POPERY THE ENEMY OF CIVIL SOCIETY. 189 Bodin observes that Pope Nicholas I. was the first who excom- municated princes. Platinamentions some before him: but it is re- markable that although Pope Leo I. (a high-spirited pope, fortissi- mus Leo, as Liberatus calls him) was highly provoked against Theo- dosius junior ; Pope Gelasius, and divers of his predecessors and fol- lowers ;* Pope Gregory II. against Leo; Vigilius against Justinian, &c., yet none of them presumed to excommunicate the emperors. All these dealings are the natural result of this pretence, and, sup- posing it well grounded, are capable of a plausiblejustification; for is itnot fit, seeing one must yield, that temporal should yield to spiritual? Indeed, granting the papal supremacy in spirituals, I conceive the high-flying zealots of the Roman church, who subject all temporal powers to them, have great reason on their side; for co-ordinate power cannot subsist, and it would be only an eternal seminary of perpetual discords. The quarrel cannot otherwise be well composed than by wholly disclaiming the fictitious andusurped power of the pope; for Two such powers, so inconsistent and cross to each other, so apt to interfere, and consequently to breed everlasting mischiefs to man- kind between them, could not be instituted by God. He would not appoint two different vicegerents in his kingdom at the same time.' But it is plain that he has instituted the civil power, and endowed it with a sword that princes are his lieutenants:2 That in the ancient times the popes did not claim such authority, but avowed themselves subject to princes. 9. Consequently this pretence is apt to engage Christian princes against Christianity; for they will not endure to be crossed, to be depressed, to be trampled on .3 This popes often have complained of, not considering it was their own insolence that caused it. 10. Whereas nowChristendom is split into many parcels, subject to divers civil sovereignties, it is expedient that, correspondently, there should be distinct ecclesiastical governments, independent of each other, which may complywith the respective civil authorities in pro- moting the good and peace both of church and state.' The sentence is elliptical; but the meaning may be, that Pope Gelasius I., as well as others, though provoked against the emperors, never excommunicated them. Gelasius held the complete independence of the temporal and spiritual powers. Bower's Hist. of thePopes, ii. 226. ED. ' Tort. T. [Tortura Tortoris], p. 210. 2 P. Avast. calls the Emperor Anast. Vicarium. Ep. p. 670. [That is, PopeAnas- tasius (II.) calls the Emperor Anastasius, Vicar (or God's vicegerent.) He addressed this letter, " Bishop Anastasius, to my most glorious and most clement son, Anastasius Augustus."En.] s Eccl. Leed., p. 522. Secundum mutations temporum transferuntur etiam regna terrarum; unde etiam ecclesiasticarumparochiarum fines in plerisque provinciismutari expedit et transferri. P. Pasch. II., Ep. xix.
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