TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. The Unity of the Church ... 1-10
The church an article of faith - Meaning of church in Greek - In the New Testament - The church a mother - The dove of the Canticles - The strong woman of Proverbs - Not to be believed in as God.
II. The One Universal Church divided into Three Parts ... 1-15
The church triumphant, militant, and dormant - The Apostles' Creed - Wherein the unity consists.
III. All Christians are not Members of the Church ... 16-26
Parables of the net, etc. - The human body and the spiritual body - Essential parts of the body - Four kinds of persons related to the church - Predestinated according to present righteousness - Christ's other sheep.
IV. Christ the Only Head of the Church ... 27-38
Head by reason of his divinity and humanity - Head from the beginning - No reprobate a member of the church - Present goodness no proof of predestination - Tychonius - The word Christian.
V. Good and Bad in the Church ... 39-51
Belief and faith - Parables of the marriage-supper, etc. - The least in the kingdom of heaven - Prelates may be reprobate - Clergy and church used interchangeably - Paying tithes to the clergy for their works' sake- The nominal and the real church.
VI. Christ the Head of the Elect ... 52-55
Devil the head of the reprobate - Sin continues in the reprobate but disjoins them - Christ head of the world as well as of the predestinate.
VII. The Roman Pontiff and the Cardinals not the Universal Church ... 56-66
Matthew 16:18 - The church a mixed body - Particular churches - Reasons for calling the Roman church the church.
VIII. The Faith Which is the Foundation of the Church ... 67-72
Three meanings of faith - Faith formed in love - Faith and vision - Heb. 2:1 - Faith and hope - Fallibility of the pope - Infallibility of the pope - Infallibility of the Scriptures.
IX. The Church Founded on Christ, the Rock ... 73-90
Christ and not Peter the rock - Paul on the church's foundation - Texts showing Christ to be the rock - Augustine on the rock - Patriarchs looked forward not to Peter - The apostles the foundations of the church - Peter captain and primate - Peter's virtues - The priest makes the chair, not the chair the priest - Christ the way, the truth, the life.
X. The Power of Binding and Loosing ... 91-110
Spiritual and civil power - Power of the keys - Penance - Forgiveness granted only by him sinned against - How far the priest binds and looses - Things Peter could not loose - Lazarus loosed - Binding and loosing belong to all the apostles.
XI. The Abuse of Scripture in the Interest of Clerical Power ... 111-118
Claiming the power of Christ and not following him - The devil the worst of sophists - Christ came to minister - Fictitious clerical authority - Christ's true followers - Simoniac priests - The contention of the eight doctors.
XII. Christ the True Roman Pontiff upon whom Salvation Depends ... 119-124
Belief in Christ alone of necessity to salvation - Christ the eternal high priest - Gregory I's letter on the papal prerogative - Assumptions and ostentation of modern pontiffs.
XIII. The Pope not the Head of the Church but Christ's Vicar ... 125-136
The alleged successors of Peter and the apostles - Unlettered popes - The papissa Joan - Heretic popes - Constantine's donation - Pope and cardinals not necessarily successors of the apostles - The pope may be head of the Roman church if his life is worthy - If he is predestinate.
XIV. When the Cardinals are the True Successors of the Apostles ... 137-146
Cardinals not the body of Christ - Not all the predestinate - Prelates often do not seek the things of Christ - The name does not make the bishop - The pope's display - Kissing the pope's feet - Prelates to be tested by their works.
XV. The Church may be Ruled Without Pope and Cardinals ... 147-160
Unworthy prelates - Duties of Christ's apostles - Ambrose, Augustine, etc., true vicars of Christ - Constantine's donation - Lewis's grant to Pascal - No such grant from Christ - Original identity of bishops and presbyters - Gregory XII condemned by the cardinals - The church at first without a pope - The two orders of bishop and deacon - The clergy discerned by their works.
XVI. The Law of the Standard of Ecclesiastical Judgments ... 161-182
Pope and cardinals as judges - Jerome on the Roman see - Christ falsely condemned by statute law - Popes to be disobeyed if their judgments are contrary to the truth - Christ did not pronounce civil judgments - Nor put to death - Old Testament examples not to be followed - The sanguinary corollary - The abomination of desolation - Cases of strife over the papacy - Wicked popes - The Avignon schism - Constantine's donation announced by an angel, bad or good.
XVII. Huss' Resistance to Papal Authority ... 183-194
Religious superiors not always to be obeyed - Christ's obedience to a superior - To an inferior - Obedience of the greater to the less - Of an equal to an equal - Of the less to the greater - Obedience only virtuous as it is of God - Commands and counsels - Ecclesiastical laws not commanded in Scripture.
XVIII. The Apostolic See, or Cathedra Petri ... 195-216
The true priest does good works - Preaching - Pope is apostolic when he follows the apostles - Moses' seat was Moses' authority - Augustine on the apostolic see - Papal commands to be tested - Huss' appeal to Christ - Pope may err - Solemn responsibility of priests who kill the sheep - Augustine on cathedras - Marcellus made mistakes - The primacy of Antioch and Rome.
XIX. When Ecclesiastical Superiors are to be Obeyed ... 217-228
The absolutely good always to be obeyed - Commands that are intermediate - Neutrality impossible where moral action is concerned - Superiors to be obeyed always when they teach Christ's commandments - St. Paul's example - Bernard on the duty of obedience - Clerics and laics to scrutinize the commands of superiors - No blind obedience.
XX. Obedience not always to be Rendered to the Church or its Prelates ... 229-240
"Prelates to be obeyed in all things" - Excommunication only for mortal sin - In matters intermediate the church sometimes to be disobeyed - Commands to be weighed by the reason - Ecclesiastical burdens hard to be borne - Christ's yoke easy - The Christian to follow Christ's commands - Capable priests ought to preach as much as the rich to give alms.
XXI. Circumstances under which Obedience is to be rendered to Prelates ... 241-262
Popes and prelates compared to the scribes and Pharisees - Divine counsels - Circumstances modifying commands - Huss's reasons for not going to Rome - Commands repugnant to reason - Christ the first exemplar to be followed - Deaths of John, Martin, and Stafcon - An inferoir may rebuke a superior - Objections from the canon law against rebuking a pope - Inferiors should examine commands before they obey them.
XXII. Excommunications, Just and Unjust ... 263-274
"A censure from the pope not to be questioned" - Pilate's treatment of the censure of Christ - Excommunication, suspension, interdict - Excommunication does not hurt the righteous - God must first excommunicate - The wicked already excommunicated from the body of the righteous.
XXIII. Suspension and the Interdict ... 275-299
Suspension must be from God to be valid - Eli and his sons - Old Testament priests less guilty than New Testament priests - Prelates more guilty than the people if they do not warn the people - Not to reprove is to consent to sin - The interdict - Christ imposed none - Unjust to the innocent community - Reasons for the interdict on Prague - The curia's method - Boniface VIII's bull - "The customs of the fathers" - The apostles did not fulminate interdicts - Condemnation of the XLV Wyclifite Articles - The effect.
|