Titles of the Popes

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Jun 26, 1855

Titles of the Popes.

"Universal Father," "Holy Father," "His Holiness," "Sovereign Pontiff," "Supreme Head of the Church on Earth," "Pater Familias," (i. e., Father of the family of God,) "Successor of Peter," "The Infallible One," "Prince of the Apostles," "Vicar of Christ," "Father of Fathers," "Lieutenant of Christ," "Father and Doctor of all Christians," "Lord of lords," "A God on Earth," "Lord God the Pope," "Prince of the World," "Monarch of the Earth," "King of kings."

Cardinal Bellarmine, on the authority of the councils, Book ii, chap. xvii, says, "All the names which are given in the Scriptures to Christ, even these same names are given to the Pope; whence it appears he is superior to the Church." In Gratian's Decretals, page 1, dis. 96, Pope Nicholas to Michael, seventh chapter, the Pope says, "He is God, and therefore men cannot judge him." The Council of Florence, the fifth Lateran, and that of Trent make the Pope superior to general councils; and call him an "unlimited monarch." Johannes Devotus, vol. i, b. i, tit. 3, sec. 1, says, "The power of the Pope is episcopal, metropolitan, patriarchal and temporal: his decisions from the chair are infallible." Gregory 11, says, The whole Western Nations reckon Peter "a terrestrial God." Labh. viii, 666, Marcellus, in a Lateran Council, called Julius the Pope "A God on Earth." Pope Pius VII, so late as 1809, in excommunicating Napoleon says "Unworthy as we are, we represent the God of Peace." The Bishop of Grenada calls him "A God on earth not subject to a council." Bellarmine De Pontiff, lit. 4, chap. 3 says, "The Pope cannot possibly err in decrees as to faith"—"no council is valid unless called and approved by him."—Alexander Campbell on Roman Catholicism.