THE INEVITABLE TYRANNY OF THE POPEDOM. 177 This is consequent on such a pretence, according to the very na- ture of things; and so in experience it has happened.' For, It is evident that the papacy has devoured all the privileges and rights of all orders in the church, either granted by God or estab- lished in the ancient canons.' The royalties of Peter are become immense; and, consistently to his practice, the pope allows men to tell him to his face that " all power in heaven and in earth is given unto him." It belongs to him " to judge ofthe whole church."3 He has " a plenitude," as he calls it, " of power,"4 by which he can infringe any law, or do any thing that he pleases. It is the tenor of his bulls, " that whoever rashly dares to thwart his will shall incur the indignation of Almighty God, and" (as if that were not enough) " of St Peter and St Paul " also. "No man must presume to tax his faults, or to judge of his judg- ment."' "It is idolatry- to disobey his commands,"6 against their own so- vereign lord. There are who dare in plain terms call him omnipotent, and who ascribe " infinite" power to him. And that he is infallible is the most common and plausible opinion; so that at Rome the con- trary " is erroneous, and within an inch of being heretical."' We are now told that " if the pope should err, by enjoining vices or forbidding virtues, the church should be bound to believe vices to be good and virtues evil, unless it would sin against conscience."8 The greatest princesmust stoop to his will, otherwise he has power to cashier and depose them. Now, what greater inconvenience, what more horrible iniquity the sia piu officio di pontefici aggiungere con 1' armi, et col sangue de Chris- tiani, &c.Guicc. xi. p. 858. 2 Quid hodie erant episcopi,nisi umbra quædam? quid plus eis restabat quam bacu- lus et mitra? &c. An. Spiv. de Gestis Syn. Bas. lib. i. " What were bishops now but a kind of shadows? what had they left more than a staff and a mitre ?" &c. 3 Conc. Lat. v. sess. xi. p. 129. De omni ecclesia jus habet judicandi. P. Gelas. Grat. Caus. ix. q. 3, cap. 18. 4 Secundum plenitudinem potestatis de jure possumus supra jus dispensare.Greg. Deeret., lib. iii. tit. 8, cap. 4. 5 Hujus culpas isthic redarguere præsumit mortalium nullus.Grat. Dist. xl. cap. 6 (Si papa). Neque cuiquam licere de ejus judicare judicio.Caul. ix. qu. 3, cap. 10. 5 Cum enim obedire apostolic sedi superbe contemnunt, scelus idololatriae, teste Samuele, incurrunt.Greg. VII., Ep. iv. 2. Nulli fas est vel velle, vel posse trans- gredi apostolic sedis prsecepta.Greg. IV., apud Grat. Dist. xix. cap. 5. "No man maynorcan transgress the commands of the apostolic see." ab omnibus quicquid statuit, quicquid ordinat, perpetuo et irrefragabiliter observandum est.Ibid, cap. 4; P. Stepp. " Whatever he decrees, whatever he ordains, must' always and in- violably be observed by all." 7 Erronea et heeresi proxima.Bell. de Pont. iv. 2. s Si autem papa erraret præcipiendo vitia, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur ecclesia credere vitia esse bona, et virtutes malas, nisi vellet contra conscientiam peccare.Bell. de Pont. iv. 5. [See note, p. 164.ED.1 VOL. L 12
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