CHAPTER V.

THE INTERNATIONAL STATUS OF THE PAPACY BETWEEN THE PERIOD OF THE PROMULGATION OF THE CANON LAW AND THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

CCCXXII. THUS, at the close of the thirteenth century, the Papal power had reached its utmost height. It had carried to the extremest practical verge the logical consequences of the principles laid down in the Bulls which have been mentioned (a).

The kingdoms of the earth were at the disposal and under the supremacy of the servant of the servants of God.

About the beginning of the fourteenth century, the flagrant abuse of Pontifical authority began to cause its rapidly accelerating downfall (b).

Philip IV. of France burnt the Bull of Boniface VIII. which invaded the Regalia of the French crown (c), defied

(a) Discours, Rapports, et Travaux inédits sur le Concordat de 1801, etc., par J. E. M. Portalis, publiés et précédés d'une Introduction, par le Vicomte Frédéric Portalis. Paris, 1845.

(b) Shakspeare has admirably painted the spirit of these times in the answer to Pandulph, which he puts into the mouth of the Dauphin Lewis:

"Your Grace shall pardon me. I will not back:

I am too high-born to be propertied,

To be a secondary at control,

Or useful serving-man, and instrument

To any sovereign State throughout the world," &c.

(c) A.D. 1302. 1 Koch, 224.

VOL. II.

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King John, act. v. sc. 2.

his excommunication, and appealed to a General Council (d). The contumacy and cruelty of Clement VI. towards the Emperor Louis of Bavaria roused the Princes and States of the Empire, and produced the celebrated decree of the Diet of Frankfort, A.D. 1338 (e). In this decree, which became a Fundamental Law of the Empire, it was declared that the Imperial dignity was derived from God alone, and that the Emperor, once chosen by a plurality of the suffrage of the electors, needed no confirmation or coronation of the Pope, and that to maintain the contrary should be considered a crime of high treason (ƒ).

CCCXXIII. Another event greatly injured the Papal authority. Clement V., who had been Archbishop of Bordeaux, was crowned at Lyons, and took up his abode at Avignon (g) A.D. 1305, and there his successors continued till A.D. 1378 (h).

The Pope was accused, not without reason after abetting the persecution of the Templars, of being the tool of the French Kings.

If the State during the preceding century had dwelt in the house of the Roman Church, the host and guest had certainly changed places (i).

Towards the end of the fourteenth century, schism tore the Papacy in pieces. Christendom was divided between Popes contemporaneously chosen at Avignon and at Rome; at one time a third Pope was chosen at Pisa (j), so that three

(d) 1 Koch, 225.

(e) Raynaldus, A.D. 1346, n. 7.

(f) Leibnitz, Cod. Juris. Gent. Dipl., part i. p. 149. (g) See the instrument of sale by which Joanna, Queen of Sicily, transferred Avignon to Clement VI., A.D. 1358. 1 Schmauss, C. J. A. 50.

(h) In 1376 Gregory XI. returned to Rome. Then, as the Italians said, the seventy years of the Babylonish Captivity ceased.—3 Phillipps, 331.

(i) The history of the Papal residence at Avignon was not lost upon Napoleon. He was well aware of the advantages which the Pope's residence in France gave to its monarch, and had at one time determined to revive the French Popedom. Vide post.

(j) A.D. 1409.

Pontiffs claimed at one and the same time the undivided spiritual allegiance of Christendom. The Avignon and Roman schism lasted from A.D. 1398 to A.D. 1417.

The Ecclesiastical Council of Constance (A.D. 1414) deposed the Popes of Avignon, and procured the resignation of the Popes of Rome, and, at its fifth session, declared the superiority of the authority of an Universal Council to the Pope; nevertheless, it was thought indecent to take further proceedings while no visible chief of the Ecclesiastical State existed. At Colonna, Martin V. was elected, and prepared his own scheme of reform; but this was not agreeable to the clergy of England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, who were assembled at Constance. The Council of Basle was therefore convened, at which Annates and various Papal exactions were abolished, and the liberty of appeals to Rome greatly circumscribed (k). Eugenius IV., the successor of Martin, dissolved the Council twice, once under the allegation of opening a communication with the Greek Church (). Another schism happened; another Pope (Felix V.) was chosen by the prelates who remained at Basle. He subsequently resigned, and at last, about A.D. 1449, the Council discontinued its sittings, and the Popes since this period have been resident, except during the captivity in France of Pius VI. and VII., at Rome (m).

