Summa de Ecclesia

Although nearly all the reasons brought forward above to prove that there ought to be in the Church of God one supreme ruler and governor sufficiently serve to show that the power of the keys and the authority of the primacy with which blessed Peter was endowed and exalted by Christ has passed and will pass unto his lawful successors until the end of the world, nevertheless we shall prove this by other reasons. And first, by the reason of St. Thomas, bk. 4 against the Gentiles, ch. 76, thus: it is manifest that Christ so instituted the Church as to endure for the age, according to that in Isa., ch. 9: "He shall sit upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to establish it and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and forever." It is manifest therefore that those who were then in the ministry He so constituted that their power also would be derived unto posterity for the utility of the Church until the end of the world — especially since He Himself says in the last chapter of Matt.: "Behold, I am with you even unto the consummation of the world." But it is agreed that to those persons who were soon after to die He was not Himself to be present all the days of the world; therefore in the persons of those He spoke also to their successors, with whom He could successively be until the end of the world. For which makes ch. "Quodcunque," 24, q. 1, where Augustine says that when Peter received the keys he signified the holy Church — since namely not for himself alone but also for all his successors until the end of the world, as long as the Church is to endure. Where it is to be noted that just as Adam had some gifts personal, as the knowledge of all things, but some also for his posterity in the state of innocence, as original justice — so Peter had some gifts from Christ for his own person, as the grace of miracles, as that at his shadow the sick were healed — but some also for his successors in the Church. And these are those without which the Church would not stand, as the keys of binding and loosing; else the gates of hell would prevail against her. Hence this amplitude of power and eminence of principate through which the Church resists the world and the devil, Christ conferred on Peter for himself and his successors; and thus when he received the keys he is said to have signified the Church, since through the whole posterity of the Church it was to be derived unto the successors of Peter.

Secondly, thus: it is certain that the power given to the apostle Peter was given unto the building up of the Church, as the apostle Paul says in 1 Cor. 10. Therefore this power had to endure in the Church as long as the Church herself would need building up; but she needs building up until the end of the world, in which the number of the elect shall be completed. Hence Jerome on that passage of the Psalm, "Jerusalem, which is built as a city," says: in which the building of this city is not yet completed, but it is continuously built of living stones upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, by the supreme cornerstone himself, Christ Jesus. Therefore until the end of the world the primacy or principate of Peter will endure in his successors.

Thirdly, thus: if none had succeeded blessed Peter in the principate, likewise none would have succeeded to the dignity of any other apostle whatsoever, since there is no greater reason for the one than for the other apostles — and thus at once the apostolic order would have failed in its very beginning, which no one believing Christ to be most wise would affirm.

Fourthly, argument is made from that Psalm 44, where it is said: "Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee; thou shalt make them princes over all the earth." Where expressly the dignity and authority of the apostolic order is shown as to endure through succession in the Church. Hence the Gloss on that passage, "Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee," says: that is, after the apostles, and in place of the apostles, bishops and others whom the Church bore were constituted in the seat of the fathers. If therefore the dignity of the apostolic order was to remain through succession in the Church until the end of the world, there is no doubt but that the primacy of the same, which was in Peter, was likewise to have a successor.

Fifthly, thus: not less is the care and love of God toward His spouse the Church after the time of blessed Peter than it was in the time of the same apostle. Therefore, just as in the time of the apostle Peter He governed and fortified His Church with one presiding or prince in His place, namely blessed Peter, so also after blessed Peter He is believed to have willed so to have governed her that in her one would preside in the same amplitude of power as Peter, as ruler and protector of her — above all since, after the times of blessed Peter, the Church of Christ, multiplied in persons, needed much more such a governor, especially since even greater tribulations were expected in the Church in times to come.

Sixthly, thus: in the time of the old law God so disposed His Church that through all that time there was one pontiff, at whose command if anyone of that people contradicted he should die, as is had in Deut. 17. Therefore likewise it is to be believed that divine providence disposed through all the time of the new law that one supreme pontiff preside over the whole Church. The consequence is clear, since the same reason holds with greater force for the Church than for the synagogue, by how much the priesthood of the new law is more excellent than the Levitical. But this could not be with one person ever remaining. Therefore through succession. The ordination therefore of the divine authority and the primacy of Peter in the same amplitude of power was to pass unto posterity until the end of the world — which seems to be confirmed by what the Apostle says to the Heb. 7, that Christ hath an everlasting priesthood. Seventhly, thus: natural reason dictates, and the whole of philosophy itself testifies, that the best manner of rule of any community whatsoever is that one be prince and ruler, as is the case in the whole universe, as we showed above. Hence Augustine, in the book on marriages and concupiscence: "The principate of one over many is more natural than that of many can be over one." Hence, as Augustine himself says: "the nature of beginnings loves singleness." Therefore without any doubt it must be held that the Son of God, who is supreme wisdom, disposed His Church, the community of His elect which He acquired unto Himself with His own blood, to be governed in such an order of rule until the end of the world that one would preside in her, the universal ruler and pastor of all. But since, as has been said, this cannot be with one and the same person ever remaining, as to none is it given to live through the whole course of the Church, it must necessarily be confessed that the principate of Peter with the amplitude of his power is derived unto successors until the end of the world. Hence Chrysologus, treating that passage in Matt. 24, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away," says that the words of Christ are to remain forever — those which He spoke to Peter, saying, Matt. 16: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church." Likewise the same Chrysologus: "Just as Christ received from the Father the leadership and sceptre of the Church of the Gentiles, going forth from Israel over every principate and power, and over whatsoever, that every knee bow unto Him — so also unto Peter and his successors He most fully committed it." Behold what he says: "successors." Therefore Peter hath successors in the amplitude of authority in the Church. Likewise Cyril, patriarch of Jerusalem, says, speaking in the person of Christ: "Thou with an end, and I without end, with all whom I shall put in thy place, with full and perfect sacrament and authority, I shall be with them as I am with thee." Likewise the Extra, on renunciation, says Innocent: "God and Master so retained unto Himself the power of transferring pontiffs that He offered and granted it to Peter alone, His vicar, and through him to his successors." Likewise the patriarch Ignatius, in his epistle to Pope Adrian, under whom the eighth synod was celebrated, thus positing unto the purpose the words said to Peter, prince of the apostles, "Thou art Peter, and upon this," etc., thus writes: "For He did not circumscribe and define such blessed words unto Peter alone, prince of the apostles, according to some lot, but through him unto all who after him were to be made supreme pastors after his likeness, and most divine sacred pontiffs of elder Rome." Likewise Pope Adrian, writing to Constantine and Hyrene, the emperors, and to the whole council, in that decretal where he brings forward many authorities for the veneration of images, among other things thus says of blessed Peter: "For the prince of the apostles himself, blessed Peter, who first presided over the apostolic see, left forever unto his successors, who are to succeed in his most holy see, the primacy of his apostolate and of his pastoral care, and the power of authority just as it was granted to him by our Saviour and Lord God, and he himself handed it down by divine command unto his successors — by whose tradition we venerate the sacred image of Christ, of His holy Mother, of the apostles and of all the saints, their images." Thus he. From which words it is manifestly had that someone succeeds Peter in the Church and in the same fullness of power. From these things most openly is convicted the error of those saying that none succeeds Peter in the Church in the fullness of his dignity.