Summary of the Church - Juan de Torquemada

Juan de Torquemada’s Summa de Ecclesia is a scholastic treatise that sets out a systematic account of the Church’s nature, structure, and authority. It presents the Church as a visible, hierarchical society founded by Christ, and explains the foundations of ecclesiastical power.

A central concern of the work is the conciliar controversy, especially the relation between papal authority and general councils. Torquemada defends papal primacy, arguing that councils are authoritative only in dependence on the Roman pontiff.

The work also treats the marks of the Church, membership in the Church, and the exercise of doctrinal and disciplinary authority. Overall, it is a structured synthesis of ecclesiology aimed at clarifying the Church’s constitution in response to the 15th-century crisis of authority.