*
Papal Sovereignty
The Government Within
Our Government
GILBERT O. NATIONS
Vice-President of the Free Press
Defense League; author
of "Constitution or
Pope?" etc.
SECOND EDITION
CINCINNATI
THE STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
Copyright, 1917
The Standard Publishing Company
Contents
PAGE
PREFACE 7
I
THE POPE A CIVIL SOVEREIGN 9
II
SUPREME OVERLORD 11
III
MONARCH OF THE PAPAL STATE. ... 19
IV
STILL ENJOYS SOVEREIGN POWER. . . 25
V
WEARS A CROWN 32
VI
SOVEREIGNTY GUARANTEED BY LAW ....
OF ITALY 38
VII
STILL CLAIMS PRE-EMINENT SOVER-
EIGNTY . 54
1711951
CONTENTS
VIII PAGE
STILL CLAIMS PRE-EMINENT SOVER-
EIGNTY (Continued) 65
IX
STILL CLAIMS PRE-EMINENT SOVER-
EIGNTY (Concluded) 75
X
SENDS AND RECEIVES AMBASSADORS. 91
XI
MAKES TREATIES 100
XII
TEXT-BOOKS ON INTERNATIONAL LAW
DECLARE HIM SOVEREIGN 109
XIII
EVERY ROMAN CATHOLIC A PAPAL
SUBJECT 115
XIV
CARDINALS BELONG TO PAPAL COURT 124
XV
BISHOPS ARE CREATURES AND DEPU-
TIES OF THE POPE 137
XVI
PAPAL SUBJECTS IN AMERICAN POL-
ITICS . 145
CONTENTS
XVII PAGE
VAST AMERICAN PROPERTIES CON-
TROLLED BY THE POPE 149
XVIII
PAPACY HOSTILE TO OUR INSTITU-
TIONS 153
XIX
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 157
XX
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS. . . . 163
XXI
OPPOSES PUBLIC SCHOOLS 168
XXII
MARRIAGE 174
XXIII
DlSFRANCHISEMENT THE ONLY ADE-
QUATE REMEDY 179
Preface
/CAREFUL study has shown me that
^ the voice of history, of canon law and
of international law supports with con-
vincing force and with virtual unanimity
the proposition that the Pope is a political
sovereign prince, ruling an empire whose
subjects are restricted to no territorial
limits, but dwell in every land and under
every flag.
The peculiar constitution and dogmas
of the Roman Catholic Church clothe
the Pope with jurisdiction absolutely
unlimited in both scope and autocracy.
The temporal and eternal destiny of every
Roman Catholic under these dogmas de-
pends on his complete subjection to the
Pope as supreme and infallible teacher
and monarch of the human race.
Notwithstanding the unparalleled
sway of the Pope over his vast ecclesias-
tical empire, his subjects are permitted to
PREFACE
become citizens and to engage actively in
the politics of every nation. It is but
natural that a political condition so mon-
strous should inflict untold misery on
every community. It appears perfectly
manifest that relief can be obtained by
nothing short of disfranchisement by all
civil governments of the princes and sub-
jects of the Papal Empire.
My excuse for enlarging my work by
copying so many excerpts from the au-
thorities cited is that these authorities
are not accessible to the masses of the
people. Attention is called to the fact that
the citations give the book and page of
all authorities. This will enable critical
readers to verify all the citations used.
Occupying a unique position in the
literature of the New Reformation, this
work undertakes to cut the tap-root of
political Romanism. A fundamental is-
sue, the greatest in the politics of the
modern world, is here presented to
thoughtful, patriotic citizens of the
United States.
GILBERT O. NATIONS.
8
THE POPE A CIVIL SOVEREIGN
I. The Pope is a Civil and Political
Prince, Potentate and Sovereign Under
the Law of Nations.
'"T'HE foregoing proposition embodies
•*• the most vital and comprehensive
issue in the politics of the world. It
affords the only solution of a problem
that has confronted all nations more than
a thousand years.
Let it be distinctly understood that
the spiritual status of vhe Pope as a
bishop is not involved in this discussion.
The Roman Catholic religion is not now
under consideration. It is of supreme
importance to distinguish clearly between
religion and politics at the threshold of
this investigation.
The Constitution of the United States
prohibits any religious test as a qualifi-
9
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
cation to public office, and forbids Con-
gress to make any law respecting an es-
tablishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof.
It has long been the deliberate pur-
pose of the Pope and his adherents, in
meeting objections to their political pro-
gram, to confuse the public mind by
making complaint that the Catholic re-
ligion is being opposed.
If the Pope is a civil and temporal
prince, potentate and sovereign, that fact
should be established beyond doubt or
denial. In order that the proof may ap-
pear with reasonable fullness, the sub-
stance of that proof will be presented in
the following subsidiary propositions:
10
II
SUPREME OVERLORD
1. During several centuries the popes
claimed and enjoyed supreme authority
as the overlords of all other potentates.
At the nightfall of the Middle Ages
barbarians from northern Europe poured
over the frontiers of the decaying Roman
Empire and swept away the imperial
fabric that had so long dominated and
controlled the civilized world. With the
sway of the Caesars so abruptly termi-
nated, two well-defined institutions arose
for the restraint of society amidst the
strife and commotion of that turbulent
age. These institutions were the Papacy
and the Feudal System.
As barbarian invaders threatened the
city of Rome, no Caesar could be found
to roll back with valorous legions the
tide of invasion and interpose a barrier
stronger than the Alps. In this ex-
11
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
tremity the bishop of Rome, who had
already attained to ecclesiastical pre-
eminence in the West, being then the
most conspicuous person in Rome, under-
took the protection of the city. Oppor-
tunity was thus afforded him to render
services that greatly enhanced the pres-
tige and dignity of his office. Simul-
taneously the feudal system arose for the
protection of life and property through-
out the Continent.
Under this system triumphant leaders
of the conquering barbarians distributed
the lands among their faithful lieutenants,
who in turn subdivided their respective
portions among the masses of the people
as their inferiors.
In connection with this apportionment
each of the lieutenants or barons was re-
quired to plight his life and property to
the conqueror as his overlord by the most
solemn oaths of devotion and fealty
known to those stern and barbarous
times.
In like manner each individual, soldier
and tribesman pledged his fealty to the
12
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
lieutenant or baron from whom he re-
ceived his parcel of land. The ceremony
wherein these solemn pledges were made
was called homage, the superior to whom
fealty was so pledged was designated
as the overlord or suzerain, and the
person of inferior rank who made the
pledge was known as the vassal or un-
derling.
In due time the feudal overlords at-
tained to royal and imperial rank and
power, and the popes vied with them for
civil supremacy. While conceding to the
feudal potentates sovereign power over
their respective countries, the popes
claimed suzerainty over all the rulers of
the earth and made good that claim by
receiving homage from the most power-
ful monarchs of the Middle Ages. De-
manding fealty of every Roman Catholic
throughout the world, from the king on
his throne to the humblest peasant, the
popes exercised the right to control the
domestic and foreign affairs of every
nation. An eminent French authority on
international law has portrayed the amaz-
13
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
ing pretensions of the Papacy in the fol-
lowing brief statement:
[Translation from the French.]
"As head of the Catholic Church, the
Pope exercised powers and possessed
attributes absolutely unprecedented. His
authority transcended the material bound-
aries of the states and extended through-
out the entire world, in the East as well
as in the West, in Asia, in Africa as well
as in Europe and in America, everywhere
that there was a Catholic community." —
Droit International Public (seventh ed.),
Bonfils (Paris, 1914), Sec. 372.
Another leading French writer has
described the Papal sovereignty in the fol-
lowing worcts :
[Translation from the French.]
"Itis a superior power to which kings
submitted their differences and accepted
its adjustments. Ft|r|hermore, the popes,
who found, in tha'tVepckh, in the exercise
of the temporal sovereignty, the right to
meddle in international relations and the
struggles of politics, participated also, as
the leaders of religion, in the internal
government of states, through their rep-
14
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
resentatives, whose mission was less to
play the role of "diplomatic agents than as
supreme judges and sovereign adminis-
trators. The Church had, in every land,
itsf tribunals, its own domains, and the
right to levy certain imposts." — Droit In-
ternational Public (sixth ed.), by Georges
Bry, Dean of the Law Faculty of the
University of Marseilles (Paris, 1910),
Sec. 130.
The other writers on international law
with one accord attest the tremendous and
virtually unchallenged authority of the
popes during the Middle Ages. The fol-
lowing excerpts will show the extent and
character of the Papal claims :
"It was under the pontificate of Inno-
cent the Third that the power of Rome
reached its meridian height. Of noble
birth, and in the prime of manhood when
he ascended the Papal throne, equal in
ambition and hardly inferior in ability to
Hildebrand, he aspired still more openly
to universal domimofi. and his efforts were
crowned with still more signal success.
No pope before his time ever exercised an
authority so absolute and so extensive;
no prince, however powerful, successfully
15
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
resisted his authority. Peter the Second
of Aragpn acknowledged himself his vas-
sal, and the most worthless king who ever
wore the English crown submitted to the
like degrading terms. Over Philip Au-
gustus of France, a monarch of very dif-
ferent stamp, the Pope obtained a triumph
still more remarkable. Philip had di-
vorced without cause his wife, Isemburga,
a Danish princess, and had contracted
another marriage. This step was strongly
disapproved as well in Denmark as in
France, in both of which countries the
repudiated queen was deservedly es-
teemed. By the operation of a Papal
interdict, which brought his subjects to
the verge of rebellion, Philip was at
length compelled to annul his existing
marriage and receive back the wife he
had unjustly divorced. There was, in-
deed, hardly a prince in Christendom who
did not feel the weight of Innocent's au-
thority. At a time when war appeared
imminent between the kings of Portugal
and Castile we find him directing his
legate to threaten both with excommuni-
cation in case the peace was broken.
Complaints having been made against his
vassal, the King of Aragon, for debasing
his coin, he commanded him to restore it
16
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
to the proper standard. At the fourth
Lateran Council he absolutely deprived
Raymond, Count of Thoulouse, of his
dominions on account of his alleged com-
plicity with the Albigenses, and at the
same council he declared, after hearing
the ambassadors of both the competitors,
that Frederick the Second, grandson of
Barbarosa, had made good his claim to
the imperial crown. Otho the Fourth,
who had previously been crowned by In-
nocent, was at the same time declared to
be no longer emperor. The true reasons
for this decision are well known. Otho
had solemnly promised at his coronation
to restore to the Church certain terri-
tories in his possession, and he had wholly
disregarded his engagements.
"Innocent the Third freely exercised
the privilege of creating as well as depos-
ing kings." — Hosack on the Law of Na-
tions, pp. 41, 42.
"On the 15th of May, 1213, John
(King of England) did homage to the
Pope's legate at Dover in presence of a
number of the nobility and people. . . .
After he had thus solemnly acknowl-
edged himself a vassal of the Pope, John
delivered up to the legate his crown and
scepter, who retained them in his posses-
2 17
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
sion for five whole days before he re-
turned them to the king." — Rapin, Vol.
III., p. 209.
"The popes at one time claimed the au-
thority to absolve sovereigns from their
engagements and to annul the obligations
of treaties, under whatsoever solemnities
they might be contracted. Vattel men-
tions a number of instances where, he
says, they have undertaken to break the
treaties of sovereigns, 'to unloose the
contracting power from his engagements,
and to absolve him from the oaths by
which he had confirmed them.' . . .
'Who does not see that these daring acts
of the popes, which were formerly very
frequent, were violations of the law of
nations, and directly tended" to destroy all
the bonds that could unite mankind, and
to sap the foundations of their tranquility,
and to render the Pope sole arbiter of
their affairs ?' " — Halleck on Internation-
al Law (London, 1878), pp. 239, 240.
18
Ill
MONARCH OF THE PAPAL STATE
2. For more than a thousand years
the Pope ruled the Papal State as abso-
lute monarch, and all authorities agree
that he was then a civil sovereign.
During the eighth century Pepin
and Charlemagne, the most powerful and
renowned monarchs of the Middle Ages,
wrested from the Lombards a tract of
land in central Italy about as large as the
State of Maryland, and erected it into a
Papal kingdom over which the popes
reigned with despotic sway till the year
1870, when the Papacy was divested of
this territorial dominion by the military
forces of the King of Italy. During that
period the sovereignty of the Pope arose
from his dual capacity as monarch of the
Papal State and as sovereign pontiff of
the Roman Catholic Church throughout
the world. While the former character
19
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
was clearly sufficient to place him in the
category of monarchs, his pre-eminent
rank in the family of nations even then
was so out of proportion to the size and
importance of his territorial kingdom as
to preclude the idea that it rested chiefly
on that foot.
In view of the fact that civil sover-
eignty was universally conceded to the
Pope prior to his loss of the pontifical state,
it appears scarcely necessary to produce
authorities in support of this contention
which no one denies. The following brief
excerpts aud authorities taken from
leading writers on international law are
deemed sufficient:
"Throughout the existence of the
Papal State, the popes were monarchs
and, as such, were equals to all other
monarchs. Their position was, however,
even then anomalous, as their influence
and the privileges granted to them by the
different states were due, not alone to
their being the head of the state, but to
their being the head of the Roman Cath-
olic Church."— International Law, by Op-
penheim, Sec. 104.
20
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
[Translation from the French.]
"As temporal ruler of the pontifical
state, the Pope was a true sovereign, in-
vested with the powers, the attributes, the
prerogatives, and holding the obligations
and functions wherewith other princes of
states are invested and which they hold."
— Droit International Public (seventh
ed.), by Bonfils (Paris, 1914), Sec. 371.
[Translation from the French.]
"Along with the spiritual sovereignty,
the popes enjoyed during long ages, and
until 1870, a temporal dominion which
the Catholic powers granted in order to
safeguard the independence of the Sover-
eign Pontiff and which he exercised over
a domain which the popes considered in-
alienable for their own particular reason."
— Droit International Public (sixth ed.),
by Georges Bry (Paris, 1910), Sec. 131.
[Translation from the Spanish.]
"Until 1870, the Pope, in keeping with
his quality of sovereign, was invested
with the right of temporal sovereignty
which he exercised over a definite terri-
tory and the inhabitants thereof. The
government of the states of the Church
was absolute and presented a theocratic
21
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
character." — Elementos de Derecho In-
ternational Publico por el Dr. Manuel
Torres Campos (third ed., Madrid, 1912),
p. 199.
i
In 1908 the Supreme Court of the
United States uttered the following re-
mark:
"At one time the United States main-
tained diplomatic relations with the Papal
State, which continued up to the time of
the loss of the temporal power of the
Papacy." — Ponce vs. Roman Catholic
Church, 210 U. S. loc. cit. 318, 28 Sup.
Ct. 737.
While the subjugation of the Papal
State and its incorporation into the king-
dom of Italy ended the status of the Pope
as monarch of that petty state, it did
not affect a particle his rank as head of
the Roman Catholic Church; and since it
is manifest that his commanding and pre-
eminent station among mediaeval sover-
eigns could not arise from his position as
head of the insignificant pontifical state,
but must be due to his ecclesiastical su-
premacy as head of the Roman Catholic
22
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Church, that pre-eminence was not there-
fore diminished by the loss of his small
territorial domain. Every claim to civil
sovereignty which he possessed in the
past by virtue of his ECCLESIASTICAL rank
remains unimpaired. If he was ever a
civil potentate by virtue of that rank, he
is so still. If he ever had power as
sovereign pontiff of the Roman Catholic
Church to crown and depose monarchs
and to participate in the diplomacy and
politics of the world, he has that power
to-day.
That the tremendous prerogatives of
the popes in former centuries were due
entirely to their ECCLESIASTICAL position
as pontiffs of the Roman Catholic Church,
and not to their ROYAL position as rulers
of the Papal State, is conclusively demon-
strated by the following facts :
(1) Every claim to such prerogatives
made by the popes themselves rested
upon their ecclesiastical rank as sover-
eign pontiffs of the Roman Catholic
Church.
(2) Every such claim made on their
23
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
behalf by Church councils stood upon the
same foundation.
(3) Diplomatic envoys were uniform-
ly accredited to the popes, or by them, as
pontiffs and not as monarchs of the Papal
State.
(4) It is manifest that the powerful
monarchs of Germany, France and Eng-
land who did homage to the popes as
their overlords did so in recognition of
the Papal prerogatives as sovereign pon-
tiffs, and not as monarchs of a state in-
finitely weaker and less important than
their own.
(5) The concordats, or treaties, with
other potentates were then invariably
made by the popes in their ecclesiastical
capacity, and were identical in their
formal parts with such conventions made
since the overthrow of the Papal State.
(6) The popes enforced their claim of
supreme and universal sovereignty by
such ecclesiastical penalties as excommu-
nication, suspension and interdict rather
than by force of arms.
IV
STILL ENJOYS SOVEREIGN POWERS
3. Notwithstanding the loss of his ter-
ritorial domain, the Pope still claims and
enjoys the rights, powers and prerogatives
of a political sovereign prince.
Having conclusively shown that the
Pope was clothed with all the preroga-
tives of a civil potentate prior to the loss
of his domain in 1870, we come now to
consider the more vital question of his
status at the present day. The proof that
he is now invested with temporal and
political sovereignty throughout the world
will be presented under the following
averments :
(1) The Pope occupies a throne iden-
tical in all essentials with those occupied
by other monarchs.
In every land and in every age a
throne has signified political sovereign
25
power. Emperors and kings deliver mes-
sages of state and perform the most
solemn of their imperial and royal func-
tions seated on thrones. By the universal
custom and consent of the human race,
thrones belong exclusively to persons
vested with supreme and sovereign politi-
cal authority.
Toward the close of the Papal reign
of Leo XIII. that pontiff summoned to
Rome Rt. Rev. Bernard O'Reilly, S.T.D.,
an eminent Roman Catholic prelate and
author, to write the biography of the
Pope. This fact appears in the preface
of the published volume, together with
such additional information as shows the
work to be virtually an autobiography. It
was compiled from data and documents
provided for that purpose by the Pope
himself, and received his approval and
commendation when completed.
Opposite to page 217 of that biog-
raphy, which is published also with the
approval of Cardinals Gibbons and Farley
and other eminent prelates, is a full-page
engraving of the Throne Room in the
26
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Vatican, showing the Papal throne and
other significant appurtenances, accom-
panied by the following statement:
"THE THRONE ROOM IN THE VATICAN.
"Here the venerable pontiff received
delegations and gave audiences to those
who had permission to come before him."
On page 304 of the same work, in
concluding the history of the conclave
which chose Leo XIII. as the successor
of Pope Pius IX., the following statement
appears :
"Meanwhile, they have placed upon \
the platform of the altar the portable
Papal throne — sedia gestatoria — and all
is in readiness for 'the first solemn cere- /
mony of doing homage to the newly
elected Vicar of Christ. This is called
'adoration' from the Latin word adorare,
the ceremony by which the ancient
Romans testified their reverence to any
superior being or person, by turning their
face toward the object of their homage
and carrying the right hand to the lips.
