An historical treatise of the foundation and prerogatives of the Church of Rome and of her bishops written originally in French by Monsieur Maimbourg ; and translated into English by A. Lovel ...

CHAP. XXIX. The Judgment of Ancient Popes touching the Power over Tem∣porals, that some Doctors of late times attribute to the Pope.

THESE of all Men are evi∣dences of greatest Authori∣ty, and least to be rejected, seeing the question is about a Power that some would attribute to them, and which they openly declare they have not. I mean Ancient Popes, who for most part were great Saints, and who very well understanding their obligation, have always kept within the bounds of that Spiri∣tual Power which they have re∣ceived from Jesus Christ, for Go∣verning his Church according to the Laws and Canons of Ecumeni∣cal Councils, so as the Council of Florence defined it.

The truth is, they were so far from attempting any thing upon the Temporal of Emperors and Kings, tho even Infidels and He∣reticks, as to deposing of them, and absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance that they had taken to them, that they have always openly protested that they were wholly submitted unto them, as most humble Subjects, and have acknowledged, as well as the great Osius, that distribution which God hath made of the Temporal for So∣vereigns, and of the Spiritual for the Church, for the Popes and Bishops.

There is nothing more evident than this in Ecclesiastical History: We need only read the Epistle of Pope Gelasus I. to the Emperor Anastasius, wherein he makes that distinction of the two Powers, one Temporal, and the other wholly Spiritual, and both independent one of another: That of Nico∣las I. to the Emperor Michael, wherein he distinguishes them, Actibus propriis & dignitatibus di∣stinctis,

by their Dignities and pro∣per Functions, which are of two quite different kinds; and what Gregory II. wrote to Leo Isauricus, a most wicked Arch-heretick and cruel Persecuter of Catholicks, saying to him in one of his Let∣ters: In the same manner as the Pope has no Power of inspecting the Palace of Emperors, nor of conferring Roy∣al Dignities, so neither hath the Em∣peror any right to meddle with the Go∣vernment of the Church.

This is enough, to shew that Cardinal Bellarmine hath imperti∣nently made use of the example of that Pope against us, because ac∣cording to the relation of some Greek Historians, though the La∣tins of that time take no notice of it, he by his Authority hindered the Romans his Subjects from pay∣ing the Tribute which they owed him. To overthrow this weak Argument there needs no more, but to consider Gregory in the quality of Pope, and then in the quality of the chief Citizen of Rome. As

Pope he wrote to that Iconoclast Emperor long and excellent Let∣ters, wherein joyning force to af∣fection, he admonishes, reproves and exhorts him, he prays him, and threatens him with the Judgments of God; and then, so far was he from deposing him from his Em∣pire, that he prevents as much as in him lay, all Italy from revolting against him, and from acknowledg∣ing another Emperor, thereby maintaining the People, who were ready to shake off the insupporta∣ble yoak of so wicked a Prince, in their obedience.

But when he saw that Leo grew more and more obdurate in his im∣piety; that he had attempted two or three times to have him assassi∣nated; and that he gathered toge∣ther all the Forces of the Empire, to come and do at Rome, as he gave it out in all places, what he had done at Constantinople, in beat∣ing down the Holy Images, and putting all to Fire and Sword, if they renounced not the Ancient

Religion: Then, having as Pope, declared him Excommunicated, he did, as chief Citizen of Rome, as the rest did, what the Law of na∣ture allows, to wit, take the Arms out of a mad Man's Hand, and prevent the giving him money, which he would have used for their ruine and desolation, and after∣ward he put himself with the other Romans under the protection of Charles Martel, for the safety of their Religion and Lives, though for all that, this Pope never offer∣ed to depose Leo, nor to absolve his Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance. For he himself and his Successors long after acknow∣ledged the Greek Emperors for their Sovereigns, and it was not before the Empire of Constantin and Irene, that the Romans, and with them the Pope, as a Member of that Civil and Politick Body, and not by his Pontifical Authori∣ty, seeing that they could no long∣er be defended against the Lom∣bards by the Greeks, who had

abandoned them, submitted to Charlemagne.

