struggle of the Two Powers for the dominion of the Western world resulted in disaster to both, and both entered the valley of humiliation.

After the crippling of Empire and Papacy, the latter turned from conflict with the Emperors to a struggle with the democratic principle which still asserted itself within the Church. The theories at hand for the contestants had been developed by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Dante (1265-1321) and Marsilius of Padua (1270–1342).

Aquinas was the great artificer of the Papal sovereignty; Marsilius the great defender of State sovereignty; Dante, in his treatise De Monarchiâ, stood between the two.

In his treatise Dante developed the principle of a single universal sovereignty in the Emperor for the whole world, without denying to the Pope the headship in the spiritual welfare of the world, to whom the Emperor was "to do honour as to the first-born of the Father." 35 The Catholic Encyclopedia 36 summarizes his teaching as showing that such

"a single supreme temporal monarchy as the empire is necessary for the well-being of the world, that the Roman people acquired universal sovereign sway by Divine right, and that the authority of the emperor is not dependent upon the pope, but descends upon him directly from the fountain of universal authority, which is God."

The doctrine strikes a distinctly democratic note

35 E. B., vol. vii, p. 816 a; cf. E. Moore, Studies in Dante, pp. 1–28, especially p. 19.

36 Vol. iv, p. 629 b; consult also Dante, De Monarchiâ.

in the reference to the people as the source of government, and the direct derivation of civic power from God, i. e., independently of the Pope as God's Vicar.

Marsilius of Padua attached himself to the Emperor, Lewis the Bavarian, who had entered upon a stormy conflict with Pope John XXII. He published his treatise The Defensor Pacis in defense of the Imperial claims. In his advocacy of the supremacy of the Emperor, and in his definition of the Emperor's relation to the Church, he developed a theory of the union of Church and State quite as detestable as the Roman theory of the Two Powers, the English theory of the State Church, or the Lutheran theory of the supremacy of the secular prince. But his book contained a remarkable expression of principles which have been incorporated in the modern State. In his Defensor Pacis, principles of human freedom and modern theories of political development which we recognize today are set forth with clearness and cogency. The principles of modern democracy seem but a response to the voice of the great Paduan:

"We declare that according to the Truth and to the opinion of Aristotle, the Lawgiver, . the primary, essential and efficient source of law, is the People, that is the whole body of citizens or a majority of them, acting of their own free choice openly declared in a general assembly of the citizens and prescribing something to be done or not done in regard to civil affairs under penalty of temporal punishment. I say a majority, taking account of the whole number of persons in the community over which the law is to be exercised. (It makes no difference) whether the whole body of

citizens or its majority acts of itself immediately or whether it entrusts the matter to one or more persons to act for it. Such person or persons are not and cannot be the Lawgiver in the strict sense, but only for a specific purpose and at a given time and on the authority of the primary lawgiver." 37

Marsilius considers the exclusion of the laity from jurisdiction in the Church. He examines the definition of the word Church (ecclesia) and claims that it has come to mean the ecclesiastics and presiding officers, the Pope and his Cardinals, in the Diocese of Rome. Against this he contends, holding that the Church consists of all those who belong to it, that

"by the witness of Scripture in both its literal and its mystical sense, according to the interpretation of holy men and other approved doctors, that neither the Roman bishop called 'pope' nor any other bishop, presbyter, or deacon has a right to any sovereignty (principatum) or judicial authority (judicium) or coercive jurisdiction over any priest, ruler, community, association, or individual of whatsoever condition . . ." 38

And again,

"I say that no one has the right to coerce the heretic or other infidel by any penalty or punishment, real or personal, so far as his status in this life is concerned."

9939

Marsilius denies the Scriptural proof of the pontifical sovereignty or Primacy of Jurisdiction; ques

37 See Emerton, pp. 24–25.

38 Ibid., p. 36.

39 Ibid., p. 41.

tions whether St. Peter was ever at Rome, but would recognize the traditional Primacy of Honor of the Roman See; defends the power of a General Council of the whole Church over the Pope; insists that such General Council should be called by and act under the protection of the head of the State.40

Aquinas laid the foundations of Papal sovereignty as now accepted in the Roman Church. He taught that all kings over Christian people ought to be subject to the Roman Pontiff as to Jesus Christ Himself; 41 that the necessary effect in the medieval state of the excommunication by the Pope of a secular ruler was to release subjects from civil authority and to make void oaths of allegiance; 42 and he further supported the

40 Ibid., pp. 44–54; C. E., vol. ix, p. 720 b; E. B., vol. xvii, p. 775 c. 41 See Gierke, Political Theories of the Middle Age, p. 112. 42 Dr. Dunning (vol. i, p. 206) sums up the teaching of Aquinas on the relation of the Church to secular rulers thus: "Hence, while the king is supreme in temporal affairs, these must be directed to the higher end, and to this extent he is subject to the priest under the law of Christ." Again (ibid., p. 207): “The instant that the church declares him (the secular ruler) excommunicated for apostasy, his subjects are ipso facto released from his authority, and their oaths of allegiance lose all binding force." Emerton, p. 7: "The political doctrines of Aquinas work out, therefore, to the ultimate supremacy of the papal government over all the civil authorities of Christendom."

Pope Leo XIII commends St. Thomas Aquinas as the great supporter of obedience to those higher powers that in the Pope are regarded by the Church as superior to the rule of princes: "For the teachings of Thomas on the true meaning of liberty, which at this time (1879) is running into license, on the divine origin of all authority, on laws and their force, on the paternal and just rule of princes, on obedience to the higher powers, on mutual charity one towards another-on all of these and kindred subjects have very great and invincible force to overturn those principles of the new order which are well known to be dangerous to the peaceful order of things and to public safety." See Encyclical Letter Eterni Patris, The Study of Scholastic Philosophy, in G. E. L., pp. 54-55.

authority of the Church by his doctrine of the obligation of the State to exterminate by death those whom the Church declared to be heretics.43

The Church put Dante's De Monarchiâ on the Index, after burning it in public at Bologna; 44 excommunicated Marsilius, and beatified Aquinas. Thus, over five centuries ago the Church which Latin Christianity had developed, elected, at the crossing of the ways, to follow the path of sovereignty leading from the Inquisition to the Lutheran schism, to the Syllabus of Pope Pius IX, to the Pastor Eternus of the Vatican Council, to the Encyclical Letter Immortale Dei of Pope Leo XIII. Her ears were closed to the wisdom of Dante and of Marsilius, and her heart hardened to every recognition in her philosophy and her constitution of government by the consent of the governed. She continued to turn a deaf ear to the voices of the wisest of her scholars. Gerson 45 and Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa 46 pleaded with her to acknowledge the authority of General Councils; Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly 47 taught that the unity of the Church depended, not on "the unity of the Pope, but on that of Christ." The saintly Cardinal and Prince Bishop of Diepenbrock 48 assented as late as 1850, that her reform required "an alteration in the hierarchy, a softening of the sharp distinction between clergy and laity, a coöperation of the people in Church

43 See supra p. 28.

44 Moore, Studies in Dante, p. 17. Dante's bones were with difficulty preserved from the wrath of the Pope's Legate.

45 C. E., vol. vi, p. 532 b.

46 Ibid., vol. xi, p. 61 c.

47 Ibid., vol. i, p. 236 b.

48 Janus, Preface, pp. xvi-xvii.