Here the act of reverence shown is to the
person representing on earth the Re-
27
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
deemer and Guide of mankind, and, in-
directly, to Christ Himself.
"Leo XIIL, attired in the insignia of
his dignity, now advances from behind the
altar and takes his place on the throne.
The sub-dean, in the absence of Cardinal
Amat, is the first to approach the throne.
He takes from the Pope's hand the sap-
\ phire cardinalitial ring and puts on his
finger the Ring of the Fisherman; then
he bends low and kisses the feet of His
Vicar on earth who in the Last Supper
washed and kissed the feet of His apos-
tles ; he then kisses the Pope's hand, while
Leo in his turn gives him on both cheeks
the kiss of peace. So do all the cardinals
in succession, and then the officers of the
conclave."
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, eleventh
edition, Volume XXVI., at page 892,
contains the following statement :
"One of the many curiosities of a con-
clave for the electing of a pope is that
every cardinal present occupies a throne,
since, during the vacancy of the Holy See,
each member of the Sacred College is a
potential sovereign. When the election
has taken place the canopy of every throne
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
is lowered, with the exception of that oc-
cupied by the new pontiff. The palaces
of the great Roman nobles contained —
and still in some cases contain — a throne
for use in the event of a visit from the
Pope. The Papal throne itself is an an-
tique bronze chair which stands in St.
Peter's."
The Pilot, which is the official news-
paper organ of Cardinal O'Connell, of
Boston, Massachusetts, in its issue of
December 2, 1916, related the reception
of the new Japanese Ambassador to the
Vatican in the following words:
"The honors usually accorded to Am-
bassadors to the Vatican were given to
this Imperial Envoy from the Far East.
When he ascended the great staircase
leading from the Court of St. Damasus
to the spacious Clementine Hall, whose
walls are paneled with rich marbles of
many colors, the Swiss Guards here pre-
sented arms, and one of the Pontifical
Private Chamberlains conducted him into
the Throne Room, where His Holiness
had just taken his place upon the throne,
surrounded by the members of the Pon-
tifical Court and the commandants of
29
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
the Swiss, Noble and Palantine Guards.
'The Envoy then, standing before the
pontifical throne, presented to His Holi-
ness the autograph letter of the Emperor,
of which he was the bearer, addressing
the Pontiff in a few brief words in the
French language on behalf and in the
name of the Emperor."
In April, 1886, Prince Bismarck, then
Imperial Chancellor of Germany, deliv-
ered in the Prussian House of Lords a
speech wherein he expressed a disposition
to mitigate the rigors of existing legis-
lation and policy touching the Roman
Catholic Church, and said:
"In pursuance of the purpose I was
just explaining to you, I began, as soon
as the present Pope ascended the throne,
to open publici juris negotiations with
Monsignor Masella (the Nuncio in
Munich), which gave hope of a good
issue, and which lasted till Cardinal
Franchi became Secretary of State
(March 9, 1878), and were afterwards
suspended."— O'Reilly's "Life of Leo
XIII. ," pp. 473, 474.
The fact that cardinals and bishops
30
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
of the Roman Catholic Church are accus-
tomed to occupy thrones in their respec-
tive dioceses tends rather to enhance
than to diminish the significance of the
Papal throne. All these medieval inven-
tions disclose one common worldly and
political ambition pervading the entire
hierarchy. As the Papal throne came
into use in order to promote the ambition
of its occupant to cope with neighboring
monarchs, so the episcopal throne of the
local bishop was invented to emphasize
his delegated sovereignty in defiance of
the civil power.
That such defiance still lives is shown
by the frequency with which local prel-
ates in this country and abroad mount
their thrones for the transaction of epis-
copal functions, and the diligence of the
Roman Catholic and Rome- favor ing
newspaper press in reporting that arro-
gant performance to the people.
31
WEARS A CROWN
(2) The Pope wears an official crown,
known as the tiara, or triple crown, as a
token of his sovereign power.
Like many of the customs and instru-
mentalities with which the Papal system
expresses its love of worldly pomp, the
tiara is of non-Christian origin. It was
transplanted from Persia into the Papal
system during the darkness of the Middle
Ages.
Emperors and kings are crowned with
imposing ceremony to indicate their im-
perial and royal authority. By universal
custom and consent, the crown expresses
civil and political sovereignty. No con-
ceivable purpose can be subserved by the
crowning of the Pope except to indicate
his rank as one of the sovereign princes
of the world.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume
32
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
XII., at page 270, contains the following
statement : .
"INSIGNIA AND MARKS OF HONOR. —
The pope is distinguished by the use of
the tiara or triple crown. At what date
the custom of crowning the pope was
introduced is unknown. It was certainly
previous to the forged donation of Con-
stantine, which dates from the commence-
ment of the ninth century, for mention
is there made of the pope's coronation.
The triple crown is of much later origin."
In Volume VI. of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, eleventh edition, appears an
article written by Auguste Boudinhon,
D.D., D.C.L., professor of canon law in
the Catholic University of Paris, on the
Conclave. On page 829 of that volume,
in describing the process of choosing and
installing a pope, Dr. Boudinhon makes
the following statement :
"When one cardinal has at last ob-
tained two-thirds of the votes, the dean
of the cardinals formally asks him
whether he accepts his election and what
name he wishes to assume. As soon as
he has accepted, the first 'obedience' or
3 38
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
'adoration' takes place, and immediately
after the first cardinal-deacon goes to the
Loggia of St. Peter's and announces the
great news to the assembled people. The
conclave is dissolved; on the following
day take place the two other 'obedi-
ences/ and the election is officially an-
nounced to the various governments. If
the pope be not a bishop (Gregory XVI.
was not), he is then consecrated; and
finally, a few days after his election,
takes place the coronation, from which
the pontificate is officially dated. The
pope then receives the tiara, the sign of
his supreme spiritual authority. The
ceremony of the coronation goes back to
the ninth century, and the tiara, in the
form of a high conical cap, is equally
ancient."
In Volume IV. of the Catholic Ency-
clopedia, at page 194, after stating in
detail the proceedings of the conclave,
that work gives the following account of
the steps required to induct the newly
elected pope into office:
"If already a bishop, there takes place
only the solemn Benedictio or blessing.
However, he enjoys full jurisdiction from
34
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
the moment of his election. On the fol-
lowing Sunday or Holy Day takes place,
at the hands of the senior cardinal-
deacon, the Papal ''coronation," from
which day the new pope dates the years
of his pontificate."
For the benefit and consideration of s
an inquiring reader, the Roman Catholic A
monthly periodical, Truth, in its issue of
September, 1915, gives the following y
statement touching the Papal crown:
''Historians have no definite knowl-
edge as to the exact time when the differ-
ent bands were instituted for the Pope's
crown. The tiara is a symbol of sover- I
eignty. By some it is said that Nicholas /
I. (858-867) united the princely crown/
with the miter. The Bollandists say this
was done earlier. To dispose of the
statement that Boniface VIII. added the
second crown, we need only refer to the
fact that before his time, about 1200,
Innocent III. is represented in a painting
with two bands on his crown. And as
regards the third crown, some writers
attribute it to Urban V. (1362-70). The
significance of this triple crown, or tiara,
is indicated in the words addressed to
35
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
!the Supreme Pontiff, when it is pre-
sented to him at his consecration: 'Re-
ceive the tiara adorned with three crowns,
and know that thou art the father of
princes and kings, the ruler of the world,
and the vicar of our Saviour Jesus
Christ/ "
- -—--^
Volume XII. of the "New Schaff-
Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious
Knowledge," in discussing the subject of
"Vestments," uses on page 172 the fol-
lowing words:
"A special distinction is, however, the
(tiara (regnum, triregnum). This is the
princely emblem of the Pope, and is
therefore worn when his princely author-
ity is to be manifested; in liturgical and
ecclesiastical functions he wears instead
the episcopal miter."
In the article on the tiara in Volume
XXVI. of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
the following words appear on page 911 :
"Tiara, also called regnum, triregnum
and corona, the Papal crown, a be^hive-
shaped, somewhat bulging head-covering,
ornamented with three cr-owns (whence
36
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
triregnum or 'triple' crown). It has no \
sacral character, being solely the ensign \
of sovereign power (cf. Innocent III.,
Serm. VII., in S. Silvest: 'Pontijex I
romanus in signum imperil utitur reg- I
no'), and is therefore never worn at
liturgical functions, when the Pope
always wears the miter."
The following definition is given in
Volume XII., at page 66, of Nelson's
Encyclopaedia :
"Tiara, the pope's crown, which, in
its triple form, symbolises his temporal
claims, as the keys are the symbol of his
spiritual authority. The tiara is formed
of gold cloth, encircled by three crowns,
and surmounted by a golden globe and
cross. There was a tradition that Boni-
face VIII. added the second, while Urban
V. assumed the third of the crowns."
37
VI
SOVEREIGNTY GUARANTEED BY LAW
OF ITALY
/** (3) The Italian Law of Papal Guaran-
/ tees of May 13, 1871, expressly reserves
I and accords to the Pope the rank and J
\ prerogatives of a sovereign prince.
Few statutes enacted by human legis-
latures are so important as this law re-
specting Papal guarantees. Writers on
international law with one accord recog-
nize it as a very potent factor in the
problem of the present civil status of the
Pope. Discussion of the nature and
effect of that law abounds in the litera-
ture of Europe and America on history
and international law.
It was the Kingdom of Italy that
wrested from the Pope his sovereignty
of the pontifical state. Whatever sub-
traction, if any, was made from his rank
and prerogatives by that deed was made
38
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
by the Italian Government. This statute,
therefore, enacted so near the time of the
subjugation as to be virtually a part of
the same transaction, is particularly in-
structive as showing the view held by
Italy of its own act and the consequences
resulting therefrom.
While this law of guarantees has
never received the full approval of the
popes, who refuse to accept the annuity
which it accords to them, and has never
been submitted to the other nations for
express approval, the popes, by accepting
some of its provisions in their behalf, and
most of the Governments by maintaining
diplomatic relations with the Pope under
the protection and guarantees afforded
by this law, have at least tacitly recog-
nized it as a valid element in the law of
nations.
Though the statute is somewhat ex-
tended, and a part of its provisions have
little direct bearing on the question of
Papal sovereignty, its extraordinary im-
portance will justify its reproduction here
in full:
39
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"LAW OF PAPAL GUARANTEES.
"Victor Emmanuel II., by the grace
of God and the will of the nation King of
Italy, the Senate and the Chamber of
Deputies have approved, we have sanc-
tioned and promulgate as follows:
"SECTION 1. PREROGATIVES OF THE PON-
TIFF AND OF THE HOLY SEE.
"ARTICLE I. The person of the Su-
preme Pontiff is sacred and inviolable.
"II. Any attempt against the person
of the Supreme Pontiff, or any provoca-
tion to commit the same, shall be pun-
ished with the same penalties as are
established by law for a similar attempt
or provocation against the King.
"Any offenses or injuries publicly
directed against the person of the Pontiff
by word or deed, or by any means de-
scribed in Article I. of the law of the
press, shall be punished by the penalties
established by Article XIX. of the afore-
mentioned law.
"Such offenses are actionable on be-
half of the State, and shall be tried by
the Court of Assize.
"The discussion upon religious mat-
ters is entirely free.
40
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"III. The Italian Government shall *
render to the Supreme Pontiff, in the \
territories of the Kingdom, the honors
which are due to royal rank, and shall i
maintain the privileges of honor which I
are paid to him by Catholic sovereigns. '
"The Supreme Pontiff shall have lib-
erty to maintain the ordinary number of
guards attached to his person and for
the custody of his palaces ; the said guards
shall, however, be bound by all obliga-
tions and duties entailed upon them by
the existing laws of the Kingdom.
"IV. The annual dotation of 3,225,000
lire in favor of the Holy See is main-
tained.
"The sum aforesaid, equal to the sum
inscribed on the Roman Budget under
the head of 'Sacri Palazzi Apostolici,
Sacro Collegio, Congregazioni ecclesias-
tiche, Segreteria di Stato, ed ordine dip-
lomatic all' estero,' shall be considered
as providing for the maintenance of the
Supreme Pontiff, for the diverse eccle-
siastical wants of the Holy See, for ordi-
nary and extraordinary repairs to and
the custody of the Apostolic Palaces and
their dependencies: for allowances, gra-
tuities and pensions to the guards men-
tioned in the preceding Article, and to
41
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
all persons attached to the Pontifical
Court, and for eventful expenditure; as
well as for the ordinary repairs and cus-
tody of the museums and library thereto
annexed, and to allowances, stipends and
pensions to persons employed for that
purpose.
"The dotation aforesaid shall be in-
scribed in the great book of the public
debt, in the form of an annuity per-
petual and inalienable in the name of the
Holy See; the same shall likewise be paid
pending all vacancies of the See, in order
to supply all the wants inherent to the
Roman Church during this interval.
"It shall be exempt from any kind of
tax or charge, governmental, municipal,
or provincial; and it shall never be re-
duced, even in the case that the Italian
Government should subsequently deter-
mine to take charge of the expenditure
incidental to the museums and library.
"V. The Supreme Pontiff shall, be-
sides the dotation fixed by preceding
Article, have free enjoyment of the Apos-
tolic Palaces of the Vatican and the
Lateran, with the edifices, gardens and
grounds annexed and depending thereon,
as also the Villa of Castel Gandolfo, with
all its accessories and dependencies.
42
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"The said palaces, villa and accesso-
ries, and likewise the museums, library
and artistical and archeological collections
therein existing, shall be inalienable and
exempt from all tax or charge, and from
expropriation for public purposes.
"VI. During the vacancy of the Pon-
tifical See, no judicial or political author-
ity shall, on any pretense whatsoever,
offer any impediment or limitation to the
personal liberty of the Cardinals.
"The Government shall take proper
measures in order that the Assemblies
of the Conclave and (Ecumenical Coun-
cils be not disturbed by any external
violence.
"VII. No public officer or agent of
the public force shall be permitted, in the
discharge of his functions, to penetrate
into the palaces or places the habitual
residence or temporary sojourn of the
Supreme Pontiff, or in which a Conclave
or (Ecumenical Council may be assem-
bled, without the authorization of the
Supreme Pontiff, or of the said Conclave
or (Ecumenical Council.
"VIII. It is likewise forbidden to
visit, search, or seize any papers, docu-
ments, books or registers in the Pontifical
offices or congregations which may be
43
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
invested with a merely spiritual char-
acter.
"IX. The Supreme Pontiff shall have
full liberty to exercise all the functions
of his spiritual ministry, and to cause all
the acts pertaining thereto to be affixed
at the doors of the basilicas and churches
in Rome.
"X. No person or persons clothed
with an ecclesiastical character, who, by
virtue of their office, may take part in
the publication of any act of the spiritual
ministry of the Holy See, shall be sub-
ject, on account thereof, to any molesta-
tion, investigation, or examination on the
part of the public authorities.
"Any foreign person invested with an
ecclesiastical office in Rome shall enjoy
the personal rights which belong to
Italian citizens by force of the laws of
the Kingdom.
"XL The Envoys of foreign Govern-
ments to His Holiness shall enjoy, in the
Kingdom, all the rights and immunities
which belong to Diplomatic Agents, in
accordance with international law.
"Such offenses as may be committed
against the said Envoys shall be pun-
ished with the same penalties as are
established for the offenses committed
44
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
against foreign Envoys to the Italian
Government.
"The rights and immunities estab-
lished in accordance with international
law are hereby ensured, in the territories
of the Kingdom, to the Envoys of His
Holiness to the foreign Governments, both
in going to or returning from the place of
their mission.
"XII. The Supreme Pontiff shall be
at liberty to correspond with the Episco-
pate, and with the whole Catholic world,
without any interference on the part of
the Italian Government.
"To this effect he shall be free to
establish in the Vatican, or in any other
of his residences, postal and telegraphic
offices, and to employ therein persons of
his choice.
"The Pontifical Post-office shall be
allowed either to correspond directly by
closed mail with the exchange Post-office
of foreign States, or to deliver its corre-
spondence into the Italian Post-offices.
"In either case, the transmission of
despatches or correspondence, bearing
the stamp of the Pontifical Post-offices,
shall be free from any tax or charge
throughout the Italian territory.
"Messengers commissioned by the Su-
45
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
preme Pontiff shall be placed, in the King-
dom, on the same footing as the Cabinet
messengers of foreign Governments.
"The Pontifical Telegraphic Office
shall be connected with the telegraphic
lines of the Kingdom, at the charge of
the State.
"Telegraphic despatches issued by the
said office, and bearing the authentic
qualification of 'Pontificii/ shall be re-
ceived and transmitted with the same
privileges which are conceded to State
telegrams; they shall also be exempt
from any tax in the Kingdom.
"Similar advantages shall be extended
to telegrams of the Supreme Pontiff, or
signed by his order, bearing the stamp
of the Holy See, which may be presented
at any telegraphic office of the Kingdom.
"Telegrams addressed to the Supreme
Pontiff shall be exempt from the taxes
usually charged to the receiver.
"XIII. Seminaries, academies, col-
leges and other institutions for the educa-
tion and tuition of members of the priest-
hood, in the City of Rome, and in the six
suburban sees, shall remain exclusively
dependent on the Holy See, without any
interference on the part of the school
authorities of the Kingdom.
46
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"SECTION 2. RELATIONS OF CHURCH
AND STATE.
"XIV. Every special restriction of
the right of assemblage of members of
the Catholic clergy is hereby annulled.
"XV. The Government hereby re-
nounces its right of 'Legazia Apostolica'
in Sicily, as also its right of appointment
of representation in the collation of the
higher benefices throughout the King-
dom.
"Bishops shall not be required to take
the oath of allegiance to the King.
"The higher and lesser benefices shall
be conferred solely upon citizens of the
Kingdom, with the exception of such
benefices as are situate in the City of
Rome and in the suburban sees.
"No new provision is made for the
collation of benefices in the patronage of
the Crown.
"XVI. The 'exequatur' and the
'placet' of the Crown and every other
form of Government warrant for the
publication and execution of acts emana-
ting from ecclesiastical authorities are
hereby abolished.
"All acts, however, of the authorities
aforesaid, concerning the settlement of
47
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
ecclesiastical estates, and the provision
for the higher and lesser benefices, with
exception of those which are situate in
the City of Rome and in the suburban
sees, shall remain subject to the 'exe-
quatur' and the 'placet' of the Crown,
until it be otherwise provided by the
special law mentioned in Article XVIII.
"No change is made in regard to the
enactments of civil laws respecting the
creation and modes of existence of eccle-
siastical institutions, and the alienation
of their estate.
"XVII. No complaint or appeal from
acts issued .by the ecclesiastical author-
ities, in matters spiritual or disciplinary,
shall be allowed; no compulsory execu-
tion, however, shall be acknowledged or
granted to the acts aforesaid. The cog-
nizance of the legal effects of the said
acts, or of any act whatsoever of the
last-mentioned authorities, belongs to the
civil magistrates.