This is fully and clearly made out in my History of the Icono∣clasts: Wherein it may be seen that the example of Gregory II. which Bellarmin alledges against us, is nothing at all to the purpose. As also more it may be seen there that Pope Adrian I. wrote to Con∣stantin Copronymus and to Leo his Son, both great Hereticks, in very submissive terms, as to his Masters and Sovereigns; and that's a thing which the Ancient Popes never failed to do.

Let it be considered with what submission Pelagius I. wrote to Childebert King of France; who would have him send to him a Confession of his Faith. He obey∣ed his orders, and told him that according to Holy Scripture Popes ought to be subject to Kings as well as other Men, Quibus nos etiam subditos esse Sacrae Scripturae testantur.

In what manner did Stephen II. implore the assistance of Pepin against the Lombards? I beg of you, saies he, that favour, as if I were in your presence prostrate upon the ground at your Feet.

Can there be terms of greater humility and of a more perfect obedience, than those which the great St. Gregory makes use of in one of his Letters to the Emperor Mauricius, who enjoined him a thing to which he had great aversion, and which in his own Judgment he thought contrary to the Service of God? What am I, saies he, who re∣present this to my Masters, but a little Dust and a Worm? For my part, who am obliged to obey, I have done what hath been commanded me: and so I have fulfilled my obli∣gations on both sides, for on the one Hand I have executed the Emperors order, and on the other I have not failed to represent what the cause of God required.

And in another Letter upon oc∣casion of his being informed that

the Lombards had put a Bishop to death in prison, he would have it represented to the Emperors, whom he calls his most Serene Masters, that if he would attempt any thing against the lives of the Lombards, that Nation should have no more King, Duke, nor Count: But because I fear God, saies he, I am loth to have an Hand in any Mans death.

He therein followed the exam∣ple of one of his Predecessors St. Martin I. who would never resist, tho it was in his Power, the orders of the Emperor Constans a Monothelite Heretick, who caused him to be carried away from Rome to Constantinople, and from thence into banishment. And although those who would have opposed that violence, called out to him, that he should not yield, and that he should be well backed, yet he would not listen to them, for fear it might come to Arms and Slaughter be committed, Judging it better, said he, to die ten times,

than to suffer the Blood of one single Man to be shed.

These holy Popes who were so afraid lest the least drop of hu∣mane Blood should be spilt, were far from deposing Kings and Emperors, and giving away their Dominions to others, under pre∣text of the good of Religion, as long after them some of their Suc∣cessors did; which was the cause of so many cruel Wars that with Blood and Butchery filled Italy, Germany, and France it self during the League.

In this manner the ancient Popes kept within the bounds of their Power purely Spiritual, rendering the honour and obedience which they owed to Temporal Powers, and especially to their Sovereigns, nay even to their Sovereigns who were hereticks and Enemies of their Religion. This makes it very apparent, what learned Men have so clearly proved, that it is no more to be doubted of; to wit, that these Letters of St. Gregory

are supposititious, wherein he or∣dains that every King, Prelate, or Judg that shall neglect to preserve the Privileges which that Pope gives to the Abbey of St. Medard of Soissons, and to three other Mona∣steries of Autun be deprived of his Dignity, and as a destroyer of the Church, separated from the com∣munion of Believers, and from the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; that, in fine, he be smitten with all the Anathema's which till then had been thundered against all Hereticks, damned like Judas, and with him sent headlong into Hell, if he do not do penance, and make his peace with the Monks.

