HUSSEY'S RISE OF THE PAPAL POWER.

The Rise of the Papal Power, traced in Three Lectures. By Robert Hussey, B.D., late Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History. Oxford. 1863.

IN a former number (see Christian Observer, January, 1863), we reviewed a recent work by Dr. Manning, on "the Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ," in which our fallen brother, with that marvellous blindness of Rome's devotees, undertook to show, " 1st, That the temporal power of the Pope is ordained of God; 2nd, That the temporal power of the Pope has been the root, and the productive and sustaining principle, of Christian Europe; and 3rd, That the dissolution of the temporal power of the Pope would bring with it the dissolution of Christian Europe." Warming with the subject which he had so confidently undertaken, Dr. Manning assured his readers, that "the temporal power of the Pontiffs was the political necessity of saving an abandoned people from sufferings by war, by famine, by pestilence, for which the world has no parallel either for intensity or duration. . . . . This election was not the hasty and turbulent act of an intimidated and menaced population, drilled and driven to poll-booths in a crisis of excitement, and with the precipitate violence of a revolution and an invasion at their back; but the calm, prolonged, spontaneous, and deliberate action of many successive generations, all conspiring for ages in the one ardent desire to shelter themselves and their children under the sovereignty of Roman pontiffs."

In the lectures before us, we have a rapid sketch of the rise of the Papal Power under another view, viz., its spiritual supremacy. Yet the spirituality and the temporality are so closely interwoven, that it would seem, as the present times sufficiently testify, that he who supports the one must of necessity uphold the other. The distinction between the Court and the Church of Rome is more nominal than real. A sincere and earnest Papist believes that if the Pope were to be deprived of those temporalities, which were granted him as late as the seventh century, and then only as being based upon what is now admitted to be a most barefaced forgery-the so-called donation of Constantine,-the spiritual sway which he claims over the whole world would be overthrown likewise.

The object of the late Professor Hussey's lectures is to show the gradual rise of that tremendous power which has hung like a nightmare over Europe during the last twelve centuries, and whose end, notwithstanding Lord Macaulay's vaticinations, will

be neither one moment sooner nor later than the appointed time for the fulfilment of the Apocalyptic vision, which the beloved scer described when he "heard the voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honour, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are His judgments: for He hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia! and her smoke rose up for ever and ever."

The supremacy of the See of Rome, which has been the cause of such troubles to Christendom, and which must eventually recoil upon herself, may be said to have begun in the fourth century. Then for the first time, what Cyprian advocated as an argument for the unity of the Church, not for Papal authority-precedence among equals-willingly conceded to Rome as capital of the empire in early ages, was turned into a claim of authority; and from that time it never ceased to advance in pretensions, until it assumed the form of THE SUPREMACY, i. e. absolute dominion over the whole world.

Many causes contributed to promote the growth of this unknown power. One of the strongest links by which other churches were connected with Rome was the appellate jurisdiction, by which Rome claimed authority, as the supreme court of appeal in all ecclesiastical causes; the origin of which may be distinctly traced to the Council of Sardica, A.D. 347.

A generation later witnessed another step towards the accomplishment of Rome's unceasing designs. By the law published A.D. 380, in the name of the emperors Gratian, Valentinian II., and Theodosius, their consent to the Papal claims is expressed in the following words :-"We would have all the nations whom our government rules, to be of that religion which the divine Apostle Peter is proved to have delivered to the Romans, by the religion which is even now imparted from him, which also it is plain that the pontiff Damascus follows, and also Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity. We command that they who follow this law shall take the name of Catholic Christians; but all other foolish persons, who are insane in judgment, shall bear the infamy of heretical doctrines, and their meetings shall not have the name of churches; but they shall be punished first by the Divine vengeance, afterwards by penalties from our authority, which we have received from the will of God.”

Passing over the historical blunder in the above edict, respecting Peter having delivered the Gospel to the Romansthere not being the slightest evidence of his ever having been in Europe, much less at Rome, where, according to the fable of Cardinal Baronius, he is said to have dwelt for twenty-five years-we may detect, in the missive which Pope Boniface

addressed to the Illyrian bishops at the commencement of the following century, another stride which the Papacy was then taking towards its much coveted supremacy. "To the blessed Peter (i.e. to Peter as head of the line of the bishops of Rome) the headship of the priesthood has been committed by Christ's own voice; Peter, in whom the foundation is laid of the universal Church; Peter, on whom rests its whole government, and from whom, whosoever separates himself, is cut off from the religion and church of Christ." At the Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431, the legate of Pope Celestine thus expressed the claims of his master:-"It is a thing undoubted, that the Apostle Peter received the keys, and the power of binding and loosing, by which Peter still lives and exercises judgment in the person of his successors even to this day and always."

Pope Leo, about twenty years later, advanced the claims of the Roman See in this wise. His words are,-" As being the See of the blessed Peter, thou Rome art made the head of the world; so as to have even wider rule through divine religion, than by the power of earthly domination. Whoever disputes the primacy and authority of the Roman See, seeing it is the rock on which, by Jesus Christ's own ordinance, the universal Christian Church was built, that disputer was none other than the devil, or Antichrist."

And Pope Gelasius at the close of the same century declared,— "There are two authorities by which the world is governed, the pontifical and the royal; the sacerdotal order being that which has charge of the sacraments of life, and from which thou must seek the effecting of thy salvation. So that in divine things it becomes kings to bow the neck to priests, and specially to the head of priests (viz. the bishops of Rome) whom Christ's own voice has set over the universal Church."

