Summa de Ecclesia

Now the order which is and ought to be in the Church must be so understood that one supreme prince, ruler, and governor in the whole universality of the Christian commonwealth is believed to be. Which is gathered by manifold reason. First thus: From what has been said there is an order of power in the Church, as was shown in the preceding chapter; but that order is understood according to prelacy and subjection. Now prelacy is considered according to ascent and descent, not according to equality; and in ascending upward there must be a standing and a reduction to one, since there is no process to infinity, and conversely in descending, multiplication. Therefore according to the right order of the Church there had to be some one prelate and supreme one, in whom there would be the standing of the whole ecclesiastical power, who would be the ruler and shepherd of all others. Whence the Lord, speaking of this future disposition of the government of his Church through the prophet, says, I will raise up over them one shepherd, Ezek. 34.

And one shepherd shall be over you all, Ezek. 37. Secondly thus, according to holy Thomas in book 4 against the Gentiles: There ought to be no doubt that the government of the Church is most excellently ordered, as disposed by him through whom kings reign and framers of laws decree just things. Now the best government of a multitude is that which is ruled by one, which is plain both by the authority of Aristotle in book 11 of the Metaphysics and book 3 of the Politics, and from the end of government. For peace and unity of subjects is the end of the ruler, as Augustine says. Now one is a more fitting cause of unity than many. Therefore the government of the Church is believed to be so disposed by God that one presides in it over the whole Church. Thirdly thus: For the unity of the Church it is required that all the faithful agree in faith. Whence in the first to Cor. 1 the Apostle says, Say you all the same thing, and let there be no schisms among you. Now faith is the foundation of the Christian religion, according to that to Heb. 11, Without faith it is impossible to please God. But concerning matters of faith it happens that questions are raised. Now through diversity of opinions the Church would be divided unless it were preserved in unity by the sentence of one. Therefore, to preserve unity of faith in the Church, it is required that there be one who presides over the whole Church, as doctor and ruler; but it is manifest that Christ has not failed the Church in necessary things, the Church which he loved and for which he shed his blood, since even of the synagogue it is said through the Lord, What more ought I to have done for my vineyard that I have not done, Isa. 5. Therefore it is not to be doubted that by the ordination of Christ one presides over the whole Church. Fourthly thus: The Church militant, as was argued in the preceding chapter, is derived from the Church triumphant; whence John in Apoc. 21 says, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; but in the triumphant Church one presides who also presides over the whole universe, namely God; therefore in the militant Church also there ought to be one presiding over all. Blessed Bernard uses this reason in book 3 on Consideration, to Eugene, speaking thus, Do not think that this form which on earth has its form in heaven. See this, who said, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, etc.; for as the Seraphim and Cherubim and the other orders are under one head, God, so also here the patriarchs, archbishops, and the rest are under one supreme pontiff; which is not to be lightly esteemed, seeing it has God as author and draws its origin from heaven; thus he. Fifthly thus: In the Church of God there ought not to be a lesser unity than in the synagogue, indeed a so much greater one as the evangelical priesthood is more excellent than the Levitical; but in the synagogue there was one high priest who presided over all the priests, Aaron, and afterwards Eleazar, and so of the other successors, since he who did not obey the high priest was guilty of death, as is found in Deut. 17; therefore much more in the Church ought there to be one supreme pontiff whom all are bound to obey as superior. Sixthly thus: In one particular people of one church one bishop is required who is the head of the whole people, since the sum of the government of the faithful people pertains to the episcopal dignity; therefore also in the whole Christian people it is required that there be one head of the whole Church. The consequence is plain. Seventhly thus, according to holy Thomas in book 4: Wherever there are many things ordered to one, there must be some universal government over particular governments, for in all powers and acts, as is said in book 1 of the Ethics, there is order according to the order of the end. Now the common good is said to be greater than the particular good, and therefore over the preceding ruling power which communicates a particular good there must be a ruling power in respect of the common good; otherwise there cannot be a binding together into one. Therefore, since the whole Church is one body, if that unity must be preserved, there must be some ruling power in respect of the whole Church over the episcopal power by which each particular church is ruled and governed; and this is the power of the Pope. Whence holy Thomas concludes from this that those who deny this supreme power are called schismatics, as dividers of ecclesiastical unity. Eighthly thus: The government of the Church is not believed to be less ordered than the government of nature, indeed more orderly disposed, since grace surpasses nature; but in the things we see in nature, wherever there is a natural government, that whole government is always reduced to one principal ruler of all, as in the body of an animal, in which there are diverse members deputed to diverse offices and diverse acts, one member must be given, namely the heart or the head, from which the motion, sense, and governmental rule of all the other members is derived. Likewise the whole fabric of the universe is one heavenly body, namely the first movable, by whose motion the motions of the lower bodies are moved and ruled, as is found through Aristotle in book 8 of the Physics. In the whole world also there is one supreme one, God, one king of the whole earth. Therefore likewise in the government of the Church there must be one who presides over the whole Christian universality, its head and ruler. Ninthly thus: The whole Church of God is one, Cant. 6, One is my dove. It is one body, 1 Cor. 12, Being many we are one body. It is one city, according to that of the psalm, Jerusalem which is built as a city. One hierarchy, as is plain through holy Dionysius in the book on the ecclesiastical hierarchy. One fold, John 10. Therefore necessarily in the whole Church there is to be given one supreme president and ruler, one head of the whole body, one prince of the whole city, one hierarch of the whole hierarchy, one shepherd of the whole fold or flock of the Lord; and so the same as before. Hence it is said in