"Should these acts, however, be found
contrary to the laws of the State, or to
public order, or detrimental to the rights
of private citizens, they shall remain
without effect, and they shall be subject
to penal law, should they constitute a
misdemeanor.
48
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"XVIII. Provision shall be made by a
further enactment for the reorganization,
the conservation, and the administration
of ecclesiastical property throughout the
Kingdom.
"XIX. Any provision of law now in
force, concerning matters contemplated
by this present enactment, in so far as
they be contrary to the same, shall hence-
forth be null and void.
"We order that the present Law, pro-
vided with the Seal of State, be inserted
in the official collection of the Laws and
Decrees of the Kingdom of Italy, charg-
ing all whom it may concern to obey and
cause it to be obeyed as a Law of the
State.
"Given in Turin, May 13, 1871.
"VICTOR EMMANUEL.
"G. LANZA.
, "E. VISCONTI-VENOSTA.
"GIOVANNI DE FALCO.
"QUINTINO SELLO.
"C. CORRENTI.
"C. RlCOTTI.
"G. ACTON.
"CASTAGNOLA.
• "G. GADDA."
—British State Papers, Vol. LXV., p.
638.
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
The provision in clause 3 of the fore-
going law for the honors of royal rank
to be accorded to the Pope by the Italian
Government makes the definition of the
term "royal honors" matter of import-
ance. Bouvier's "Law Dictionary,"
Rawle's third revision, gives at page
2,975 the following definition:
"ROYAL HONORS. — In diplomatic lan-
guage, by this term is understood the
rights enjoyed by every empire or king-
dom in Europe, by the Pope, the grand
duchies of Germany, and the Swiss con-
federation, to precedence over all others
who do not enjoy the same rank, with
the exclusive right of sending to other
states public ministers of the first rank,
as ambassadors, together with other dis-
tinctive titles and ceremonies."
Some confusion and misunderstand-
ing have arisen from the unfortunate
terminology used by many writers on the
loss to the Papacy of the pontifical state.
Many authors refer to that event as
terminating the temporal power of the
Pope, though the same authors recognize
temporal sovereignty in him after that
50
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
loss. It would be more precise to refer
to the incorporation of the Papal State
into the Kingdom of Italy as divesting
the Pope of his territorial dominion
rather than divesting him of temporal
power. In order to grasp the real situa-
tion and the thought present in the mind
of these authors, due allowance should be
made for this apparent looseness of
terminology.
Provisions contained in the foregoing
statute show clearly that Italy had no
intention of disturbing the prerogatives
of the Pope as sovereign pontiff of the
Roman Catholic Church. The inviola-
bility of person accorded to him in the
first clauses of this law is an attribute
belonging to every sovereign and to no
one else. Moreover, he is expressly guar-
anteed the dignity and honors of royal
rank. The place of his residence or tem-
porary sojourn is exempted from any
control or interference by the Govern-
ment of Italy or its officials. The same
exemption is extended to conclaves and
oecumenical councils.
51
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Provision is made whereby the Pope
may send and receive envoys under the
same protection and immunities enjoyed
by diplomatic agents to and from the
king. Ample facilities are provided for
communication by mail and telegraph be-
tween the sovereign pontiff and the entire
world, including the hierarchy and mem-
bership of the Roman Catholic Church
in every land.
As stated in an earlier paragraph of
this work, the claims of the Pope to
sovereign power prior to 1870 were sup-
ported by his character as monarch of
the Papal State and also by his position
as supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic
Church. It was established by the author-
ities on international law that the im-
mense sovereign prestige exercised by
him in the politics of the world could not
arise from his position in the small Papal
State, but was due to his rank as sover-
eign pontiff.
The foregoing law of guarantees
demonstrates that Italy, when divesting
him of the Papal State, had no intention
52
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
to impair his sovereign rank as pontiff.
All the essential rights and prerogatives
of the latter rank were expressly recog-
nized and perpetuated by this statute,
and he is still clothed with all the sover-
eignty pertaining to that rank.
53
VII
STILL CLAIMS PRE-EMINENT SOVER-
EIGNTY
(4) The highest Roman Catholic au-
thorities, including popes and oecumen-
ical councils, claim for the Pope supreme
and pre-eminent sovereignty throughout
the world.
The immense civil and political power
wielded by the popes in the Middle Ages
has already been set forth in this work
and established by quotations from lead-
ing writers on international law. It is
clear that such power can not coexist
with real sovereignty and independence
of the state.
But some of the greatest popes and
oecumenical councils will now be per-
mitted to state the Papal claims to
sovereignty. The Papacy reached the
zenith of its civil power in the reign of
Innocent the Third early in the thirteenth
— ""54
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
century. None of his predecessors had
wielded a dominion so bold, so extended
and so absolute. This great pontiff, in
his triumphant conflict with Philip
Augustus, King of France, addressed to
that powerful monarch the following
pungent statement:
"To princes power is given on earth,
but to priests it is attributed also in
heaven; to the former only over bodies,
to the latter also over souls. Whence it
follows that by so much as the soul is
superior to the body, the priesthood is
superior to the kingship. . . . Single
rulers have single provinces, and single
kings, single kingdoms; but Peter, as in
the ^plenitude, so in the extent of his
power, is pre-eminent over all, since he
is the Vicar of Him whose is the earth
and the fulness thereof, the whole wide
world and all that dwell therein." —
Encyclopaedia Britannic a, Vol. XIV., p.
579.
Few utterances touching Papal sover-
eignty have received more attention than
the famous bull issued in 1302 by Boni-
face VIII. against Philip the Fair, King
55
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
of France. Notwithstanding imputations
of heresy against that pope, the greatest
Roman Catholic authorities of later times
unhesitatingly declare this bull to be a
valid and irreformable declaration of
ecclesiastical law. Following is an
English translation of the bull in its
entirety :
FAMOUS BULL UNAM SANCTAM OF
BONIFACE VIII.
"Boniface, Bishop, Servant of the
servants of God. For perpetual remem-
brance : —
"Urged on by our faith, we are obliged
to believe and hold that there is one holy,
catholic, and apostolic Church. And we
firmly believe and profess that outside of
her there is no salvation nor remission
of sins, as the bridegroom declares in the
canticles, 'My dove, my undefiled, is but
one, she is the only one of her mother;
she is the choice of her that bare her.'
And this represents the one mystical body
of Christ, and of this body Christ is the
head, and God is the head of Christ. In
it there is one Lord, one faith, one bap-
tism. For in the time of the Flood there
56
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
was the single ark of Noah, which pre-
figures the one church, and it was finished
according to the measure of one cubit
and had one Noah for pilot and captain,
and outside of it every living creature on
the earth, as we read, was destroyed.
And this Church we revere as the only
one, even as the Lord saith by the proph-
et, 'Deliver my soul from the sword, my
darling from the power of the dog.'
He prayed for his soul, that is, for him-
self, head and body. And this body
he called one body, that is, the Church,
because of the single bridegroom, the
unity of the faith, the sacraments, and
the love of the Church. She is that
seamless shirt of the Lord which was
not rent, but was allotted by the casting
of lots. Therefore, this one and single
Church has one head and not two heads,
— for had she two heads, she would be a
monster, — that is, Christ and Christ's
vicar Peter and Peter's successor. For
the Lord said unto Peter, 'Feed my
sheep.' 'My,' he said, speaking gener-
ally and not particularly, 'these and
those,' by which it is to be understood
that all the sheep are committed unto
him. So, when the Greeks or others say
that they were not committed to the care
57
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
of Peter and his successors, they must
confess that they are not of Christ's
sheep, even as the Lord says in John,
There is one fold and one shepherd/
"That in her and within her power are
two swords, we are taught in the Gos-
pels, namely, the spiritual sword and the
temporal sword. For when the Apostles
said, 'Lo, here' — that is, in the Church,
— are two swords, the Lord did not reply
to the Apostles 'it is too much/ but 'it
is enough.' It is certain that whoever
denies that the temporal sword is in the
power of Peter, hearkens ill to the words
of the Lord which he spake, 'Put up thy
sword into its sheath.' Therefore, both
are in the power of the Church, namely,
the spiritual sword and the temporal
sword; the latter is to be used for the
Church, the former by the Church; the
former by the hand of the priest, the
latter by the hand of the princes and
kings, but at the nod and sufferance of
the priest. The one sword must of
necessity be subject to the other, and the
temporal authority to the spiritual. For
the Apostle said, 'There is no power but
of God, and the powers that be are or-
dained of God;' and they would not have
been ordained unless one sword had been
58
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
made subject to the other, and even as
the lower is subjected by the other for
higher things. For, according to Diony-
sius, it is a divine law that the lowest
things are made by mediocre things to
attain to the highest. For it is not ac-
cording to the law of the universe that
all things in an equal way and immedi-
ately should reach their end, but the
lowest through the mediocre and the
lower through the higher. But that the
spiritual power excels the earthly power
in dignity and worth, we will the more
clearly acknowledge just in proportion as
the spiritual is higher than the temporal.
And this we perceive quite distinctly
from the donation of the tithe and func-
tions of benediction and sanctification,
from the mode in which the power was
received, and the government of the sub-
jected realms. For truth being the wit-
ness, the spiritual power has the func-
tions of establishing the temporal power
and sitting in judgment on it if it should
prove to be not good! And to the
Church, and the Church's power, the
prophecy of Jeremiah attests: 'See, I
have this day set thee over the na-
tions and the kingdoms, to pluck up
and to break down and to destroy
59
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
and to overthrow, to build and to plant.'
"And if the earthly power deviate
from the right path, it is judged by the
spiritual power; but if a minor spiritual
power deviate from the right path, the
lower in rank is judged by its superior;
but if the supreme power (the Papacy)
deviate, it can be judged not by man, but
by God alone. And so the Apostle testi-
fies: 'He which is spiritual judges all
things, but he himself is judged by no
man.' But this authority, although it
be given to man, and though it be exer-
cised by a man, is not a human, but a
divine, power given by divine word of
mouth to Peter and confirmed to Peter
and to his successors by Christ himself,
whom Peter confessed, even him whom
Christ called a rock. For the Lord said
to Peter himself, 'Whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth,' etc. Whoever, therefore,
resists this power so ordained by God,
resists the ordinance of God, unless per-
chance he imagine two principles to exist,
as did Manichaeus, which we pronounce
false and heretical. For Moses testified
that God created heaven and earth, not
in the beginnings, but 'in the beginning.'
"Furthermore, that every human crea-
ture is subject to the Roman pontiff, —
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
this we declare, say, define, and pro-
nounce to be altogether necessary to
salvation." — History of the Christian
Church, by Schaff, Vol. V., Part II.,
p. 25.
When addressing the cardinals in
opposition to Colonna, Pope Boniface
VIII. spoke as follows:
[Translation from the German.]
"How shall we assume to judge kings
and princes, and not dare to proceed
against a worm! Let them perish for-
ever, that they may understand that the
name of the Roman Pontiff is known in .
all the earth and that he alone is most j A
high over princes." — Aus den Tagen I
Bonijaz VI1L, p. 152 et seq.
Lest it may be contended that the
foregoing Papal declarations belong to
the darkness of the Middle Ages and are
rio longer recognized by the Roman
Catholic Church, it is proper to state that
these and all other official words and
deeds of the Papacy since its institution
have been expressly reaffirmed with
emphasis by the greatest popes of the
61
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On
December 8, 1864, Pope Pius IX. issued
his "Syllabus of Erros," wherein he col-
lated in brief paragraphs eighty alleged
heresies which had been condemned in
his previous letters, encyclicals and allo-
cutions.
The peculiar form of this Syllabus
renders it liable to misunderstanding by
casual readers. The Pope merely states
in concise paragraphs the respective doc-
trines which he condemns. He holds and
teaches, therefore, the negative or oppo-
site of these doctrines as stated and con-
demned in the Syllabus.
In paragraph 23 of this Syllabus, the
Pope denounces and condemns the doc-
trine that
"The Roman Pontiff and (Ecumenical
Councils have exceeded the limits of their
power, have usurped the rights of princes,
and have even committed errors in defin-
ing matters of faith and morals."
In so denying and condemning the
statement that Roman pontiffs and coun-
cils have exceeded their powers and
62
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
usurped the rights of princes and com-
mitted doctrinal errors, Pius IX. affirms
that his predecessors have not committed
the wrongs charged in the paragraph.
He thus expressly reaffirms the doctrines
and conduct of all preceding popes.
Pope Leo XIII., in his "Encyclical
Letter Immortale Dei," of November 1,
1885, also reaffirms the teaching of all
earlier pontiffs in the following words:
"If, in the difficult times in which our
lot is cast, Catholics will give ear to Us,
as it behooves them to do, they will read-
ily see what are the duties of each one in
matters of opinion as well as action. As
regards opinion, whatever _the Roman
pontiffs have hitherto taucjht, or shall
hereafter teach, must be held^with a firm
grasp of mind, and] so often as occasion
requires, must be openly professed^
"Especially with reference to the so-
called 'Liberties' which are so greatly
coveted in these days, all must stand by
the judgment of the Apostolic See, and
have the same mind." — Great Encyclical
Letters of Leo XIII. , pp. 129, 130. "
In the foregoing statement Leo XIII.
68
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
adds the sanction of his approval of all
that Roman pontiffs had taught in the
past and all that they would teach in the
future. Like Pius IX., therefore, he re-
affirms as infallible and irreformable the
extravagant claims made by all his pred-
ecessors.
The "Catholic Directory for 1916,"
published with official sanction and ap-
proval of the Roman Catholic hierarchy,
of which the Pope is the sovereign head,
gives on page 1 the following as the
official title of the Pope :
"His HOLINESS THE POPE
"Bishop of Rome and vicar of Jesus
Christ,
"Successor of St. Peter, prince of the
apostles,
"Supreme pontiff of the universal
church,
"Patriarch of the West, primate of
Italy,
"Archbishop and metropolitan of the
Roman province,
"Sovereign of the temporal dominions
of the Holy Roman Church"
64
VIII
STILL CLAIMS PRE-EMINENT SOVER-
EIGNTY (Continued)
DUT the Roman Church in recent times
•^ has not been satisfied with merely
reaffirming the claims to sovereignty of
the earlier pontiffs. Pope Pius IX. con-
vened at Rome in 1870 the last oecumeni-
cal council that has been held. It is known
as the Vatican Council, and its decrees
concerning the attributes and sovereign
pre-eminence of the Pope so far transcend
all claims previously made as to revolu-
tionize the legal status of the Papacy in
its relation to civil government. The pre-
rogatives attributed to the Roman pontiff
by the solemn decrees of that council sur-
pass the most extravagant powers ac-
corded to any institution, political or
ecclesiastical, in all the past history of
mankind.
The most significant statements em-
5 65
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
anating from the Vatican Council relative
to the attributes of the sovereign pontiff
are contained in Chapters III. and IV. of
the "Dogmatic Decrees." Though atten-
tion of the public has been directed less
to the third chapter than to the fourth,
declarations contained in the former bear
even more directly on the civil and eccle-
siastical supremacy of the Roman pontiff.
Moreover, the decree of infallibility
contained in the fourth chapter is by its
own terms limited to utterances wherein
the pontiff speaks ex cathedra, while no
such limitation applies to the statements
in the third chapter. These statements
require unconditional submission and obe-
dience to Papal discipline and authority
on the part of every Roman Catholic in
the world. The following paragraphs in
the third chapter fairly indicate the scope
and spirit of that chapter:
"Hence we teach and declare that by
the appointment of our Lord the Roman
Church possesses a superiority of ordi-
nary power over all other churches, and
that this power of jurisdiction of the
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Roman Pontiff, which is truly episcopal,
is immediate; to which all, of whatever
rite and dignity, b'oth pastors and faith-
ful, both individually and collectively, are
bound, by their duty of hierarchial sub-
ordination and true obedience, to submit
not only in matters which belong to faith
and morals, but also in those that apper-
tain to the discipline and government of
the Church throughout the world, so that
the Church of Christ may be one flock
under one supreme pastor through the
preservation of unity both of communion
and of profession of the same faith with
the Roman Pontiff. This is the teaching
of Catholic truth, from which no one can
deviate without loss of faith and of sal-
vation."— Dogmatic Canons and Decrees
(New York, 1912), bearing the Impri-
matur of Cardinal Farley, pp. 247, 248.
"If, then, any shall say that the Roman
Pontiff has the office merely of inspection
or direction, and not full and supreme
power of jurisdiction over the universal
Church, not only in things which belong
to faith and morals, but also in those
which relate to the discipline and govern-
ment of the Church spread throughout
the world; or assert that he possesses
67
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
merely the principal part, and not all the
fullness of this supreme power; or that
this power which he enjoys is not ordi-
nary and immediate, both over each and
all the churches, and over each and all the
pastors and the faithful — let him be
anathema." — Id., p. 250.
There is manifestly great significance
in the fact that collective obedience is ex-
pressly required in the foregoing dogma.
Resistance to Papal aggressions has sel-
dom been offered by individuals. Such
resistance has come chiefly from states
or the sovereign rulers of states. The
most withering ecclesiastical weapon in
the hands of the Pope has been in all past
ages the interdict, which operates against
states and peoples in their collective char-
acter.
With these facts the sagacious prel-
ates in the Vatican Council were perfectly
conversant, and the form of the dogma
under consideration is therefore a master
stroke of their political discernment and
skill. In 1875 William E. Gladstone pub-
lished a most admirable tract on 'The
68
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Vatican Decrees in Their Bearing on
Civil Allegiance." His comment on the
decree of obedience to Papal authority,
set forth in the third chapter of "The
Dogmatic Decrees," is at once so judi-
cious and so forceful as to justify the fol-
lowing quotation :
MR. GLADSTONE'S STATEMENT.
"Even therefore, where the judgments
of the Pope do not present the credentials
of Infallibility, they are unappealable and
irreversible: no person may pass judg-
ment upon them ; and all men, clerical and
lay, dispersedly or in the aggregate, are
bound truly to obey them; and from this
rule of Catholic truth no man can depart,
save at the peril of his salvation. Surely,
it is allowable to say that this Third
Chapter on universal Obedience is a for-
midable rival to the Fourth Chapter on
Infallibility. Indeed, to an observer from
without, it seems to leave the dignity to
the other, but to reserve the stringency
and efficiency to itself. The Third Chap-
ter is the Merovingian Monarch; the
Fourth is the Carolingian Mayor of the
Palace. The Third has an overawing
splendor ; the Fourth, an iron grip. Little
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
does it matter to me whether my supe-
/ rior claims infallibility, so long as he
is entitled to demand and exact con-
formity. This, it will be observed, he
demands even in cases not covered by his
infallibility; cases, therefore, in which he
admits it to be possible that he may be
wrong, but finds it intolerable to be told
so. As he must be obeyed in all his
judgments, though not ex cathedra, it
seems a pity he could not likewise give
the comforting assurance that they are
all certain to be right.
