CHAPTER XIV
WHEN THE CARDINALS ARE THE TRUE SUCCESSORS OF THE APOSTLES
The second point is this: the college of cardinals is the body of the holy Roman church. This being so, then the college of the cardinals is the holy Roman church. The conclusion follows from Eph. 1:22: "He gave him to be head over the whole church, which is his body." And as the church, which is Christ's mystical body, cannot be damned, as when Christ said, "on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"—it follows, that the college of cardinals cannot be damned; and since this conclusion is false or, at least, for the doctors doubtful, it follows that in this particular point they have laid down as truth what is doctrinally false or doubtful. What is the fruit of teaching the worshippers of Christ in this way?
Likewise, the college of cardinals is either the true body of the holy Roman church or the pretended body. Not the second, according to the doctors. Therefore they must be the true body, and consequently that college is predestinated unto glory, and, as the doctors have not the revelation of predestination with reference to that college, it follows, that they ought not to have affirmed that the college is the body of the Roman church.
Again, the body of the holy Roman church is made up of all the predestinate, and the college by itself does not include all these. The first part of this statement appears from the words of the apostle, who spoke as the representative of the predestinate: "We being many are one body in Christ," Romans 12:5. And, showing the unity of the body,
137
