Ube American
Ecclesiastical ^Review
A MONTHLY publication for the clergy
Cwn Approbation Suporiorutrt

VOL. CXXXIII
JULY—DECEMBER, 1955

’Ep ixl τνάματι, μι$, ψυχρ

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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

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THE CHURCH IN ADEQUATE PERSPECTIVE
It seems quite clear that the great progress made during these
past few years in the field of ecclesiology has been achieved ia
great measure by increasingly careful attempts to describe the
Church militant of the New Testament in terms of its own back­
ground and perspective. The Catholic Church, like every other
reality God has brought into being, belongs to an ordered universe
By God's own institution, the religious society over which the
Bishop of Rome presides as the Vicar of Jesus Christ is a pat
of the divine supernatural economy. And, like everything else
that belongs to an ordered arrangement, the Catholic Church
must be visualized with reference to the realities to which it B
related if it is to be understood at all adequately.
The great and essential work of describing the Church in teras
of its proper perspective was accomplished twelve years ago, à
the encyclical letter Mystici Corporis. This document, certainly
one of the most important doctrinal pronouncements issued dur­
ing the reign of Pius XII, brought out once and for all the para­
mount fact that the reality designed in the New Testament as de
“Body of Christ” and in Catholic theological literature since tie
thirteenth century as the “Mystical Body of Christ” is actually the
Catholic Church.1 Furthermore, with matchless clarity, it described
the essential relation of this society to Our Lord. It showed bov
Our Lord is the Founder, the Head, the Support, and the Saviour
of the company of His disciples. It pointed out the visible and the
invisible bonds by which the faithful are attached to Him with»
this visible ecclesia. And it explained how the Blessed Trinity, st
1The Mystici Corporis asserts that: "If we would define and décrite
the true Church of Jesus Christ—which is the One, Holy, Catbolk; Apos­
tolic Roman Church—we shall find no expression more noble, more sotfac
or more divine, than the phrase which calls it ‘the Mystical Body of Jens
Christ.' ” The Hwnœri generis rebukes those who “consider tbetnsefre Mt
bound by the doctrine set forth a few years ago in Our encyclical letter «ri
based upon the sources of revelation, [the doctrine] which teaches that tte
Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and tie
same tiring* (OB, 3919)- For an explanation of the relation between tie
exprewfoe “Mystical Body” and the other definitions of the Catholic (tadciBeûtaa, “The Mgstiei Corporis and the Definitions of the Cburtf b
ne Xswrrâa· Ecctesiasiicat Reviev. CXXVHI, 6
19S3), 4<ML ;

THE CHURCH IN ADEQUATE PERSPECTIVE

259

an activity that is appropriated to God the Holy Ghost, acts as
the indwelling Principle of life and unity, the Soul, of the Mysti­
cal Body.
The issuance of the Mystici Corporis was providential. Prior to
its appearance there were several books and articles, well adver­
tised and remarkably confident in tone, which set forth the most
arrant nonsense about an "invisible Church” which was supposed
to be the genuine Mystical Body of Christ and which was depicted
as in some manner distinct from the visible Catholic Church. By
indicating the true relationship of the visible Catholic Church to
Our Lord, the encyclical Mystici Corporis put an end to blunders
of that kind? It showed that, by reason of its union with the In­
carnate Word, the Catholic Church is the true Mystical Body of
Jesus Christ
A book recently translated into English and published in this
country, The Church: A Divine Mystery, by Fr. Roger Hassevtidt, the director of the major seminary in Lille, has emphasized
another set of relations inherent to the constitution of the Church
militant of the New Testament.3 Father Hasseveldt has stressed
tte fart that this institution is the flowering and the completion
of earlier stages of the Church militant, and that it is, in itself,
essentially a preparation for the absolutely final status of the ecdesia, that of the Church triumphant
Obviously this lesson is one which no Catholic can afford to
ignore. It is definitely a part of the Church’s doctrine that there
has been, since the time of our first parents, a Church militant, a
congregatio fidelium in Christo in this world. This supernatural
kingdom of God on earth has always been the community ot per­
sons professing their acceptance of the divine public revelation
centering around Christ Our Saviour. In Old Testament times
this community underwent many changes of form. But always in
Old Testament times it was the gathering of people who professed
* It pot an end to any legitimate excuse for teaching of this sort when it
Mt forth the authoritative doctrine that there is no such thing as an “inn&le church." Unfortunately, however, some bocks coutainmg teaching
to tte effect that there is an “invisible church” have been pubiisberi (or
rc-paUhbod) under Catholic auspices since the appearance of the Mystici
Corforit.
lCL Smevddt; The Church: A Dime Mystery, translated by William
Storey (Chicago: Fides Publishers, 1955), ρρ. 57-151.
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THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW

to believe what God had revealed about the coming Redeemer. lu
the New Testament period, since the time of Our Lord’s crudfixion, it has been the visible Catholic Church, still the congre­
gatio fidelium in Christo. But whereas in Old Testament times the
content of divine public revelation had centered about the figure
of Christ who was to come, in. New Testament times it has beta
concerned with teachings about Our Lord who has come into the
world and has offered up the redemptive sacrifice of Calvary.

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The older theologians of the Catholic Church brought out this
portion of God’s teaching about His supernatural kingdom ω
earth chiefly in their writings about the twofold origin of the
Church militant.4 Unfortunately there is a tendency in most mod­
em textbooks to limit the teaching about the origin of the Churtb
to an account of the establishment of the Church militant of the
New Testament by Our Lord. Hence there is a danger that this
extremely rich portion of Catholic doctrine about the Church
militant may become somewhat obscured. Father Hasseveldt has
done good service to the cause of Catholic theology by stressing
this point in his book.
It is of course tremendously important that Catholics realize
the continuity of the Church with the supernatural kingdom <rf
God, the congregatio fidelium in Christo, of the Old Testament
The Catholic Church alone is the true Israel of God in the wurfd
today. It is the continuation and the perfection, here on earth, d
the ancient plebs Dei. It is truly and exclusively the commuoity
of God's chosen people. The various stages through which tie
ecclesia of the Old Testament passed were ail preparatory to the
perfection of the Church militant of the New Testament, within
which Our Lord promised to remain even to the consrunnntioo
of the world. The rites and sacrifices of the old dispensation, with
all of their splendor, were actually foreshadowings of the great
Sacrifice of the New Law, in which Christ Himself is both Priest
and Victim.
Moreover Father Hasseveldt has stressed the fact that the states
of the Church militant of the New Testament is likewise one if
preparation. God’s supernatural kingdom is living in pilgrimage
. 4<X Fenton, "The Twofold Origin of the Church liffîtank" *■
C3O, 4 (Oct, 1944), 281-3W.

THE CHURCH IN ADEQUATE PERSPECTIVE

261

in the various cities throughout the world. Its only fatherland is
in the courts of heaven. There those who have passed from this
life in the state of grace and “within” the Church militant will,
in the glory of the Beatific Vision, enjoy the eternal possession
of that truth which, in the Church militant, they have possessed
only in the obscurity of the faith.

Hence, just as there were conditions attached to the ecclesia in
its various stages throughout the old dispensation which no
longer pertain to it in the fullness of the New Testament, there
are conditions inherent in the Church militant now which will
not be found in the Church triumphant. The faith, which in the
Church militant is one of the elements composing the inward or
spiritual bond of union with Our Lord, will be displaced by the
Beatific Vision, the clear and immediate understanding of the
supernatural reality which we know in this life only by the assent
of divine faith. Hope, which is the love or the desire of God as
our own Good, will be replaced by the actual possession of the
Triune God in the Beatific Vision. Charity, the third element in
the inward bond of union with Our Lord, will remain as it is, but
perfected by the light and the beauty of the Beatific Vision.
The sacraments, as signs of divine grace, will no longer need
to be employed. In the Church militant there are men whom God
has made responsible for the instruction and the direction of the
rest of the faithful. In order that they may carry out their respon­
sibilities, God has endowed them with teaching authority and
with the true power of jurisdiction. In the Church triumphant
such responsibility and power will be no more. These words of
the Apocalypse apply to the Church triumphant :

And the city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in
it For the glory of God hath enlightened it : and the Lamb is the lamp
thereof.
And the nations shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the
earth shall bring their glory and honor into it

And the gates thereof shall not be shut by day : for there stall be
no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the natieas into it.

