Summa de Ecclesia

AFTER we showed who are regularly and necessarily to be summoned to universal councils and who not, since many also come unsummoned seeking to be admitted, let us now unfold who and for what causes are to be admitted and who not. First it is known that heretics are not to be admitted to a council, according to ch. cum quibus, 23, q. 3, where Pope Gelasius says it is not of ecclesiastical custom to mix a council with those who have polluted communion intermingled with the faithless. But concerning the faithful, whether all seeking to be admitted are to be admitted, it seems to some of the number of the new masters, adducing for themselves the practice of some ancient councils and some persuasions. Arguing indeed from the practice of councils they adduce ¹ first that in the council celebrated by the apostles concerning the election of Matthias, of which in Acts 1, not only the apostles but also laymen and women seem to have been admitted, as seems gathered from the letter of that ch. ² Second they adduce the same from the second council of the apostles, where the multitude of disciples is read to have been called that they might elect some for performing the ministry of daily dispensation, as is had in Acts 6. ³ Third they adduce the practice of modern councils, namely of Pisa, Constance and Basel, in which indifferently abbots, masters, doctors, licentiates, even bachelors, presbyters, religious, procurators, indeed even almost whoever wished were admitted. ⁴ Fourth by reason thus: to a universal council in which arduous causes come to be decided, all seem to deserve admission whose affair is transacted and whose interest of their own salvation is properly at stake; but such are all the faithful; therefore no faithful man who wishes to attend ought to be excluded or not admitted. ⁵ Fifth: any son is bound according to his ability to succor his mother placed in straits, but all the faithful are sons of mother Church, as is clear; therefore every faithful man is bound according to his possibility to aid his holy mother the Church; but a universal council is gathered to this end, that the necessities of the Church be aided; therefore to it all ought to be admitted who wish to bring help. ⁶ Sixth the reason itself is thus confirmed: any man sound of mind seeing his own house or his lord's house burning ought to run with water or with some other thing to extinguish the fire; but our own house or the house of our Lord God is the universal Church; therefore when there is a fire of scandal in her all the faithful ought to concur, according to that of the prophet, Ps. 78: The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me; but this concourse takes place in a universal council; therefore to it all the faithful concurring to bring patronage are to be admitted. On the contrary, however, seem to be the things said in the preceding ch. Moreover, if all the faithful indiscriminately seeking to be admitted to a council were to be admitted, especially to definitive and consultative voices, many evils would follow, as perturbation of peace, matter of scandals, seditions, quarrels, contentions, difficulty of rightly concluding anything. There arise, as blessed Chrys. says in the beginning upon John in the literal commentary: A multitude is the mother of sedition, and a small number is the teacher of discipline to the refractory, and Augustine against Julian, book 2, art. 2, says that in a case of judging the paucity which freedom of learning and reason sublimates is to be honored, with the din of crowds removed. In answering therefore to this question it seems to us to be said that in no way is it fitting to admit all who seek to be admitted to a universal council to definitive voices nor even to consultative ones, except as we said above. And yet it is to be noted that, as we revolve many histories and the practices observed in many councils, we know it has occurred in fact that for many and various causes someone besides the superior prelates of whom we spoke above, in those things which pertain to the body of the universal council, has been admitted and can be admitted to universal councils. First indeed in order to consult more fully in the matters to be done and disposed in universal councils, as certain prudent and experienced men in knowledge of the matters to be treated in the council, as even if an expedition to Jerusalem were planned or concerning war against the Turks, men would come to be admitted who were learned and experienced in the disposition of the things necessary for such business. Second they are read to have been admitted for the sake of disputation only, as if disputation were to be held against heretics, as certain most learned masters and doctors, as in our days we first saw at Basel when disputation was held against the Bohemians, second at Florence for disputing with the Greeks; this also in earlier times we read to have been more broadly treated concerning the question of degrees of consanguinity through Pope Alexander the second, of which in ch. ad sedem, 35, q. 5, the pope thus speaks: To the apostolic see has been brought a question newly arisen concerning degrees of consanguinity, which certain men unskilled in laws and canons stirred up etc., it follows below: we took care to discuss this question in a synod held in the Lateran consistory, bishops and clerics and judges of diverse provinces having been convoked for this work, thus far