Summa de Ecclesia

WITH THE fullness of power shown to belong to the Roman pontiff, now that he alone in the Church of God has the fullness of this power is to be made clear. Which although it could be understood plainly enough from what was said above, from which we demonstrated his primacy, nevertheless for ampler notice we shall confirm this by authorities and reasons. And first indeed it is gathered from that which the Lord said to Peter alone, Luke 5: Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets, where the Gloss says thus: To the others it is commanded that they let down the nets; to Peter alone it is said, launch out into the deep, that is, into the depth of disputations. Secondly from that passage where in Matt. 17 the Lord commands Peter alone to fish with the hook. On which blessed Ambrose says, and it is had in ch. Est aliud, 24, q. 1: There is another kind of fishing, with which kind the Lord commands Peter alone to fish, saying: Cast the hook, etc., where the Gloss says: By the hook understand the jurisdiction by which Peter was set over the others; with this kind of fishing Peter alone fishes, since he has the power of binding and loosing above the others. Thus far the Gloss. Thirdly the same is attested by blessed Cyril in the book of treasures, saying thus: As Christ received from the Father the leadership and sceptre of the Church of the Gentiles over every principate and power and over whatsoever is, that to him every knee should bow, with fullest power, so also to Peter and his successors he committed most fully. And below: To none other than Peter his own in full, but to him alone he gave. Thus far Cyril. Fourthly of this matter the witness is blessed Chrysologus on that passage Matt. 16, To thee I will give the keys, etc., saying thus: As the Son, coming from the Father for the salvation of all, is sent with full power over all, so by Christ Peter and his church is sent for the salvation of all with all power over all, which we believe to have been conceded to no man. Fifthly Leo the Pope asserts this same in ch. multum, 3, q. 6, and blessed Gregory in ch. decreto, and Julius the Pope in ch. qui se scit, 2, q. 6. Sixthly to the same effect is blessed Bernard, who, as adduced in the chapter above, in a certain epistle to Pope Eugenius most openly professes that the Roman pontiff alone has the fullness of power. Seventhly to the same effect is blessed Thomas, who often repeats this, as is clear in what was said above. Consequently let us show this same by reasons. First thus: The Roman pontiff alone in the whole body of the universal Church after Christ is the universal mystical head for the regime and government of the whole body of the faithful; therefore he alone in the body of the universal Church has the fullness of power. The consequence is clear: since the head alone in the body of man, to whose likeness we speak of the body of the Church according to the Apostle in Rom. 12, has the fullness of sense and of regitive and gubernative virtue. The antecedent therefore is clear from that passage John 1: Thou shalt be called Cephas, which according to Anacletus and Isidore is interpreted head. Secondly thus: Peter alone and his successor is the general vicar of Christ in the Church of God, holding his place; therefore he alone has the fullness of power. The consequence is clear; the antecedent also was shown above in ch. 37. Thirdly thus: The Roman pontiff is the supreme immediate hierarch of the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy; it is clear, for he himself is the prince in whom the Lord of the whole Church placed the principate, as Julius the Pope says in ch. Nolite errare, dist. 11; therefore in him alone is the fullness of power to be placed. The consequence seems manifest, since in every hierarchy the fullness of power is placed in the hierarch alone. Hence Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, ch. 3, after he taught each hierarchy to be terminated in its own hierarch, thus subjoins concerning the property of hierarchs: But the virtue of the hierarchic order takes hold in all holy totalities, and consequently works the mysteries proper to its own hierarchy. And below: The hierarchic order is therefore replete with perfective power of nature.

Fourthly thus: The ecclesiastical principate is monarchic; therefore in the supreme pontiff alone is the fullness of power. The antecedent is clear from many things above in ch. 2. Hence in John 10 it is said: There shall be one fold and one shepherd, and he speaks concerning the Church. On which Theophilus in the Gloss says: Let the Manicheans attend, since the one fold and one shepherd is of the new testament; the consequence is clear, since in a royal or monarchic principate the supreme power is placed in the prince alone, as is the sentence of Aristotle in the 9th Ethics and 3rd Politics.

Fifthly thus: The Roman pontiff has the fullness of power in the Church, and none other than the Roman pontiff has the fullness of power in the Church; therefore the Roman pontiff alone has the fullness of power in the Church. The consequence is manifest by the rule from expositives to the exposited. The major is clear from the preceding chapter. The minor also is clear. Both by the authorities of the saints adduced in the beginning of this chapter, namely of blessed Cyril, blessed Chrysostom, blessed Gregory, blessed Leo the Pope, blessed Bernard, blessed Thomas, saying that the Roman pontiff alone is called into the fullness of power, but others into part of solicitude. And also by reason, since if any of the apostles had received from Christ the fullness of power as Peter, now Peter would have been neither greater nor superior nor head nor prince of the apostles, but all would have been equal in power, which is heretical and oftentimes condemned by the Church, as adduced above. Sixthly thus: The apostle says in Rom. 13: Let every soul be subject to higher powers. And he subjoins: The things that are from God are ordained. Therefore prelation must be regarded according to ascent and descent, not according to equality. Wherefore it will be necessary according to the right order of the Church that the supreme power of regime and the fullness of jurisdiction be in one first and supreme, in whom alone, as in the first and most simple in that kind, is the standing of all ecclesiastical prelation. Lastly thus: A principate is a certain potestative whole whose nature is this, that according to the complete reason of perfection it be in one alone, in the prince; but in the others into whom it is distributed through degrees of diverse dignities and offices there is some participation of it, as the principate of a kingdom is in one, namely the king, but in the others according to a certain participation, namely according to the power of the praetor and tribune and millenary and centurion and quinquagenary and dean or decurion. An example also of such a potestative whole appears in the sacrament of order, whose whole fullness is in one order, namely the priesthood. But in the others there is a certain participation of the order, as holy Thomas says in book 4, dist. 2, 4. And this was figured in that the Lord says in Num. 11 to Moses: I will take of thy spirit and give to them, that they may bear with thee the burden of the people. Therefore in the ecclesiastical principate so it is to be said that the fullness of power thereof be in one alone, namely in the supreme prince of the universal Church, namely in the Roman pontiff. Hence in ch. basilicas, on consecration, dist. 1, and in ch. Nolite errare, dist. 11, it is had that in the apostolic see the Lord placed the principate of the whole Church; and blessed Aug. against the Donatists, and in the epistle to Glorius and Eleusius, says that in the Roman Church the principate of the apostolic chair ever flourished. From which the error and folly of Marsilius of Padua, saying the Pope has no fullness of power without the determination, that is, the concession of the Emperor, is manifestly refuted.