No one may claim the obedience of all as head; the bride and the hireling

From this it is inferredconcludere: to infer that it would be dangerous for any Christian, out of pride or for singular gain, to claim that it is necessary for all Christians singly to obey him as headcaput: head of the universal churchecclesia: church; since Augustine says (in the place cited above) that bishop Faustinus did not preside over the church, but presided over a part (as the letter to Dardanus says). Christ gathered his church into one spirit and one body, whose one head is Christ.¹ And Bernard, on the Canticles, sermon 12: "Whoever both inebriates with words and is fragrant with benefits, let him think it said to himself: 'For thy breasts are better than wine, smelling sweet of the best ointments.' And for these things who is sufficient? Which of us possesses even one of them wholly and perfectly, so as not at times to be more barren in speaking and more lukewarm in working? But there is one who may deservedly and not feignedly glory in this praise: the church, to whom, from her whole body, there is never lacking both whence to inebriate and whence to be fragrant; for what she lacks in one, she has in another, 'according to the measure of the giving of Christ' and the apportioning of the Spirit, 'dividing to every one according as he will.'² The church is fragrant in those who 'make unto themselves friends of the mammon of iniquity'; she inebriates in the ministers of the word, who pour the wine of spiritual gladness upon the earth and inebriate it, and 'bring forth fruit in patience.' She boldly and securely names herself bridesponsa / sponsus: bride / bridegroom, as one who truly has breasts better than wine and smelling sweet of the best 67ointments. And although none of us would presume to arrogate this to himself, so as to dare to call his own soul the bride of the Lord, yet, since we are of the church, which deservedly glories in this name and in the reality of the name, we claim a share in this glory. For what all of us together possess fully and wholly, this each of us shares without contradiction. Thanks be to thee, Lord Jesus, who hast deigned to join us to thy most dear church, not only that we might be faithful, but also that, in the place of a bride, we might be united to thee in joyful, chaste and eternal embraces."³ See how the saints, under doubt, presumed themselves to be members of the church, but only on the presupposition of their imitating the church’s bridegroomsponsa / sponsus: bride / bridegroom. Hence in sermon 13 Bernard says: "If the bride, indeed, should dare to arrogate anything to herself of all her virtue or the grace of mercy, how much less the young maidens, which perhaps we are?" See how he says "perhaps."⁴ "Let us therefore also, following the bride’s footsteps, say: 'Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory.'" Let us say it "not in word and tongue" only, "but in deed and in truth"; for otherwise we are not young maidens, according to that [text] of Psalm 77:36–37: "For they loved him with their mouth: and with their tongue they lied unto him: but their heart was not right with him: nor were they counted faithful in his covenant."⁵ See: this saint plainly pronouncessentenciare: to pronounce that unless we have a contemplative or active life which God accepts for blessedness, otherwise we are not parts of the church. Therefore, after the manner of the saints, we should contend who could be more laborious and humbler in the fruitful ministry of his mother. And from this, according to the faith of scripture, Matthew 18:1, it followssequitur: it follows that he is the greater. For Christ could not be head of the church without the humblest 68and poorest ministry to his bride. How, then, will his vicar preside over one young maiden unless he bears in his conduct the place of Christ, not exacting civil subjection, which Christ cannot exact?⁶ And the aforesaid danger of stupid presumption would terrify the sensible, lest they contend over the primacies of holy mother church, or, as captainscapitaneus: captain in her or from her, exact her goods in a secular manner. For such presumption would exclude the contentious, so that they are not even outcast members of this body; since according to all its natures it is joined together in such harmonic proportion that it is not possible that, according to some of its parts, there should be perpetual contrariety, since in the end every member of it must help every other in agreement (as the apostle teaches, 1 Corinthians 12). For the end for which we now fight is that, "with one mind and with one mouth," without usurping another’s office, we may rejoice together in perpetual rest; which joy is sought by no one unless on the wayvia / patria: the way / the homeland they tend toward final concord.⁷ For a prelateprelatus: prelate is bound to restore temporal goodstemporalia: temporal goods abused (as is clear from the Archdeacon on distinction 44, and I have declared in the sixth chapter …). And a clericclerus; clericus: the clergy; cleric ought not principally to seek primacy but labour; for otherwise he is a hireling, not a shepherd, as was alleged at the beginning of this chapter from the Decretum, [causa] 8, question 1, Sunt in ecclesia.⁸ On which the Archdeacon says that in every bishopric there are two things, namely the dignity and the work, upon which the dignity truly follows. And so whoever canvass for dignities preposterously, so as to be as hirelings and not as members of the church, render themselves damnable. And perhaps in this chapter there are some today who do not value the gain of the fruit of the work of an evangelist 69as much as temporal pleasures, tithesdecime; pars decima: tithes; the tenth part or honours; and all such are venomous heretics (as is clear in the sixth book, in the treatise on heresy).⁹