THE SIXTH SUPPOSITION. 239 tions revoked.* And when they found weak princes, or any prince in circumstances advantaging their design, they obtained their end. So Pope Leo X. got Louis XI. to repeal the " Pragmatical Sanc- tions" of his ancestors.t 35. The power heassumed to absolve men from oaths and vows, to dispense with prohibited marriages, &c., not onlybrought much grist to his mill, but enabled him highly to oblige divers persons, espe- cially great ones, to himself. For tohim they owed the quiet of their conscience from scruples; to him they owed the satisfaction of their desires, and legitimation of their issue, and title to their possessions. 36. So the device of indulgences greatly raised the veneration of him; for who would not adore him that could loose his bands, and free his soul from long and grievous pains? SUPPOSITION VI. THE next supposition [hypothesis] is this, " That in fact the Roman bishops continuallyfrom St Peter's time have enjoyed and exercised this sovereign power." This is a question of fact, which will best be decided by a particu- lar consideration of the several branches of sovereign power, that so we may examine the more distinctly whether in all ages the popes have enjoyed and exercised them or not. And if we survey the particular branches of sovereignty, we shall find that the pope has no just title to them in reason, by valid law, or according to ancient practice; whence each of them yields a good argument against his pretences. I. If the pope were sovereign of the church, he would have power to convocate its supreme councils and judicatories, and would con- stantly have exercised it. This power, therefore, the pope claims, and, indeed, pretends to it a long time since, before he could obtain to exercise it. " It is manifestly apparent," says Pope Leo X., with approbation of his Lateran synod, " that the Roman bishop, for the time being (as who has authority over all councils), has alone the full right andpower * The edict called the Pragmatic Sanction was emitted by Charles VII. of France in 1438, and was intended to shield the French clergy from the intolerable encroach- ments of the pope. It consisted of twenty-three articles, abolishingthe annats, and other exactions of Rome, and declaring the authority of ageneral council superior to that of thepope. En. t The execution of this repeal, obtained from the priest-ridden Louis XI., was, however, prevented by the firmness of the University of Paris, and the Pragmatic Sanction was restored by his son and successor, Charles VIII.En.
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