De ecclesiaOn the Church

Contents

Chapter 1 · Loserth pp. 1–25

1. Part 1 The prologue: knowing our mother, and what the church is
2. Part 2 The church is the predestinate; no vicar of Christ is its head
3. Part 3 Christ the head; the church is one, in three parts
4. Part 4 One bride; no salvation outside the church; the two swords
5. Part 5 Subjection to the roman pontiff; why the church is called roman
6. Part 6 No christian is head; the pope as head of what he rules; three errors about the church
7. Part 7 The elect are one person; Armagh’s objection of many heads
8. Part 8 The heads of the church; the saints are members, not heads; hoping with misgiving

Chapter 2 · Loserth pp. 25–47

1. Part 1 No vicar of Christ is head of the church: three replies refuted
2. Part 2 The pope is head at most of a particular church
3. Part 3 Subjection to the pope is not of necessity for salvation
4. Part 4 False Christs; Urban VI our head, believed with misgiving
5. Part 5 First objection: subjects must consult scripture; Jerome on the sword that separates heretics
6. Part 6 Explicit and implicit faith; what is owed to prelates and to the canonized

Chapter 3 · Loserth pp. 47–69

1. Part 1 Third objection: church dues; Gregory on the hypocrite’s love of temporal goods
2. Part 2 The hypocrite’s three replies: counsels, care for the church, love of the robber
3. Part 3 Three corollaries on suits and the malice of priests; Thomas: Christ head of all men
4. Part 4 Equivocation on church and head; three proofs that Christ is head of all; four senses of saving
5. Part 5 The second and third objections answered: the church’s digestion, and unformed faith
6. Part 6 The dove, figure of the Holy Spirit and of the one church
7. Part 7 No one may claim the obedience of all as head; the bride and the hireling

Chapter 4 · Loserth pp. 69–92

1. Part 1 Three objections: quantity, the presence of all times, and human appointment
2. Part 2 Membership by predestination cannot be lost; the prelates who trust in the temple
3. Part 3 The fourth objection; the foreknown are no part of the bride whom Christ always loves
4. Part 4 The fifth objection; the one church from Abel, of which no foreknown man is a member
5. Part 5 The Roman church is the whole church militant, not the pope and his college
6. Part 6 The gloss’s three replies; knowing our mother by faith

Chapter 5 · Loserth pp. 92–115

1. Part 1 The universal church: equivocations, and why Christ alone is its head
2. Part 2 One body of three churches; a digression on lines; the church seen from afar
3. Part 3 Squaring the circle; the body of the devil
4. Part 4 The church a true continuum; Christ the common term and the mean
5. Part 5 Bernard’s eight unities; one form of membership, predestination
6. Part 6 Ten arguments against a doctor’s definition of the church

Chapter 6 · Loserth pp. 116–141

1. Part 1 Objections answered: many heads, virgin and bride, the church as nothing
2. Part 2 Mankind as two men; no member of the devil in the church
3. Part 3 The first difficulty answered: Christ’s three weddings, and the temple as figure of the church
4. Part 4 The second and third difficulties; honour due to prelates is judged by their works
5. Part 5 A theriac against exactors; Christ espoused his mother; Christ’s humanity as form of the church
6. Part 6 Whether each member of the church is Christ; unity of person rightly understood
7. Part 7 The eucharistic body and the church; the seventh argument: the grace of predestination and mortal sin

Chapter 7 · Loserth pp. 142–157

1. Part 1 The Westminster sanctuary case: it is lawful to take the fugitives out
2. Part 2 The king’s command does not oppose God’s law, and the privilege does not cover the case
3. Part 3 No privilege licenses sin, and he who offends against the law cannot claim its aid
4. Part 4 Unjust excommunication, and the three wonders of the laity
5. Part 5 The laity must not consent unexamined; three exhortations to the secular lords

Chapter 8 · Loserth pp. 157–182

1. Part 1 A digression on the Westminster case; two suppositions; would lying be a virtue?
2. Part 2 A lying God would deceive the whole church; the oath before the king’s council; the midwives of Exodus
3. Part 3 Augustine on the midwives; lying cannot defend the church’s privileges; what a privilege is
4. Part 4 Corollaries of the definition of privilege; the sons of Zebedee and the cup
5. Part 5 No true privilege outside scripture; the Westminster case; poverty the highest privilege
6. Part 6 Christ’s privilege above Caesar’s; the lords may relieve the clergy of temporal goods

Chapter 9 · Loserth pp. 182–204

1. Part 1 Privilege is chiefly in spiritual gifts; exemptions and earthly privileges
2. Part 2 Endowment as alms under condition; to be freed from it is a privilege
3. Part 3 The oldest privilege is poverty; ignorance does not excuse the endowers; the fifth objection
4. Part 4 The saints’ example settles nothing; the vineyard turned into a garden of herbs
5. Part 5 Naboth’s vineyard and St Thomas; the sixth objection, on the foreknown and privilege; the three pairs of Matthew 24
6. Part 6 The hidden judgment; the sure way of temporal alms; the answer to the sixth objection