Joel 1, The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and shall appoint for themselves one head. And the Lord says in John 10, There shall be one fold and one shepherd. Tenthly thus: The Church is a kingdom, or the principate of the Church is monarchical or royal. This is plain both from many places of sacred Scripture where the Church is named the kingdom of heaven, whence also in Isa. 9 it is said, A little child is born to us and a son is given to us; and it follows, He shall sit upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, the Gloss: the Church; and in Luke 1 it is said, Of his kingdom there shall be no end; and also because the best kind of polity is the monarchical or royal, since according to the opinion of Aristotle in book 3 of the Politics, of all constitutions the most perfect is kingship, which consists of every order to one according to the most perfect government; on account of which Dionysius in the book on the divine names, ch. 2, says that kingship is the end of all law and the distribution of order. But a kingdom is that in which the power of government resides with one presiding over the whole multitude, as is plainly gathered both from book 8 of the Ethics and from book 3 of the Politics. Therefore such a principate of the Church was constituted by God that one presides and holds princedom in it, superior in power. For this is of the nature of a royal or monarchical principate, as has been said. For it is called monarchical from monos, which is one, and archos, which is prince, as one prince presiding over a whole multitude. And it is confirmed by what the same divine Dionysius says at the beginning of both the celestial and the ecclesiastical hierarchy, that the principle of ornament and of the most becoming disposition is considered in the consonance and connection of ordered things to one another and to one simply first monarch. Eleventhly thus: That principate seems more excellent and nobler than all others by which charity and peace and concord among subjects are above all nourished, fostered, and preserved, and by which sedition and discord, which is the common corruption of any community, is chiefly avoided. This is plain, since these are the things which above all the prince of any principate is bound to nourish and foster in his subjects. For as Cassiodorus says in his letters, it befits the care of the royal eminence to keep the nation committed to it in concord, since it is attributed to the praise of the ruler if peace is had by his subjects. Nothing also so commends a prince as a quiet people and a harmonious senate, the whole commonwealth veiled in honesty of morals. Whence Christ, the prince of peace, upon whose shoulder the principate was made, Isa. 9, when about to depart bodily from the faithful, commended peace and love to them above all, saying, My peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you, John 13; and again, This is my commandment, that you love one another; but this is done more and more fittingly if the principate is with one, as in a kingdom, than if it is with many, as in aristocracy or polity; for one is a more fitting cause of unity and peace than many. Therefore it follows that such a principate of the Church, namely the monarchical or royal, in which there is a reduction and unification of all ordered things, be reduced to one prince presiding over all in power and authority. Hence the Church is designated by the ark of Noah, which was finished in one cubit, Gen. 6. Twelfthly, the aforesaid order, namely the unification of all to one in the Church, is most clearly proved from that which is more commendable and more excellent. Whence Master Albert the Great speaks of its commendation in his book on the Mass, saying, This unification, namely of many through every order of grades of the Church to one head, shining in heaven, is shown in natures, exemplified in works, commanded in the divine laws, and observed in the whole mystical body. For in heaven the angels to the archangels, the archangels to the principalities, and the principalities to the powers, the powers to the virtues, the virtues to the dominations, the dominations to the thrones, and the thrones to the cherubim, and the cherubim to the seraphim are ordained in an order ordained according to the order of obedience and illumination, and the multitude of angels which is in each host is unified to one person who is preeminent in each order. And therefore it is called the order of heaven, because every order is of many differing in grades to one, Job 38, Dost thou know the order of heaven, and wilt thou set its rule on earth. This is also shown in natures, where many twigs to shoots, where many shoots to a branch, where many branches to one trunk, where many trunks are engrafted in one root, that all things may become associates and partakers of the sap which is in the root, Rom. 11, Thou art become a sharer of the root of the olive and of its fatness. So many cranes follow one in lettered order; so many members in a body receive the benefits of one head, 1 Cor. 12, For as in one body we have many members, but all members have not the same act, so we, being many, are one body in Christ. In the works of Christ this unification is also exemplified, for the work of Christ is always to gather dispersed things into one. But the work of the devil is to divide and scatter things unified. Hence it is that in John 10 it is said, Let there be one fold and one shepherd; and in Matt. 12, He that gathereth not with me scattereth. This unification is commanded in the divine laws, for as blessed Dionysius says, It is the law of divinity to reduce the middle through the first, and the last through the middle. But such a reduction of the last to the middle, and of the middle to the first, cannot be except in order to the first. So therefore the law of divinity is: as there is a descent of illuminations and charisms from one, so a reduction to the first. For this law, as it admonishes the higher things and binds them to providence and care for the lower, so it binds the lower to obedience to the higher, that in this way all things may be connected, psalm 47.

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Distribute its steps, that you may declare in another generation, and Dan. 10, Stand in thy grade. For thus by eight grades is ascent made to the temple and worship of the Godhead, as is said in Ezek. 40: the Papacy or Patriarchate, Primacy, Archiepiscopate, Episcopate, the reverence of Abbots, Provostship, Deanery, parochial cure. For we comprehend the charge of archdeacons under the provostship. This is also observed in the whole mystical body which is the Church, in which all things are directed to one, which things are committed to the keys of Peter. Matt. 16, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, etc. This key is committed to one, that fullness of power be shown in one, and be committed from him to others according to the share of solicitude to which they are called; thus Albert the Great. From these things the error of those who say that the principate of the Church is not monarchical is manifestly confuted.