272 LEGISLATIVE POWER ASSUMEDBY THE POPE. "Those decretal epistles, which most holy popes have at divers times given forth from the city of Rome, upon their being consulted with by divers bishops, we decree that they be received with vene- ration."' " If ye have not the decrees of thebishops of Rome, ye are charge- able with neglect and carelessness; but if ye have them and yet ob- serve them not, ye deserve to be reprimanded and rebuked for your presumption."' "All the sanctions of the apostolic see are so to be understood as if confirmed by the voice of St Peter himself."3 " Because the Roman church, over which, by the will of Christ, we preside, is proposed for a mirror and example, whatsoever it de- termines, whatsoever it appoints, is perpetually and irrefragably to be observed by all men."' " We who, according to the plenitude of our power, have a right to dispense above law or right."' " What thisholy see might doby its own sole authority, it is often pleased to define by consent of a great many priests."' But this power he assumes and exercises merely upon usurpation and unwarrantably, having no ground for it in original right or ancient practice. Originally the church has no other general lawgiver, beside our " one Lord" and " one Lawgiver," Eph. iv. 5; James iv. 12. As to practice we may observe: 1. Anciently, before the first general synod, the church had no other laws beside the divine laws, or those which were derived. from the apostles by traditional custom,' or those which each church enacted for itself in provincial synods, or which were propagated from one church to another by imitation and compliance, or which, in like [a similar] manner, were framed and settled. Decretales epistolas, quas beatissimi papa diversis temporibus ab urbe Roma pro diversorum patrum consultation dederunt, venerabiliter suscipiendasdecernimus. P. Gelas. I. (in decreto) lit. a Nic. P., Ep. xlii., adEp. Gallier, Dist. xix. cap. 1. z Si decreta Romanorum pontificum non habetis, de neglectu atque incuria estis ar- guendi; si vero habetis et non observatis, de temeritate estis corripiendi et increpandi. P. Nic. 1., Ep. vi., adPhot., Dist. xx. cap. 2. 3 Sic omnes apostolica sedis sanctiones accipienda sunt, tanquam ipsius divini Petri voce firmata sunt. P. Agatha, Dist. xix. cap. 2; Vid. Syn. VI., Act. iv. p. 35. Quia in speculum et exemplum S. Romana ecclesia, cuinos Christus praesse voluit, proposita est, ab omnibus quicquid statuit, quicquid ordinat, perpetuo et irrefragabili- ter observandum est. P. Steph., Dist. xix. cap. 3; P. Gelas. L, Ep. ix.; De Dispens. p. 633. s Qui secundum plenitudinem potestatis, de jure possumus supra jus dispensare. P. Inn. III., Decret. Greg., lib. iii. tit. 8,cap. 4. 6 Sedes hae -quod singulari etiam auctoritate perficere valet, multorum sape sacer- dotumdecernit definireconsensu. P. Nic. L, Ep. xviii., adCarolumR.; Leo L, Ep. i. cap. 5; P. Ililarius in Conc. Rom., p. '578; Caus. 25, qu. i. cap. 4; P. Urb., Caus. 25, qu. i. cap. 6; P. Anas. ad Imp. Anast. ; P. Sine., Ep. i. p. 691. 'Ans as iie. Syn. Constanlinop., can. ii.
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