Summa de Ecclesia

FIFTHLY, objection¹ was made by the adversaries from that naming by which the Church of God is called the mother of all the faithful, and consequently of the Pope. To which objection answer is given by denying the consequence. For the understanding of which we shall do two things. First, we shall show, for the fuller illustration of the truth, in what manner the account of motherhood befits the universal Church in respect of the Pope and of the other faithful. Second, we shall explain that from such motherhood no superiority of authority or of power of jurisdiction is necessarily argued in the Church over the Pope. Concerning the first, it is to be noted that the Church is called the mother of the faithful, as blessed Aug. says on Ps. 127, because through baptism she is continually said to bring forth Christians, where according to what Augustine says on John, treating that word of John 3, Can a man enter a second time into his mother's womb? the water of baptism holds the place of the maternal womb, and therefore baptism is called, as the Apostle says in Titus 3, the laver of regeneration. But neither is this so attributed to the Church that the whole Church herself bestows the ministry of baptism on anyone by herself, for this does not seem well possible, but the Church is called mother for this reason, because the baptism by which one is regenerated into a son of God and of the Church, by whomsoever it is given, is bestowed in the faith of the Church and has efficacy. Where it is to be observed that just as in the carnal generation of man the virtue of the father concurs principally and the virtue of the mother as dispositive, so in that spiritual generation the divine virtue concurs as it were the seed, whence Augustine on John, in the place above, says: For from the seed of the true Abraham the faithful are born, whether through the free woman or through the handmaid. And at the end of the book on the Trinity he himself says: The watering of the holy font makes fruitful with that virtue by which it once enriched Mary. Hence it is that through baptism they are said to be generated sons of God, John 1, and consequently partakers of the divine nature, as blessed Peter says in 2 Peter 1. The agent therefore in that spiritual generation is God himself by authority, and Christ himself insofar as man meritoriously, by whose merit baptism works. Secondly, there concurs as it were dispositive virtue the faith of the Church, according to Rom. 3: The justice of God by faith of Jesus Christ, for faith works chiefly in the sacraments: since through it the sacraments or the causes are in a manner continued to the principal agent, and also to the recipient himself. Whence St Thomas in the 4th book, dist. 1, speaks thus to the point: The instrument receives virtue only insofar as it is continued to the principal agent, and its virtue is in a manner transfused into the instrument. But the principal agent and the agent of itself unto justification is God as efficient cause, and the passion of Christ as meritorious; but to this cause the sacrament is continued through the faith of the Church, which refers the instrument to the principal cause, as the sign to the thing signified. And therefore the efficacy of the sacraments or their virtue is from three things, namely from the divine institution as from the principal agent, from the passion of Christ as from the meritorious cause, from faith as from what continues the instrument to the principal agent. And this is what St Thomas says in the 3rd part, that the virtue of the passion of Christ which works in the sacraments is coupled to us through faith, according to Rom. 3: Whom he has proposed a propitiation through faith in his blood. From which we gather in manifest light that the faith of the Church is a disposition unto attaining the effects of the sacraments, the faith of which Church those who offer little ones for baptism seem to represent, who questioned for the little ones profess the faith of the Church in their person, saying: I believe. Whence Aug., in the book on the merits and remission of sins, as is had in On Consecration, dist. 4, ch. mater, says thus: Mother Church lends her maternal mouth to little ones, that they may be imbued with the sacred mysteries, because as yet they cannot with their own heart believe unto justice nor with their own mouth confess unto salvation. Wherefore blessed Thomas says in the 3rd part, q. 69, that children believe not by their own act, but by the faith of the Church, which is communicated to them, and by virtue of this faith grace and virtues are conferred on them. And he says the same in the 4th book, that for children the faith of the Church is for a disposition unto salvation, the virtue of the passion of Christ for the effecting of salvation. Since therefore the grace by which we are justified in baptism and made sons of God is infused by God, with the faith of the universal Church disposing, so that there is thus in a manner a conformity of the begotten to the begetter: it is clear that it is rightly said that in that spiritual generation God is father and the Church mother. Whence even if a heretic or an unbeliever baptizes, provided only he intends to do what the Church does, he is said to bring forth sons to Christ and to the Church, not to his own heresy or unbelief. For as Jacob begot sons through free women and handmaids, so Christ through Catholics and heretics, good or bad, as Aug. says against the Donatists. The Church therefore is the mother of all the faithful. Whence the same Aug. in the book on the Creed says: If anyone shall be found a stranger to the Church, he will be a stranger to the number of the sons of God, nor will he have God as father who has refused to have the Church as mother. And let this be for the first. Now it is to be seen in the second place that from the aforesaid account of motherhood there is no necessity of saying that the universal Church is superior in authority or power of jurisdiction to the Roman pontiff, which although it is clear enough of itself is yet shown from this, that if the account of motherhood is attributed to the Church, as has been said, yet to the ministers befits the account of fatherhood. Whence Aug. in the sermon on the Epiphany, as St Thomas reports in the 3rd part, q. 67: He who baptizes holds the place of the father, but the water of baptism of the mother. And most of all the account of fatherhood befits the highest minister of God, namely the Roman pontiff; wherefore he is called father of fathers. Whence it is clearly clear that to be a mother in the aforesaid way does not argue superiority, indeed it well stands that one is a son of the Church and in another account father of the Church. Just as it often befits that one is by birth the son of some woman, and is by care the father of her spiritual rule, and that so it is of the Church is shown by examples in many. First indeed in Christ, Christ was at times called the son of the synagogue, whence the Gloss on that word of John 1, Naked