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There shall not enter into it anything defiled or that worketh abotmnation or noaketh a lie : hut they that are written in the book of life

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This passage from the Apocalypse brings out the ultimate <$■
ference between the status of the ecclesia in pilgrimage and its
condition in patria. The Church militant of the New Testament is
an organized and thus visible society. As such neither charity nor
even the faith itself is requisite for membership in it. What is essential for membership is the possession of those factors which together constitute the outward or bodily bond of union with Off
Lord.* Thus it is possible for men who are actually in the state
of mortal sin and even for occult heretics and infidels to ret®
their membership in the Church militant of the New Testament
In the Church triumphant, however, there will be no one firing
in a condition of aversion from God. As a matter of fact a lesson
very frequently and forcefully driven home by Our Lord in the
course of His parables of the kingdom is precisely the fact tint
the Church will be completely purified before it enters irto its
ultimate and eternal triumph in Christ All that is sinful and ωworthy will be cast out and the Church living forever in Hara
will be composed exclusively of those who live the life of sanctifying grace.
AH of this is a part of Catholic doctrine. It is a body of troth
which our people should know and should meditate upon. Anything that claims to be an adequate presentation of the theology
of the Church should bring out these truths accurately.

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There is, however, still another dimension which must be taken
into consideration in an account that claims to give anything fife
a complete perspective of the ecclesia. By reason of original sin.
all of the descendants of Adam begin their existence in a state of
aversion from God. Our Divine Saviour and His Blessed Motbff
are the two exceptions to this rule. He was essentially insane
to sin because He is a divine Person. Moreover, His sacred ha·

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laver of regeneration, who profess the true faith, and who have not tabcniik
separated themselves from the fabric of the Body or have beet
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THE CHURCH IN ADEQUATE PERSPECTIVE

263

inanity did not incur the debt of original sin since, by reason of
His virginal conception, He was not descended from Adam by
way of carnal generation. She was preserved free from original
sin through the unique privilege of her Immaculate Conception.
Everyone else in the human family has begun and will begin life
hardened with the weight of original sin, and thus deprived of
God’s friendship.
Satan, the leader of the fallen angels, has a certain priority in
the line of sin. All of those who are turned away from God, either
by reason of their own acts or because of original sin, the sin of
nature, thus foil to some extent under his domination. And, since
the descendants of Adam as a social unit come into existence in a
state of sin, Satan has and exercises a certain dominating influence
over this social unit as a whole. He is, as Our Lord called him
more than once, “the prince of this world.”7 The unregenerate
family of Adam constitutes what the magisterium of the Catholic
Church has called “the kingdom of Satan.”8
Now it is definitely Catholic doctrine that the process of salva­
tion bas a social aspect Essentially, salvation is the work by
wbkh a man is transferred from the condition of sin or aversion
from God, in which he is liable to everlasting death and failure
and brought into the supernatural life of sanctifying grace. Ulti­
mately the process of salvation is completed when the person thus
saved comes to possess this life of grace in its final and eternal
flowering, in the eternal glory of the Beatific Vision.
Although salvation comes to individual persons, it is by no
means a merely individual process. It necessarily involves, not
only taking a man out of the state of sin, but also removing him
from the dominion of Satan. When any man is saved, he is trans­
ferred from this kingdom of Satan into another social unit, the
kingdom of God’s love. And, by God’s own institution, the king­
dom of His love in this world is the Catholic Church, the Mysti­
cal Body of Jesus Christ. The “world,” the dominion of “the
prince of this world,” is the terminus a quo of this social aspect
of the process of salvation. The Catholic Church, the Church ntffi7Cf/ofas 12:31; 14:30; 16:11.
•The expression was used in this way by Pope Leo ΧΙΠ in has encyriical
issued on April 20, 1884. The translation of this passage
ù to be found in Father Wynne’s edition of The Great Encyclical Lcttert of
Pofe tee XIII (New York: Benriger, 1903), p. 83.

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THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW

tant of the New Testament, is the terminus ad quern. It is the so­
cial unit into which men are received whenever they are moved
by the power of divine grace out of the dominion of "the prince
of this world.”
This truth is brought out with matchless clarity in the account,
in the Acts of the Apostles, of the consequences that resulted from
St. Peter’s missionary sermon on the first Christian Pentecost
Now when they had heard these things, they had compunction in
their heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles: What
shall we do, men and brethren?
But Peter said to them : Do penance : and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. And
you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are
far off, whomsoever the Lord our God shall call.
And with many other words did he testify and exhort them, saying:
Save yourselves from this perverse generation.
They therefore that received his word were baptized: and there
were added in that day about three thousand souls.
And they were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles and in
the communication of the breaking of bread and in prayers.®

