10 INTRODIICTION. greater than which no papal decke is capable) of being expressly confirmed by one of their general councils; for, " We," says Pope Leo X. in his bull, read and passed in the Lateran council, " do renew and approve that holy constitution, with approbation of the present holy council."' Accordingly, Melchior Canus says that "the La- teran council renewed and approved that extravagant" (indeed ex- travagant !) " constitution;"2 and Baronius says of it, that " all assent to it, so that none dissents who does not by discord fall from the church." 3 The truth is, Pope Boniface did not invent that proposition, but borrowed it from the school; for Thomas Aquinas,in his work against the Greeks, pretends to show that " it is of necessity to salvation to be subject to the Roman pontiff."4 The which scholastical aphorism Pope Boniface turned into law, and applied to his purpose of exer- cising domination over princes, offering, in virtue of it, to deprive King Philip of his kingdom. The appendix to Mart. Pol.* says of Pope Boniface VIII., " Re- gem se regum, mundi monarcham, unicum in spiritualibus et tem- poralibus dominum promulgavit;" that " he openly declared himself to be king of kings, monarch of the world, and sole lord and gover- nor both in spirituals and temporals." Before him, Pope Innocent IV. (anno 1245) held and exempli- fied the same notion, declaring the Emperor Frederic II. his vas- sal, and denouncing, in his general council of Lyons, a sentence of deprivation against him in these terms:"We having, about the foregoing and many other his wicked miscarriages, had before a careful deliberation with our brethren and the holy council, seeing that we, although unworthy, do hold the place of Jesus Christ on earth, and that it was said unto us in the person of St Peter the apostle, Whatever thou shalt bind on earth' the said prince (who bath rendered himself unworthyof empire and kingdoms, and of all claimed no more than his predecessor Hildebrand had done two hundred years be- fore.ED. ' Constitutionem ipsam, sacro prasenti concilio approbante, innovamus et approba- mus.Concil. Lateran., sess. xi. p. 163. 2 Quam extravagantem renovavit et approbavit concilium Lateranense sub Leone X. Canus, loc. vi. 4. Hsec Bonifacius, cui assentiuntur omnes, ut nullus discrepet, nisi qui dissidio ab ecclesia excidit. Baron., anno 1053, § 14. 4 Ostenditur etiamquod subesse Romano pontifici sit de necessitate salutis.Thom. in Opuse. contra Grams. *Theauthor hererefers to Martinus Polonus(socalled fromhis beinga Poleby birth), penitentiary to Pope Nicholas III., and a Dominican friar, who flourished in the thir- teenth century. He is the author of a " Chronicle of thePopes and Emperors;" which extends from Jesus Christ and from Augustus to PopeJohnXXI., who diedin the year 1277. It is in his Chronicle that we meet with the curious history of Pope Joan, the authenticity of which was acknowledged bypopish writers before the days of Luther, though violently denied afterwards. See Bayle's Did., art. Polonus (Martin).ED.
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