Thus, before the close of the fifth century, the doctrine of Supremacy appears to have been declared in all its daring, when it claimed for the priesthood in general, and for the bishop of Rome in particular, the right to tread upon the necks of the kings and princes of the world. Of other new claims of authority which were gradually evolved from this doctrine, the succeeding centuries were no less prolific. The right to dispose of temporal sovereignties, a necessary corollary of the supremacy doctrine, was assumed by Pope Nicolas II., A.D. 1059, when he took upon himself to confirm the Duke of Calabria and Sicily in the possession of his dominions, on certain conditions, for which the Duke swore fealty to the Pope. Pope Alexander II., who succeeded Nicholas, gave his sanction to William of Normandy, when about to invade England. Alexander III. gave our Henry II. a grant of the possession of Ireland. Innocent III. received the crown of England from the weak and disgraced Plantagenet, though he condescended to restore it to its

unworthy wearer. And Innocent IV., a few years later, bestowed the kingdom of Portugal, by this claim of supremacy, on the Count of Bologna.

But the power which could confer, could also take away. Accordingly, the next advance in this direction was, that the Popes claimed authority to depose princes from their thrones, as Gregory VII., A.D. 1076, did to the Emperor Henry IV., releasing his subjects from their allegiance, and urging the princes of Germany to elect a new emperor in his stead; Alexander III., A.D. 1168, to the Emperor Frederick I.; Innocent III., A.D. 1210, to the Emperor Otto, and two years later to King John of England; Innocent IV., A.D. 1245, to the Emperor Frederick II.; John XXII., A.D. 1333, to Ludovic king of Bavaria; and Pius V., A.D. 1569, to Queen Elizabeth.

Professor Hussey gives, on the authority of Mansi, a specimen of one of these lordly exercises of authority, which is worth quoting, as exhibiting the pride and blasphemy of that fearful power which claims to be supreme over all the kings of the earth. It is in the form of a prayer, beginning thus:

"Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, incline thine ear to us, we beseech thee, and hear me thy servant, &c. Thou art my witness, and my Lady the mother of God, and St. Paul thy brother, and all the saints, that the Roman Church brought me against my will to thy government; and therefore of thy grace, and not of my own good works, I believe it is, that it hath pleased thee, and doth please thee, that the people of Christ specially entrusted to thee should obey me in your stead, and by your grace power is given to me by God to bind and loose in heaven and earth. Therefore, relying on this trust, for the honour and defence of thy Church, in behalf of Almighty God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I deny to Henry the government of the whole realm of Germany and Italy, and release all Christians from the bond of the oath which they have made, or will make, to him, and forbid any one to serve him as if he were a king." (p. 174.)

Another case exhibits the assumption of the twofold power of giving and taking away dominions in one and the same act. When the crusade against the Albigenses, A.D. 1208, which the third Lateran Council, A.D. 1179, had before authorised, had effected the conquest of Toulouse and the adjoining countries from the Count of that name, it was a question, what should be done with the conquered territory. The Pope's legates for a time kept possession of the country, until Pope Innocent III. issued a Bull to Simon, Count de Montfort, conferring the territory upon him, and declaring the Count of Toulouse deprived of all right and title to it. Pope Boniface VII. wrote to Edward I. of England, that the kingdom of Scotland was the special property of the Roman Church, and therefore he must not touch it. Innocent III. declared that

"God had ordained the Pope as Christ's Vicar, to have power over all nations and kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build, and to plant;" thus boldly applying to the Papacy the words of God spoken to the prophet Jeremiah.

Pope Boniface VII., who succeeded, fully adopted these principles, and even improved upon them. Besides a decree by which he bestowed Sardinia and Corsica upon James king of Aragon, under condition of a yearly payment of 2000 marks to the apostolic chair, beginning with these words, "Being set above kings and kingdoms by a divine pre-eminence of power, we dispose of them as we think fit, &c.," he published, A.D. 1302, in the famous Bull, entitled Unam Sanctam, a statement of the authority which he claimed, so full and complete, that we may fairly consider it as the correct and authorised exposition of the doctrine of Supremacy. The following are some of the propositions which it contains:

"We are taught by the words of the Gospel, that there are in Peter's power two swords, the spiritual and the temporal; each, therefore, of these, is in the power of the Church. But one sword ought to be inferior to the other sword, and the temporal authority to be subject to the spiritual power. Therefore, if the earthly power err, it will be judged by the spiritual power. But if the spiritual power err, no man, but God alone, will have power to judge it. Since the Apostle witnesses, 'He that is spiritual judgeth all things; yet he himself is judged of no man.' But this authority, which is not human, but rather Divine, is given by the Divine lips to Peter, and confirmed to him and his successors. Moreover, we declare, affirm, define, and pronounce, that it is altogether necessary for salvation, that every human creature should be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

The Crusades brought to light a new feature of the Papal claims, not only by the extension of the influence which they gave to the Popes, but also by a doctrinal development, viz., that of pardons or indulgences.

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Urban II., at the Council of Clermont, A.D. 1095, held out the hope of pardon for sin, as an inducement to take the cross, promising, on the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, to all faithful Christians who take up arms, &c., to relax infinite penances for their misdeeds; and to those who shall die there in true repentance, pardon of their sins and the fruit of eternal

reward."

A similar promise was made in the first Lateran Council, A.D. 1123, to the Crusaders against the Infidels, and in the third Lateran Council, to the Crusaders against the Albigenses, whom Rome called "heretics;" boldly granting "a full pardon of their sins, when they shall, with real contrition, have con