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SUBJECT OF THE
TREATISE.
XXI
There
can
be no
doubt
that the
Papacy,
in virtue
of
the
possessions
granted
it at
various times by superstitious or servile monarchs, be-
came
a
temporal
power.
The pope has his capital and
his
council-
lors,
his ambassadors
and his
armies,
his dominions and his
subjects,
his
wars
and
his
taxes. To all
intents and
purposes
he
is
nothing
less,
and, in sober reality,
he
is
nothing
more,
than
a temporal
prince.
Into the
circumstances which led
to this
worldly
exaltation
we
do
not
enter.
It
is
generally acknowledged
that
the
foundation of
it
was
laid by Pepin
the
usurper
of
France,
when,
in
756 or
758,
on over-
coming
the
Lombards, he
laid
the
keys of
the
conquered towns on,
the altar
of
St
Peter, and
converted
Pope Stephen
IL
into a tem-
poral
prince.
" This,"
says
father
Daniel,
"
is,
properly speaking,
the
original of
the
temporal
power of
the
popes."
The
same
remark
is
made
by Ranke in
his
" History of
the Popes;"
and
most writers
on prophecy
date
from this period
the
union of
the
temporal with
the
spiritual
power of
the
pope.*
But
it
would be
a
grievous
mistake
to
measure
the
temporal
power which
the pope
pretends
to exercise
by
the extent
of his
petty
possessions as
an
Italian
sovereign.
This
is
a mere
trifle
in
comparison
with
the
temporal authority
which
he
claims
in virtue of
his
spiritual.
As
a spiritual
prince,
he
asserts
not
merely a
right
to
the
patrimony
of
St
Peter,
but
a right to
dispose
of
all
the
patrimonies and
possessions
of
this world; to
depose kings,
and transfer
their
kingdoms to others; to
absolve subjects from
their
allegiance; and, in short, to reign
as
lord
paramount
over
the
whole
earth. The
earthly
splendour with
which
he
is
invested,
so
incon-
sistent
with
his
professedly
spiritual
character, may have
served
to
keep up
the prestige
of his
supremacy; but, in
fact,
though
the
pope
were deposed to-morrow from his
throne in the
Vatican,
though not
an
inch of
territory
were allowed
him,
though he
were
stripped
of
his purple
robe,
deserted by his
Swiss
guards
and
his
sbirri,
and left
without
chancery,
mint,
or
arsenal,
he
would still,
in
virtue
simply
of
his
spiritual
pretensions
as
the
vicar of Christ,
retain all the
claims
which
his
predecessors
have
put
forth
to
temporal
dominion.
And
these
claims would be acknowledged
by all
his devoted followers;
for
they
are founded
on
the
same fictitious
jus
divinum
as
that
on
which
he
claims
the
government
of
the
church.
It
is
assumed
that
the
divine prerogatives of
the
"Saviour have been transferred
to
the
governors of
the
church,
and to the
pope,
by
way of eminence, as
*
Mr Fleming,
the
ingenious
author
of
a "
Discourse on
the
Rise and
Fall of the
Papacy," dates
this
event from 758. Mezerai differs
both
from Daniel
and Fleming as
to
the
date, which he
fixes
at
756,
but
errs
as to
the
reigning
pope,
whom
he makes
to
be Stephen
III.
Abrégè
Citron.
de
l'H!st.
de
France,
tom. i.
p.
446.