputed to diverse actions so that all things may be carried out more expeditiously and without confusion — and this is what the Apostle says, Rom. 12: As in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same action, so we, being many, are one body in Christ; there the Gloss says, Ambrose: Behold, by the example of the human body we are taught that we cannot each have all things, and consequently that we ought to take care of one another in turn, because we need one another's offices. For this reason blessed Gregory says in ch. Singula, dist. 89: We order that the individual offices of ecclesiastical right be committed singly to individual persons; for just as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same action, so in the spiritual body, the Church, this office is to be conferred on one, another to be committed to another; nor, however practiced, are the offices of two things to be committed to one person at one time — for if the whole body were the eye, where would the hearing be? Thus he. Third, this difference of states and offices works toward the dignity and beauty of the Church, which consists in a certain order. Hence in 3 Kings 10 it is said that the queen of Sheba, seeing all the wisdom of Solomon and the dwellings of the servants and the orders of the ministers, had no longer any spirit. Hence the Apostle also says, in 2 Tim. 2, that in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but of wood and clay. A variety of this kind, so fittingly ordered in the Church, produces the greatest beauty and comeliness. Hence Dionysius, in ch. 4 on the divine names, calls the consonant composition of the same things from the fountal ray the traditions of beauty, that is, beauty-making. And Bernard says on the Canticle: Order gives measure and comeliness and perpetuity. And blessed Gregory, in ch. Singula, dist. 89 commemorated above, confirming this, says thus: Just as the variety of members through diverse offices preserves the strength of the body and displays beauty, so the variety of persons, distributed nonetheless through diverse offices, also manifests the comeliness of the holy Church of God — thus he.