What is expressed and what is very clearly implied in this
passage is fundamental divine teaching about the Church militant
of the New Testament. St Peter, the head of the apostolic col­
lege and the Vicar of Christ on earth, here in the first missionary
sermon delivered for the Catholic Church, bade his hearers who
were outside of that Church to save themselves from the social
unit within which they were then contained. He spoke of this so­
cial unit as “this perverse generation.”
When he told them to "save” themselves, he meant exactly
what he said. His words would have had no intelligent meaning
whatsoever had they not implied that the people to whom he was
speaking were then and there in a ruinous position, in a status
which would inevitably involve them in death if they were to
continue in it. Had they been in a situation which could accurately
be described as less perfect than that of the company of Our Lord s
disciples, but still as in some way acceptable, St. Peter would have
been guilty of serious misstatement when he bade them save them-

THE CHURCH IN ADEQUATE PERSPECTIVE

265

selves from it. A person, properly speaking, is not saved from a
situation which is merely less than perfect, but which is still
acceptable.
Furthermore, St. Peter insisted that the individuals to whom
his sermon was addressed should “save” themselves “from this
perverse generation (2<ifop-e άτο τής ya/âi ττρ σκολιάτ nninys)."
Now it must be remembered that he was speaking on that first
Christian Pentecost to a group described by the Acts of the
Apostles as “Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.”10
Moreover, the Acts list the places from which these men had come
to the great Jewish feast of Pentecost, then being celebrated in
Jerusalem. The men who listened to St. Peter were

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and inhabitants of Mesopotamia,
Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia.

Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene,
and strangers of Rome.
Jews also and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians. . . -11
In other words, many of the people to whom St. Peter spoke on
the first Christian Pentecost were pilgrims who had come to Jeru­
salem to honor God in the celebration of the great feast day of
their nation. Many of them must have started on their journey
before Our Lord was crucified. Such men had set out on their
pilgrimage as members of the society which was then the super­
natural kingdom of God, the ecclesia, on earth.
It was while they were still on their way to Jerusalem that the
old Jewish religious commonwealth ceased to be God's super­
natural kingdom on earth. This community had been the congre­
gatio fidelït/m during the last period of the old dispensation. It
had been the association of those who had professed their accept­
ance of divine public revelation which, in Old Testament times,
centered around the teaching about the Redeemer promised by
God. By its official and corporate rejection of Our Lord, the old
Jewish religious community lost its position as the congregatio
fidelium, since the repudiation of the Redeemer Himself consti­
tuted a rejection of the divine message about Him.
When the old Jewish reh'gious congregation lost its position as
foe company of God’s chosen people, or as His supernatural king3Mrtr2:5.
η Λ<*2:9-Π.

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dom on earth, the little society of disciples which Our Lord had
gathered and organized around Himself during the days of His
public life kept the faith, and began to exist as the ecclesia of the
New Testament, possessing the dignity of God’s supernatural king­
dom in a much more complete and perfect way than the older
society had ever enjoyed it. The Eucharistic sacrifice, the central
and essential religious act of this ecclesia of the New Testament
was the reality which the sacrifices of the Old Law had prefigured
and for which they had prepared the way.

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Thus, while St. Peter was speaking to them and urging than to
save themselves from “this perverse generation,” his hearers were
members of a religious community which, up until a few weeks
before, had enjoyed the dignity of the kingdom or the ecclesia oi
God on earth. These people were not ignorant of the one living
and true God. They were definitely not people devoid of any refi­
gion. They were a group that could certainly be designated as
“men of good will.” Yet, because they were not within the ecclesia,
the supernatural kingdom of God of the new dispensation, St
Peter informed them that they were living in a perverse genera­
tion, and he urged them to save themselves from it
The process of saving themselves from the perverse generation
or the dominion of Satan, the prince of this world, actually in­
volved entrance into the true ecclesia. The teaching of the Acts of
the Apostles is most obvious on this point. It tells us that the
people who received His word, or, to put it in another way, those
who actually saved themselves from the kingdom of Satan were
baptized. They were added to the group already incorporated into
the society of the disciples by Our Lord Himself during the course
of His public life. They were henceforth within the true kingdom
of God of the new dispensation on the same title as those who had
been with this society from the beginning.
St. Peter’s words make it dear that the process of salvation by
which these people were transferred from the dominion ci Satan
into God’s ecclesia involved activity on their part. They were urged
to save themselves, and about three thousand of them followed
the Apostle’s injunctkxt by taming against their sins and by ac­
cepting Christian baptism. St.
FptsHe to the CoJossians, on
the other hand, brings out the feet that this transfer is attributable

THE CHURCH IN ADEQUATE PERSPECTIVE

267

to God Himself. It was St. Paul’s prayer that his people might
be found*.

