Summa de Ecclesia

CONSEQUENTLY the same conclusion, namely that the power of jurisdiction of prelates derives from the Pope, must be proved by the second way, namely by reasons. First thus: In every principate the power of jurisdiction derives to whatever person of that principate from the monarch or prince of that principate; but the Pope is prince or monarch in the sacred principate of the Church; therefore it follows that the power of jurisdiction of all inferior prelates derives from the Pope. The consequence is good; the minor is clear from the teaching of Dionysius, who both in the Ecclesiastical and in the Celestial Hierarchy teaches that from the hierarch himself the light of illumination flows through into all the persons of the hierarchy. The minor, namely that the Pope is prince and monarch of the whole ecclesiastical principate, has been shown from the authorities adduced above, in which the holy fathers proclaim and attest that he is prince and head of the whole Church. Chrysostom also says, on the Acts of the Apostles, that Peter received power from the Son over all who are sons, not as Moses in one nation, but in the whole world. And Theophilus, on that text of Luke 22, Thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren, says that Peter obtained that he be overseer of the world. Likewise in the ecclesiastical office it is read that Christ said to him: I have constituted thee prince over my people. Further, this reason is confirmed thus: In each order, the powers of all those who follow in that order depend originally on him in whom the fullness of power or authority resides most fully. But the Roman pontiff is the first in the order of the prelates of the Church, and the one in whom alone resides the fullness of ecclesiastical power; therefore it follows that the power of all the following prelates of the Church depends on and derives from the Roman pontiff himself. The consequence is good; the major is gathered from the teaching of Aristotle in the second book of the Metaphysics; the minor is the canon of the council of Constantinople, saying: We venerate, according to the Scriptures and the definitions of the canons, the most holy bishop of ancient Rome as the first and greatest of all bishops. Likewise, in the Chalcedonian council it is read that the whole synod acclaimed Pope Leo: May Leo, most holy, apostolic and ecumenical, that is, universal patriarch, live for many years. This argument is confirmed by the text of blessed Anacletus, who, as is said in ch. In novo, dist. 21, speaks thus: In the New Testament the priestly order began from Peter after Christ the Lord. And adding the cause he says: Because to him first was the pontificate given in the Church, with the Lord saying to him: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Third thus: Among things having order according to influence, all things which flow power into others receive the power of flowing from the first of that order; but the order which is between the Roman Church and the other churches, and between the Roman pontiff and the other prelates, is according to influence, inasmuch as one moves another to hierarchical acts; therefore the power of jurisdiction of all the prelates of the Church derives from the Roman pontiff. The consequence is good; the major is clear from the commentary on the first proposition on causes: for a second cause has the power of causing from the first. The minor is clear from the authority of most blessed Cyprian, who, as in ch. Loquitur, 24, q. 1, says that particular churches are compared to the Roman Church as rays to the sun, rivers to a fountain, as branches to a root. It is also clear from what Justinian, the most Christian emperor, says in the authentica Ut Romana ecclesia, col. 3, namely that ancient Rome obtained the origin of the laws, and that the height of the supreme pontificate and the fountain of the priesthood is with her, no one doubts. If therefore the Roman Church is a fountain, and streams derive from a fountain, it follows that the jurisdiction of the other churches derives from her. Fourth thus: All members receive immediately from the head the derivation of the power of sense and motion or government; but the Roman Church is the head of the other churches; therefore the other churches and the other prelates receive the origin of their power from the Roman Church. The consequence is good; the major is clear, since, as we have held above from the teaching of Isidore, the name head was given from the fact that all the senses and nerves take their beginning thence, and thence arises every cause of vigour. The minor is posited in ch. Sacrosancta, dist. 22, where holy Anacletus says that the apostolic see is the head and hinge of all churches, constituted by the Lord and by no other, and as a door is ruled by its hinge, so by the authority of this holy apostolic see all churches are ruled, with the Lord disposing. But what he says, that all churches are ruled by the authority of the apostolic see, does not seem to have truth unless the inferior prelates who rule the churches receive from the apostolic see the power of ruling and governing them.

Fifth thus: In all ordered acting causes, the subsequent causes always act in the power of the first cause: as in natural things inferior bodies act in the power of the heavenly bodies, and in voluntary matters all craftsmen work according to the command of the highest master-builder. But in the order of those administering political government, all particular powers receive the authority of jurisdiction from the supreme power. Yet in ecclesiastical government, in the order of the prelates of the Church having jurisdiction and the power of exercising divine acts in relation to the faithful, the first and supreme pontiff is first. Therefore.

