Summa de Ecclesia

That the reasons made against what we have said concerning the twofold power in the Church of God, which is called the gathering of all the faithful, carry little weight, is easy to see, since it pertains to divine providence that order be preserved in things. For it is proper to wisdom to dispose all things in order, in Metaphysics 1. Hence of wisdom it is said in Wisdom 7 that she reacheth from end to end mightily and ordereth all things sweetly. But fitting order is that the lower be ruled, dispensed, and governed through the higher. This is plain in bodily nature in the elements, which is ruled from the influx of the heavenly body. Hence the Philosopher says in Meteorology 1 that the whole elemental region is contiguous to the orbit of the stars, so that all its power is governed thence. And Dionysius in ch. 4 on the divine names says that the sun contributes to the generation of visible bodies, and moves to life, nourishes, increases, and perfects. This is also plain in intellectual nature, since the lower angels are illuminated through the higher, as the same holy Dionysius teaches in the book on the celestial hierarchy. And so it remains that there ought to be in the universality of men that order be found in them, so that those who are superior in virtue and more eminent in intellect rule the lower. Hence Augustine says in On the Trinity 3: Just as the grosser and lower bodies are ruled in a certain order through the higher and mightier, so all bodies are ruled through the rational spirit of life, and the spirit of the rational life of the sinner through the rational spirit of the just. Moreover, since in every ordered plurality it is natural and expedient, as Aristotle says in Politics 1, that someone rule and the rest be subject, it follows that in the universality of men the same is to be confessed, that someone rule and others be subject; but in this consists the order and reason of power: therefore some power is necessarily to be given in the commonwealth of the faithful by which one presides over the rest by ruling and governing them. But that besides the secular or lay power a spiritual power is also necessarily to be set down in the Christian people is manifestly shown according to lord Durandus in his treatise on the origin of jurisdictions, etc. For which it is presupposed that some power in the commonwealth is ordained to this, that men be restrained from evils and induced to good things. Hence in 1 Peter 2 it is said of power that it is for the vengeance of evildoers, but for the praise of the good. And to the Romans 12 it is said: Wilt thou not fear the power? Do good and thou shalt have praise; for princes are not a terror to the good work but to the evil. With this presupposed, it seems to be said that if the goods which men must be induced to do pertained only to the present civil and political life, the secular power would suffice for the rule of the Christian people, nor would any other be necessary: it is plain, because through the moral and acquired virtues, and chiefly through prudence and justice which ought to be in the ruler, the present moral and political and civil life so precisely taken suffices to be ruled: but these can be in a secular prince having the power of ruling as to the present civil and political life: therefore besides the secular power no other power is necessary for ruling the people in the civil and political life so precisely taken. But because the life of the faithful and of Christians tends not only to the goods and evils of the present life, but principally tends to the goods of the future life, and therefore seeks and orders all the goods of the present life, according to that Matt. 7: Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice. It also supremely abhors above all punishments that by which after the death of the body the soul and body shall finally be sent perpetually into the gehenna of fire. Hence in Matt. 4 it is said: Fear not them that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear him who can send soul and body into the gehenna of fire. And the same is had in Luke 12. And therefore among the faithful Christians, lest they wander from the end they intend, and if they have wandered that they be brought back into the way to it, a power is necessary to which it pertains to direct them to the aforesaid end, and to correct those deviating and bring them back to the right way not only by exhortations but also by fitting punishments. And because for this the secular power does not suffice, which of itself knows nothing of the punishments and rewards of the future life, nor of the merits or demerits which lead or bring to them, therefore besides the secular power another power is necessary in the Christian people, which by a common name is called spiritual. Moreover, Hugh of St Victor in the book on the sacraments, part 2, shows the necessity of these two powers in the Christian people, saying thus. There are two lives, one earthly, the other spiritual. To the earthly life pertain all things which are earthly, to the spiritual life all things which are spiritual. But that in either life justice be preserved and advantage result, first, on each side there are appointed those who acquire the goods of each by zeal and labour according to need or reason; then others who dispense them by the power of committed office according to equity, so that no one overreach his brother in business, but justice be preserved inviolate. If therefore human society cannot remain without either life, a twofold power is necessary for the preservation of justice, one to preside in earthly things for ordering the earthly life, another to preside in spiritual things for ordering the spiritual life; this much he. But the apostle also seems to touch these two powers, to the Romans 13, when he says: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. Which master Nicholas of Lyra expounding says, that is to prelates in spiritual things and to earthly princes in temporal things. With these held, it is to be said to the reasons to the contrary. To the first is answered that plurality of principates of which one is not subject to another is not good, but it is not so in the case proposed, since among all Christians the power of the secular principate is in some way subject to the power of spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction, as we shall show in what follows.

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To the second reason is answered that it ought not to suffice for the faithful people, such as the Christian people is, that it live virtuously as to the moral and political virtues of which the moral philosopher speaks, but it must live according to the theological virtues which direct the acts of faithful Christians to the blessed life. Of which life and of the theological virtues directing to it natural reason knows nothing, nor the secular power founded upon it. To the third is answered by denying the consequence, and this in two ways. First, because although in the people of God or of the faithful the secular power under the royal name is not read to have been conceded by God but permitted, yet it does not follow that the secular power simply was not conceded and commanded by God, since before a king was instituted in Israel there were leaders and judges in that people by divine institution who judged the people. For it is said in Deut. 16: Thou shalt appoint judges and masters in all thy gates which the Lord thy God shall give thee throughout thy tribes, to judge the people with just judgment. Second, the aforesaid consequence comes to be denied, since although Saul was constituted king against the will of God in this way, namely because He had not commissioned his appointment, yet it does not follow on this account that the royal power was not from God, since it is said in Wisdom 8: By me kings reign, etc. And the apostle says to the Romans 13: There is no power but from God. Because therefore the constitution of Saul was not according to the will of God by which he commanded it to be done, but he permitted it to those desiring, therefore according to Augustine in the Gloss it is said not conceded but permitted. But permission is said of evil, and this was evil to that people, since the good of that people consisted in this, that God alone reign over them because it was his peculiar people. Hence in 1 Kings 10 Samuel says to the children of Israel asking for a king: You have cast off the Lord this day, who alone saved you.

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To the fourth reason is answered according to St Thomas in the second of the second. That the servitude by which man is subjected to man pertains to the body, but not to the soul, which remains free. But now in the state of this life through the grace of Christ we are freed from the defects of the soul, but not from the defects of the body, as is plain through the apostle to the Romans 7, who says of himself that in mind he serves the law of God, but in flesh the law of sin. And therefore those who are children of God through grace are free from the spiritual servitude of sin, but not from bodily servitude, by which they are held bound to temporal lords, as the Gloss says upon that 1 Timothy 6: Whosoever are servants under the yoke, etc. Or it is to be said, as Thomas above and lord Bonaventure say at the end of the second book of sentences, that Christ speaks of himself and his disciples, who were neither of servile condition nor had temporal things concerning which they would be bound to their lords for paying tributes, and therefore it does not follow that every Christian is a partaker of such liberty, but only those who follow the apostolic life in this world, possessing nothing and immune from the condition of servitude. Hence in other Christians, who are either of servile condition or abound in temporal goods, that authority has no place.