Giving thanks to God the Father, -who hath made us worthy to be
partakers of the lot of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath trans­
lated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.12
The action which St. Paul attributes to God is precisely that
of which St. Peter spoke on the first Christian Pentecost Those
within the ecclesia are transferred from the power or the dominion
of darkness and brought into the kingdom of Christ. Both Apostles
speak in such a way as to imply most clearly that there is no escape
from the perverse generation or the power of darkness except into
the true Church, the supernatural kingdom of God.
The teaching set forth by both St. Peter and St. Paul can only
be explained as meaning that all men are contained within one or
the other of these two social units. Indeed, St. Paul, writing to the
Ephesians, insists that all of those now within the Church “were
by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” The context of this
statement brings out with special clarity the fact that God, in sav­
ing those within the Church, took them out of one serial unit and
placed them in another.
And you, when you were dead in your offences and sins,
Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit
that now worketh on the children of unbelief:
In which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our
flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of oar thoughts, and were by
nature children of wrath, even as the rest:

But God (who is rich in mercy) for his exceeding charity where­
with he loved us

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together in
Christ (by whose grace you are saved)
And hath raised us up together and hath made us sit together in
the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus.1*

St. Paul, in this passage, bricks out the fact that God has ele­
vated the praptewbo are i»t within the errieue from a situation

»·ά*'ΐ·ΐ·β«··«.····<·'·.····>

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THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW

in which they were in some way under the influence or the domi­
nation of “the prince of the power of this air.” This same spirit, the
one whom Our Lord Himself designated as “the prince of this
world,” is spoken of here in the Epistle to the Ephesians as “the
spirit that now worketh on the children of unbelief.” The people
who are called the children of unbelief are those outside of what
the theologians were to define as the congregatio fidelium in
Christo, the true and only Church or supernatural kingdom of
Jesus Christ.
This passage from the Epistles to the Ephesians shows that the
salvation which comes from Our Lord’s grace has, as its social
aspect, the removal of men from the situation in which this evil
spirit works upon them, and has some sort of influence over them,
to the condition in which they are together in Christ, in His Mysti­
cal Body.
The notion brought out by St. Peter in his sermon on the first
Christian Pentecost and by St. Paul in his Epistles to the Colossians and the Ephesians is also set forth in a highly important
document of the ecclesiastical magisterium, Pope Leo XIII’s en­
cyclical letter, Humanum genus. What Pope Leo taught in this
document is merely the truth contained in the passages of Scrip­
ture to which reference has been made, and in the constant tradi­
tion of the Fathers and the theologians.
The race of man, after its miserable fall from God, the Creator and
the Giver of heavenly gifts, “through the envy of the devil,” separated
into two diverse parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth
and virtue, the other for those things that are contrary to virtue and
to truth. The one is the Kingdom of God on earth, the true Church
of Jesus Christ; and those who desire from their heart to be united
with it so as to gain salvation must of necessity serve God and His
only-begotten Son with their whole mind and with an entire will. The
other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are
all whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first
parents, those who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law, and who
have many aims of their own in contempt of God, and many aims also
against God.
This twofold kingdom St. Augustine keenly discerned and descriiwd
after the manner of two cities, contrary in their laws because striving
tor contrary objects ; and with subtle brevity he expressed the efficient
cause of each in these words: “Two loves formed two cities: the