Sixth thus: The prince of the Church is more perfect than the prince of the Law, the Pope than Moses; but from the highest president of the synagogue all other power of inferiors derived; therefore likewise in the Church, that all authority of jurisdiction of inferior prelates derives from the supreme pontiff. The consequence is clear, because the synagogue was a figure of the Church, according to what blessed Aug. says, and blessed Dionysius. The minor is clear from Exod. 18, and expressly from Num. 11, where the Lord, at the petition of Moses, who was burdened by the multitude of government, willed that Moses himself choose for himself some men as helpers for the government of the people. And the text says that God gave to those seventy chosen men from the spirit which was in Moses, and this that it might be seen to signify that all power of jurisdiction and government is derived into others from the highest president of the Church.

Seventh thus: The ecclesiastical hierarchy is modelled on the heavenly, as blessed Dionysius says, and as we adduced above in ch. 2; but in the heavenly hierarchy it is so that the ray of divine illumination descending to inferiors descends in such an order that it is first received in the superiors and then descends pouring through them to the inferiors: for this is the law of divinity, says Dionysius in the third chapter of the Celestial Hierarchy, that through the first the middle, and through the middle the last are illuminated. Therefore so it will be in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, that the power of jurisdiction, according to which the order of superiority and inferiority among the prelates of the Church is attended to, descends first immediately from God into the Pope and through him is derived to those who follow.

Eighth, on the testimony of the same blessed Dionysius on the heavenly hierarchy: All hierarchies are connected, and the orders themselves of each hierarchy are also connected. This connection, however, according to the teaching of the same divine doctor, as St. Thomas and Albert declare, is attended to not only through relation to one ultimate end, according to which the end of every hierarchy is likeness and unity to God, but according to those things which are of the essence of hierarchy, namely according to order, knowledge, and action. According to order indeed, inasmuch as in all hierarchies there is found distinction through first, middle, and last; according to knowledge indeed, inasmuch as irradiation is attended to proceeding from the first even to the last. According to action indeed, inasmuch as the first have hierarchical action upon the middle and through the middle upon the last; but our Church is disposed and formed after the likeness of a hierarchy; therefore, unless we should wish to assert, most unfittingly, that our hierarchy is unconnected, ecclesiastical power must proceed and be derived from the first of our hierarchy, who is the Roman pontiff, into all inferiors; the process is clear. Of this connection of our hierarchy there are two most evident testimonies. The first is that he who is segregated from the society of blessed Peter and the connection of the apostolic see cannot be absolved from sins. The second is that such a one, though existing as a prelate, is stripped bare of ecclesiastical power itself. Of the first it is found in the Gloss on Matt. 16, that Peter therefore received specially the keys of the kingdom of heaven and the principate of judicial power, that all believers throughout the world may understand that whoever segregate themselves in any way from the unity of faith and the society of Peter can neither be absolved from the chains of sins nor enter the gate of the heavenly kingdom. Of the second it is found in ch. Factus and in ch. Novatianus, 7, q. 1, all of which are testimonies of most blessed Cyprian.

Ninth thus: A power which was given to one man in its fontal fullness is in others only as derived and limited, even according to his will and ordination; but the whole power of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in its fontal fullness was given to Peter alone and in him to his successors, since the care of the whole Church was committed to him, with the Lord saying: Feed my sheep, in the last chapter of John. For this, with Christ as witness, was said to no other apostle, neither then nor before nor after; therefore such a perfect and full power Peter alone had and has; alone the successor of Peter, who for this reason is named Pope, that is, father of fathers; therefore all the other prelates of the Church have no power of jurisdiction except as the Pope limits and disposes. Tenth, confirming the aforesaid reason, it is argued thus: Particular churches are compared to the Roman Church as rays to the sun, as streams to a fountain, as branches to a root; therefore it follows that whatever power of jurisdiction they have, they have from the Roman Church. The consequence is good. The antecedent is clear both from the authority of Cyprian in ch. Loquitur, 24, q. 1, and from the Ephesine council, and also from Peter of Ravenna, who says that what branches owe to the trunk, what members to the head, what rays to the sun, what streams to the fountain, this do all churches, which the Christian religion has founded everywhere in the world, owe to the reverence of the apostolic see. This reason is confirmed from what Pope Vigilius, writing to Eleutherius the bishop, says: To no one, whether slenderly learned or fully wise, is it doubtful that the Roman Church is the foundation and form of the churches, from which all churches took their beginning, as no rightly believing man is ignorant; so he.