"But why this ostensible reduplication
— this apparent surplusage? Why did
the astute contrivers of this tangled
scheme conclude that they could not afford
to rest content with pledging the Council
to infallibility in terms which are not only
wide to a high degree, but elastic beyond
all measure?
"Though they must have known per-
; fectly well that 'faith and morals' car-
' ried everything, or everything worth
having, in the purely individual sphere,
they also knew just as well that, even
where the individual was subjugated,
they might and would still have to deal
with the State.
"In mediaeval history, this distinction
70
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
is not only clear, but glaring. Outside
the borders of some narrow and pro-
scribed sect, now and then emerging, we
never, or scarcely ever, hear of private
and personal resistance to the Pope. The
manful 'Protestantism' of mediaeval
times had its activity almost entirely
in the sphere of public, national, and
State rights. Too much attention, in my
opinion, can not be fastened on this point.
It is the very root and kernel of the mat-
ter. Individual servitude, however ab-
ject, will not satisfy the party now domi-
nant in the Latin Church: the State must
also be a slave." — Pages 28, 29yr- —
We come now to consider the decree
of infallibility contained in the fourth
chapter of the "Dogmatic Decrees." In
order that the substance of that decree
may be clearly known and correctly
understood, the concluding paragraphs
summing up the essence of the decree are
copied here verbatim:
"Therefore, faithfully adhering to the
tradition received from the beginning of
the Christian faith, for the glory of God
our Saviour, the exaltation of the Cath-
olic religion, and the salvation of Chris-
71
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
tian people, the sacred Council approving,
we teach and define that it is a dogma
divinely revealed: that the Roman Pon-
tiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is,
when in discharge of the office of pastor
and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of
his supreme Apostolic authority, he de-
fines a doctrine regarding faith or morals
to be held by the universal Church, by
the divine assistance promised to him in
blessed Peter, is possessed of that infalli-
bility with which the divine Redeemer
willed that his Church should be endowed
for defining doctrine regarding faith and
morals; and that therefore such defini-
tions of the Roman Pontiff are irreform-
able of themselves, and not from the con-
sent of the Church.
"But if any one — which may God
avert — presume to contradict this our
definition: let him be anathema." — Dog-
matic Canons and Decrees, pp. 256-7.
Such is the famous doctrine of Papal
infallibility. For hundreds of years the
claim of the Roman Catholic Church to
infallibility had been an issue of conten-
tion in many forums. Both in the arena
of polemics and in seeking to justify their
72
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
claims to citizenship and the franchise,
Roman prelates have denied with much
industry and vehemence any claim of the
sovereign pontiff to infallibility. Their
denial had induced the removal of civil
disabilities existing against them by legis-
lative action in various countries within
the past hundred years. The efficacy of
their denial in removing such disabilities
in England is clearly pointed out by Mr.
Gladstone in his tract hereinbefore
quoted.
When not so occupied in denying that
the Roman Catholic Church laid claim to
infallibility, the leading prelates were
debating in synod and council whether
the infallibility of the church was vested
in the pope or the oecumenical council.
The Vatican Council, the largest
numerically in the history of the church,
with 764 prelates in attendance, solved
the problem for all future time by hand-
ing down, on July 18, 1870, the foregoing
decree of Papal infallibility. The tre-
mendous force and boundless scope of
that decree are not perhaps readily appar-
73
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
ent to those unskilled in the construction
of statutory enactments. To such read-
ers it may appear to have little or no
direct bearing on the relations existing
between the Papacy and civil govern-
ments. But lawyers and statesmen and
scholars were not slow to grasp its
import and significance.
74
IX
STILL CLAIMS PRE-EMINENT SOVER-
EIGNTY (Concluded)
OOPE LEO XIII. and other Roman
*" Catholic authorities skillfully en-
deavor to divert attention from the dan-
gers lurking in this decree by declaring
that the state has exclusive jurisdiction
over society in its earthly and civil
aspects, while the church deals with man
exclusively in his spiritual and eternal
interests, and that conflict of the civil
with the ecclesiastical power is therefore
virtually impossible. But if such conflict
should incidentally arise, these Papal
writers insist, a friendly agreement or
concordat, bilateral and beneficent, will
readily define the boundary separating
the two sovereign jurisdictions and pre-
vent serious friction.
In the following remarks, taken from
the "Encyclical Letter Immortale Dei"
75
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
of November 1, 1885, Pope Leo XIII.
states with characteristic suavity the
theory which Roman Catholics hold out
to the world touching the essential har-
mony between church and state:
"The Almighty, therefore, has ap-
pointed the charge of the human race
between two powers, the ecclesiastical
and the civil, the one being set over
divine, and the other over human, things.
Each in its kind is supreme, each has
fixed limits within which it is contained,
limits which are defined by the nature
and special object of the province of each,
so that there is, we may say, an orbit
traced out within which the action of
each is brought into play by its own
native right. But inasmuch as each of
these two powers has authority over the
same subjects, and as it might come to
pass that one and the same thing — re-
lated differently, but still remaining one
and the same thing — might belong to the
jurisdiction and determination of both,
therefore God, who foresees all things
and who is the author of these two
powers, has marked out the course of
each in right correlation to the other.
For the powers that are, are ordained of
76
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
God. Were this not so, deplorable con-
tentions and conflicts would often arise,
and not infrequently men, like travelers
at the meeting of two roads, would hesi-
tate in anxiety and doubt, not knowing
what course to follow. Two powers
would be commanding contrary things,
and it would be a dereliction of duty to
disobey either of the two.
"But it would be most repugnant to
deem thus of the wisdom and goodness
of God. Even in physical things, albeit
of a lower order, the Almighty has so
combined the forces and springs of
nature with tempered action and won-
drous harmony that no one of them
clashes with any other, and all of them
most fitly and aptly work together for
the great purpose of the universe. There
must, accordingly, exist, between these
two powers, a certain orderly connection,
which may be compared to the union of
the soul and body in man. The nature
and scope of that connection can be
determined only, as We have laid down,
by having regard to the nature of each
power, and by taking account of the rela-
tive excellence and nobleness of their
purpose. One of the two has for its
proximate and chief object the well-being
77
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
of this mortal life; the other, the ever-
lasting joys of heaven. Whatever, there-
fore, in things human, is of a sacred
character, whatever belongs, either of its
own nature or by reason of the end to
which it is referred, to the salvation of
souls, or to the worship of God, is sub-
ject to the power and judgment of the
Church. Whatever is to be ranged under
the civil and political order is rightly
subject to the civil authority. Jesus
Christ has Himself given command that
what is Caesar's is to be rendered to
Caesar, and that what belongs to God is
to be rendered to God.
"There are, nevertheless, occasions
when another method of concord is avail-
able for the sake of peace and liberty:
We mean when rulers of the State and
the Roman Pontiff come to an under-
standing touching some special matter.
At such times the Church gives signal
proof of her motherly love by showing
the greatest possible kindliness and in-
dulgence."— Great Encyclical Letters, pp.
114, 115.
Notwithstanding the smooth urbanity
of the foregoing statement from the most
diplomatic pontiff of the nineteenth cen-
78
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
tury, the Papacy has so construed its
own prerogatives under the decrees of
the Vatican Council as to assume unlim-
ited power to curb and restrain the rights
and jurisdiction of the state. Leading
Roman Catholic authorities on the canon
law, and the popes themselves, boldly
declare and hold that, in the relations
between the civil and ecclesiastical
powers, the latter occupies exactly the
position of a superior tribunal with ample
right to restrain the civil power, as an
inferior, within jurisdictional limits pre-
scribed by the Pope alone. The restrain-
ing power of the Pope is identical in its
method and amplitude with the writ of
prohibition by which a superior court
restrains an inferior court within the
bounds of its jurisdiction.
In support of these allegations, a few
brief passages from the encyclical letters
of Leo XIII. will now be submitted, after
which one of the ablest and most lumi-
nous Papal writers on canon law will be
permitted to state fully and in his own
words the power and method by which
79
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Roman Catholic authorities accord to the
Pope this supreme jurisdiction to define
the rights and restrain the authority of
every civil government in the world. In
this connection the following expressions
of Leo XIII. are submitted:
"But if the laws of the State are mani-
festly at variance with the divine law,
containing enactments hurtful to the
Church, or conveying injunctions adverse
to the duties imposed by religion, or if
they violate in the person of the Supreme
Pontiff the authority of Jesus Christ,
then truly to resist becomes a positive
duty; to obey, a crime." — Great Encycli-
cal Letters, p. 185.
"And just as the end at which the
Church aims is by far the noblest of
ends, so is its authority the most exalted
of all authority, nor can it be looked upon
as inferior to the civil power, or in any
manner dependent upon it." — Id,, pp. 112,
113.
These declarations of Leo XIII., in
his pastoral encyclicals touching the
duties of Roman Catholics as citizens,
purport under the Vatican Decrees to be
infallible and irreformable. Taken to-
80
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
gether, they clearly express the claim of
the Pope to authority superior to that of
the state.
The real teaching of the Roman
Church, when stated more fully, is that,
to prevent strife between the civil and
ecclesiastical powers, the one or the other
must be clothed with the paramount right
to define the jurisdictional limits of both,
and to locate the boundary-line between
the two jurisdictions. This paramount
right the Papacy boldly claims and
asserts. Appropriating the unbounded
wisdom and prerogatives that lurk in the
decree of infallibility, it declares that only
supreme and infallible wisdom is capable
of denning the limits of its own jurisdic-
tion or that of its rival; and since this
wisdom is attributed by the Vatican
decree exclusively to the Pope, he alone
is able to define with infallible accuracy
the limits of his own jurisdiction, from
which he is by divine right empowered
to banish and restrain the jurisdiction of
the state.
By virtue of the foregoing doctrine,
6 81
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
the Papacy claims in the most emphatic
manner the exclusive right to define the
civil authority of the state in a way to
prevent the exercise of that authority
within the circle which the Pope, by the
same infallible right, has defined as be-
longing solely to him. The exercise by
the Pope of this unlimited prerogative
would make an end of all sovereign
power in the state or in any other func-
tionary than the Pope himself. His
paramount prerogatives would confine
the authority of the state within juris-
dictional limitations fixed by him exactly
as a superior court by its writ of prohi-
bition restrains the inferior court within
jurisdictional boundaries fixed and deter-
mined by the superior court issuing the
x~writ.
It may be objected that the infalli-
bility set forth by the Vatican Council is
confined to those Papal utterances which
relate to faith and morals; that they do
not, therefore, include issues of discipline
and civil authority. But the Pope is
made the sole and infallible judge of
82
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
what are questions concerning faith and
morals, and he is clothed with power
without limit to give any breadth and
latitude whatever to the range of faith
and morals. There is no conceivable duty
or conduct that may not, in his construc-
tion, be brought within the bounds of
faith and morals. His prerogatives,
therefore, cover the whole field of organ-
ized society and human relationship.
Dr. Sebastian B. Smith, an eminent -^
Roman Catholic authority and volumi- \
nous writer on canon law, in Section 481
of his work in three volumes on eccle-
siastical law, beginning on page 227 of /
Volume L, states the astounding claims S
of the Papacy over the civil government,
on the basis of the Vatican decrees and
Papal bulls, in the following words:
"In whatsoever things, whether essen-
tially or by accident, the spiritual end —
that is, the end of the Church — is neces-
sarily involved, in those things, though
they be temporal, the Church may by
right exert its power and the civil
state ought to yield. ... In this proposi-
83
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
tion is contained the full explanation of
the indirect spiritual power of the Church
over the state. The proposition is proved :
I. From reason. — Either the Church has
an indirect power over the state, or the
state has an indirect power over the
Church. There is no alternative. For,
as experience teaches, conflicts may arise
between Church and State. Now, in any
question as to the competence of the two
powers, either there must be some judge
to decide what does and what does not
fall within their respective spheres, or
they are delivered over to perpetual doubt
and to perpetual conflict. But who can
define what is or is not within the juris-
diction of the Church in faith and morals,
except a judge who knows what the
sphere of faith and morals contains and
how far it extends? It is clear that the
civil power can not define how far the
circumference of faith and morals ex-
tends. To do this it must know the
whole deposit of explicit and implicit
faith. Therefore, the Church alone can
fix the limits of its jurisdiction; and if
the Church can fix the limits of its own
jurisdiction, it can fix the limits of all
other jurisdiction — at least, so as to ivarn
it off its own domain. Hence, the Church
84
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
is supreme in matters of religion and
conscience; she knows the limits of the
competence of the civil power. Again, if
it be said that the State is altogether
independent of the Church, it would
follow that the State would also be inde-
pendent of the law of God in things tem-
poral; for the divine law must be pro-
mulgated by the Church. It is unmean-
ing to say that princes have no superior
but the law of God; for a law is no
superior without an authority to judge
and to apply it. II. We next prove our
thesis from authority. We refer to the
famous bull Unam Sanctam, issued by
Pope Boniface VIII. in 1302. This bull
declares that there is but one true Church,
and therefore one head of the Church —
the Roman Pontiff; that there are two
swords — i. e., two powers — the spiritual
and the temporal; the latter must be sub-
ject to the former. The bull finally winds
up with this definition: 'And this we
declare, affirm, define (definimus}, and
pronounce, that it is necessary for the
salvation of every human creature that
he should be subject to the Roman
Pontiff.' This is undoubtedly a de fide |
definition — i. e., an utterance ex cathedra.
In fact, the bull, though occasioned by |
85
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
and published during the contest between
Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair,
King of France — who held that he was in
no sense subject to the Roman Pontiff —
had for its object, as is evident from its
whole tenor and wording, this: to define
dogmatically the relation of the Church
to the state in general ; that is, universally,
not merely the relations between the
Church and the particular state or nation
— France. Now, what is the meaning
of this de fide definition ? There are two
interpretations : one, given by the enemies
of the Papacy, is that the Pope, in this
bull, claims not merely an indirect, but
a direct and absolute, power over the
State, thus completely subordinating it to
the Church; that is, subjecting it to the
Church, even in purely temporal things.
This explanation, given formerly by the
partisans of Philip the Fair, by the
Regalists in the reign of Louis XIV.,
and at present by Janus, Dr. Schulte, the
Old Catholics, and the opponents of the
Papal infallibility in general, is designed
to throw odium upon the Holy See and
arouse the passions of men, especially of
governments, against the lawful author-
ity of the Sovereign Pontiffs. The sec-
ond or Catholic interpretation is that the
86
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Church, and therefore the Pope, has in-
direct authority over the State; that
therefore the State is subject to the
Church in temporal things, so far as they
relate to eternal salvation or involve sin.
Thus, the illustrious Bishop Fessler, Sec-
retary to the Vatican Council, says that
this bull affirms merely that Christian
rulers are subject to the Pope, as head
of the Church, but not in purely temporal
things; 'still less,' continues Fessler,
'does it [the bull] say (as Dr. Schulte
formulates his second proposition) that
the temporal power must act uncondition-
ally in subordination to the spiritual/
That this is the correct interpretation
appears, I., from the whole tenor of the
bull itself; for it expressly declares that
the spiritual and temporal powers are
distinct one from the other; that the
former is to be used by the latter for
the Church. Again it says : The spiritual
power (i. e., the Church) has to instruct
and judge the earthly power, if it be not
good. If, therefore, the earthly power
deviates (from its end), it will be judged
by the spiritual.' Again, before issuing
the bull Unam Sanctam, Pope Boniface
VIII. had already declared, in a consis-
tory held in 1302, that he had never
87
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
dreamt of usurping upon the authority
of the King (of France) — i. e., of assum-
ing any power over the state in purely
temporal matters; but that he had de-
clared, in the bull Ausculta Fill (A. D.
1301), the King (of France) to be like
any other Christian, subject to him only
in regard to sin. It is therefore de fide
that the Church, and therefore the Pope,
has indirect power over the State; and
that, consequently, THE STATE, IN TEM-
PORAL THINGS THAT INVOLVE SIN, IS
SUBJECT TO THE CHURCH^
"482. From what has been said we
infer: 1. The authority of princes and
the allegiance of subjects in the civil state
of nature are of divine ordinance; and,
therefore, so long as princes and their
laws are in conformity to the law of God,
the Church has no jurisdiction against
them nor over them. 2. If princes and
their laws deviate from the law of God,
the Church has authority from God to
judge of that deviation, and to oblige its
correction. 3. This authority of the
Church is not direct in its incidence on
temporal things, but only indirect. 4.
THIS INDIRECT POWER OF THE CHURCH
OVER THE STATE is INHERENT IN THE
DIVINE CONSTITUTION AND COMMISSION
88
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
OF THE CHURCH ; but its exercise in the
world depends on certain moral and mate-
rial conditions by which alone its exercise
is rendered either possible or just. This
last conclusion is carefully to be borne in
mind; it shows that, until a Christian
world and Christian rulers existed, there
was no subject or materia apt a for the
exercise of the supreme judicial authority
of the Church in temporal things. So
much for the relation of the Church to the
infidel state. When a Christian world
came into existence, the civil society of
man became subject to the spiritual direc-
tion of the Church. So long, however, as
individuals only subjected themselves, one
by one, to its authority, the conditions nec-
essary for the exercise of its ofHce were
not fully present. The Church guided
men, one by one, to their end; but as yet
the collective society of nations was not
subject to its guidance. It is only when
nations and kingdoms become socially sub-
ject to the supreme doctrinal and judicial
authority of the Church that the condi-
tions of its exercise are verified. So
much for the relation of the Church to
the Catholic state. At present the world
or civil society, with scarcely a single
exception, has ceased to be Catholic, or
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
even Christian. It has withdrawn itself
socially as a whole, and, in the public life
of nations, from the unity and the juris-
diction of the Christian Church. Now,
the Church, it is true, never loses its
jurisdiction in radice over the baptized;
but it never puts it forth in regard to
heretics or the heretical state. So much
for the relation of the Church to the
heretical state. In this entire question,
therefore, the authority itself of the
Church must be distinguished from its
exercise."
90
SENDS AND RECEIVES AMBASSADORS
(5) Nearly all nations maintain diplo-
matic envoys at the Vatican, and the
Pope sends ambassadors known as nun-
cios to many of the nations.