Chapter 10 · Loserth pp. 204–227

1. Part 1 The Westminster privilege: the charters of Edgar and Edward
2. Part 2 The argument from mercy for the privilege; the twofold remission of debt
3. Part 3 The answers from the Lord’s prayer, the parable and the jubilee; the clergy as ravens
4. Part 4 Objections to the privilege: a harbour for enemies and criminals
5. Part 5 The king cannot license wrong; excommunicate fugitives; scripture and canon law against the privilege
6. Part 6 The fifth case and the gloss; why offenders forfeit sanctuary; the twofold privilege

Chapter 11 · Loserth pp. 227–250

1. Part 1 How the Westminster privilege is to be read: its interpreter, its ends, and no privilege against the common law
2. Part 2 Three corollaries: privilege implies reason; punishment as the fugitive’s privilege; no courts or fairs in holy places
3. Part 3 Correction as medicine; what immunity is; the first objection answered
4. Part 4 The second objection: who deserves refuge; debtors, the forty days and Westminster; the third objection begun
5. Part 5 Common law and privilege; Christ’s privileges and the temporal lord’s part; whether sin is a privilege

Chapter 12 · Loserth pp. 250–274

1. Part 1 The charge of destroying the church’s privileges; God cannot take away without recompense
2. Part 2 Every grant implies a condition of worthiness; third objection: privileges to be read mercifully
3. Part 3 Privileges need prudent interpreters; the grant depends on the grantee; unjust mercy
4. Part 4 Occasion given and occasion taken; fourth objection: holy men approved the privilege; the duke’s stand
5. Part 5 Custom yields to truth; the basilica is not the bride; satisfaction cannot be remitted; fifth objection: the Westminster dream
6. Part 6 The doctor’s double dream; privileges defended by patience; the patron not to be excommunicated

Chapter 13 · Loserth pp. 274–299

1. Part 1 Temporary alms better than perpetual: the definitions, and the proof that they are more authentic
2. Part 2 No heir is bound to continue his forefathers’ alms, and the pope may claim no tribute
3. Part 3 Two objections: the old law’s perpetual alms, and the merit of larger and longer alms
4. Part 4 The measure of alms; the third objection, from security; the primitive church and the schisms
5. Part 5 Endowment breeds war; the false security of charters
6. Part 6 The three degrees of clerical heresy

Chapter 14 · Loserth pp. 299–328

1. Part 1 The endowment of the Roman church; Christ held no civil lordship
2. Part 2 Christ could not hold civil lordship, and did not die to win it for his clergy
3. Part 3 The clergy live on alms and owe spiritual alms in return
4. Part 4 Objections: the patrimony of the crucified and the two swords
5. Part 5 The two swords, and the clergy’s civil lordship not founded in scripture
6. Part 6 Objections from rites, from the endowment, and from Nicholas Putanensis
7. Part 7 Silvester received alms, not lordship; the two greatnesses of pope and emperor
8. Part 8 The donation of Constantine would make the pope Caesar’s almsman

Chapter 15 · Loserth pp. 328–359

1. Part 1 May the king take away the clergy’s temporal goods? the duty to warn, and the precedents
2. Part 2 A doctor’s three conclusions would make the kings of England heretics
3. Part 3 The condition of the first endowment: alms may be withdrawn for contempt
4. Part 4 The third argument: the king must take abused alms and restore them to the church
5. Part 5 Correction as the king’s spiritual alms, and the objection of defamation
6. Part 6 May the king correct the clergy? the second and third objections
7. Part 7 The pope’s binding and loosing, and the bishop of Rochester
8. Part 8 The shield and triple veil of the curia; the death of Gregory XI

Chapter 16 · Loserth pp. 359–387

1. Part 1 The first argument for Silvester’s endowment, and the form of the donation
2. Part 2 The second and third arguments: merit, venial sin and the temporal lords
3. Part 3 Civil lordship unfit for priests; who is vicar of Christ; the fourth argument
4. Part 4 Leonard against Silvester; the fifth argument: perpetual alms and the colleges
5. Part 5 The case against appropriation; the sixth argument: the captive knight; Ambrose on the church’s gold
6. Part 6 Church treasure for the kingdom’s need; the seventh argument: lordship held by a community
7. Part 7 The pope may give up lordship; the eighth argument: buying blessedness; the king’s inquiry into the clergy’s alms
8. Part 8 The fictions that shield the clergy’s alms from withdrawal

Chapter 17 · Loserth pp. 388–415

1. Part 1 The first argument answered: the church before the incarnation
2. Part 2 The church was from the beginning of the world
3. Part 3 The seven women of Isaiah, and three ways of being Christian
4. Part 4 Christ is not a Christian
5. Part 5 Christians before the incarnation, and one faith in many believers
6. Part 6 Defective faith, and three ways of being of the church
7. Part 7 The councils of Christ and the apostles
8. Part 8 The church did not begin at Christ’s death; the church as one successive person

