From a tract with the above title we take the following facts concerning the claims of the Roman church to civil supremacy. It is written by Rev. J. L. McCartney, Professor of Natural Science in Geneva College, Ohio:
PAPAL claims to civil supremacy is an integral and essential part of the Romish system. Peter was the vicar of Jesus Christ on earth. All civil, as well as ecclesiastical, power being invested in Jesus Christ, that power was transferred to Peter. Peter's successor is the pope, and all power exercised without his authority is usurpation. Beginning with this assumption, their system is logical and consistent throughout. Take away this and their magnificent structure falls to the ground. Admit it, and not only are most of the nations, but every protestant Christian church is in an attitude of rebellion against the rightful authority of the church of Rome. Based upon, and in the fullest harmony with this claim, the following canon laws have been promulgated:—
CANON LAWS.
"Whatever decrees of princes are found to be injurious to the interests of the church, are declared to be of no authority whatever."
"While a sovereign remains excommunicated, his subjects owe him no allegiance; and, if this state of things should last for some time, and the sovereign, being admonished, does not submit himself to the church, his subjects are absolved from all fealty to him."
"The pope may dethrone the emperor for lawful cause."
"The emperor is the bishop of Rome's subject, and the bishop of Rome may revoke the emperor's sentences in temporal causes."
"The bishop of Rome is judge in temporal things, and hath two swords, spiritual and temporal."
"He is not bound by any decrees; is the supreme judge of articles of faith. No man may judge him in asserting and imposing, nor nullifying the laws of nations. Let no one dare to reprehend him."—Text Book, page 140.
Even the spiritual supremacy has no other foundation. It can be supported in no other way.
Pope Boniface VIII. gave the true doctrine of the church, when, in his canon law, he said: "There is one fold and one Shepherd. The authority of that Shepherd includes the two swords—the spiritual and the temporal. So much are we taught by the words of the evangelists: 'Behold, here are two swords!' viz: in the church. The Lord did not reply, 'It is too much.' Certainly he did not deny Peter the temporal sword. He only commanded him to return it to its scabbard. Both, therefore, belong to the jurisdiction of the church—the spiritual sword and the secular. The one is to be wielded by the church, and the other for the church. The one is the sword of the priest, and the other is the hand of the monarch, but at the command and sufferance of the priest. It becomes the one sword to be under the other—the temporal authority to be subject to the spiritual power."
Gladstone, the ex-premier of England, expostulated with the Catholics of that country on the matter of their divided allegiance. Lord Montague, in his reply, while claiming the fullest allegiance to the queen, nevertheless sets forth the same doctrine of supremacy as promulgated in the canon laws.
"We owe," he says, "the strictest allegiance to the queen, and yield to no subject of her realms in loyalty. We also owe the same to the pope, because the one power is subordinate to the other; just as the end of the State is subordinate to the end of the church, and as the body is subordinate to the soul."
Besides the acts of popes interpret their own laws.
1. Gregory II., in 1730, deposed Leo Isaurus, and absolved the Italians from their oath of allegiance.
2. Gregory VII., (Hildebrand) deposed Henry IV. in 1075.
3. Innocent III., in 1212, claimed that the pontifical authority excels the civil, as much as the sun excels the moon.
4. Gregory IX., in 1239, excommunicated Fredrick II., and absolved his subjects from all allegiance.
5. Paul III., in 1538, excommunicated, cursed, deposed, and damned Henry VIII. of England.
Had Lord Montague then been living in England, he would have said, "We owe the same allegiance to the pope as to the king, because the king is subordinate to the pope, as the end of the State is subordinate to the end of the church."
6. Paul V., in 1570, damned and excommunicated Queen Elizabeth, another sovereign in England; and the queen, according to the same principle, should have submitted, instead of resisting with all the powers of her great soul, the infamous claims of this anti-christ, who would exalt himself above all that is called God.
7. Gregory XIII. renewed this.
8. Sixtus V. confirmed it.
But the evidence here is cumulative. The teaching of standard Roman Catholic writers is very decided on the supremacy of the pope. Let the united testimony of Thomas Aquinas, Ferrares, Baronius, and pope Pius VII., suffice on this point.