Such extravagant terms as these, and so remote from the temper and stile of St. Gregory are alone sufficient to discover the gross im∣posture, and the supposition of these pretended Bulls, which some have not been ashamed to make use of, for subjecting the Crowns of Sovereigns to the Pope. That holy Pope behaved himself in a

far different manner in relation to Kings and Emperors, as may be seen in all his Epistles. And that wise conduct which his Predeces∣sors held, continued still after him until Gregory VII. who, according to the observation of the learned Otho Bishop of Frisinguen, was the first Pope, that contrary to so many good Examples of his Prede∣cessors, takes to himself the Power of deposing Kings, warranting himself, as he himself saies in his Letter to Heriman Bishop of Mets, by this, that Jesus Christ gave St. Peter the Power of binding and loosing. To which Waltram Bishop of Naumbourg made the same answer that we make at pre∣sent to those who abuse that pas∣sage contrary to the interpretati∣on of all the Fathers, that that Power was given to loose Men from their sins, and not from the Oath of Allegiance which Subjects are bound by a divine and indi∣spensable Law to observe towards their Sovereigns.

It was upon that so weak and ruinous a foundation, That this Pope Gregory undertook against the Ancient Doctrin of above a thousand years, to settle that false and pernicious Opinion which he, the first of all Popes, put into practice, by Excommunicating and Deposing the Emperor Henry IV. For as to what is said to the con∣trary of Pope Zachary whom Bellarmine pretends to have taken the Crown from Childerick, and given it to Pepin, is of no force, and must needs proceed from a great ignorance of our History. It was the French Lords, who, af∣ter that they had consulted the Pope, to be informed by him if they might lawfully make that Translation, did in effect do it, upon the Popes answer touching that case of Conscience, whether right or wrong is not the question in Hand. The words of Ancient Authors are express in acquainting us, that it was no more but a con∣sultation on the part of the French,

that they might Authorise their action by the advice and opinion of the Doctor and Father of Christi∣ans. Missi sunt ad Zachariam Pa∣pam, ut consulerent, saith an Ancient Chronicle. They sent to Pope Za∣chary to consult him upon the Point. Missi fuerunt ad Zachariam inter∣rogando — si bene fuisset an non, &c. saies another Author. They sent to Zachary to ask the question if they should do well or ill in de∣posing Childerick, and putting Pepin in his place. The Popes advice was only asked, which was not approved by his Successor.

For Theophanes a Greek Author of that time, tells us that Pope Stephen gave Pepin absolution for the sin which he had committed by violating the Oath of Allegi∣ance which he had taken to Chil∣derick. If that be so, it remains to enquire which of the two Popes was in the right: But it is not my part to examine that questi∣on. It is enough at present that I say, to prove that the French ap∣plied

not themselves to Zachary, as to him who had power to depose their King, that they did not so much as consult Pope John XV. when they placed Hugh Capet on the Throne, instead of Charles, who had abandoned them to close with the Germans.

As to what concerns Leo III. who is said to have transferred the Empire of the West to Charlemagne, it's a mere illusion. I have made it clearly out in the History of the Iconoclasts, that four years before Charlemagne was Proclaimed Au∣gustus, he was Master of Rome, and of Italy as King of France, and that he took not that title of Emperor, which he did not at all care for, but because the French Lords and Romans that were his Subjects besought him to do it: And it is certain that the Pope was the first who rendered Ho∣mage to him as to his Emperor, and that he had no other part in that Ceremony but the same which the Archbishop of Reims

has in the Coronation of our Kings.

It is certain then, as Otho of Frisinguen assures us, that Grego∣ry VII. was the first Pope that of∣fered to depose Kings. I have made it clearly enough out in my History of the Fall of the Empire, how he formed and pursued so ter∣rible an enterprise: But I should be very glad, that it might be taken from a very famous ultra∣montean Author, Onuphrius Pan∣vinius à Veronese, of the Order of St. Austins Hermits, in the life of that Pope. In this manner he speaks of it. Gregory VII. is the first of the Popes of Rome, who, supported by the Norman Forces, trusting to the great assistance of Money, which he got from the Countess Mathilde a most powerful Princess in Italy, and

encouraged by the divisions amongst the Princes of Germany, who were engaged in a Civil War, dared, con∣trary to the custom of his Predeces∣sors, slighting the Imperial Authori∣ty and Power; so soon as he was pro∣moted to the Papacy, I shall not only say to Excommunicate, but even depose from Kingdom and Empire, the very same person, by whom, if he was not chosen, he was at least confirmed in his dignity. A thing unheard in all foregoing Ages: For I take no no∣tice of the tales that have been spread abroad of Arcadius, Athanasius, and Leo Isauricus the Iconoclaste. Before that, (saith the same Author) Popes were Subject to the Emperors, and durst neither judg nor resolve of any thing that concerned them.