THE CHURCH IN ADEQUATE PERSPECTIVE

269

love of self, reaching even to contempt of God, an earthly city; and
the love of God, reaching even to contempt of self, a heavenly one."
At eveiy period of time each has been in conflict with the other, with
a variety and multiplicity of weapons and of warfare, although not
always with equal ardor and assault.1*
In this passage Pope Leo ΧΙΠ clearly insists upon the fact that
all the people in the world are in one of these two kingdoms. Ob­
viously then, leaving one of these social units means entering the
other, and the joining of one necessarily involves relinquishing
the other. Thus, against this background it is not difficult to see
that there is no liberation from the domination and the kingdom
of Satan other than by way of entrance into the genuine and super­
natural kingdom of God, which is the true Church of Jesus Christ
Our Lord, the Catholic Church.
The process of salvation involves not only a turning away from
sin and a turning toward God, but also the relinquishing of the
kingdom of Satan and entrance into the kingdom of God. Thus,
in the light of the teaching brought out by Pope Leo XIII in his
Humanum genus, it is obvious that no man can be designated as
saved unless he is within the Church.
The traditional teaching of Catholic theology, now set forth
authoritatively by the Holy Office in its letter Suprema haec sacra.
makes it clear that it is possible to be saved while being in the
Church other than as a member.13 The fact that the ecclesia of the
New Testament is an organized society', a visible society with
members visibly contained within it, is due to God's merciful
dispensation and not to the inherent nature of the process of sal­
vation itself. Hence it is possible for a man to be “within” the
Church in such a way as to find eternal salvation in it when he
is not a member of this society, but merely one who intends or
wills to become a member. And again, under certain circum­
stances, when the man in question is invincibly ignorant of the
identity' of the true Church, it is possible for him to be ‘’within”
it in such a way as to achieve salvation when he has merely an
implicit, as distinct from an explicit, desire to become a member.
14 The Great Encyclical Leiters of Pope Lea Xllf, pp. 83 L
u CL the Lahn text of the Suprema haec sacra ta AER, CXXV II. 4
iOct, 1952), 307 11, and Fenton, "The Hoir Office Letter on the Necessity
r.t the Catholic Church,” in AER, CXXVU. 6 (Dec, 1952), 450-61.

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In any event, no desire or intention to become a member of the
Church can be effective in the direction of eternal salvation unless
it is enlightened by genuine divine faith and animated by perfect
charity.

The Humanum genus, however, assures us that entrance into
the Church is by no means an assurance of eternal life. It insists
that those who sincerely wish to be united to the Church so as to
gain salvation must necessarily serve God and serve Our Lord
with all the forces at titeir command. Thus it implies that it is pos­
sible to be joined with the Church in a way that will not lead to
salvation. This, of course, is the basic lesson brought out in those
parables of the kingdom which tell of the final purification of the
Church on the last day. A man who is a member of the Church
but who leads a sinful life is actually conducting himself accord­
ing to the standards of the kingdom of Satan. He places himself
in such a position that, continuing to sin and refusing to turn
back to God, he will ultimately be removed from God's kingdom
and will find his everlasting place in the kingdom of God’s spiritual
enemy.
Most striking in this passage from the Humanum genus is Pope
Leo’s insistence on the continual antagonism between these two
kingdoms. In the last analysis, of course, this mirrors the funda­
mental hatred of the devil for Our Lord, the antagonism of which
Our Lord spoke, when referring to “the prince of this world," He
said that "in me he hath not anything.”1*
Our Lord was speaking of the world as the kingdom or the
dominion of "the prince of this world” when He warned Hts
disciples of the opposition they would have to expect from it
If the world hate you, know that it hath hated me before you.

If you had been of the world, the world would love its own; btrt
because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you.11

The older scholastic theologians presented very clearly the truth
Pope Leo XIII taught in the Humanum genus. Thus, using two

«Cf. Jo*· UiM
«Jo*» 15:I8f.

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271

phrases employed in the Vulgate translation of the Psalms as
examples, the great ecclesiologist Moneta of Cremona wrote :
According to the testimony of the Scriptures, there are two ecclesiae
found in this world. One is the ecclesia sanctorum, of which we read
in the first verse of Psalm 149 : "Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle,
let his praise be in the church of the saints.” The other is the ecclesia
ntaligMntiurn, with reference to which we read that the Holy Ghost
has said, through David, in the fifth verse of Psalm 25 : “I have hated
the assembly (ecclesia) of the malignant”18

Another great ecclesiologist who brought out this same truth is
James of Viterbo. He has this to say about the two kingdoms in
his work, De regimine christiano.
The kingdom of the world, which is called earthly, is opposed to the
kingdom of God, because it has chosen earthly goods for itself as its
own purpose. This is also called the kingdom of the devil, because the
devil rules over it, for, as it is said in the book of Job: "He is king
over all the children of pride," because he rules over them through
malice as Christ rules over the just through grace. . . . But these two
kingdoms, as far as men are concerned, are mingled together in this
life, because the good are mingled together with the evü and the evil
with the good. Both in like manner use temporal things and both to­
gether are afflicted equaHy with misfortunes until they shall be sepa­
rated by the last judgment when each win receive his final end, as
Augustine says in the fifteenth book of the De ewiUte Pei1·

s

For James of Viterbo, of course, the kingdom of God is the
Church. He has this to say about the interrelations of the two
kingdoms.
These two kingdoms originated from and were typified by Abri and
Cain, and also the two sons of Abraham. There always have been men
belonging to both kingdoms since the very beginning of the human
race. Moreover the entire human race is contained within these two

