Summa de Ecclesia

That the aforesaid opinion of the adversaries who deny that blessed Peter was the head of the universal Church is erroneous is most fully established not only from the things we adduced above in ch. 20, but also from many other testimonies of the holy fathers. For blessed Anacletus, Pope and martyr, says, as is found in ch. Sacrosancta, dist. 22, Among the blessed apostles there was a certain distinction of power; for although all were apostles, yet to Peter it was granted by the Lord, and they themselves willed among themselves that he should preside over all those other apostles and hold cephas, that is, the headship and beginning of the apostolate; and they handed down the same form to be kept by his successors and the other bishops; thus he. Likewise Marcellus, Pope and martyr, writing to all the bishops constituted throughout Antioch, as is found in ch. Rogamus, 24, q. 1, says thus, We ask, most dear brethren, that you teach and think nothing other than what you received from blessed Peter and the other apostles and fathers; for he is the head of the whole Church, to whom the Lord says, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; thus he. From all these things, both this and those adduced above, it is most plain that the adversaries gravely err in denying that blessed Peter was the head of the holy catholic Church. Wherefore Pope John II reasonably, in the extravagant which begins Though according to the apostle, condemned as heretics Marsilius of Padua and John of Jandun, who among the other errors which they presumed to teach against the apostolic see say that Peter the apostle had no more authority than the other apostles had, and that he was not the head of the other apostles. Likewise Pope Martin V in the Council of Constance condemned the errors of John Hus, among which others this is one, namely the seventh in order, that Peter neither is nor was the head of the holy catholic Church. Having seen therefore that according to the norm of catholic doctrine it must be granted that blessed Peter the apostle was, by reason of the excellence of his primacy, the head of the holy catholic Church, and consequently his successor, under Christ, however, who is the principal head of the Church, it must be shown how the name of head befitted Peter the apostle and befits his successor; for how it befits Christ we explained above in book 1 of this our Summa, in ch. 46. For which it must be noted, according to holy Thomas in the third part, question 8, first article, that as the whole Church is called one mystical body by likeness to the natural body of man, according as diverse members have diverse acts, as the apostle teaches in Rom. 12 and 1 Cor. 12, so Christ, and also the Pope, is called the head of the Church by likeness to the human head. Now in the head of man we find four things. First, conformity of nature with the other members. Secondly, order, for the head is the first part of the body beginning from above, and thus is situated above the other members. Thirdly, perfection, for in the head flourishes the fullness of senses. Fourthly, power flowing into the rest, for from it is the motion of the other members and their governance in their acts, on account of the sensitive and motive force there dominant. How these four befit Christ we expounded above in the first book, where we showed him to be the head of the Church. Now let us show how they befit Peter the apostle and now his successor.

First indeed Peter was conformed in nature to the other faithful, since he was a man of the same species with them. Secondly, he himself was first in the order of the apostles; whence he is read as numbered first, Matt. 10. And of the Roman bishop, his successor, the canon of the council of Constantine says, as holy Thomas sets forth in the fourth book, dist. 24, We venerate, according to the Scriptures and the definitions of the canons, the most holy bishop of ancient Rome as first and greatest of bishops. And Justinian in the Authentics, on ecclesiastical matters, title, collation 9, says, There is no one who doubts that the most holy Pope of elder Rome is the first of all priests. Thirdly, in him alone among the others was the fullness of power, as in him in whom the Lord placed the principate of the whole Church, as Pope Julius says in ch. Nolite, dist. 11, and to whom alone, says blessed Chrysologus, Christ gave what is his own in full, and who alone was called into the fullness of power, the others being called into a share, as in ch. Decreto and in ch. Qui se scit, 2, q. 6. Fourthly, from him the power of jurisdiction was derived to the others, with Pope Leo saying in ch. Ita dominus, dist. 19, He willed the sacrament of this office to pertain to the office of all the apostles, so as to place it principally in the most blessed Peter, the highest of all the apostles, that from him, as from a certain head, he might diffuse his gifts as into the whole body; thus he.