Thus the Ancient Popes beha∣ved themselves, and so much they believed of their Pontifical Autho∣rity, which does not at all reach the Temporal. And to this you may add, that in the eight first Ecumenical Councils, there is no∣thing to be found but what speaks

the compleat submission that is due to Emperors and Kings; but no∣thing that can in the least encroach upon or invalidate the absolute independence of their Temporal Power. Now if in some of the Councils which succeeded the Pontificat of Gregory VII. Kings have been threatned to be depo∣sed, and if an Emperor hath been actually deposed, that was not done by the way of decision; and though a Council had made a decision as to that, yet it must on∣ly have been an unwarrantable at∣tempt upon the Right of Princes, and could have been of no greater Force than the Bulls whereby it hath been often enough offered at to dispossess them of their States, but which have always been con∣demned and rejected as abusive. For, after all, there will be reason everlastingly to say, that which all Antiquity hath believed, that the Church her self, infallible as she is, which the Pope according to the same Antiquity is not, hath not

received from her heavenly spouse the gift of Infallibility, but as to matters purely Spiritual, and whol∣ly abstracted from the Temporal and the Kingdom of the World, wherein Jesus Christ, who hath said, my Kingdom is not of this World, would never meddle.

Notes

• Quemadmodum Pon∣tifex introspiciendi in Palatium poteftatem non habet, ac dignita∣tes regales conferen∣di: sic neque Impe∣rator in Ecclesias introspiciendi, &c. Gregor. II. Ep. 2. ad Leon. Isaur.
• Peto à te tanquam praesenti aliter assi∣stens provolutus terrae & tuis vestigiis pro∣sternens. Steph. II. Ep. 4. ad Pip.
• Ego verò haec Domi∣nis iners loquens, quid sum nisi pulvis & ver∣mis? — Ego qui∣dem Jussioni subjectus, &c. Greg. l. 2. Jud. 11. Ep. 62. ad Mauric.
• De quâ re unum est quod brevitur sugge∣ras serenissimus Do∣minis nostris, &c.
• Sed quia Deum timeo, in mortem cujuslibet hominis me miscere formido. l. 7. Jud. 1. Ep. 1.
• Nulli eorum accommo∣davi aurem, ne subito fierent homicidia. Melius Judicavi de∣cies mori, quam uni∣uscujusqu•• sanguinem in terram fundi. Epist. Mart. 1. ad Theodor.
• Lego & relego Roma∣norum regum & Impe∣rat rum gesta, & nus∣quam invenio quem∣quam eorum ante hunc à Romano Pontifice excommunicatum, vel Regno privatum. Otto. Fris. l. 6. c. 35.
• Waltr. Naumbourg. Apol. pro Henr. IV. l. 1. c. 3. & 4.
• Ann. 752.
• Chron. ver. à Pith. Edit.
• Ann. Francor. Me∣tens.
• Primus omnium Roma∣norum Pontificum Gre∣gorius VII. armis Normannorum fretus, opibus Comitissae Ma∣thildis mulieris per Italiam potentissimae confisus, discordiâ Germ••norum Princi∣pum Bello civili laborantium inflammatus, praeter majorum morem, contemptâ Imperatoris Authoritate & Potestate, cum summum Pontifica∣tum obtinuisset, Caesarem ipsum, à quo si non electus, saltem confirmatus suc∣rat, non dico excommunicare; sed etiam Regno Imperio{que} privare ausus est. Res ante ea secula inaudita. Nem de fabulis quae de Arcadio, Ana∣stasio, & Leone Iconomacho circumferuntur, nihil moror.
• Imperatoribus suberant de iis Judicare; vel quicquam decernere non audebat Papa Ro∣manus.
• Onuphr. Pavin. in vit. Greg. VII. ex edit. Gresser. pag. 271. 272.