f 64y-; /1- peok ' KINGS NOW DECLARED INFERIOR TO THE POPE. 143 current law) that the papal authorityno less surpasses the royal than the sun outshines the moon.' Now it is abundantly " declared" by papal " definition, as a point necessary to salvation, that every human creature," neither king nor Catsar excepted, " is subject to the Roman high priest."' Now the mystery is discovered why popes, when summoned by emperors, declined to go in person to general synods, because " it was intolerable that the emperor," who sometime would be present in synods, "should sit above the pope, ' as, in the pride of his heart, he might perhaps offer to do. I cannot forbear to note what an ill conceit Bellarmine had of Leo I. and other popes, that they for- bore coming to synods out of their villanous pride and haughti- ness. 15. Onewould admire [wonder] that Constantine, if he had smelt this doctrine, or any thing like it in Christianity, should be so ready to embrace it, or that so many emperors should in those times do so; some princes then probably being jealous of their honour, and un- willing to admit any superior to them. It is at least much [matter of wonder] that emperors should, with so much indulgence, foster and cherish popes, being their so danger- ous rivals for dignity, and that it should betrue which Pope Nicholas affirms, that " the emperors had exalted the Roman see with divers privileges, had enriched it with gifts, had enlarged it with bene- fits, "4 had done I know not howmany things more for it. Surely theywere bewitched thus to advance their concurrent competitor for honour and power, one who pretended to be a better man than them- selves. Bellarmine, in his Apology against King James, says that " the pope was, vellet nollet, constrained to be subject to the em- perors, because his power was not known to them."6 It was well it was not; but how could it be concealed from them if it were a doc- trine commonly avowed by Christians? It is hard keeping so prac- 1 Fiat autem oratio pro dignitato regia postorationemfactam propapa, quia potestas suprema sacerdotalis excedit regiam antiquitate, dignitate, et utilitate, &c. Gab. Biel. in Can. Mis. " Let prayer be made for the king after prayer made for the pope; be- cause the supreme sacerdotal power exceeds the kingly in antiquity, dignity, and utility," &c. 2 Subesse Romano pontifici omni humance creatures declaramus, decimus, definimus, et pronunciamus omnino esse de necessitate salutis. P. Bonif. VIII. inExtras. Cont., lib. i. tit. 88. 3 At quamvis utcunque tolerabile sit, ut principes seculares in concilio sedeant ante alios episcopos, tamen nullomodo convenit, ut ante ipsum summum pontificem, Bell. de Cone., L 19. I Quapropter attendat dementia vestra; quantus fuerit erga sedis apostolica; reve- rentiam antecessorum vestrorum, piorum duntaxat imperatorum ... amor, et studium ; qualiter eam diversis privilegüs extulerint, donis ditaverint, beneficii sampliaverint; qualiter eam literis suis honoraverint, ejus volis annuerint, &c. P. Nic. I., Ep. viii. ad Mich. Imp. 6 Apol. Bell., p. 202.
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