The sending of envoys to represent
the Pope in matters ecclesiastical began
early in the Middle Ages. These early
representatives bore various titles intend-
ed to express the peculiar functions
which they were respectively authorized
to discharge. But the custom of sending
to the secular courts Papal envoys clothed
with diplomatic powers belongs to the
later centuries. Mgr. Johann P. Kirsch,
S.T.D., professor of pathology and Chris-
tian archeology in the University of
Fribourg, in Volume XL of the Catholic
Encyclopedia, at pages 160-162, makes
the following statement:
91
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"NuNCio. — An ordinary and perma-
nent representative of the pope, vested
with both political and ecclesiastical
powers, accredited to the court of a
sovereign or assigned to a definite terri-
tory with the duty of safeguarding the
interests of the Holy See. The special
character of a nuncio, as distinguished
from other Papal envoys (such as legates,
collectors), consists in this: that his office
is specially defined and limited to a defi-
nite district (his nunciature), wherein he
must reside; his mission is general, em-
bracing all the interests of the Holy See;
his office is permanent, requiring the ap-
pointment of a successor when one
incumbent is recalled; and his mission
includes both diplomatic and ecclesiasti-
cal power. Nuncios, in the strict sense
of the word, first appear in the sixteenth
century. The first permanent representa-
tives of the Holy See at secular courts
were the apocrisarii at the Byzantine
Court. In the Middle Ages the popes
sent, for the settlement of important
ecclesiastical or political matters, legates
(legati a latere) with definite instruc-
tions, and at times with ordinary juris-
diction. The officials, sent from the thir-
teenth century for the purpose of collect-
92
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
ing taxes either for the Roman Court or
for the Crusades, were called nuntii,
nuntii apostolici. During the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries this title was given
also to Papal envoys entrusted with cer-
tain other affairs of an ecclesiastical or
diplomatic nature. Frequently they were
given the right of granting certain privi-
leges, favors and benefices. During the
Great Western Schism and the period of
the reform councils (fifteenth century),
such embassies were more frequently
resorted to by the Holy See. Then were
also gradually established permanent dip-
lomatic representation at the various
courts. With previous forms of Papal
representation as a precedent, and mod-
eled upon the permanent diplomatic lega-
tions of temporal sovereigns, there finally
arose in the sixteenth century the present
nunciatures of the Holy See. . . .
"The powers of Papal nuncios corre-
spond to the twofold character of their
mission. As the diplomatic representa-
tives of the popes, they treat with the
sovereigns or heads of republics to whom
they are accredited. With their mission
they are given special credentials as well
as special instructions, whether of a pub-
lic or private nature. They also receive
03
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
i a secret code and enjoy the same privi-
leges as ambassadors. Their appearances
in public are regulated in conformity with
general diplomatic customs. They also
have certain distinctions, especially that
of being ex-officio dean of the entire dip-
lomatic body within their nunciature, and
therefore on public occasions take prece-
dence of all diplomatic representatives.
Internuncios and delegates enjoy a simi-
lar right of precedence over all other
diplomatic representatives of equal rank.
This privilege of Papal envoys was
expressly recognized by the Congress of
Vienna in 1815 and is universally ob-
served. Nuncios enjoy the title of
'Excellency' and the same special honors
as ambassadors."
Volume IX. of the Catholic Encyclo-
pedia contains the following luminous
statement, beginning on page 119:
"NUNCIOS. — In the thirteenth century
legati missi came to be known as nuncios,
by which name they are yet called. After
the Council of Trent nuncios were estab-
lished permanently in various countries.
Besides an ecclesiastical mission, they
have also a diplomatic character, having
94
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
been from their origin accredited to
courts or governments. Their jurisdic-
tion is ordinary, but it is customary at
present to grant them special faculties,
according to the needs of the country to
which they are sent; such faculties are
conveyed in a special Brief. They are
also given credential letters to be pre-
sented to the ruler of the country, and
particular instructions in writing. The
nuncios are usually titular archbishops:
occasionally, however, bishops or arch-
bishops of residential sees are appointed
to the office. Some nuncios are of the
first and some of the second class, the only
difference between them being that, at
the end of their mission, those of the
first class are usually promoted to the
cardinalate. . . .
"The Apostolic delegation to the
United States deserves special mention.
First, on account of its importance it is
practically equivalent to a nunciature of
the first class, as may be inferred from
the Encyclical of 6 January, 1895, ad-
dressed by Leo XIII. to the archbishops
and bishops of the United States, which
declared: 'When the Council of Balti-
more had concluded its labors, the duty
still remained of putting, so to speak, a
95
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
proper and becoming crown upon the
work. This we perceived could scarcely
be done in a more fitting manner than
through the due establishment by the
Apostolic See of an American legation.
Accordingly, as you are well aware, we
have done this. By this action, as we
have elsewhere intimated, we wished,
first of all, to certify that in our judg-
ment and affection America occupied the
same place and rights as other states, how-
ever powerful and imperial.' ' (Long-
inque Oceani, January 6, 1895, ''Great
Encyclical Letters," p. 327.) "Moreover,
from the beginning all the incumbents of
this office have been elevated to the car-
dinalate. . . .
"The delegation to the United States
was established by Leo XIII., 24 Jan-
uary, 1893."
Papal nuncios are accredited to those
nations only which maintain diplomatic
envoys at the Vatican. But the Pope
sends envoys of a lower rank, known as
internuncios, to countries not represented
by a diplomatic agent at the Papal court.
Only sovereign powers have a right
under the law of nations to send and
96
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
receive ambassadors. This truth is so
elementary that it seems superfluous to
produce authorities in its support. Hal-
leek, in his text-book on international
law, published in London in 1878, gives
on page 272 the following succinct decla-
ration of the law:
"In Europe, the right of sending
ambassadors is considered as exclusively
confined to crowned heads, to the great
republics, and other States entitled to
royal honors. Papal legates, or nuncios,
at Catholic courts are usually ranked as
ambassadors."
Pope Leo XIII., in his "Encyclical
Letter Immortale Dei," in stating the
attitude of (the nations of the earth
towards the Papal claim to sovereign
rights, uses the following words :
"It can not be called in question that
in the making of treaties, in the trans-
action of business matters, in the sending
and receiving ambassadors, and in the
interchange of other kinds of official
dealings, the^have been wont to treat
with the Church as with a supreme and
itimate power. ^ And assuredly all
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
ought to hold that it was not without a
singular disposition of God's providence
that this power of the Church was pro-
vided with a civil sovereignty as the
surest safeguard of her independence." —
Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo
XIII. , p. 114.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume
XL, at page 161, gives the following list
of states to which Papal nuncios are
accredited :
First Class: 1. Austria Hungary; 2.
France (no incumbent since 1904) ; 3.
Spain; 4. Portugal.
Second Class: 1. Swiss nunciature
(no incumbent since 1873); 2. Munich;
3. Brussels; 4. Brazil.
Internuncios : 1. Holland and Luxem-
burg; 2. Argentina, Uruguay and Para-
guay; 3. Costa Rica (vacant); 4. Ecua-
dor, Bolivia and Peru; 5. San Domingo,
Haiti and Venezuela.
Baker's "First Steps in International
Law," at page 119, gives the following
list of countries having diplomatic agents
at the Vatican :
98
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"The States still actually represented
at the Vatican are: Austria and Hun-
gary, Spain, France and Portugal, who
have each an ambassador at Rome;
Bavaria, Belgium, Bolivia, Ecuador,
Chili, Guatemala, Monaco, the Republic
of Nicaragua, Peru, who maintain a
minister plenipotentiary. Germany has
retained a chancellor. Holland has no
minister accredited to the Holy See, but
an internuncio continues to reside at The
Hague."
In 1904 the French embassy at the
Vatican was discontinued, and that re-
public has not renewed diplomatic rela-
tions with the Holy See. To the fore-
going there should be added Russia,
Great Britain and Japan, which have
recently sent ambassadors to the Vatican.
XI
MAKES TREATIES
(6) The Pope makes treaties, known
as concordats, with the other sovereign
powers.
Nearly all nations have entered into
treaty relations with the Pope. These
conventions are not usually called trea-
ties, however, but are known by the
Latin name of concordats. But they are
executed with solemn formalities identi-
cal with those which characterize all
international treaties.
The fact is significant, also, that con-
cordats entered into since the overthrow
of the Papal State are in precisely the
same form as those executed before that
event. It thus appears conclusively that
the sovereign right of the Pope to nego-
tiate such treaties was not a particle
affected by the loss of his territorial
domain.
100
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Equally before and since he was
divested of the crown of the Papal State,
the Pope has executed concordats, as he
has received and accredited envoys, in
his capacity as sovereign pontiff and not
as monarch of the pontifical state. This
will readily appear by producing here
the formal parts of a concordat executed
before the loss of his territorial dominion
and one executed after that event.
In 1843, twenty-seven years before
the overthrow of the Papal State, the
Pope entered into a solemn convention
with the King of Sardinia. The formal
parts of that convention, which appear
in the opening and concluding clauses
and the signature of the plenipotentiaries,
are as follows:
"!N THE NAME OF THE MOST HOLY
TRINITY.
"His Holiness the Reigning High
Pontiff and His Majesty the King of
Sardinia, moved by an equal desire of
encouraging, and of further increasing
the commercial relations between their
respective states, and persuaded that
101
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
nothing can tend more to this end than
the causing reciprocally to disappear in
the application of the maritime regula-
tions every difference of treatment be-
tween the subjects of the one and of the
other dominion, have on this account
unanimously determined to conclude a
Convention, and have named for that
purpose for their Plenipotentiaries, viz.:
"His Holiness the Reigning High
Pontiff has named his Most Reverend
Eminence the Cardinal Luigi Lambrus-
chini, Bishop of Sabina, his Secretary of
State and the Briefs, Librarian of the
Holy Church, Grand Prior at Rome of
the Order of Jerusalem, Grand Cross
decorated with the Broad Riband of the
Holy Military Order of St. Maurice and
St. Lazarus, &c. And His Majesty the
King of Sardinia has named his Excel-
lency the Count Frederic Broglia of
Mombello, His Majesty's Envoy Ex-
traordinary and Minister Plenipoten-
tiary at the Holy See, Commander of the
Holy Military Order of St. Maurice and
St. Lazarus, Knight of the Pontifical
Order of Christ, Grand Cross of the
Orders of St. Joseph of Tuscany and of
St. Ludovic of Lucca, £c. ; who, after
having exchanged their respective Full
102
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Powers and found them to be in good
and due form, have agreed upon the
following Articles.
". . . The present Convention shall be
approved and ratified by His Holiness
the reigning High Pontiff and by His
Majesty the King of Sardinia; and the
Ratifications shall be exchanged at Rome
within five weeks from the date of signa-
ture, and sooner if possible.
"In faith of which the above-men-
tioned Plenipotentiaries have signed it,
and affixed thereto the seal of their arms.
"ROME, March 15, 1843.
"(L. S.) CARD. LAMBRUSCHINI.
"(L. S.) COUNT FREDERIC BROGLIA OF
MOMBELLO.
— State Papers Published by the British
Government, Vol. XXX1L, pp. 1274-76.
On June 23, 1886, sixteen years after
the loss to the Papacy of the pontifical
state, Pope Leo XIII. entered into a con-
vention with the King of Portugal, of
which the formal parts are substantially
identical with those of all previous con-
cordats, as will fully appear from the
following introductory and concluding
excerpts :
103
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"!N THE NAME OF THE MOST HOLY
TRINITY.
"His Holiness the Supreme Pontiff
Leo XIII., and His Most Faithful Majes-
ty the King Don Lewis I., being animated
with the wish to favour and further the
development of the Christian communi-
ties in the East Indies and to settle in a
stable and definite manner the patronage
therein of the Portuguese Crown, have
determined to make a concordat, and for
this purpose they have appointed their
Plenipotentiaries, as follows:
"On the part of His Holiness, the
Most Eminent and Reverend Cardinal L.
Jacobini, his Secretary of State;
"And on the part of His Most Faith-
ful Majesty, his Excellency the Coun-
cillor of State, Joas B. da S. Ferras de
Carvalho Martens, Ambassador Ex-
traordinary, a Peer of the Realm and
Honorary Minister of State; who, after
exchanging their respective full powers,
which were found in due and proper
form, have agreed upon the following
articles :
"The present Treaty, together with its
annex which is an integral part thereof,
104
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
shall be ratified by the High Contracting
Parties, and the ratifications shall be
exchanged at Rome within three months
from the date of the signature of the
same, or sooner if possible.
"ROME, June 23, 1886.
"(L. S.) L. CARDINAL JACOBINI.
"(L. S.) Jo AS B. DA S. FERRAS DE CAR-
VALHO MARTENS."
—State Papers, Vol. LXXVIL, p. 1143.
In order to show the substantial iden-
tity in form of the foregoing and all con-
cordats with the treaties which nations
are accustomed to make one with another,
the formal parts of a treaty recently con-
cluded between Great Britain and Ger-
many in the usual way are here given
as follows:
"His Majesty the King of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
and of the British Dominions beyond the
Seas, Emperor of India, and His Majesty
the German Emperor, King of Prussia,
in the name of the German Empire, con-
sidering it advisable to regulate by a
Treaty the extradition of fugitive crimi-
nals between certain British Protector-
ates and Germany, have appointed as
105
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
""
their Plenipotentiaries for this purpose:
"His Majesty the King of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
and of the British Dominions beyond the
Seas, Emperor of India, his Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Mem-
ber of his Privy Council, the Right
Honourable Sir William Edward Gros-
chen;
"His Majesty the German Emperor,
King of Prussia, his Secretary of State
of the Foreign Office, Actual Privy Coun-
cillor, Herr von Kiderlen-Waechter.
"The Plenipotentiaries, after having
communicated to each other their respec-
tive full powers, which were found to be
in good and due form, have agreed to
and concluded the following Articles:
"IV. The present Treaty shall be rati-
fied and the ratifications shall be ex-
changed as soon as possible.
"The Treaty shall come into operation
two months after the exchange of ratifi-
cations, and shall remain in force as long
as the Extradition Treaty between Great
Britain and the German Empire of the
14th May, 1872, remains in force, and
shall lapse with the termination of that
Treaty.
106
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"In witness whereof the respective
Plenipotentiaries have signed this Treaty
and have affixed thereto the seal of their
arms.
"Done in duplicate at Berlin the 17th
August, 1911.
"(L. S.) W. E. GROSCHEN.
"(L. S.) KIDERLEN."
— British State and Foreign Papers, Vol.
CIV., pp. 153-4, A. D. 1911.
The power to make treaties is an
attribute of sovereignty. Only those who
are clothed with sovereign power can
become parties to these solemn inter-
national conventions. In view of this
fact, Section 10 of Article I. of the Con-
stitution of the United States prohibits
the making of treaties between the sev-
eral States of the Union or between any
State and foreign nations.
The Supreme Court of the United
States has recently approved the follow-
ing definition:
"Treaties are contracts between NA-
TIONS."—Rainey vs. U. S., 232 U. S.
310.
107
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
The American and English Encyclo-
paedia of Law, Volume XXVIII., at page
476, says:
"A treaty is a contract between two or
more SOVEREIGNS.
". . . As a general rule, every sover-
eign state whose powers have not been
limited or modified by compacts with
other states has the power to make
treaties."
108
XII
TEXT-BOOKS ON INTERNATIONAL LAW
DECLARE HIM SOVEREIGN
(7) Writers on international law are
virtually unanimous in declaring that the
Pope is now a sovereign potentate.
A number of texts on the law of
nations have been quoted in a previous
chapter to show the tremendous sover-
eign power and prerogatives accorded to
the Pope prior to the loss of his terri-
torial domain. It now remains to be
shown that the overwhelming preponder-
ance of opinion as expressed in such
texts is that the Pope is still a sovereign
potentate and member of the family of
nations. Under a special act of Con-
gress, John Bassett Moore, professor of
international law in Columbia Univer-
sity and for many years Assistant Sec-
retary of State of the United States,
wrote an international law digest which
109
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
was published in eight large volumes in
1906 by the Government. As a store-
house of learning and research, this great
work is unrivaled in the literature of the
public law of nations. In Volume L, on
page 16, this work gives the following
statement of the law:
"The Holy See occupies a position
analogous to that of states, and the Pope
is treated as a sovereign, and even as a
privileged sovereign"
Frantz Despagnet published in Paris,
in 1910, an admirable work in French
known as "Droit International Public."
The following statement is translated
from Section 154 of that work:
"The Pope is considered as a sover-
/ eign. In their relations with him, the
/ principal Catholic states accord to him a
right to the pre-eminence which manifests
I itself in special honors. Non-Catholic
V states generally treat him with deference."
Rev. Sabastian B. Smith, D.D., in his
/ work on ecclesiastical law heretofore
quoted, in Sections 201-3, uses the follow-
V ing language :
no
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"201. Is the Church possessed of
jurisdiction in the proper sense of the
term?
"A. Protestants contend that the en-
tire power of the Church consists in the
right to teach and exhort, but not in the
right to command, rule or govern ; whence
they infer that she is not a perfect society
or sovereign state. This theory is false;
for the Church, as was seen, is vested
jure divino with power (1) to make
laws; (2) to define and apply them
(potestas judicialis) ; (3) to punish those
who violate her laws (potestas coerci-
tiva).
"202. The punishments inflicted by the
Church, in the exercise of her coercive
authority, are chiefly spiritual (poence
spiritnales} ; e. g., excommunication, sus-
pension and interdict. We say chiefly;
for the Church can inflict temporal and
even corporal punishments.
"203. Has the Church power to inflict
the penalty of death? Card. Tarquini
thus answers: 1. Inferior ecclesiastics are
forbidden, though only by ecclesiastical
law, to exercise this power directly. 2.
It is certain that the Pope and (Ecumeni-
cal Councils have this power, at least
mediately; that is, they can, if the neces-
111"
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
sity of the Church demands, require a
Catholic ruler to impose this penalty.
That they can not directly exercise this
power can not be proved."
For more than a hundred years the
great work on "The Law of Nations," in
French, by Edmund De Vattel, has been
recognized as standard authority of very
high rank. The following statement
translated into English is found on page
61 of Volume III. of that work as repub-
lished in 1916 by the Carnegie Institution
at Washington, D. C :
"All that we have set forth above is
derived so clearly from the ideas of in-
dependence and sovereignty that it will
never be questioned by any one in good
faith or who is willing to draw logical
inferences. If all the affairs of religion
can not be finally regulated by the state,
it is not free and its prince is only half
sovereign. There is no middle course.
Either each state must be master in its
own territory on the subject of religion
as on every other, or the system of Boni-
face VIII. must be accepted and all
Roman Catholic Christendom be looked
upon as a single state, zvith the Pope as
112
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
supreme head, and kings as subordinate
administrators of temporal affairs, each \
in his own province, much as the Sultans
were formerly under the sovereignty of
the Caliphs."*
Bonfils makes the following remark ^\
touching the effect on the Papal authority^. )
of the incorporation of the pontifical state
into the Kingdom of Italy:
[Translation from the French.]
"The Pope/lost nothing of his eccle- \
siastical authority. Not only is it con-
served intact, but it has increased as the
Catholic Church has grown into an abso-
lute and irresponsible sovereignty." —
Droit International Public, by Bonfils,
Sec. 374.
The work on international law by
Halleck, published in London in 1878, in
Volume I., page 102, makes the following
statement :
"Thus the Catholic Powers concede
the precedency to the Pope, as the visible
head of the Church; but Russia, and the
Protestant states of Europe, consider
him only as a sovereign prince in Italy,
and, as such, entitled to royal honors, but
8 113
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
not to any precedency from his rank as
sovereign pontiff."
Dr. Franz von Liszt, professor of law
in the University of Berlin, makes the
following statement touching the present
sovereign status of the Pope:
[Translation from the German.]