there. Third they are read to have been admitted as discriminating judges for discerning among certain disputants concerning some deep or arduous question. Whence in that most ample synod celebrated at Rome, in which, with the emperor Constantine and Helena present, disputation came to be held between Christians and Jews in the time of blessed Sylvester as to which law, namely that of the Christians or that of the Jews, was to be preferred, two judges not suspect were appointed, namely Craton the philosopher who wished to have nothing earthly, and Zenophilus who, being consul, never received a gift from anyone. We read also that in the council of Chalcedon in the disputation against Dioscorus discriminating judges were appointed, whence concerning them in action 16 it is thus had: The glorious judges said: from the things which have been done or deposited by each one, before all things indeed the primacy and especial honor according to the ancient canons ought to be preserved to the Archbishop of Rome, beloved of God. Likewise in the eighth synod, action 1, it is thus had: Our emperors have sent us their servants who are their senators (we are called the senate which by God's will has been honored) in all things that we may be discreet hearers of the things done. Fourth they are read to have been admitted to councils, and could also be admitted, for the preservation of the faith and defense and fuller acceptance of the things done. In this way emperors and princes are sometimes read to have been admitted to universal councils; for the Emperor Marcian says in Chalcedon: We wish to attend the synod for preserving the faith, not for showing power, after the example of the most glorious prince Constantine, that, the truth being found, the multitude drawn by depraved doctrines may no longer disagree. Fifth some are admitted to a council for the sake of the protection of the synod and its liberty, as the prince or his lieutenant in whose territory the synod is celebrated, especially when it happens to celebrate a synod outside the lands of the Roman Church. Sixth some are admitted to a council for the sake of doctrine and erudition; for this reason not only clerics but also laymen can be admitted when either faith is treated of or degrees of consanguinity, that they may be instructed. Whence Pope Nicholas in ch. ubi, dist. 96, says: Where, pray, have you read that your imperial predecessors attended synodal assemblies, unless perchance where faith was treated of, which is universal, which is common to all, which pertains not only to clerics but also to laymen and to all Christians. Seventh some are admitted who have something to oppose, as for instance either complaints, as those who have litigious causes or who concerning some grave occurring causes about the matters for which the synod has been gathered seek provision to be made for them by the synod; but these have neither the definitive nor the consultative voice in the council, but only the expository, whence, having expounded by word or writing what they wished to expound, they no longer have to attend the synod. Eighth some are read to have been admitted to councils for fuller knowledge of justice and truth; for this cause Innocent in ch. ad apostolicae, on sentence and judged matter, book 6, says: If he, namely Frederick himself, should say that in nothing had he injured the Church against justice, or that we had injured him against justice, we were ready to convoke kings, prelates and princes both ecclesiastical and secular to some safe place where it would be fitting to meet through himself or solemn messengers etc. Ninth some are read to have been admitted to councils for the sake of ministry, as officials, notaries and procurators, whence very many words are read in the acts of councils which are the words of notaries relating both the sayings of the fathers and also of the emperors. Tenth some are read to have been admitted for the greater solemnity of the same, as is clear in the synod celebrated at Rome in which Pope Leo, with clergy and people meeting together, gives to King Charles the dignity of the patriciate, as in ch. synodo, dist. 63; this is also clear in the synod celebrated at Rome in which Pope Nicholas, disposing the form of election of the Roman pontiff in ch. in nomine domini, dist. 23. For in such synods, to which no convocation of bishops from diverse provinces was made, sometimes other inferiors were admitted, as deacons, presbyters and monks, as is read to have been done in the aforesaid councils for the honor and ampleness of the council. Eleventh some are found to have been admitted to a council that they might be witnesses of the things done in councils through their subscriptions, as in the fifth and eighth synods it is read that presbyters, monks, deacons, lectors subscribed, and the emperor and senate. Twelfth some are read to have been admitted for the sake of holiness, namely when something is to be sought from God by the suffrage of prayers. An example of this is gathered from the first council of the apostles, in which, since impetration was to be by prayers, all the 120 who were with the apostles in the upper room at that council, that with the prayers of all intervening their petition might more easily be heard. With these points settled it is easy to answer the reasons made on the opposite side, but for the solution of the objections which are taken from the practice and form of past