Summa de Ecclesia

From those things which we have expounded concerning the superiority of authority and the universality of the apostolic principate over the whole Church of Christ, we hold it manifest that the Roman pontiff can command by divine law all faithful throughout the world, whether great or small, of whatever degree or condition they be, and that the universality of the faithful by the same law has the necessity of obeying him in all things licit and honorable and just. For as the actions of natural things proceed from natural powers, so also human operations proceed from the human will. But it was fitting in natural things that superiors move inferiors to their actions through the excellence of natural virtue divinely conferred; whence it is also fitting in human things that superiors move inferiors through their will by force of authority divinely ordained. But to move through reason and will is to command; and therefore as from the very order of nature divinely instituted inferiors in natural things need to be subjected to the motion of superiors, so also in human things, from the ordination of natural and divine law, inferiors are bound to obey their superiors. Hence the Apostle says at the last chapter to the Hebrews: Obey your prelates and be subject to them. But since the Roman pontiff is father of fathers, and prelate and head of all the faithful, it follows that from all who glory in the Christian name, of whatever condition or state they be, obedience is owed to him by divine law. For as in the greater there is the power of ruling and commanding, so in the lesser the necessity of obeying, as in ch. Cum inferius, dist. 21. But this obedience is owed to the supreme pontiff especially in three things, in which obedience consists, according to what is noted in ch. 1, dist. 93: namely in the exhibition of reverence, in the reception of mandates, and in the subjection of judgment. Hence blessed Cyril in On the Treasures says that all bow the head to the Roman pontiff by divine law, and the primates of the world obey him as the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Wherefore blessed Thomas in the treatise which he published against the errors of the Greeks holds that to be subject to the Roman pontiff is of the necessity of salvation. Which he proves by the following authorities. For Cyril says in his book On the Treasures: Therefore, my brethren, if we imitate Christ, that as his sheep we may hear his voice, remaining in the Church, in the Church of Peter, let us not be puffed up with the wind of pride, lest perchance the twisted serpent cast us down through our contention, as Eve once from paradise. And Maximus in the epistle directed to the Orientals says: We say that the universal Church, gathered and founded upon the rock of the confession of Peter according to the definition of the Savior, in which it is necessary for the salvation of our souls to remain, and to obey it, keeping its faith and confession. Following this sentence, Pope Boniface in his decretal, One Holy, says at the end: Moreover we declare and define that to be subject to the Roman pontiff is of the necessity of salvation for every human creature. A plainly Catholic definition, as coming from divine authority; for so great an honor is read to have been granted by divine condescension to the supreme pontiff that whosoever did not obey him was immediately to be slain. Hence in Deut. 17 the Lord thus speaks: But he that will be proud, and refuse to obey the commandment of the priest, who at that time ministereth to the Lord thy God, and the decree of the judge, that man shall die, and thou shalt take away evil from Israel, and all the people hearing shall fear, that no one henceforth swell with pride; where the ordinary Gloss thus says: Christ, who is priest according to the order of Melchisedech, has instituted vicars for himself, to whom he says: He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, Luke 10. Rightly therefore does he sustain the sentence of damnation who contemns the power of divinity; this the Gloss. But how detestable and damnable it is not to obey the Roman pontiff is gathered from that passage 1 Kings 15, where it is said: For as the sin of divining is to resist, and as the crime of idolatry to refuse to acquiesce; where the Gloss says: Obedience alone is that which possesses the merit of faith, without which whosoever is proved to be unfaithful. And blessed Gregory to the same point thus says in ch. Si quis, dist. 8: He incurs the sin of paganism whosoever, while he asserts himself to be Christian, contemns to obey the apostolic see. Wherefore it is said in ch. Obedientia, dist. 93: Inferiors owe obedience to superiors in order; for to the supreme pontiff obedience is owed by all, so that it is lawful for no one to communicate with him to whom he himself has been inimical on account of his deeds, nor can he