whatever direction it was then running. The general frame-work of these poetical pieces was composed of good materials, and made appeals to the high and honourable feelings of human nature; and apart from direct allusions to public matters, their ordinary tendency would be, to elevate and nourish those internal sympathies, from which public opinion takes its rise, and which are in unison with the welfare and best interests of the community. The heroes and knights who figure so conspicuously in the early productions of the romancers and poets, were continually engaged in redressing political and social grievances, inveighing with bitterness against tyrrany and oppression, and in devoting their lives and fortunes to the supposed interests of the community at large. All such sentiments, conveyed though they were in hyperbolical and extravagant language, had, nevertheless, a direct tendency to fix in the public mind, the grand outlines or boundaries of civil right and freedom.

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE PROGRESS OF POLITICAL LITERATURE CONNECTED WITH THE CIVIL AND STATE AUTHORITY OF THE PAPACY, FROM THE CLOSE OF THE TENTH CENTURY, TO THE YEAR 1400.

OPINIONS on the temporal power of the church, and the rights of private judgment, after the year 1000, of which we have already spoken, assumed a more decided form in the period of history now under consideration. We shall endeavour to present the reader with a brief sketch of both these branches of political speculation, so that we may be suitably prepared to enter into future discussions on the subject in subsequent parts of this work, when we come to notice the productions of more recent political writers.

Pope Nicholas II. is cited by Gratian as declaring, "That the Church of Rome instituted all patriarchal supremacies, all metropolitan primacies, all episcopal sees, all ecclesiastical orders, and dignities whatsoever."

Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. was appointed to the Pontificate in 1370, and soon after took upon him to depose Henry IV. The following are the terms he employs. "For the dignity and defence of God's Holy Church, in the name of Almighty God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I depose your imperial and royal

administration, King Henry, son of Henry, some time emperor, who too boldly and rashly both laid hands on the church and I absolve all christians, subject to the empire, from that oath whereby they are wont to plight their faith unto true kings; for it is right that he should be deprived of dignity, who endeavours to diminish the majesty of the church."

"Go, therefore, most holy Princes of the Apostles, and what I have said, by interpreting your authority, confirm; that all men may now at length understand, if you can bind and loose in heaven, that you can also upon earth take away and give empires, kingdoms, and whatsoever mortals can have; for if you can judge things belonging to God, what may be considered concerning these inferior and profane things? And if it is your part to judge angels, who govern proud princes, what becometh it you to do toward their saints? Let kings now, and all secular princes, learn by this ruinous example, what you can do in heaven, and in what esteem you are with God; and let them thenceforth fear to slight the commands of the Holy Church; but put forth suddenly this judgment, that all men may understand, that rest casually, but by your means, this son of iniquity doth fall from his kingdom."*

The same doctrine was promulgated, a few years afterwards, by Urban II. He recommends, in his decrees, "that subjects are by no authority constrained to pay the fidelity which they have sworn to a christian prince, to one who opposeth God and his saints, and violateth their precepts."

At the close of the eleventh century, Pope Paschal 2nd deprived Henry IV. of political power, and excited

*Concilia. Tom. 26. fol. Paris, 1644.

his enemies to persecute him, by urging that they could not "offer a more acceptable sacrifice to God, than by impugning him who endeavoured to take the kingdom from God's Church."

2

Innocent III. in 1312, says, "That the Pontifical authority so much exceeds the royal power, as the sun doth the moon." And he strengthens this opinion by quoting the words of the prophet Jeremiah; "See, I have set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down," &c. The same doctrine was maintained at the fourth Council of Lateran, at which this Pontiff presided. It was then declared, "that if a temporal lord, being required and admonished by the church, should neglect to purge his territory from heretical filth, he should, by the metropolitan, and other comprovincial bishops, be bound in the bands of excommunication; and if he should neglect to make satisfaction within a year, it should be signified to the Pope, that he might from that time, pronounce his subjects absolved from their allegiance to him, and expose the territory to be seized on by Catholics."*

In the year 1239, Pope Gregory IX. excommunicated the emperor Frederick II., and absolved his subjects from their oaths of allegiance, laid an inderdict on all his cities, castles, and villages; excommunicated all who favoured him in any way or degree, commanded the German bishops, upon pain of excommunication, solemnly to publish the bull, with all the usual ceremonies, as ringing of bells, lighting and extinguishing candles, &c.

Innocent IV., in 1242, promulgates the same opin

Council: Late.: Paris, 1671.

ions on the supremacy of the church. He declared Frederick II. to be his vassal, and pronounced, in the General Council of Lyons, sentence of deprivation against him in the following terms: "We having had before us a careful deliberation with our brethren and the holy council, respecting the foregoing, and many others, his wicked miscarriages; and seeing that we, although unworthy, do hold the place of Jesus Christ on earth, and that it was said unto us in the person of St. Peter the apostle, 'whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven', the said prince, (who has rendered himself unworthy of empire and kingdoms, and of all honour and dignity, and who for his iniquities is cast away from God, that he should not reign or command, being bound by his sins and cast away, and deprived by the Lord of all honour and dignity,) we do show, denounce, and accordingly, by sentence, deprive: absolving all who are held bound by oath of allegiance from such oath for ever; by apostolic authority firmly prohibiting, that no man, henceforth, do obey or regard him as emperor or king; and decreeing, that whoever hereafter yields advice, or aid, or favour, to him, as emperor or king, shall immediately lie under the ban of excommunication."*

Pope Boniface VIII. at the close of the thirteenth century, had a decree in the Canon law to this effect. "We declare, say, define, pronounce it to be necessary to salvation, for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff!! This submission is of the most absolute and universal character, and extends to all affairs. "One sword must be under another, and the temporal power must be subject to the spiritual author

* Council: Paris, 1671.