346 FOURTEENTH ASSUMPTION SUPERIORITY TO COUNCILS. Pope Clement V. did not take himself to be infallible, when, in his great synod ofVienna, thequestion, Whether, beside remission of sin, also virtuewere conferred on infants? he resolved thus very honestly, "The second opinion, which says that informing grace and virtues are in baptism conferred both upon infants and adult persons, we think fit, with the consent of the holy council, to be chosen, as being more consonant and agreeable to the divinity of the modern doctors."' Which of the two popes was in the right,PopeNicholas IV., who decided that our Lord was so poor that hehad right to nothing, or Pope John XXII., who declared this to be a heresy, charging our Lord with injustice?' XIV. Asovereign is in dignity and authority superiorto any number of subjects, however conjoined or congregated, as a head is above all the members, however compacted. He is not supremewho is anywise subject or inferior to a senate, or any assembly in his territory. Therefore the pope claims a superiority over all councils, pretend- ing that their determinations are invalid without his consent and confirmation; that he can rescind or make void their decrees; that he can suspend their consultations, and translate or dissolve them.' And Baronius reckons this as one error in Hincmarus, bishop of Rheims, "that he held as if the canons of councils were of greater authority in the church of God than the decrees of popes; which," says he, "is a most absurd and unreasonable opinion."4 "That the authorityof the apostolic see in all Christian ages has been preferred before the universal church, both the canons of our predecessors and manifold tradition confirm."' This is a question stiffly debated among the Romanists; but the most, as Æneas Sylvius, afterward Pope Pius II., acutely observed, with good reason, adhere to the pope's side, because the pope dis- poses of benefices, but councils give none. But, in truth, anciently the pope was not understood superior to councils; for "greater is the authorityof the world than of one city,"% says St Jerome. He was but one bishop, that had nothing to do opinionem secundam, qun dicit tam parvulis quam adultis conferri in baptis- mo informantem gratiam et virtutes, tanquam probabiliorem ac doctorum modernorum theologise magis consonam et concordem sacro approbante concilio duximus eligendam. Clem in tit. i. 2 Bell. iv. 14, p. 1318; Confer. Sext. lib. v. tit. xii. cap. 3; Extray. Job. XXII., tit. xiv. cap. 3-5. Bell. de Conc. ii. 17. + Plane significat majoris esse auctoritatis in ecclesia Dei Cannes conciliorumdecre- tis pontificum; hsec quam sint absurda et ab omni ratione penitus aliena, &c.Baron. ad ann. 992, § 56 ; Cone. Lat. V. sess. 11, p. 152; Th. Cajet. Orat. in Cone. Lat. p. 36. 5 Apostolic.% vero sedis auctoritas, quod cunctis seculis Christianis ecclesise prselata sit universse, et canonum aerie paternorum, et multiplici traditions firmatur. P. Gelas. I., Ep. viii. (0 impudentiam ! ) 5 Major est auctoritas orbis quam urbis.Hier. adEvag.
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