came I forth from my mother's womb, says thus: The mother of Christ is the synagogue, which held him in itself by the letter of works, nor saw him naked in divinity, but naked from her he went forth to the nations. Likewise Christ was at times called the son of the Church, whence he himself says in Mark 3 concerning his disciples: behold my mother and my brethren, where the Gloss says: Sister and brother by believing, mother by preaching, while through the words of preaching the love of Christ as it were Christ himself is generated in the heart of the hearer. Likewise treating this word blessed Augustine on Ps. 127 says, how is the Church his mother unless because Christ himself is in the Christians whom the Church continually brings forth through baptism. Likewise Christ himself is the son of the most blessed Virgin Mary: nevertheless over all these mothers he is superior in authority and eminence of power. Likewise it is not unfitting that the Pope, though he is this, that he is a son of the Church because regenerated by the sacrament of baptism, is also father of the Church, whence he is also called father of fathers, and he himself writing to the whole body of the faithful says² in all his letters to his beloved sons, etc. Nor does this seem more unfitting than that he is called prince, head, shepherd, and master of the Church, which are read of as attributed by the holy fathers to the Roman pontiff. But this also we confirm by the authority of Scripture, for it is written in Ps. 44, and it is the saying of the prophet to the Church: Hearken, O daughter, and see, etc., where the Gloss of Aug. says: Thus the prophet addresses that queen, hearken, daughter, and see, he addresses her as one of the fathers. Likewise in the same psalm, on that word, For thy fathers there are born to thee sons, the same Aug. says, as is had in ch. quorum vices, dist. 68: Thus the apostles begot thee, they were sent, they preached, they are fathers, but shall the Church be deserted by their departure, since they could not be with us corporally forever? God forbid. For thy fathers, he says, there are born to thee sons, the apostles were sent as fathers, for the apostles sons are born to thee, bishops are constituted, for today the bishops who are throughout the whole world, whence are they born to thee? the Church herself calls those fathers, she herself begot them and she herself constituted them in the seats of the fathers. Do not therefore think thyself deserted because thou seest not Peter, because thou seest not Paul, because thou seest not those through whom thou wast born, from thy offspring fatherhood has grown to thee; for thy fathers there are born to thee sons: thus Augustine. From which it is most clearly clear that these stand together, that the Roman pontiff is a son of the Church because regenerated through baptism and is father of the Church by account of prelation and of the authority by which he presides over the Church, as rector and governor. Whence blessed Bernard writing to the city of Pisa in a certain epistle says thus of Pope Innocent: Honour thy father and the father of the whole, and therefore it is no wonder if just as by account of sonship the Pope venerates the Church as mother, so also by account of prelation he is set before the Church, as shepherd of the flock, as prince of the people, and as ruler of the household. To which gives sufficient aid what the Apostle, greeting certain ones in the last chapter to the Romans, observed: for since he was a son constituted in the ecclesiastical order, he set him in greeting before his own mother, saying thus: Salute me Rufus elect in the Lord, and his mother, namely in the flesh, according to the Gloss, and mine namely in benefits, where the ordinary Gloss says that the Apostle sets the son before the mother for the ecclesiastical office. But what the adversary says, that the Pope cannot be called father of the Church because no one can be called father of his own mother. It is to be said that it is false, for in diverse respect, and according to one and another account, one can be called father of someone and son of the same. For Christ is called both son of David and father of David, and son of the blessed Virgin and her father, and a bishop is son of the woman whose spiritual father he is. But what is adduced from the Saviour in Matt. 23, One is father, etc., is not to the point: since Christ in those words, as is had from the Gloss, means to say only that there is one principal father, author of life, of nature, and of grace and glory, inasmuch as in him we live, and move, and are, but he does not mean to deny that in some manner by a certain participation the name and account of fatherhood befits some others, whence in James 1 it is said: Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of lights, from whom is all fatherhood in heaven and on earth. Moreover holy Scripture is full of the honour to be paid to father and mother, Exod. 20. And in the point at issue we say that the Pope by participation of the divine power given to him by God is father of all the faithful. Nor is it to be passed over here that the Roman Church is called our mother or that of the faithful. Whence on Mark 7, on that word, for the woman as soon as she heard them, the Gloss says: The woman is our mother, the Roman Church, which we think was said for this reason. First, because the Roman Church is mistress of the faith through which we are made sons of God, as is said in ch. Omnes, dist. 22. Secondly, because she herself is the mother of all the churches of Christ in which the generation of the sons of God takes place, as Pope Calixtus says in ch. non decet, dist. 12. Thirdly, because as a mother she is wont to succour all the faithful, whence Pope Zepherinus in his decrees says: So great confidence have we received from the Lord, from the founder of this holy see and apostolic Church, blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, that for the universal Church redeemed by the blood of Christ we watch with unwearied affection, and succour all serving the Lord, and bear aid to all living piously, thus he. Wherefore Pope Adrian in a certain epistle to Basil the Emperor, 4, says: O how praiseworthy and deservedly to be extolled by all mortals is the apostolic see, which has ever been wont to succour Catholics, which has never ceased ever to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep: thus he. For which reason holy Pope Sixtus says in ch. vos, 2, q. 6: All bishops who are assailed or accused in any graver causes, as often as need shall be, may freely appeal to the apostolic see and flee to it as to a mother, thus he. And Pope Zepherinus in ch. ad Romanam ecclesiam, on the same cause, and as to what he says thus to the point: To the Roman Church appeal is to be made and recourse had by all, but especially by the oppressed, as it were to a mother, that they may be nourished at her breasts and defended by her authority and relieved of their oppressions, because a mother cannot nor ought to forget her son: thus he.