18 Moneta of Cremona, Advernu CalÂaros et ValdsTues, Lib. V, cap. 1,
p. 389.
19 James of Viterbo, De regimine ckristiano, pars I, cap. 1. The text is in
Arquîllière, Le fins ancien traité de l'église: Joignes de t'Üerbo, De regimine
ckristiano, Etude des sources et isStùm critique (Paris .* Beancbcsm, 1936),
pp. 97 f.

SS»-4®

B

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THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW

kingdoms, in such a way that each person must belong to one or tbe
other of them.20

The Cardinal John de Turrecremata, in many ways the greatest
of ail the ecdesiologists in the history of Catholic theology, brings
out the same lesson. Turrecremata, however, writing in his-Sumwi
de ecclesia, speaks of the Church as the civitas Dei, as it is divided
against and opposed by the civitas diaboli. As a matter of fact
many of the classical ecdesiologists explained this dimension of
the Church when they interpreted the term "civitas De?’ as used
to designate the Church in the Scriptures and in the writings of
the Fathers.
Turrecremata writes that : “in this world there are two tides,
joined together in body but divided from one another in spirit
{coniunctae corpore sed divisae mente). The one is called Jeru­
salem, the other, Babylon. One is the dty of God, the other [the
city] of the devil·”*1
In the text of the Summa de ecclesia, this passage forms a part
of a commentary on or an explanation of a statement taken from
the standard mediaeval glossa ordinaria. St. Paul, in his Epistle
to the Ephesians, had spoken of the Christians as “no more
strangers and foreigners," but as "fellow citizens with the saints
and the domestics of God.”22 The glossa taught that St. Pad was
speaking of the faithful in this passage “as transferred from Baby­
lon to Jerusalem {quasi de Babylonia translati ad Hierusalem)."
Turrecremata, in his turn, identified Babylonia as the civitas dia­
boli and Jerusalem as the civitas Dei.
Thus the Summa de ecclesia teaches very clearly that none of
the faithful originated within the kingdom of God, but that all of
them had been transferred into this ecclesia and taken out of the
kingdom of Satan, the prince of this world. It sees mankind divided
between these two kingdoms, and recognizes the fact that a man
is rescued from the power of Satan when, and only when, he is
brought into the Church of God.
*****
g

jâ]

The teaching about this relation of the Church to the world, the
dominion of the prince of this world, is an integral part of the
ao/frid., pp. 9β£
'-1 Cardinal John de Turrecremata, Summa de ecclesia (Venice,
Lib. I. cap. 53, p. 38’.
2: W,

!d!

THE CHURCH IN ADEQUATE PERSPECTIVE

273

Catholic doctrine about the Church, It belongs just as truly to the
theological tractatus de ecclesia as do the teachings about the
Church’s relations to God and to the sacred humanity of Our
Lord, and about the relation of the Church militant of the New
Testament to the ecclesia of the old dispensation and to the Church
triumphant. It is part of the doctrine that the Church has always
taught, and will always continue to teach, about its own nature
and background.
Yet, at the same time, the doctrine so brilliantly summed up by
Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Humanum genus tends to be
ignored or even misinterpreted in some contemporary treatises
on the Church. Incidentally, Father Hasseveldt’s book gives noth­
ing like an adequate treatment of this section of ecclesiology, and
this failure to take cognizance of it detracts seriously from the
worth of the volume. Any book that sets out to give an over-all
picture of what God has revealed about His Church should take
adequate cognizance of the truth that this Church is one of the
two social units into which the human race is divided. It is the
regnant. Dei, divided from and opposed by the regnum diaboli. It
is the ecclesia Christi, into which men must enter, at least by de­
sire, if they are to be saved from the evil influence and power of
God’s spiritual enemy.

J
i

9·*ν·?ί·Ύ ■■

Any book that claims to describe the Church, and that omits
this portion of the truth about it, is at best lamentably inadequate.
Any book that sets forth teaching opposed to or incompatible with
this truth is erroneous and harmful.

