Summa de Ecclesia

¹

Since we have begun our discourse on the difference of states in the Church, we have judged it opportune, for a fuller understanding of what has been said and of what is to be said, to unfold what is imported by the name of state. State, properly speaking, as St. Thomas says in 2.2, q. 183, signifies a certain difference of position, according to which something is disposed according to the mode of nature with a certain immobility: for it is natural to man that his head tend toward the things above, and that his feet be fixed firmly upon the earth, and that the other members be disposed in fitting order, which indeed does not happen if a man lies down or sits, but only while he stands erect, nor again is he said to stand if he is in motion, but when he is at rest. And hence it is that even in human actions themselves a business is said to have a state according to the order of its proper disposition by a certain immobility of its rest. Hence also with respect to men those things which are easily varied and changed in them do not constitute a state, for instance that someone is rich or poor, established in dignity, or a plebeian, or anything else of this sort, and in civil law it is said that if someone is removed from servitude, dignity rather than state is taken away, but only that seems to pertain to the state of man which regards the obligation of the person of man according as one is of his own right or of another's, and this not from any slight or easily changeable cause, but from something permanent. And this is what pertains to the notion of freedom or servitude. Hence state properly pertains to freedom or servitude, whether in spiritual matters, as in civil matters according as it is customarily said that error of person, or of condition, or of state impedes marriage, but not error of fortune or of quality, and in this way state is taken in 2, q. 6, ch. si quando, where Pope Adrian says: If ever in a capital case or in a case of state a plea shall have been entered, it is to be conducted not by investigators but by the parties themselves. Where a case of state is called one pertaining to the person or to servitude, as is gathered quite plainly from the Gloss. But we say that state, properly speaking, pertains to the very notion of freedom or servitude; although if we speak largely and improperly concerning the name of state, by the name of state solitude is sometimes imported, according to that of Ezek. 17: Son of man, stand upon your feet; and Gregory says in book 6 of the Morals: They have fallen away from every state of uprightness who slip through baneful art. Sometimes by the name of state firmness or immobility alone is imported, according to that of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 15: Be stable and immovable. Hence Gregory says on Ezekiel: He is a square stone, that is, as it were has standing on every side, whoever has it not by any shifting. Moreover, sometimes by the name of state a higher degree or sometimes some dignity seems to be imported. For from this one is said to stand on high because he is raised up. But in truth none of these fulfills the notion of state: uprightness alone indeed does not. Both because in other animals uprightness is not required for them to be said to stand. And because not even men are said to stand, however upright, unless they rest. Moreover, that immobility alone does not suffice for the notion of state is clear, since even the seated and the recumbent rest, who yet are not called states. Moreover, neither degree nor height of dignity suffices for the notion of state: for degree is predicated according to the order of superiority and inferiority, but by state we mean immobility, in that it pertains to the condition of the person. It is therefore clear what we understand to be imported in our discourse under the notion of state. There are said, moreover, to be three states in the Church, namely of prelates, of religious, and of married persons, from the Gospel of Matt. 24, where it is said: Two in the field, two in the bed, and two at the mill. In the field are, as blessed Augustine expounds on Ps. 133, those governing the Church, and these are the prelates. Whence the Apostle says: See, were they not in the field: I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. But by the bed he wished those to be understood who loved quiet. By the bed, moreover, he wished the quiet to be understood: those not mingling with crowds, not with the tumult of the human race, serving God in leisure. By those existing at the mill he wished the people of the married to be understood, since they move in this world, where by the grinding it is understood that the world turns like a mill. Likewise the aforesaid state is designated in those three men of whom it is found in Ezek. 14, namely in Noah, Daniel, and Job.

²

Noah signifies the rulers of the Church, because he himself governed the Ark in the Flood. Daniel, moreover, chose to serve God quietly in celibacy, not seeking a wife: he was a holy man leading his life in heavenly desires, through whom are signified the servants of God living in religion, of whom it is said: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. But in the name of Job, who had a wife and children, etc., are signified the good spouses among the married. From these it is also most plainly held that by the name of state is imported firmness of perpetual obligation, with some solemnity, as is clear in those three states, of which the first and highest state, that of prelates, is designated through Noah, who are bound to works of perfection and are blessed and consecrated with some solemnity. The second state is that of the religious, who are bound to perpetual continence with the solemnity of the vow of profession. The third, which is placed lowest, is that of those who are bound by matrimonial obligation, even with the solemnity which the Church performs. And thus it is clear that by the proper notion of state a certain immobility and firmness of perpetual obligation with some solemnity is imported, as will also be shown more fully below; with the third state, namely that of the married, left aside, in which there is imported rather a certain carnal obligation or servitude, since it is for rendering the carnal debt, than a spiritual one, as is clear, we shall pursue the difference of the states pertaining to spiritual servitude or freedom.