with the cardinals—whoever they may be and wheresoever they may live. But it is denied that this church is the holy, catholic and apostolic church. And so both parts of the argument are granted, but the conclusion is denied. But if this be said, namely, "I lay down that the pope is holy together with all the twelve cardinals living with him," this being laid down and admitted as highly possible, it follows that the pope himself in conjunction with the cardinals is the holy, catholic and apostolic church. This conclusion is denied, but it follows well that a holy pope in conjunction with holy cardinals are a holy church which is a part of the holy, catholic and apostolic church. Therefore Christ's faithful must hold firmly as a matter of faith to the first conclusion and not to the second; for the first is confirmed by Christ's words: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But the second is a matter of doubt to me and to every other pilgrim, unless a divine revelation makes it plain. Hence neither is the pope the head nor are the cardinals the whole body of the holy, universal, catholic church. For Christ alone is the head of that church, and his predestinate are the body and each one is a member, because his bride is one person with Jesus Christ.[1]
- ↑ It was a popular definition which regarded the pope in conjunction with the body of the cardinals as the church. So Wyclif, "the public—communitas—holds the church to be the pope and the cardinals, which it is necessary for all to believe." De Eccles., p. 92, and often. In his Replies to Palecz and Stanislaus, Huss represents these two magisters as defining the church in the same way, the "pope is the head and the cardinals the body of the church." Mon., 1: pp. 333, 335.