It is particularly important that the ecdesiologists of our time
should stress this portion of the Catholic doctrine about the Church.
In these days the spirit of the world, opposed always to the teach­
ing of Christ as a whole, has focused its opposition on this par­
ticular section of the truth about the Church. The world works
to make people imagine that all religious bodies and all religious
“faiths'’ are productive of substantially the same effects. It has no
particular objection to a Catholic’s holding that his religious so­
ciety is the best and the holiest of all the religious organizations
in the world. But it does object, and it does tend to label as "of­
fensive,” the forthright and accurate statement of the fact that the
Catholic Church is actually the supernatural kingdom of the living
God. the necessary terminus ad quern of the social aspect of the

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THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW

process of salvation. Despite the fact that such teaching is utterly
unfashionable, or rather, precisely because of that fact, it is im­
perative that our people be brought to see the Church in its ade­
quate doctrinal perspective.

Joseph Clifford Fenton
The Catholic University oj America
Washington, D. C.

Fifty Years Ago

*
r>
'> ;..t
in?
•V Afc

The leading article in The American Ecclesiastical Review for Oc­
tober, 1905, is a lengthy discussion of “Church Extension Plans," by
Fr. Francis C. Kelley. The zealous writer explains the constitution
and the activities of the society he plans for the extension of the faith
throughout our land (and which, in the course of years, has becotne
so efficient and successful a feature of the Catholic Church in the
United States). It is interesting to note that Father Kelley derived
many of his ideas from similar organizations in Protestant groups.
He concludes his article with the inspiring statement: “The move­
ment is necessary to our future well-being and our power for fte
spread of God's Truth ; our brethren suffer ; and above all, we have
the Eternal Promise, which shall not, nay, which can not fail.1*... Ft.
J. Ferreres discusses the administration of the sacraments to adults
who have apparently died, and concludes that the sacramental rites may
be given even several hours after all signs of life have ceased. It would
seem that latent life can continue longer when death has been suddra
than when it followed a lingering illness. , . . Fr, E. Devine, S.T,
continues his novel, which is now entitled “The Training of Sihs,"
though previously it was called "The Training of a Wealthy Parish­
ioner.” . . . Fr. Charles Cronin, of the English College, Rome, objects
to Bishop Belford's theory of sacrifice and of the nature of the Mass.
Several other priests voice their disagreement in letters to the Reriew.
. . . Bishop Jules Chatron, writing on “Experiences of a Missionary
Bishop in Japan,” states that the greatest obstacle to missionary efforts
in that country is “the surrounding indifference and naturalism which,
in an unreligions country like Japan, holds one as in an iron vise."..
Fr. T. O’Reilly, O.P., writes in defense of Father Lagranges idraon the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture. ... Tn the Studies and Con­
ferences there is a quotation from a discourse of Archbishop Farley,
of New York, on tije progress of Catholic education in that archdiocese.

F.J.C.

Answers to Questions

GIFTS ON THE OCCASION OF AN
INVALID MARRIAGE

!
I

Question: Should we tell our people that it is wrong for them
to give a wedding present to a couple who are entering a union
that is invalid according to the teaching of the Church, particularly
the attempted marriage of a Catholic girl to a divorced man before
anon-Catholic clergyman or a civil official?
Answer: Catholics should be told that ordinarily, at least, they
should refrain from presenting gifts to couples entering a union
that is invalid according to Catholic principles, particularly if one
of the participants is a lapsed Catholic. A wedding gift is an ex­
pression of joy and congratulation to the two who are entering
the holy state of matrimony. But how can a Catholic consistently
manifest joy and congratulation to a couple who are entering a
anion that is not a true marriage but only a sinful concubinage?
Such a gift has the appearance of approval of the deplorable state
which these two are accepting, a sad parody of the conjugal union.
Even when the gift is to be given by a group, such as the office
companions of one of the parties, with the understanding that
each of the workers contributes a small sum, Catholics should be
advised to withhold any contribution, although in this case the
cooperation might be justified if otherwise an individual would
have to suffer some grave inconvenience. In very exceptional cir­
cumstances only would a Catholic have a sufficient reason to give
an individual present to a couple entering an invalid union—for
example, a secretary whose employer is attempting a marriage of
this kind, and who realizes that she would be discharged if she did
not present a gift. In a case of this kind, if one of the couple is a
Catholic, the gift could appropriately be an article of a religious
nature, such as a crucifix or a devotional book, which might offer
ant occasion of repentance to the unfaithful member of the Church.
275