"The pope, by divine right, holds supreme power over the whole world, both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs. In the pope is the summit of each power.*"
"The common doctrine teaches that the pope hath the power of the two swords, viz., the spiritual and temporal, which jurisdiction Christ himself committed to Peter and his successors. 'To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.'—Matt. 16. And if a king becomes a heretic, he can be removed from his kingdom by the pope, to whom the right of appointing his successor belongs, if his sons and near relatives are heretics."†
"God hath made the political government subject to the dominion of the spiritual church."‡
Pope Pius VII. wrote to his nuncio at Vienna, in 1804: "The principle of a canon law is this, that the subjects of a heretic prince are liberated from all duty, all fealty and homage toward him." And every Romish bishop, when he receives the mitre, solemnly swears that he will maintain this principle, viz: "I will do all that in me lies to preserve, defend, increase, and strengthen the rights, honors, privileges, and authority of the holy Roman church of our Lord the pope, and his successors." . . . "I promise and swear that I will persecute and combat all heretics, schismatics and rebels of our Lord the pope."
But the same spirit of defiance of civil authority, when not in harmony with these views, still prevails. In the pope's encyclical letter, February, 1875, to the archbishops and bishops of Prussia, the address runs thus:
"To all to whom it may concern, as also to the whole Catholic world: That those (Falk) laws are null and void, as being utterly opposed to the divine constitution of the church. For it is not the powerful of this world that the Lord has placed over the bishop of the church, in all that concerns her holy ministry, but it is to Peter to whom he has intrusted not only his laws, but also his sheep to feed."
It is not strange that this defiant attitude, assumed by the church of Rome, has goaded King William and Bismarck on to adopt such decided measures in Prussia, regulating the civil conduct of priests and people throughout the country.
"The States of Europe are becoming every year more thoroughly aroused to the danger of this old presumptuous ruler of the nations, and not without good reason.
"At a meeting of St. Sebastian League in June, 1874, Archbishop Manning said: 'Now when the nations of Europe have revolted; and when they have dethroned, as far as men can dethrone, the vicar of Jesus Christ; and when they have made the usurpation of the Holy City a part of international law; when all this has been done there is only one solution of the difficulty—a solution I fear impending—and that is the terrible scourge of continental war—a war which will exceed the horrors of any of the wars of the First Empire. I do not see how this can be avoided; and it is my firm conviction that, in spite of all obstacles, the vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his rightful place.' Take this in connection with his boast on another occasion, and does it not appear ominous? 'There is not another church,' says he, 'so-called (than the Roman), nor any community professing to be a church, which does not submit or obey, or hold its peace when the civil governments of the world command.' Add to this the fact that the pope orders the millions of his subjects; that he rules the rulers of her myriads just as he pleases, and is there not something threatening in the words of the London Tablet—Manning's organ—which says that were the cardinals, archbishop of Dublin and Westminster but to say the word, at least a million Irish would rise as Fenians within a week. They are conscious of their great power for mischief; and it was with this spirit that the Dublin Review threatened 'that if facilities were not granted to extend the convent system, they must submit to the dismemberment of the empire.'"
"The Roman Catholic church claims that decisions of the pope, in all doctrinal matters, and upon all questions pertaining to the relation of church and State, and of religion to State institutions, are infallible. On such decisions he claims from all Catholics unlimited submission. Is he bound by any bonds? Men will say, 'By the moral and divine law, by the commandment of God, by the rules of the gospel.' Yes, truly! but breaking away from all these, as more than one pope has done, who is to call in question his judgments? Before what court are his mistakes to be tried and be judged? What legislative body can call in question his actions and decisions? He is supreme over even the canon law—the law of the Romish church. He is a law unto himself; he is sole and absolute judge; no earthly power can possibly call in question any of his decisions. Is not this absolutism of the worst kind! Is not this claim a reversal of the entire drift and outgrowth of our Christian civilization?
"The dominion of the priests over the people is almost absolute; but these again are subject to the bishops, while the bishops are subject to the archbishops, and the archbishops are all subject to the pope, who is over all, claiming to be the vicar of Jesus Christ on earth—invested with all authority, civil and ecclesiastical, over all lands; and thus does he most exactly identify himself with Paul's 'Man of Sin,' 'opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.'"