"The Pope: He is indeed under the
Italian guarantee law of the 13th of May,
1871 — Fleischmann 107 — as well as also
in consequence of the acknowledgment of
the laws by the other powers, no subject
of Italy or any other state; consequently
extraterritorial or extranational. He also
has the benefit of a series of other privi-
leges, such as the rights of active and
passive embassies, which also only belong
to the sovereign states; and he makes
constant use of these privileges, with the
consent of the powers." — Das Volkerrecht
(Berlin, 1913), p. 49.
114
XIII
EVERY ROMAN CATHOLIC A PAPAL
SUBJECT
II. Every Prelate, Priest and Member
of the Roman Catholic Church is a Sub-
ject of the Pope, and Bound to Him by
Civil and Ecclesiastical Bonds of Fealty
and Obedience.
The Papal system is essentially im-
perium in imperio. It is a mighty eccle-
siastical empire deeply rooted in the
domestic and international politics of the
world. The Pope reigns over this empire
as supreme and absolute monarch.
Claiming to derive his sovereign power
directly from God alone, he exercises the
most arbitrary and despotic authority
ever wielded by human hands.
The ramifications of the vast Roman
Catholic fabric, like the roots of a great
cancer, have penetrated every tissue of
115
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
human society and for centuries have
sapped the vitality of mankind. Each
individual member of this unique organ-
ism is held under the supreme duty of
promoting the prosperity and sway of the
whole and particularly of its sovereign
head.
In every land dominated by the Pa-
pacy the percentage of illiteracy among
the people is appalling, the major portion
of material wealth is monopolized by the
hierarchy and its political and financial
paramours, and civil and religious liberty
is totally unknown. The political strug-
gles and aspirations of the human race
during the past four hundred years have
been one common story — the story of
humanity fleeing from Papal and imperial
despotism.
An eminent Roman Catholic author-
ity, after stating in his standard text on
canon law two somewhat divergent
theories concerning the Papal form of
government, concludes his statement in
these words, wherein he expressly de-
clares that Church a monarchy:
116
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"The difference between these two
opinions-seems to be verbal rather than
real. Both admit that the supreme
power in the Church is vested in a single
ruler — the Roman Pontiff — and that
therefore the Church is a monarchy as~ttr^
the form of government; according to
Craisson, this is de fide" — Elements of
Ecclesiastical Law, S. B. Smith, Sec. 463.
John B. Sagmuller, professor of the-
ology in the University of Tubingen,
Wurtemberg, Germany, in his article on
cardinals, in the Catholic Encyclopedia,
designates the Papal government as
monarchial in the following language:
"RELATIONS OF THE CARDINALS TO
THE POPE. — In the Middle Ages the car-
dinals attempted more than once to
secure over the Pope the same pre-emi-
nence which they had secured in a perma-
nent way over the episcopate; i. e., they
sought to change the monarchial~form of
government into an aristocracy/' — Vol.
III., p. 336.
Under the doctrine of the Vatican
decrees, the highest authority in the
Roman Catholic Church is vested in the
117
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Pope. His declarations ex cathedra,
carrying the sanction of infallibility, are
absolutely binding on every Roman Cath-
olic throughout the world. The famous
bull "Unam Sanctam" of Boniface VIII.
and many subsequent Papal utterances
declare that salvation depends on accept-
ance of the supreme authority of the
Pope. The greatest popes of recent times
declare unequivocally that every member
of the church is a subject of the Roman
pontiff. In his encyclical letter, "Sapien-
ticz Christiana" of January 10, 1890,
Leo XIII. so declares in the following
words :
"But the man who has embraced the
Christian faith, as in duty bound, is by
that very fact a subject of the Church as
one of the children born of her, and be-
comes a member of that greatest and
holiest body, which it is the special charge
of the Roman pontiff to rule with su-
preme pozver, under its invisible head,
Jesus Christ." — Great Encyclical Letters,
p. 183.
The following additional excerpts
118
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
from the same encyclical will show more
clearly the Papal claim to complete fealty
and obedience of every Roman Catholic:
"But this likewise must be reckoned
amongst the duties of Christians, that
they allow themselves to be ruled and
directed by the authority and leadership
of bishops, and, above all, of the Apos-
tolic See.
"In addition to what has been laid
down, it is necessary to enter more fully
into the nature of the Church. She is
not an association of Christians brought
together by chance, but is a divinely
established and admirably constituted
society, having for its direct and proxi-
mate purpose to lead the world to peace
and holiness. And since the Church alone
has, through the grace of God, received
the means necessary to realize such end,
she has her fixed laws, special spheres of
action, and a certain method, fixed and
conformable to her nature, of governing
Christian peoples. But the exercise of
such governing power is difficult, and
leaves room for numberless conflicts, in-
asmuch as the Church rules peoples scat-
tered through every portion of the earth,
119
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
differing in race and customs, who, living
under the sway of the laws of their
respective countries, owe obedience alike
to the civil and religious authorities.
"Religion should, on the contrary, be
accounted by every one as holy and in-
/ violable; nay, in the public order itself
of States — which can not be severed from
the laws influencing morals and from
religious duties — it is always urgent, and
indeed the main preoccupation, to take
thought how best to consult the interests
of Catholicism. Wherever these appear
by reason of the efforts of adversaries to
be in danger, all differences of opinion
among Catholics should forthwith cease,
so that, like thoughts and counsels pre-
vailing, they may hasten to the aid of
religion, the general and supreme good,
to which all else should be referred." —
Id., pp. 194, 195 and 197.
The foregoing citations establish
clearly that the Pope claims and enjoys
the primary and supreme fealty and
allegiance of every Roman Catholic. A
distinction both fundamental and far-
reaching is thus seen between the Roman
120
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Catholic Church and every other denom-
ination. No other religious body is
bound as such to a potentate engaged in
world politics and diplomacy and exer-
cising jurisdiction and control over the
civil and ecclesiastical conduct and rela-
tions of its membership.
It is but natural, therefore, that the
Papacy has stood since its inception as
a grave political problem confronting
every government. This ever-present
problem has embarrassed statesmen, dip-
lomats and scholars some thirteen hun-
dred years. Speaking of this peculiarity
of the Papal system, Mr. Gladstone uses
the following pertinent language:
"But it is the peculiarity of Roman
theology that, by thrusting itself into the
temporal domain, it naturally, and even
necessarily, comes to be a frequent theme
of political discussion. To quiet-minded
Roman Catholics it must be a subject of
infinite annoyance that their religion is,
on this ground more than any other, the
subject of criticism; more than any other
the occasion of conflicts with the State
and of civil disquietude. I feel sincerely
121
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
how much hardship their case entails.
But this hardship is brought upon them
altogether by the conduct of the author-
ities of their own Church. Why did
theology enter so largely into the debates
of Parliament on Roman Catholic Eman-
cipation? Certainly not because our
statesmen and debaters of fifty years ago
had an abstract love of such controver-
sies, but because it was extensively be-
lieved that the Pope of Rome had been
and was a trespasser upon ground which
belonged to the civil authority and that
he affected to determine by spiritual pre-
rogative questions of the civil sphere.
This fact, if fact it be, and not the truth
or falsehood, the reasonableness or un-
reasonableness, of any article of purely
religious belief, is the whole and sole
cause of the mischief. To this fact, and
to this fact alone, my language is refer-
able; but for this fact it would have been
neither my duty nor my desire to use it.
All other Christian bodies are content
with freedom in their own religious
domain. Orientals, Lutherans, Calvin-
ists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Non-
conformists, one and all, in the present
day, contentedly and thankfully accept
the benefits of civil order; never pretend
122
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
that the State is not its own master;
make no religious claims to temporal pos-
sessions or advantages; and, consequent-
ly, never are in perilous collision with
the State. Nay, more, even so I believe
it is with the mass of Roman Catholics
individually. But not so with the leaders
of their Church, or with those who take
pride in following the leaders." — The
Vatican Decrees in Their Bearing on
Civil Allegiance, pp, 11, 12.
123
XIV
CARDINALS BELONG TO PAPAL COURT
1. Every cardinal is an active mem-
ber of the Curia Romano, or Papal Court,
which assists the Pope in governing the
vast Papal Empire.
The Curia Romana, or Roman Court,
is the most elaborate and comprehensive
executive cabinet in the world. This
court embraces all ecclesiastical officials
which the Pope uses to assist him in the
government of the Roman Catholic
Church. It is the distinguishing pride
and characteristic of cardinals that they
all are members of this court.
Under the present law of the Papacy
the number of cardinals in the world is
limited to seventy. Six of these are offi-
cially designated as cardinal-bishops, fifty
are cardinal-priests, and fourteen are
cardinal-deacons. Collectively they com-
pose the corporation known as the Col-
124
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
lege of Cardinals and constitute the high-
est and chief portion of the Papal Court
or cabinet.
Rev. Sebastian B. Smith, heretofore
quoted as an eminent Roman Catholic
authority and specialist on ecclesiastical
law, defines the duty of cardinals and
their relation to the Pope and the entire
Roman Church in the following words:
"Cardinals are the immediate coun-
selors or advisors of the Pope, and form,
so to speak, the senate of the Roman
Church. Hence, they are compared to
the seventy ancients appointed to assist
Moses, and to the apostles chosen to aid
our Lord." — Elements of Ecclesiastical
Law, Vol. I., Sec. 487.
The active membership of every car-
dinal in the Papal Court is so vital and
his fealty to the Pope as sovereign is so
intimate and profound as to render a
cardinal legally incapable of representing
any government as its ambassador to the
Vatican. Being essentially high officials
in the Papal Empire, all cardinals are
bound to render to the Pope paramount
125
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
and exclusive allegiance in his political
and diplomatic relations with the civil
governments of the world. A concrete
and striking illustration of this occurred
in 1875 when the German Empire sent
Prince Hohenlohe as its diplomatic rep-
resentative to the Pope. William Edward
Hall, A.M., in his "Treatise on Inter-
national Law," fourth edition, published
in London in 1895, at page 313, makes
the following statement of the law appli-
cable to that particular case :
"The Pope refused in 1875 to accept
Prince Hohenlohe as ambassador from
Germany because, being a cardinal, he
was ex officio a member of the curia."
Edwin Maxey, professor of consti-
tutional and international law in West
Virginia University, in his admirable
text-book published in St. Louis in 1906,
states the same fact and law in the
following words:
"The Pope refused to receive Prince
Hohenlohe, because as a cardinal he was
ex officio a member of the curia." —
International Law by Maxey, p. 106.
126
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Edwin F. Glenn, who was then Act-
ing Judge Advocate of the United States
Army, wrote a "Handbook of Interna-
tional Law," which was published in
1895 as a hornbook by the West Publish-
ing Company at St. Paul. On page 107
that work says :
"In 1875 the Pope refused to receive
Prince Hohenlohe as ambassador from
Germany, because, being a cardinal, he
was, ex officio, a member of the curia."
In the officially authorized "Life of
Leo XIII.," by O'Reilly, heretofore de-
scribed and quoted, the same facts are
stated as follows:
"While the Falk legislation was as
yet in its preparatory stage, it was sought
either to obtain the tacit acquiescence of
the court of Rome to the proposed meas-
ures, or to find a specious pretext for a
diplomatic rupture. Cardinal Hohenlohe
was appointed ambassador of the Ger-
man Empire near the Holy See. Doubt-
less the cardinal accepted his mission in
the hope of preventing greater misfor-
tunes; the Pope, at any rate, refused to
receive him. And so all diplomatic inter-
127
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
course ceased between the Vatican and
Berlin."— Page 470.
It thus clearly appears that the para-
mount allegiance of every cardinal is to
the Papal Empire of which he is an
official. The chief pride and delight of
cardinals seem to arise from this political
connection and fealty to Rome. They
seldom lose an opportunity to declare
themselves princes, and as such clad in
the Roman purple, a color belonging to
kings and emperors in every land and in
every age of the world.
Smith's "Elements of Ecclesiastical
Law" declares, in Section 493: "Cardi-
nals are, moreover, Roman princes — nay,
are considered princes of the blood." In
Section 495, the same work states as
follows :
"INSIGNIA OF CARDINALS. — These
consist chiefly: 1. Of the red hat given
them by Pope Innocent IV. 2. The red
cap bestowed by Paul IV. 3. The sacred
purple, which was the distinctive dress
of the emperors: it came to be worn by
all the cardinals from the time of Boni-
face VIII." \
~ - 128
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
On August 20, 1916, a Roman cardi-
nal residing in this country delivered
before a convention of Roman Catholics
in New York an extended oration where-
in he made extravagant statements of
the loyalty to our Government of all
Roman Catholics in the United States.
This speech was printed in the "Con-
gressional Record," at the expense of the
Government, on September 6 following,
by the grace of a Roman Catholic mem-
ber of Congress*
How can a Roman cardinal, while
boasting that he is a prince of the blood
in the Papal monarchy, and while wear-
ing the Roman purple as such prince,
consistently pretend any fealty or devo-
tion to the Government of the United
States? The Constitution of the United
States, Article L, Sections 9 and 10, for-
bids the granting of any title of nobility
by the United States or by any State.
How can one, when boasting that he is a
prince in a foreign monarchy, do such
violence to consistency as to claim
patriotism or ciffzenship in -this country?
9 129
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
All cardinals are appointed by the
Pope alone, and the Pope is elected exclu-
sively by the cardinals. Under the nar-
row and exclusive policy fostered by this
arrangement, the popes have been able
to control absolutely for many centuries
the character and nationality of their
successors. For this purpose a majority
of the cardinals are chosen from Italy,
and, in consequence, none but Italians
have been elected to the Papal throne
since the Middle Ages.
So has the Papacy become distinc-
tively an Italian dynasty. The foregoing
statement as to the appointment of the
cardinals by the Pope, and the election
of the Pope by the cardinals, will suffi-
ciently appear from the following ex-
cerpts from the article on cardinals by
Auguste Boudinhon, D.D., D.C.L., pro-
fessor of canon law in the Catholic Uni-
versity of Paris, in Volume V., at page
323, of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
eleventh edition:
"The creation of cardinals (to use
the official term) is in fact nowadays the
ISO
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
function of the Pope alone. It is accom
plished by the publication of the persons
chosen by the Pope in secret consistory.
No other formality is essential; and the
provision of Eugenius IV., which re-
quired the reception of the insignia of
the cardinalate for the promotion to be
valid, was abrogated before long, and
definitely annulled by the declaration of
Pius V. of the 26th of January, 1571.
Similarly, neither the consent nor the
vote of the Sacred College is required
"The most lofty function of the car- \
dinals is the election of the Pope."
A further element of narrow selfish-/
ness touching the Papal succession is
shown in the fact that, though any mem-
ber of the Roman Church, even a layman,
is eligible to the Papacy, the cardinals
have uniformly chosen one of their own
number during a period of more than
five centuries, as appears by the follow-
ing statement:
"Though since Urban VI. (1378-89)
none but a cardinal has been elected pope,
no law reserves to the cardinals alone
131
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
this right." — Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol.
IV., p. 194.
The popes have further contrived to
enhance the preponderance of Italians in
the conclave by decreeing that the cardi-
nals present in Rome shall proceed to the
election at the end of ten days from the
death of the Pope, without awaiting the
arrival of their absent colleagues. In
view of the impossibility of reaching the
Papal capital from distant lands in the
brief period mentioned, it is inevitable
that a considerable number of the non-
Italians will be absent when the election
is held. The law as here stated clearly
appears from the following paragraph:
"The Pontifical laws regulating every-
thing that regards this, the highest body
of electors in the Church, leave no room
for doubt or indecision. It is expressly
enjoined that the cardinals present in
Rome shall wait for ten days after the
death of a pope, and that then they shall
enter into conclave and proceed to the
election of a successor without waiting
for the arrival of their absent col-
132
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
leagues."— Life of Leo XIII. , by O'Reilly,
p. 292.
On December 1, 1911, the London
Daily Telegram published an English
translation of the oath administered to
cardinals by Papal requirement, and
Monsignor Canon Moyse admitted the
published oath to be genuine in the
Roman Catholic London Tablet of De-
cember 16 following. This oath is
deemed sufficiently important to justify
its insertion here in full.
"OATH OF THE CARDINALS.
"I, , of the Holy Roman Church,
cardinal of , promise and swear,
from this hour forward, as long as I
shall live, to be faithful and obedient to
the blessed Peter and the Holy Roman
Apostolic Church, and our Most Holy
Lord Pius X., and his canonically elected
successors ;
"To give no counsel nor to concur in
anything nor aid in any way against the
pontifical majesty or person ;
"Never to disclose affairs entrusted \
to me by them personally, by their nun-
133
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
cios, or by letters, willingly or knowingly,
to their detriment or dishonor;
"To be ever ready to aid them to re-
tain, defend, and recover their rights
against all, to fight with all zeal, and all
my forces, for their honor and dignity,
"To direct and defend honorably and
kindly legates and nuncios of the apos-
tolic see in all places under my jurisdic-
tion, to provide for their safe journey,
and treat them honorably going, during
their stay, and during their return, and
to resist even to the shedding of blood
whosoever would attempt anything
against them;
"To try in every way to assert, up-
hold, preserve, increase, and promote the
rights, even temporal, especially those of
the civil principality, the liberty, the
honor, privileges, and authority of Holy
Roman Church, of our lord the Pope,
and the aforesaid successors;
"When it shall come to my knowledge
that some machination, prejudicial to
those rights, which I can not prevent, is
taking place, immediately to make it
known to the Pope, his successor, or to
some one qualified to convey the knowl-
edge to them;
"To observe and fulfil, and see that
134
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
others observe and fulfil, the regulations,
the decrees and the ordinances, the dis-
pensations and preservation of provisions
and apostolic mandates, the constitutions
of Pope Sixtus V. of happy memory,
concerning visits 'Ad limina Apostolo-
rum' at the prescribed times, according
to the tenor of said constitution;
"To combat with every effort her-
etics, schismatics, and those rebelling
against our lord the Pope and his suc-
cessors ;
"When summoned for any reason
whatsoever by the Holy Father or his
successor, to come to them, or when
detained by a just cause to send one to
present my excuses, and to show them
due reverence and obedience;
"Never to sell or to give away, mort-
gage, or alienate without consent of the
Roman Pontiff, even though the consent
of said chapter or convents or churches
or monasteries or their benefices be had,
the possessions belonging to the 'mensa'
of the church, monasteries, or other
benefices committed to me ;
"Likewise to observe inviolably the
constitution of the Supreme Pontiff Pius
X., which begins 'Vacante Sede Apos-
tolica' given at Rome the twenty-fifth
135
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
day of December, in the year 1904, con-
cerning the vacancy of the Holy See and
the election of the Roman Pontiff; and
to lend no help nor countenance to any
intervention of the civil power in the
election of the Pope; likewise,
"To observe minutely each and all of
the decrees, especially those which have
emanated from the sacred congregation
of the ceremonies, or those to come from
it, relative to the sublime dignity of the
cardinalate, nor to do anything which
would be repugnant to the honor and
dignity of it, and to pay the rights of
the cardinal's ring conceded by Gregory
XL to the 'Sancta Congregatio de Prop-
aganda Fide.'