be in the Church who has deserted his chair; these things there. From which is excluded, as St. Thomas says in book 4 against the Gentiles, the presumptuous error of certain, namely the Greeks, who strive to withdraw themselves from obedience and subjection to Peter, not recognizing his successor, the Roman pontiff, as pastor of the universal Church. From which is also confounded the folly of certain Basilean adversaries, who have not feared by word, work, and deed to plot that prelates and clerics gathered in synod are not bound to submit to the Roman pontiff or obey him. A marvelous fantasy in our judgment, and unheard of for ages, that sheep, because they have come together into one place, cease to be subject to the shepherd, and the shepherd himself loses both the name of feeding and the authority of ruling, and the Roman pontiff has less authority in it over prelates gathered in synod, his subjects. Who ever heard such a thing, that when sons or subjects or disciples convene together, the father, prelate, and master loses the dignity of all fatherhood, prelation, and mastership, made the son, subject, and disciple of all sons, subjects, or disciples. Moreover third is confuted the falsity of the imagination of him who imagines it to be at any time licit to suspend or withdraw obedience from the true and undoubted Roman pontiff, who seems to be like those of whom the Savior says in Matt. 15: Blind leaders of the blind. Plainly suspension of obedience of this kind in no way seems to be licit. First, since it is openly against the natural and divine law, as we showed in the preceding chapter, in which dispensation cannot be made by man. But the lawgiver Christ Jesus commands in Matt. 23 concerning those sitting upon the chair, even the evil: All things whatsoever they shall say to you, do ye. Likewise at the last chapter to the Hebrews the Apostle says: Obey your prelates and be subject to them. Second, such subtraction of obedience is illicit, since it seems to be sacrilegious. For it is an offense of the divine majesty or lese-majesty, since when the Savior, King of kings, says concerning his vicars: He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, Luke 10, surely he who subtracts obedience from the true and undoubted vicar of Christ seems an injurer of the divine majesty. Third, such suspension and subtraction is illicit, since it is against justice, whose it is to render to each what is his. But inferiors owe obedience to their superiors, as is manifest, and is had at the beginning of dist. 53, where it says: But inferiors owe obedience to superiors in order. Fourth, it is illicit, since it savors of schism; for such separate themselves from the apostolic Church, from the Roman pontiff, from whom whoever is divided is separated from the Church, according to blessed Cyprian in ch. Scire debes, 7, q. 1, and according to blessed Jerome in ch. Haec est fides, 24, q. 1, and according to Pope Pelagius in ch. Scisma, 24, q. 1. Fifth, such subtraction or suspension is illicit, since it is scandalous and of evil example to the other faithful. Concerning the gravity of which sin the Lord says in Matt. 18: But he that shall scandalize one of these least little ones that believe in me, it were expedient for him that a millstone of an ass be hanged about his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea. Sixth, such subtraction of obedience is illicit, since it is harmful and perilous. For such subtracting obedience incur punishments, not only the spiritual malediction which those not obeying their fathers and subtracting from them the honor and reverence owed fall into, but also the punishments and censures of law which through the sacred canons are inflicted by the holy fathers upon those subtracting or suspending obedience of this kind. Concerning which in ch. Non vos, 23, q. 1, and it is a canon of the Chalcedonian council: He who suspends himself from communion and makes a gathering and sets up an altar and will not consent to the calling bishop and will not acquiesce and obey him, is to be altogether damned, nor ever to merit communion nor to be able to receive honor; these things there. Likewise in ch. Si inimicus, in ch. Miratus, in ch. Qui cathedram, dist. 94. Likewise in ch. Nulli fas, dist. 19, where many things concerning those of this kind. Hence it seems that just as the pope can be accused only on account of heresy, so only on account of heresy or favor or forbidden partition can obedience be subtracted from him, as is the case in ch. Anastasius, dist. 19, and is confirmed through ch. Sacerdotes, 2, q. 8, in which Clement thus says: Priests and the other ministers of the Church and all peoples ought to love their bishops and obey their precepts, even if the bishops do otherwise, which God forbid, unless they err in the Catholic faith; these things there.

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