vero concessum est ut prælatos in ecclesiis sui patronatus eligant. Cum ergo imperator onus sentiat patronatus, ut qui tenetur eam defendere, sentire debet honorem et emolumentum.' I quote this from a curious document in Goldast's collection of tracts (
Monarchia Imperii), entitled '
Letter of the four Universities, Paris, Oxford, Prague, and the "Romana generalitas," to the Emperor Wenzel and Pope Urban,' A.D. 1380. The title can scarcely be right, but if the document is, as in all probability it is, not later than the fifteenth century, its being misdescribed, or even its being a forgery, does not make it less valuable as an evidence of men's ideas.
119
So Leo III in a charter issued on the day of Charles's coronation: '… actum in præsentia gloriosi atque excellentissimi filii nostri Caroli quem auctore Deo in defensionem et provectionem sanctæ universalis ecclesiæ hodie Augustum sacravimus.' – Jaffé Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, ad ann. 800.
So, indeed, Theodulf of Orleans, a contemporary of Charles, ascribes to the Emperor an almost papal authority over the Church itself: —
'Cœli habet hic (sc. Papa) claves, proprias te iussit habere;Tu regis ecclesiæ, nam regit ille poli;Tu regis eius opes, clerum populumque gubernas,Hic te cœlicolas ducet ad usque choros.'In D. Bouquet, v. 415.120
Perhaps at no more than three: in the time of Charles and Leo; again under Otto III and his two Popes, Gregory V and Sylvester II; thirdly, under Henry III; certainly never thenceforth.
121
The Sachsenspiegel (Speculum Saxonicum, circ. A.D. 1240), the great North-German law book, says, 'The Empire is held from God alone, not from the Pope. Emperor and Pope are supreme each in what has been entrusted to him: the Pope in what concerns the soul; the Emperor in all that belongs to the body and to knighthood.' The Schwabenspiegel, compiled half a century later, subordinates the prince to the pontiff: 'Daz weltliche Schwert des Gerichtes daz lihet der Babest dem Chaiser; daz geistlich ist dem Babest gesetzt daz er damit richte.'
122
So Boniface VIII in the bull Unam Sanctam, will have but one head for the Christian people. 'Igitur ecclesiæ unius et unicæ unum corpus, unum caput, non duo capita quasi monstrum.'
123
St. Bernard writes to Conrad III: 'Non veniat anima mea in consilium eorum qui dicunt vel imperio pacem et libertatem ecclesiæ vel ecclesiæ prosperitatem et exaltationem imperii nocituram.' So in the De Consideratione: 'Si utrumque simul habere velis, perdes utrumque,' of the papal claim to temporal and spiritual authority, quoted by Gieseler.
124
'Sedens in solio armatus et cinctus ensem, habensque in capite Constantini diadema, stricto dextra capulo ensis accincti, ait: "Numquid ego summus sum pontifex? nonne ista est cathedra Petri? Nonne possum imperii iura tutari? ego sum Cæsar, ego sum imperator."' – Fr. Pipinus (ap. Murat. S. R. I. ix.) l. iv. c. 47. These words, however, are by this writer ascribed to Boniface, when receiving the envoys of the emperor Albert I, in A.D. 1299. I have not been able to find authority for their use at the jubilee, but give the current story for what it is worth.
It has been suggested that Dante may be alluding to this sword scene in a well-known passage of the Purgatorio (xvi. l. 106): —
'Soleva Roma, che 'l buon mondo feoDuo Soli aver, che l' una e l' altra stradaFacean vedere, e del mondo e di Deo.L' un l' altro ha spento, ed è giunta la spadaCol pastorale: e l' un coll altro insiemePer viva forzu mal convien che vada.'125
See especially Peter de Andlo (De Imperio Romano); Ralph Colonna (De translatione Imperii Romani); Dante (De Monarchia); Engelbert (De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani); Marsilius Patavinus (De translatione Imperii Romani); Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini (De Ortu et Authoritate Imperii Romani); Zoannetus (De Imperio Romano atque ejus Iurisdictione); and the writers in Schardius's Sylloge, and in Goldast's Collection of Tracts, entitled Monarchia Imperii.