"So help me God and these holy
gospels."
In case of diplomatic or other differ-
ences or transactions between the Papacy
and the civil government, it is manifest
that any cardinal living within the juris-
diction of this or any other country would
be compelled to choose between treason
to the civil government and violation of
the foregoing oath of obedience and
fealty to the Pope.
136
XV
BISHOPS ARE CREATURES AND
DEPUTIES OF THE POPE
2. Every Roman Catholic bishop is
appointed by the Pope, and is a procu-
rator of the Papal Empire.
In past ages various modes of ap-
pointing Roman bishops have obtained.
During the closing centuries of the Mid-
dle Ages many and fierce conflicts arose
between the Pope and various other
monarchs concerning the right to appoint
bishops, the popes claiming that right
exclusively for themselves, while other
sovereigns claimed substantial preroga-
tives touching the matter in their respec-
tive countries. In the fourteenth century
exclusive power to appoint bishops
throughout the world began to be ac-
corded to the Roman pontiffs. The fol-
lowing statement discloses clearly that all
bishops now owe their appointment and
137
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
their episcopal authority to the Pope:
"343. Owing to abuses consequent on
elections by chapters, the Sovereign Pon-
tiffs began, in the fourteenth century, to
reserve to themselves the appointment of
bishops. Clement V. took the first step
in this matter by reserving the appoint-
ment to some bishoprics; John XXII.
increased the number, and Pope Benedict
XII. (1334) finally reserved to the Holy
See the appointment (:. e., the election
and confirmation) of all the bishops of
the Catholic world. Elections by chap-
ters were consequently discontinued
everywhere. Afterwards, however, the
right of election was restored to cathedral
chapters in some parts of Germany, so
that in these parts only bishops and arch-
bishops are still, as of old, canonically
elected by their cathedral chapters.
"344. Were the Roman Pontiffs guilty
of usurpation in reserving to themselves
the appointment of bishops?
"A. By no means ; for the Pope alone
is, by virtue of his primacy, vested with
potestas ordinaria, not only to confirm,
but also to elect, bishops. Hence it was
only by the consent, express or tacit, of
the Popes that others ever did or could
138
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
validly elect bishops." — Elements of
Ecclesiastical Law, by S. B. Smith, Sees.
343, 344.
In his encyclical letter, "Sapientice
Christiana" of January 10, 1890, Pope
Leo XIII. declares that every bishop is
a Roman Catholic prince, in the following
statement :
"Now the administration of Christian
affairs immediately under the Roman
Pontiff appertains to the bishops, who.
although they attain not to the summit
of pontifical power, are nevertheless truly
princes in the ecclesiastical hierarchy." —
Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo
XIII. , p. 202.
A Roman Catholic author, in dis-
cussing the general powers of bishops,
states :
"Whatever opinion may be held, it is
certain that bishops can not validly exer-
cise any episcopal jurisdiction without
having been appointed by the Sovereign
Pontiff to some see." — Elements of Eccle-
siastical Law, by S. B. Smith, Sec. 535.
Every bishop and ecclesiastic in the
Roman Catholic Church is bound to the
139
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Pope by such obligations that the law of
the church does not permit such persons
to take an oath of fealty or allegiance to
any other prince or potentate, as the
following statement clearly discloses:
". . . At the celebrated Council of
Clermont (1095), at which the first
Crusade was preached, Urban strength-
ened the former prohibitions by declar-
ing that no one might accept any spiritual
office from a layman, or take an oath of
fealty to any layman." — Encyclopedia
Britannica, Vol. XIV., p. 722.
All bishops are required to bind them-
selves to the Papacy by a solemn oath
substantially identical with the oath of a
cardinal, as given in the last preceding
chapter of this work. The cathedral of
each bishop is supplied also with a throne
which the bishop occupies to demonstrate
his own gubernatorial authority as a pro-
curator under the imperial sway of the
Sovereign Pontiff. The foregoing facts
and others of interest are set forth in
the following quotation :
"The bishop is consecrated after tak-
140
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
ing the oath of fidelity to the Holy See,
and subscribing the profession of faith,
by a bishop appointed by the Pope for
the purpose, assisted by at least two other
bishops or prelates, the main features of
the act being the laying on of hands, the
anointing with oil, and the delivery of
the pastoral staff and other symbols of
the office. After consecration the new
bishop is solemnly enthroned and blesses
the assembled congregation.
'The potestas ordinis of the bishop is
not peculiar to the Roman Church, and,
in general, is claimed by all bishops,
whether oriental or anglican, belonging
to churches which have retained the
Catholic tradition in this respect. Be-
sides the full functions of the presby-
terate, or priesthood, bishops have the
sole right (1) to confer holy orders, (2)
to administer confirmation, (3) to pre-
pare the holy oil, or chrism, (4) to conse-
crate sacred places or utensils (churches,
churchyards, altars, &c.), (5) to give the
benediction to abbots and abbesses, (6)
to anoint kings. In the matter of their
rights of jurisdiction, however, Roman
Catholic bishops differ from others in
their peculiar responsibility to the Holy
See. Some of their powers of legislation
141
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
and administration they possess motu
proprio in virtue of their position as
diocesan bishops, others they enjoy under
special faculties granted by the Holy See ;
but all bishops are bound, by an oath
taken at the time of their consecration,
to go to Rome at fixed intervals (visit are
sacra limina apostolorum) to report in
person, and in writing, on the state of
their dioceses.
"The Roman bishop ranks immediate-
ly after the cardinals; he is styled rever-
endissimus, sanctissimus or beatissimus.
In English the style is 'Right Reverend';
the bishops being addressed as 'my lord
bishop/
"The insignia (pontificalia or pontifi-
cals) of the Roman Catholic bishop are
(1) a ring with a jewel, symbolizing
fidelity to the church, (2) the pastoral
staff, (3) the pectoral cross, (4) the
vestments, consisting of the caligae, stock-
ings and sandals, the tunicle, and purple
gloves, (5) the mitre, symbol of the
royal priesthood, (6) the throne (cathe-
dra) surmounted by a baldachin or can-
opy, on the gospel side of the choir in the
cathedral church." — Encyclopedia Brit-
annica, eleventh ed., Vol. IV., p. 2.
142
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
The requirement of the Pope that
every bishop must visit the Holy See in
person at regular intervals, and report
the condition of his see, is fully set forth
in the following statement:
"The bishop has also obligations re-
garding the Holy See. Throughout his
entire administration he must conform
to the general legislation of the Church
and the direction of the pope. In this
respect two special obligations are in-
cumbent upon him: he must pay the
Visit atio ad limina Apostolorum, and pre-
sent the Relatio de statu diocesis; i. e., he
must visit the shrines of Sts. Peter and
Paul at Rome and present a report of the
condition of his diocese. The Decretals
imposed this obligation upon the bishops
whose consecration the pope reserves to
himself. It has become general since the
fifteenth century, and Sixtus definitely
ruled in favor of this obligation (Bull
'Romanus Pontifex,' 20 December,
1585). According to this Bull the bish-
ops of Italy, and the neighboring islands
of Dalmatia and Greece, must make the
visit ad limina every three years; those
of Germany, France, Spain, England,
Portugal, Belgium, Bohemia, Hungary,
143
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Poland and the islands of the Mediterra-
nean Sea every four years ; those of other
parts of Europe, of North Africa and the
isles of the Atlantic Ocean situate to the
New World, every five years; those of
other parts of the world, every ten years.
. . . The bishops must pay this visit per-
sonally, and for this purpose are allowed
to absent themselves from their dioceses,
the bishops of Italy for four months,
other bishops for seven months. . . .
". . . The Visitatio liminum includes
a visit to the tombs of St. Peter and St.
Paul, an audience with the Holy Father,
and a written report which the bishop
ought to present to the Congregation of
the Council according to the formula of
Benedict XIII. in 1725."— Catholic Ency-
clopedia, Vol. II., p. 588.
These enthroned Roman bishops, wear-
ing the mitre of "royal priesthood/' bound
to the Sovereign Pontiff of the Roman
Catholic Empire by the most solemn oaths
of fealty, and prohibited from taking
any oath of fealty to this or any gov-
ernment, are a discordant and alien and
dangerous ingredient in this great, free
republic.
144
XVI
PAPAL SUBJECTS IN AMERICAN
POLITICS
3. Many millions of Papal subjects
enjoy all rights of American citizenship,
participating aggressively in our politics,
and holding many of the highest public
offices in the United States.
The Official Catholic Directory for
1917, bearing the imprimatur of the
Cardinal Archbishop of New York, gives
the number of Roman Catholics in the
United States, exclusive of our insular
possessions, as 17,022,879. The vast pre-
ponderance of these claim and enjoy all
the rights and prerogatives of citizenship.
They are crowded chiefly into our great
cities. Nearly three millions are in New
York State, a very large per cent, being
in Greater New York City. The other
great municipalities contain immense
numbers of them. . The presence in each
10 145
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
great city of hundreds of thousands of
these Papal subjects under the abject con-
trol of the local cardinal or archbishop,
with his army of subordinate prelates,
priests and politicians, has sunken our
municipal politics to the shameless depths
of corruption and degradation that all
good citizens so much deplore. This
Roman Catholic vote in control of the
vast Papal system is the political weapon
that has enabled Tammany Hall to domi-
nate and plunder New York City a hun-
dred years.
Subjects of the Papal Empire hold
many public offices of great rank and
power in every department of our nation-
al, State and local governments. The
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States, the Associate Justice
ranking next to the Chief, the Clerk and
the Marshal of that great tribunal are
subjects of the Roman Church, which the
Pope rules with supreme power, as stated
by Pope Leo XIII. in the quotation given
in Chapter XII. of this work. A very
considerable number of Roman subjects
146
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
sit on the circuit and district court bench-
es of the United States, while hosts of
them are in the supreme and inferior
courts of the various States. From the
President's secretary down through every
executive department of our Federal
Government they are entrenched in
countless strategical positions. Scores of
them sit in the Congress of the United
States, and hundreds have found their
way into the State Legislatures, and
virtually all these are diligent in pro-
moting the political purposes of the Papal
system. From the highest officer in our
navy, all down the lines of our military
and naval establishments, these Papal
subjects hold many offices of great power.
Boasting three million Roman Cath-
olic votes in the United States, the Papal
hierarchy boldly demands financial and
political preferment at the hands of every
Governmental department, and tacitly or
openly threatens the political and finan-
cial ruin of all who dare to resist these
demands. With the selfish deliberation
and sagacity acquired in a thousand years
147
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
of intrigue and plunder, the Papal
Empire is steadily invading our country.
Critical international relations inci-
dent to the great European War have
elicited much serious thought and discus-
sion of the allegiance to our Government
of citizens of foreign birth or descent.
This discussion has brought into cur-
rency the phrase "hyphenated allegi-
ance." Citizens of great political wisdom
and wide experience in public affairs have
freely expressed grave misgivings as to
the loyalty of upright persons with a
sentimental attachment to the land of
their birth, while ignoring the presence
among us of the millions whose para-
mount allegiance to the crowned and
reigning sovereign prince of the world-
embracing Papal Empire can not be
denied.
148
XVII
VAST AMERICAN PROPERTIES CON-
TROLLED BY THE POPE
4. Title to all real and personal prop-
erty held by the Roman Catholic Church
in this country is vested in the cardinals
and bishops, and controlled directly by
the Pope.
In all parts of the United States are
choice tracts of land occupied by the
massive buildings that attest the wealth
and power of the Papal system. It would
be impossible to estimate the value in
money of these immense properties, many
of which are used for commercial and
speculative purposes, and which are ex-
empted from taxation by our National
and State Governments. The aggregate
value would doubtless mount high into
the hundreds of millions — perhaps into
billions — of dollars.
But title to all these Roman Catholic
149
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
properties is vested in the three cardinals
as archbishops of New York, Boston and
Baltimore, and in the other bishops
throughout the country. The Third
Plenary Council of Baltimore, which was
held under the sanction of Pope Leo XIII.
and presided over by his delegate, so
decreed, as shown by the following state-
ment:
'The Third Plenary Council denned
more exactly what was meant by secure
methods of ownership according to civil
law, directing that (1) the bishop him-
self be constituted a corporation sole for
possessing and administering the goods
of the whole diocese; or (2) that the
"bishop hold the goods in trust in the
name of the diocese; or (3) that the
bishop hold and administer the church
property in his own name (in fee simple)
by an absolute and full legal title. In the
last case the bishop is to remember that,
though before the civil law he is the abso-
lute owner, yet by the sacred canons he
is only procurator." — Catholic Encyclo-
pedia, Vol. XII, p. 473.
That none of the church property can
be disposed of without the express direc-
150
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
tion of the Pope clearly appears from the
following declaration of ecclesiastical
law:
"According to the C. Ap. Sedis of
Pius IX., it is, generally speaking, for-
bidden, under pain of excommunication
latcc sentential, to alienate (*. e., to sell,
mortgage, lease for more than three
years, etc.) Church property, movable or
immovable — or, as others express it,
ecclesiastical immovables (bona eccle. im-
mobilia) and valuable movables (mobilia
pretiosa) — without permission from the
Holy See. We say (a) generally speak-
ing; for ecclesiastical things may be
alienated without Papal leave — v. g., if
they are of little or no use, if recourse
to Rome is difficult, etc. We say (b) of
considerable value; for things, both mov-
able and immovable, worth, v. g., only
$25, or, according to some, $100, may be
alienated by leave from the bishop.
Whether the above law, requiring the
pontifical permission for the alienation
of Church property, has, by virtue of
custom to the contrary, ceased to be
obligatory outside of Italy, seems a dis-
puted question. Does it obtain in the
United States? It does with regard to
151
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
all alienations involving a sum greater
than $5,000." — Elements of Ecclesiastical
Law, by S. B. Smith, Vol. I., Sec. 668.
Suppose princes of the royal blood as
members of the imperial court of some
other foreign potentate and procurators
of that potentate held title to vast real
and personal properties in every city,
town and village of this country, and
that none of such properties could be
sold or disposed of without first obtain-
ing consent of the crowned and reigning
potentate seated on his foreign throne;
how would the American people regard
such a condition? That is precisely the
status of all Roman Catholic property in
the United States. Though protected by
law equally with the property of Amer-
ican citizens, this Papal wealth pays not
one dollar of revenue, while the loyal
citizens of the United States and their
property bear all the financial burdens of
the Government.
152
XVIII
PAPACY HOSTILE TO OUR INSTITU-
TIONS
HI. The Remain Catholic Church is
Fundamentally Hostile to Every Principle
of Free Government.
The chief corner-stone of popular
government is the supreme sovereignty
of the people. The Declaration of Inde-
pendence lays down as self-evident the
truth that all governments derive their
just powers from the consent of the gov-
erned. Fleeing from arbitrary power in
the hands of European despots, the
founders of this republic were deeply
impressed with the civil equality and
sovereign rights of all mankind.
Since the founding of our Govern-
ment the popes have not ceased to con-
demn as essentially vicious the principle
of popular sovereignty. In his encyclical
153
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
letter, "Immortale Dei'' of November 1,
1885, Pope Leo XIII. expressed his
hatred and condemnation of government
by the people in the following bitter
denunciation :
"The sovereignty of the people, how-
ever, and this without any deference to
God, is held to reside in the multitude;
which is doubtless a doctrine exceedingly
well calculated to flatter and to inflame
many passions, but which lacks all reason-
able proof, and 'all power of insuring
public safety and preserving order. In-
deed, from the prevalence of this teach-
ing, things have come to such a pass that
many hold as an axiom of civil jurispru-
dence that seditions may be rightfully
fostered. For the opinion prevails that
princes are nothing more than delegates
chosen to carry out the will of the people ;
whence it necessarily follows that all
things are as changeable as the will of
the people, so that risk of public dis-
turbance is ever hanging over our
heads." — Great Encyclical Letters, p. 123.
Contrast the foregoing Papal con-
demnation with the immortal speech of
Lincoln at Gettysburg, wherein he spoke
154
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
with such reverence of "government of
the people, by the people, for the people."
Contrast the Papal denunciation of sedi-
tion, or the uprising of the people against
oppressive government, with Jefferson's
statement in the Declaration of Inde-
pendence that it is the duty of the people
to alter or abolish the government that
becomes destructive of human rights.
Contrast it with the purpose expressed
in the preamble of our National Consti-
tution "to secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity."
The immediate predecessor of the
foregoing pope, Pius IX., in Clause 39
of his "Syllabus of Errors," made public
December 8, 1864, also condemned the
civil sovereignty of the people by brand-
ing as erroneous the following declara-
tion of human rights:
"39. The commonwealth is the origin
and source of all rights, and possesses
rights which are not circumscribed by
any limits."
Space forbids the insertion of numer-
ous other Papal declarations in harmony
155
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
with the foregoing from the ablest popes
of the nineteenth century. The state-
ments here given are deemed sufficient
to show clearly the essential and un-
wavering hostility of the Papal system
to democratic and representative institu-
tions.
156
XIX
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
1. The Papacy stands in uncompro-
mising opposition to separation of Church
and State.
The authors of the Constitution of
the United States, impressed with the
sorrow and oppression that had befallen
Europe by reason of the union of the
civil and ecclesiastical powers, provided
in Article VI. that no religious test
should ever be required as a qualification
to public office. The people were so
desirous to safeguard all popular rights
that they incorporated the following as
the first amendment to the Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law respect-
ing an establishment of religion, or pro-
hibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
157
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Government for a redress of grievances."
Against every right of the people
vouchsafed in the foregoing amendment,
the highest authorities of the Roman
Catholic Church have continued till the
present time to hurl sweeping denuncia-
tions. Opposition of the Papal system
to separation of Church and State will
sufficiently appear from the following:
"Hence follows the fatal theory of the
need of separation between Church and
State. But the absurdity of such a posi-
tion is manifest." — Great Encyclical Let-
ters of Leo XIIL, p. 148.
"With treacherous phrases about lib-
erty of conscience and separation of the
State from the Church, it takes advan-
tage to weaken the bonds of religion, to
accredit indifferentism, and to please the
heretic and the unbeliever by a fashion
of marriage suited to their minds." —
Letter of Cardinal Pecci (afterwards
Leo XIIL) to King of Italy, "Life of
Leo XIII." by O'Reilly, p. 222.
"But this teaching is understood in
two ways. Many wish the State to be
separated from the Church wholly and
entirely, so that in regard to every right
158
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
of human society, in institutions, customs
and laws, the officers of States, and the
education of youth, they would pay no
more regard to the Church than if she
did not exist; and, at most, would allow
the citizens individually to attend to their
religion in private if so minded. Against
such as these, all the arguments by which
We disprove the principle of separation
of Church and State are conclusive ; with
this superadded, that it is absurd the
citizen should respect the Church, while
the State may hold her in contempt" —
Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo
XIII. , p. 160.
Pope Pius IX. condemned as error
the doctrine that
"The Church ought to be separated
from the State, and the State from the
Church." — Syllabus of Errors, Clause 55.