Chapter 18 · Loserth pp. 415–441

1. Part 1 The foreknown, the predestinate in error, and the two churches
2. Part 2 One church militant and triumphant; Cardinal John on Fundamenta
3. Part 3 The church spread through the world; the devil head of his members; avarice and the death of Christ
4. Part 4 The devil’s four-horse chariot; the abuse of endowment; the betrayers of the truth
5. Part 5 The betrayers of the truth; whether the church is properly virgin, mother and bride
6. Part 6 A multitude has parts; the church from the beginning of the world
7. Part 7 The church before the death of Christ; the argument from the formation of Eve

Chapter 19 · Loserth pp. 441–471

1. Part 1 Whether the foreknown hold the orders and offices of the church; the character of orders
2. Part 2 The predestinate are priests in the homeland; the foreknown minister the sacraments; first conclusion: clerical litigation should cease
3. Part 3 The church’s judges cannot judge suits over temporal goods; the forfeited stipend and the precarial grant
4. Part 4 Errors refuted: judges, oaths and letters of orders; the layman’s faith does not hang on his priest
5. Part 5 The layman’s eucharist and the danger of signs; fifth conclusion: no cleric may fight for temporal goods
6. Part 6 The doctors’ thesis on temporal possession refuted; sixth conclusion: no contending for greatness
7. Part 7 Works, not names; relics and the devil’s signs; seventh conclusion: baptism and the foreknown
8. Part 8 Human judgements against the judgement of God; the good born of the wicked

Chapter 20 · Loserth pp. 471–490

1. Part 1 The song of the valiant woman; her finding, her price and her husband’s trust (Prov. 31:10–11)
2. Part 2 The office of the valiant woman: good to her husband, wool and flax, the merchant’s ship, rising in the night (Prov. 31:11–15)
3. Part 3 The office of the valiant woman: the field, the girded loins, the lamp, the spindle, the open hand, the double garments (Prov. 31:16–21)
4. Part 4 The office of the valiant woman: her clothing, her husband in the gates, the fine linen and the girdle, wisdom on her tongue; and the beginning of her praise (Prov. 31:22–30)
5. Part 5 The reward of the valiant woman, and the plan of the song (Prov. 31:31)

Chapter 21 · Loserth pp. 491–517

1. Part 1 The opponent’s "without qualification", and prayer for a damned patron
2. Part 2 Bonaventure against suffrages for the damned
3. Part 3 The lying witnesses: Bonaventure on the character of every order
4. Part 4 The second fabrication: Bonaventure on distinct characters in the several orders
5. Part 5 The third fabrication: Aquinas, and the senses of order
6. Part 6 Order as perceptible sacrament, and the many characters in one order
7. Part 7 Order conferred by degrees, and the cleric’s propertyless life

Chapter 22 · Loserth pp. 517–548

1. Part 1 The fourth lie: Hostiensis on suffrages for the damned
2. Part 2 The art of mockery, Hostiensis on the keys, and the fifth lie
3. Part 3 Praying for the damned: Augustine, Gregory and the reason against it
4. Part 4 Three distinctions of prayer, and the case of Gregory and Trajan raised
5. Part 5 Conditional prayer, prayer for the damned in name only, and Gregory and Trajan answered
6. Part 6 The third confirmation answered: mercy in the punishment of the damned, Augustine against the merciful, and the four kinds of the dead
7. Part 7 Exequies: what reaches the dead, Gregory, Chrysostom and Cyprian against mourning, and Augustine on the care of the dead
8. Part 8 The objections answered: burial in holy places, mourning, three conclusions on rites for the dead, and gilds and costly tombs

Chapter 23 · Loserth pp. 549–587

1. Part 1 Indulgences: what the word means, and the canonists’ limits on who may grant them
2. Part 2 The treasury of merits: the common opinion, its foundation, and Thomas and Bonaventure
3. Part 3 The treasury of merits in Bonaventure and the decretists; three arguments for the opinion; how one may make satisfaction for another
4. Part 4 Answers to the three arguments: no one is saved or damned without his own concurrence, and the debt to God is unlike any debt to man
5. Part 5 The pope’s claim answered: Christ’s Godhead, scripture and Peter rule the church; the first objection, that past merits lie beyond the pope’s power
6. Part 6 Against the treasury: the pope’s power would reach heaven, purgatory and hell, and the saints’ merits are already assigned by God
7. Part 7 Against the treasury: the saints’ suffrages are already assigned, and the clause in the bulls makes them superfluous
8. Part 8 Common arguments: the pope’s power would be infinite, and the calculators’ cases would empty purgatory and hell
9. Part 9 The cases are imaginary, but so is the power; any priest could make indulgences
10. Part 10 The laity could indulge their prelates; the form of indulgences implies falsehood; the pious fraud rejected
11. Part 11 Thomas’s measure of indulgences tested; the first six conclusions
12. Part 12 The last conclusions; sin and punishment in purgatory; merit after death; the end of the treatise