Eleventh thus: All jurisdiction and power of whatever church and of the persons in it seems to derive and proceed from him who founded that church in authority and jurisdiction; this is clear, since he is the foundation and origin and beginning of the whole edifice; but all the other churches diffused throughout the world were instituted and founded by the Roman Church; therefore all authority of ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the other prelates derives from the Pope or Roman pontiff. The consequence is good, and the antecedent is held for the minor in ch. Omnes, dist. 22, where Pope Nicholas speaks thus: All patriarchal eminences of whatever kind, or primacies of metropolises, or episcopal chairs, or dignities of churches or of whatever order, the Roman Church instituted; but her Christ Himself alone founded, etc. Likewise in ch. In illis, dist. 80, Pope Clement says that in those cities in which of old among the pagans their first flamens and first doctors of the law were, blessed Peter commanded primates and patriarchs to be placed over the bishops, but in those in which there were their archflamens he commanded archbishops to be instituted, and in each of the other cities he commanded single bishops and not more to be constituted, who should obtain only the name of bishops, since not even among the apostles themselves was the institution equal, but one presided over all. So he. To the same effect serves ch. Quis nesciat, dist. 11. Twelfth: Everyone to whom the stead of some superior is committed has his jurisdiction from the committer and not from himself nor from another; but the Pope, to whom the care of all the faithful was committed by Christ, commits his stead to all others and imparts a share of his solicitude in those things which they execute pertaining to the government of the Church; therefore it seems that all the other prelates have from the Pope immediately whatever jurisdiction, voluntary or contentious, they have. The major is clear, since he who uses a mandated jurisdiction has nothing of his own, but uses only the jurisdiction of him who mandated. The minor is clear from the authority of blessed Gregory, found in ch. Decreto, 2, q. 6, where he speaks thus: The holy Roman Church imparts her stead to other churches, that they may be called into a share of solicitude, not into fullness of power; and in the following chapter Pope Julius speaks thus: For that Church which is first has entrusted her stead to be discharged by the other churches, that they may be called into a share of solicitude, not into fullness of power. And Pope Leo in the letter to Anastasius, bishop of Thessalonica, says: For we so entrust our stead to thy charity that thou art called into a share of solicitude, not into fullness of power. Hence the Master in the ecclesiastical history, treating that text of Exod. 18, Moses, all things which ... etc., speaks thus: Just as Moses by the counsel of Jethro constituted tribunes and centurions and commanders of fifty and deans, so the Roman Church called many into a share of solicitude, namely primates, bishops, archbishops, archpriests, and lesser priests. If therefore the holy Roman Church called these, imparting to them a share of her administration, it seems that they were not instituted immediately by Christ but by Peter or his successors.

Thirteenth thus: Every believer is bound to believe that the holy catholic Church is one; but for the unity of the Church it is required that the power of jurisdiction of all prelates derive from the Roman pontiff; therefore it is necessary that every believer believe and hold this. The consequence is good; the major is clear, since it is an article of faith, and it is said in Cant. 6: One is my dove, one is my perfect one; the Gloss says: The Church. The minor is proved: since the unity of the Church, as is found in blessed Cyprian in the letter on the unity of the Church, found in ch. Loquitur, 24, q. 1, is necessarily attended to in order to one fontal origin of the whole ecclesiastical power, which he says is the apostolic see or Roman pontiff, over whom he says the Church was founded. Hence he says: The Church of God, suffused with light, stretches her rays through the whole world, yet one there is which is diffused everywhere, nor is the unity of the body separated; she extends her rays over the whole earth with a copiousness of abundance, flowing streams she bestows lavishly, she spreads them wider; yet there is one head and one origin and one fruitful mother. So he. Likewise St. Thomas, against the Gentiles, book 4, ch. 76, says: To Peter alone He promised: To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that it might be shown that the power of the keys was to be derived through him to others, for preserving the unity of the Church. From these it is manifestly gathered that it pertains to the unity of the Church that the authority of all the other prelates derive from the Roman pontiff — which was the minor to be proved. From these it seems that to deny that the power of jurisdiction of inferior prelates in the Church depends immediately on the Roman pontiff prejudices not only the primacy of the apostolic see but also the unity of the universal Church.