Pope Gregory XVI. also condemned
separation of Church and State in the
following words :
"Nor can We hope for happier re-
sults, either for religion or for the civil
government, from the wishes of those
who desire that the Church be separated
from the State, and the concord between
150
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
the secular and ecclesiastical authority be
dissolved." — Great Encyclical Letters of
Pope Leo XIII. , p. 125.
From among many Papal utterances
condemning liberty of conscience and
worship, only the following from Leo
XIII. can be produced here:
"To make this more evident, the
growth of liberty ascribed to our age
must be considered apart in its various
details. And, first, let us examine that
liberty in individuals which is so opposed,
to the virtue of religion; namely, the lib-
erty of worship, as it is called. This is
based on the principle that every man is
free to profess as he may choose any
religion or none." — Id., p. 149.
The inherent tyranny of the Roman
Catholic Church, and its hatred of relig-
ious and civil liberty as embodied in our
Constitution and laws, appear unmis-
takably from the following:
"And it is a part of this theory that
all questions that concern religion are to
be referred to private judgment; that
every one is to be free to follow what-
ever religion he prefers, or none at all
160
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
if he disapprove of all. From this the
following consequences logically flow:
that the judgment of each one's con-
science is independent of all law; that
the most unrestrained opinions may be
openly expressed as to the practice or
omission of divine worship; and that
every one has unbounded license to think
whatever he chooses and to publish
abroad whatever he thinks.
"Now, when the State rests on foun-
dations like those just named — and for
the time being they are greatly in favor
— it readily appears into what and how
unrightful a position the Church is
driven. For when the management of
public business is in harmony with doc-
trines of such a kind, the Catholic relig-
ion is allowed a standing in civil society
equal only, or inferior, to societies alien
from it; no regard is paid to the laws of
the Church, and she who, by the order
and commission of Jesus Christ, has the
duty of teaching all nations, finds her-
self forbidden to take any part in the
instruction of the people. With refer-
ence to matters that are of twofold juris-
diction, they who administer the civil
power lay down the law at their own
will, and in matters that appertain to
11 161
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
religion defiantly put aside the most
sacred decrees of the Church. They
claim jurisdiction over the marriages of
Catholics, even over the bond as well as
the unity and the indissolubility of matri-
mony. They lay hands on the goods of
the clergy, contending that the Church
can not possess property. Lastly, they
treat the Church with such arrogance
that, rejecting entirely her title to the
nature and rights of a perfect society,
they hold that she differs in no respect
from other societies in the State, and for
this reason possesses no right nor any
legal power of action, save that which
she holds by the concession and favor of
the government. If in any State the
Church retains her own right — and this
with the approval of the civil law, owing
to an agreement publicly entered into by
the two powers — men forthwith begin to
cry out that matters affecting the Church
must be separated from those of the
State."— Id., p. 121.
162
XX
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS
2. Freedom of speech and of the
press is denounced by the popes as
vicious and intolerable.
The Papacy attained its imperial
greatness during the Dark Ages. A crea-
ture of darkness, it can not endure the
light of public discussion. Its policy has
always been to suppress freedom of
thought and expression by the heavy
hand of authority. In lands dominated
by the Roman Catholic Church there is
virtually no free periodical press, and
freedom of speech as understood in Prot-
estant lands is totally unknown.
Pope Leo XIII. sets forth the attitude
of the Papacy towards freedom of
thought and expression in the following
declarations :
"From what has been said, it follows
163
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
that it is quite unlawful to demand, to
defend, or to grant unconditional free-
dom of thought, of speech, of writing, or
of worship, as if these were so many
rights given by nature to man." — Great
Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII., p.
161.
"If unbridled license of speech and of
writing be granted to all, nothing will
remain sacred and inviolate; even the
highest and truest mandates of nature,
justly held to be the common and noblest
heritage of the human race, will not be
spared." — Id., p. 152.
The hostility of the Papal Empire to
freedom of the press is further shown
by the fact that Roman Catholic repre-
sentatives in the Congress of the United
States have sought with great energy
and diligence to secure legislation that
would enable the Postmaster General to
suppress and destroy, without notice,
trial or opportunity to make defense, any
publication that may offend the Roman
lierarchy. These assaults on one of the
most fundamental rights of constitutional
liberty were made with great vigor in
164
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
the Sixty-third Congress, and were re-
newed in the Sixty- fourth. Five separate
bills have been introduced in Congress
for this purpose by representatives com-
ing from the great Roman Catholic
strongholds of Greater New York City
and Boston, in each of which cities a
Roman cardinal and member of the Papal
court is present to direct the political
activities of Rome. As these bills are
substantially identical in their arbitrary
provisions, it will be sufficient to insert
here the bill introduced by Roman Cath-
olic Representative Gallivan, of Boston,
March 27, 1916:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and
House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assem-
bled: That the Postmaster General shall
make the necessary rules and regulations
to exclude from the mails those publica-
tions the avowed and deliberate purpose
of which is to attack a recognized religion
held by the citizens of the United States,
or any religious order to which citizens
of the United States belong."
The following letter, written by the
165
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Roman Catholic Archbishop of New
York, will further show the intolerant
and destructive policy of Rome towards
even her own periodical publications:
"452 MADISON AVENUE, New York,
"APRIL 13, 1887.
"To THE EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR OF THE
CATHOLIC HERALD:
"Gentlemen — By this note, which is
entirely private and not to be published,
I wish to call your attention to the fact
that the Third Plenary Council of Balti-
more, following the leadership of Pope
Leo XIII., has pointed out the duties of
the Catholic press, and denounced the
abuses of which journals styling them-
selves Catholic are sometimes guilty.
'That paper alone,' say the council (de-
cree No. 228), 'is to be regarded as Cath-
olic that is prepared to submit in all
things to ecclesiastical authority.' Later
on it warns all Catholic writers against
presuming to attack publicly the manner
in which a bishop rules his diocese, affirm-
ing that those who so presume, as well as
their approvers and abettors, are dealt
with by canonical censures.
"For some time past the utterances
of the Catholic Herald have been shock-
166
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
ingly scandalous. As this newspaper is
published in this diocese, I hereby warn
you that if you continue in this course of
conduct it will be at your peril. I am,
gentlemen, yours truly,
"M. A. CORRIGAN,
"Archbishop of New York."
— Facing the Twentieth Century, by
James M. King, p. 367.
107
XXI
OPPOSES PUBLIC SCHOOLS
3. Free public schools are vehemently
opposed and denounced by the Roman
Catholic Church.
Few American institutions are so
prized by all patriotic citizens as the free
public school. From Maine to California
the public schoolhouse is recognized as a
cradle of liberty and intelligence. Amer-
ican citizens pay their school tax with a
cheerful sense of satisfaction.
The free public school belongs pecul-
iarly to Protestant peoples. It is vir-
tually unknown in countries dominated
by Romanism. It is very significant that
among Protestant peoples the percentage
of illiteracy is extremely small, while in
all Roman Catholic communities it is
appallingly large. In some of the Prot-
estant countries persons unable to read
168
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
and write compose less than one per cent,
of the total population, while in Roman
Catholic countries the number exceeds
fifty per cent.
On September 30, 1860, Cardinal
Pecci, who afterwards became Pope Leo
XIII., wrote the Royal Commissary of
Italy a letter against reforms that were be-
ing instituted by the Government in por-
tions of that peninsula. He was especially /
bitter in denouncing a decree establishing /
public education under the direction of J
the civil government. In that letter the /
cardinal used the following language:
"The decree admits that religion is
inseparable from a wise instruction and
education. But then it excludes in the
most absolute manner the direction and
superintendence of the religious authority
from the institutions in which youth is
instructed and educated, and substitutes
for it privately those of the Govern-
ment."—Life of Leo XIIL, by O'Reilly,
p. 239.
Prof. William Turner, of the Catholic
University of America at Washington,
12 169
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
D. C, states the hostile disposition of the
Roman Church towards public secular
education in the following words:
"The Church can not approve schools
which exclude religion from the curricu-
lum, both because religion is the most
important subject in education, and be-
cause she contends that even secular
education is not possible in its best form
unless religion be made the central, vital-
izing and co-ordinating factor in the life
of the child. The Church, sometimes,
tolerates schools in which religion is not
taught, and permits Catholic children to
attend them, when the circumstances are
such as to-leave no alternative, and when
due precautions are taken to supply by
other means the religious training which
such schools do not give. - She reserves
the right to judge whether this be the
case, and, if her judgment is unfavorable,
claims the right to forbid attendance (see
letter of Gregory XVI. to Irish bishops,
16 Jan., 1831). . . . State monopoly of
education has been considered by the
Church to be nothing short of tyrannical
usurpation" — Catholic Encyclopedia, >
Vol. XIII., p. 558.
In Clauses 45 and 48 of his "Syllabus \
170
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
of Errors" of 1864, Pope Pius IX. heart-
ily condemns the idea that education shall
be under direction of the civil govern-
ment and separated from the control of
the Roman Catholic Church.
The Papacy does not permit secular
control of the public schools in countries
which it can dominate. By treaty stipu-
lation the Pope is accustomed to exact
from the Government of such countries
full control of the state school system by
the Roman Catholic hierarchy. As illus-
trating the provisions so exacted and
enforced in Roman Catholic countries, a
sample is here submitted of such pro-
visions taken from the concordat made
in 1887 between the Pope and the United
States of Colombia in South America.
Following are the sections of that con-
cordat bearing on education:
"XII. In the universities, colleges,
schools and other educational centers, the
public education and instruction shall be
organized and directed in conformity
with the doctrines and moral teaching of
the Catholic religion. Religious instruc-
171
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
tion shall be obligatory in such institu-
tions, and the religious exercises pre-
scribed by the Catholic religion shall be
observed in them.
"XIII. In consequence of the fore--
going Article, the respective ordinaries,
either in person or by delegates appointed
for that purpose, shall exercise the right
of inspecting and revising the text-books
used for the teaching of religion and
morality in such institutions. The Arch-
bishop of Bogota shall select the books
to be used as text-books in religion and
morality in the universities; and in order
to insure uniformity of instruction on
these subjects, this Prelate, in concert
with other diocesan Bishops, shall select
the text-books for the other Government
educational establishments. The Gov-
ernment will take care that, in the deliv-
ery of lectures on literary and scientific
subjects, and generally in all branches of
instruction, no ideas contrary to the
Catholic doctrine, or tending to lessen
the respect and veneration due to the
Church, are propagated.
"XIV. In case religious and moral
teaching should not be in conformity with
Catholic doctrines, in spite of the orders
and precautions of the Government, the
172
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
respective ordinaries shall be able to de-
prive the professors and masters of the
right of giving instruction in such mat-
ters."— State Papers Published by the
British Government, Vol. LXXIX., p.
818.
Such is the real disposition of the
Papal Empire towards public education.
Manifestly, the protestations of loyalty
to the public schools which are frequently
made by mouthpieces of Rome in this
country are deliberately false and intend-
ed merely to deceive the public. Not-
withstanding the inherent hatred and
opposition of the Papacy to our great
system of free public schools, Roman
Catholic politicians have contrived to
secure the employment of an appalling
number of Papists as teachers and even
as principals and superintendents in these
schools. The enmity of the Pope and
the entire Papal hierarchy to public
education renders it impossible for any
Papal subject to serve in good faith as
an officer or teacher in any American
public-school system.
173
XXII
MARRIAGE
4. The Roman Catholic Church vio-
lates and defies all marriage laws not in
harmony with the Papal law of marriage.
The canon law of the Roman Church
boldly forbids Roman Catholics to obey
marriage laws of this or any nation
which are not identical with her own
laws on that subject. She thus openly
defies our national and State laws gov-
erning marriage, and requires all Roman
Catholics to violate and disregard the
same. This defiance of our law has
caused Roman priests to destroy domestic
happiness in many Christian homes, to
force separation of legally married hus-
bands and wives, and to stigmatize the
children born in lawful wedlock as ille-
gitimate. Her defiance of our marriage
laws clearly appears from the following:
174
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
"When, however, the State enacts
laws inimical to the marriage laws of
the Church, practically denying her right
to protect the sacred character of matri-
mony, she can not allow her children to
submit to such enactments." — Catholic
Encyclopedia, Vol. IX., p. 700.
"As, then, marriage is holy by its own
power, in its own nature, and of itself,
it ought not to be regulated and adminis-
tered by the will of civil rulers, but by
the divine authority of the Church, which
alone in sacred matters professes the
office of teaching." — Great Encyclical
Letters of Pope Leo XIII., p. 68.
Pope Pius IX., in a letter of protest
to the King of Italy against the law of
1860 authorizing civil marriages, con-
demned that law, and the marriages con-
tracted thereunder, in the following
words :
"We wrote to your Majesty that the
law is not Catholic; and if the law is not
Catholic, the clergy are obliged to tell
the people so, even at the risk of incur-
ring the threatened penalties. Your
Majesty, we also speak to you in the
name of Christ Jesus, whose Vicar we
175
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
are, how unworthy soever; and we say
tc you in His Name, do not sanction this
law, which is pregnant with a thousand
disorders. . . . We give ourselves up
willingly to the hope of seeing you sup-
port the rights of the Church, protect
her ministers, and free her people from
the peril of being subjected to certain
laws which bear on their face the decay
of religion and of the morality of
nations." — Life of Leo XIII., p. 222.
The Council of Trent officiallv denned
j
the attitude of the Roman Catholic
Church on the subject of marriage. It
declared positively that all marriages not
solemnized by a Roman priest are abso-
lutely null and void in the following
words :
"Those who otherwise than in the pres-
ence of the parish priest himself or of
another priest acting with the license of
the parish priest or of the Ordinary, and
in the presence of two or three witnesses,
shall attempt to contract matrimony, the
Holy Synod renders altogether incapable
of contracting marriage thus, and decrees
that contracts of this kind are null and
void."
176
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
In 1907 Pope Pius X. handed down
from the Papal throne the latest and most
radical legislative utterance of the Papacy
to the same effect in the decree which is
popularly known from its opening words
in Latin as the Ne Temere Decree. The
most salient provisions of that decree,
when translated into English, read as fol-
lows:
"III. Only those marriages are valid
which are contracted before the parish
priest or the Ordinary of the place or a
priest delegated by either of these, and at
least two witnesses, according to the rules
laid down in the following articles, and
saving the exceptions mentioned under
VII. and VIII.
"VII. When danger of death is im-
minent and where the parish priest or
the Ordinary of the place or a priest dele-
gated by either of these cannot be had,
in order to provide for the relief of con-
science and (should the case require it)
for the legitimation of offspring, mar-
riage may be contracted validly and licitly
before any priest and two witnesses.
"VIII. Should it happen that in any
177
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
district the parish priest or the Ordinary
of the place or a priest delegated by
either of them, before whom marriage
can be celebrated, is not to be had, and
that this condition of things has lasted
for a month, marriage may be validly and
licitly entered upon by the formal dec-
laration of consent made by the spouses
in the presence of two witnesses."
The foregoing excerpts from the de-
cree of the Council of Trent and the Ne
Temere Decree are taken from the Ec-
clesiastical Review of February, 1908, at
pages 133 et seq.
ITS
XXIII
DISFRANCHISEMENT THE ONLY
ADEQUATE REMEDY
IV. No Member or Subject of the
Papal Empire is Legally Entitled to Citi-
zenship.
Numerous lay members of the Roman
Catholic Church are doubtless ignorant
of the civil status and disability which
the Papal hierarchy has forced upon
them. These laymen sincerely believe
themselves capable of the highest type of
patriotism. In any conflict or transaction
between the Government of the United
States and other civil governments they
would probably support their own
country.
But in dealings or breach of comity
between America and the Vatican their
paramount fealty to the Vatican would
compel them to oppose the American
179
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
Government. However little they may
be aware of this situation, it exists none
the less by virtue of the sovereign status
of the Pope and the established principles
of canon law.
The Papal Empire is the only govern-
ment in the world whose subjects are
permitted to vote in another sovereignty.
No subject of any other monarch than
the Pope and no citizen of any other
nation is given citizenship in the United
States. Before enjoying the franchise in
this country, such person must take steps
required by law to sever his identity with
the nation to which he has previously
belonged.
Nor would it be sufficient that Roman
Catholics should forswear allegiance to
the Pope as the subjects of other mon-
archs abjure allegiance to those mon-
archs. Such an oath taken by subjects
of the Pope would not remove their dis-
ability, for two substantial reasons. In
the first place, under the doctrine of the
Roman Catholic Church, an oath against
that Church or against the Pope does not
180
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
bind the conscience and the life of a
Roman Catholic in favor of a Protestant
or of Protestant institutions.
In the second place, the oath taken by
a subject of the British Empire, for
instance, when seeking citizenship in the
United States, severs his British connec-
tion. He must terminate his connection
with that empire before claiming the
rights of an American citizen. The same
condition binds the citizens and subjects
of all sovereignties except the Papacy.
Roman Catholics remain subject to the
Pope regardless of oaths as long as they
remain in the organization over which
he reigns as sovereign. Complete sub-
jection to the Pope is the very essence of
Roman Catholicism and is inseparable
from it.
So long as the Sovereign Pontiff
claims and exercises temporal jurisdic-
tion and participates in the diplomacy
and politics of the world, his subjects are
bound by the same conditions that bind
subjects to other monarchs. No Roman
Catholic, while retaining membership in
181
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
the Papal Empire, which is identical with
the Roman Catholic Church, is entitled
to citizenship under any civil govern-
ment. He can escape this disability
exactly as subjects of other empires and
governments escape it, by severing en-
tirely his connection with the political
empire which the Pope rules with su-
preme power. Till he does this, he is
not entitled to any political rights as an
American citizen.
Because of his political fealty to the
Pope and his consequent civil disability
— not because of his religion — every
Roman Catholic enjoying the privileges
of an American citizen is doing so in
violation of the spirit and essence of con-
stitutional law. He can not be at once
an American citizen and a subject of the
Papal Empire. He must surrender the
one prerogative or the other. If he pre-
fers to retain membership in the Pope's
ecclesiastical empire, justice demands his
disfranchisement and surrender of Amer-
ican citizenship.
The political sovereignty of the Pope
182
PAPAL SOVEREIGNTY
with the consequent dual allegiance of all
Roman Catholics has complicated the
politics of the civilized world since the
nightfall of the Dark Ages. It has em-
broiled the nations in their fiercest con-
flicts and drenched the earth with human
blood. Having scourged the Old World
through so many centuries, the Papal
system is now pouring its ignorant and
degraded peoples into this country and
fastening its destructive grip on our insti-
tutions. The most stupendous political
issue of modern times is thus being
forced upon us. The mighty problem
awaits solution at the hands of our citi-
zens. Its difficulty, its magnitude, its
vital importance, challenge the strongest
hands, the clearest heads and the bravest
hearts of the greatest and freest people
beneath the sun.
183
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