councils, it is to be noted that concerning the manner of celebrating universal councils as to the persons chiefly to be summoned or admitted besides bishops no certain form has been given, the reason of which seems to be this: that the form and manner of celebrating universal councils depends wholly on the disposition of the pope, who by authority and power is above universal councils, as in Extra, on election, ch. significasti, who for the variety of things and cases can summon or admit these or those, and therefore from the manner or form kept in one universal council or in another, whether by the apostles or succeeding fathers, no effective argument can be taken, because various forms are read to have been observed concerning the persons pressing to be admitted or not admitted, as has now been seen. And this is especially true from the form observed in certain councils which were celebrated not for grave and universal causes but for particular ones, and not for defining or enacting anything universally for the whole Church. Wherefore, although the primitive Church in celebrating certain councils has given us an example that we should celebrate them when necessities occur, as the Gloss says on Acts 15, yet we are not bound to observe now the rite then observed, just as neither are we bound to observe the rite then observed concerning the disposition of the sacraments, as is clear concerning the use of the sacrament of the Eucharist which is read to have been instituted and celebrated after supper, Luke 22, which yet we celebrate and receive only fasting, according to ch. "Liquido," on consecration, dist. 2, where Aug. thus says: It pleased the Holy Spirit that in honor of so great a sacrament the Lord's body should enter first into the mouth of a Christian than other foods. Whence to the argument that thus Christ after supper or food took the sacrament, therefore we ought so to do, holy Tho. answered in 4, q.: it does not follow, because the Church need not keep the order of taking which Christ kept, because what befits the beginning or generation of anything need not befit it when it is now in perfect being, and likewise what befits the sacrament in its institution need not befit it as to its use. Likewise we can say concerning the order and form of celebrating councils. For the rite observed by the apostles in their councils need not in all things be kept now by us, because something was then fitting when it was little and in the beginning of itself which would not now befit the Church, brought to a more perfect state and distributed with much variety of orders and offices. ⁷ To the two first arguments taken from the practice of councils observed by the apostles, it is answered by denying the consequence made, both for the reason already stated and because there does not now occur concerning all who seek to be admitted to councils the same reason for which the apostles admitted others than apostles and ecclesiastics to their councils. ⁸ To the third which is adduced concerning the councils of Constance and Basel, it is answered first that the consequence is not valid, as is clear from what has been said. Second it is said that the things observed in the aforesaid councils make small or no argument, both because Pisa and Constance, as to their beginning before all three obediences were gathered, since they were celebrated in schism, were not universal councils held by the whole Church, but Basel, since it was scandalous to the whole Church, which happened above all from this indiscreet admission of many to definitive voices in the council, is not to be held in memory of any authority. ⁹ To the fourth it is answered under such distinction: either in the universal council in which someone of the inferiors seeks to be admitted there is touched his affair and salvation in particular, for instance because he is accused of some crime and procedure is against him, then we concede that every such man is to be admitted to answer for himself or to seek indulgence, which also, as the Gloss says in ch. convenientibus, 1, q. 7, is conceded, and yet for this they are not said to be admitted in the council to consultative or definitive voices. But if his salvation in particular is not transacted but in common with all other faithful, then it is not necessary that he be admitted, but it suffices that the superiors and weightier ones, in whom by virtue all others are contained, attend the council, otherwise any faithful man and even women would come to be admitted to whatever councils in which the salvation of the faithful or the affairs of corporate bodies were treated of, which is absurd. ¹⁰ To the fifth it is answered by denying the consequence, since although all the faithful who offer themselves to aid the occurring necessities of the Church ought to be admitted to succor the Church and received with great charity when according to the condition of their estate and means they offer themselves in aid of the Church, as for instance if action were to be against heretics and unbelievers with armed hand or passage to be made into the holy land they offer themselves or their goods, yet from this it does not follow that they come to be admitted in the council as we here speak of admission, namely to have definitive or even consultative voices in it, because if this were granted, as we have now said, the synodal congregation would be too confused. ¹¹ To the last reason it is answered in like manner.