126
Letter of Lewis II to Basil the Macedonian, in Chron. Salernit. in Mur. S. R. I.; also given by Baronius, Ann. Eccl. ad ann. 871.
127
'Ad summum dignitatis pervenisti: Vicarius es Christi.' – Wippo, Vita Chuonradi (ap. Pertz), c. 3.
Letter in Radewic, ap. Murat, S. R. I.
128
Lewis IV is styled in one of his proclamations, 'Gentis humanæ, orbis Christiani custos, urbi et orbi a Deo electus præesse.' – Pfeffinger, Vitriarius Illustratus.
129
In a document issued by the Diet of Speyer (A.D. 1529) the Emperor is called 'Oberst, Vogt, und Haupt der Christenheit.' Hieronymus Balbus, writing about the same time, puts the question whether all Christians are subject to the Emperor in temporal things, as they are to the Pope in spiritual, and answers it by saying, 'Cum ambo ex eodem fonte perfluxerint et eadem semita incedant, de utroque idem puto sentiendum.'
130
'Non magis ad Papam depositio seu remotio pertinet quam ad quoslibet regum prælatos, qui reges suos prout assolent, consecrant et inungunt.' —Letter of Frederick II (lib. i. c. 3).
131
Liber Ceremonialis Romanus, lib. i. sect. 5; with which compare the Coronatio Romana of Henry VII, in Pertz, and Muratori's Dissertation in vol. i. of the Antiquitates Italiæ Medii Ævi.
132
See Goldast, Collection of Imperial Constitutions; and Moser, Römische Kayser.
133
The abbot Engelbert (De Ortu et Fine Imperii Romani) quotes Origen and Jerome to this effect, and proceeds himself to explain, from 2 Thess. ii., how the falling away will precede the coming of Antichrist. There will be a triple 'discessio,' of the kingdoms of the earth from the Roman Empire, of the Church from the Apostolic See, of the faithful from the faith. Of these, the first causes the second; the temporal sword to punish heretics and schismatics being no longer ready to work the will of the rulers of the Church.
134
A full statement of the views that prevailed in the earlier Middle Age regarding Antichrist – as well as of the singular prophecy of the Frankish Emperor who shall appear in the latter days, conquer the world, and then going to Jerusalem shall lay down his crown on the Mount of Olives and deliver over the kingdom to Christ – may be found in the little treatise, Vita Antichristi, which Adso, monk and afterwards abbot of Moutier-en-Der, compiled (cir. 950) for the information of Queen Gerberga, wife of Louis d'Outremer. Antichrist is to be born a Jew of the tribe of Dan (Gen. xlix. 17), 'non de episcopo et monacha, sicut alii delirando dogmatizant, sed de immundissima meretrice et crudelissimo nebulone. Totus in peccato concipietur, in peccato generabitur, in peccato nascetur.' His birthplace is Babylon: he is to be brought up in Bethsaida and Chorazin.
Adso's book may be found printed in Migne, t. ci. p. 1290.
135
S. Thomas explains the prophecy in a remarkable manner, shewing how the decline of the Empire is no argument against its fulfilment. 'Dicendum quod nondum cessavit, sed est commutatum de temporali in spirituale, ut dicit Leo Papa in sermone de Apostolis: et ideo discessio a Romano imperio debet intelligi non solum a temporali sed etiam a spirituali, scilicit a fide Catholica Romanæ Ecclesiæ. Est autem hoc conveniens signum nam Christus venit, quando Romanum imperium omnibus dominabatur: ita e contra signum adventus Antichristi est discessio ab eo.' —Comment. ad 2 Thess. ii.
136
See note z, page 119. The Papal party sometimes insisted that both swords were given to Peter, while the imperialists assigned the temporal sword to John. Thus a gloss to the Sachsenspiegel says, 'Dat eine svert hadde Sinte Peter, dat het nu de paves: dat andere hadde Johannes, dat het nu de keyser.'