CCCXXIV. The question now arises, how were the International relations of independent States with the Roman See affected by these great and significant events?

The time had fully arrived when neither-to use the ex

(k) Bossuet, Declaratio Cleri Gallicani, 1. v. cc. 4, 5.

1 Koch, 230.

(1) A temporary act of union of the Roman and Greek Churches appears to have been signed at Florence, A.D. 1439, but it was speedily dissolved.-Ib. 231.

(m) The Councils of Constance and Basle were called Reformatory, and modern writers who are vehement upholders of the Papal pretensions admit that the views of the Popes, and especially the flagrant abuse of spiritual censures, called aloud for reformation. Phillipps, Kirchenrecht, iii. p. 325.

pression of modern canonists-the hierocratic nor the territorial system could exclusively prevail, when the Church was to be considered as standing by the side, as it were, of the State, subject to it in all temporal matters whatever, but not incorporated in the State, as in the days of Constantine, Justinian, and Charlemagne, or altogether absorbing the State, as in the days of the Gregories and Innocents. It is no longer necessary, for the explication of this difficult subject, to record minutely the changes of dynasties and the vicissitudes of national fortunes.

The age of Pragmatics, of Pragmatic Sanctions, and of Concordats had begun ; the very meaning of the latter term, it must be observed, bears testimony to the historical facts stated above; we learn from it that the relation subsisting between the spiritual chief at Rome and the Governments of other nations had become that of an alliance regulated by treaty between two Independent States. Nevertheless there is this distinction to be borne in mind, viz., that a third party, the National Church, and especially the Clergy, are parties interested (indeed principally interested), as well as the Government and the Roman See, in whose names a treaty is contracted (n).

The Concordata between the Roman See and Independent States proceed upon two presumptions:

First, That there are certain rights and privileges inherent in Sovereigns with respect to the Church established in their realms.

Secondly, That there is in independent kingdoms, whatever relations it may bear to Rome as the centre of unity, a national Church-the two principles which the Pragmatic Sanctions had already on the part of the nation declared to be essential to the independence of the State.

CCCXXV. The International relations of Rome with other nations cannot be understood without an examination

(n) De Pradt, i. 280.

of these instruments (o); from them not only the expression of Pontifical and National will may be best collected, but usage, the great expounder of International Law, may be most clearly ascertained.

As the era of the Reformation, and the Treaty of Vienna (1815), have greatly affected this branch of the Law, it will be convenient to divide the consideration of this subject into three epochs :

1. The period preceding the Reformation.

2. The period intervening between it and the Treaty of Vienna.

3. The period subsequent to this Treaty.

CCCXXVI. 1. As to the period before the Reformation. The history of the intercourse of the secular Government and of the national Church of France with the Pope is perhaps that which best illustrates the International relations between Independent States and Rome during this period. Into this discussion the most remarkable circumstances of these peculiar relations in the history of other nations, during the same period, may be easily interwoven; though, as to the period which has elapsed since the Reformation, they will require a separate and more specific narration.

CCCXXVII. A Pragmatic (p) is an imperial constitu

(0) Eichhorn follows Sauter in pronouncing his opinion that, inasmuch as all concordata are founded upon the principle of the weal of the Church, they are only binding so long as they attain that end, and cannot therefore be ranked either among private or international contracts.-Eichhorn, Kirchenrecht, I., B. iii. Absch. i. c. 5, pp. 578, 579.

Sauter, Fundam. Jur. Eccl. Cathol. p. 1, ss. 624-626.

(p) "Pragmatica s. Pragmaticum, rescriptum principis solemne, præsertim illud quod res publicas administrandas aut negotia collegii alicujus tractanda respiciebat."-Dirksen, Manuale Lat. Fontium Jur. Civ. Ro

manorum.

"Parmi nous l'usage a donné ce nom aux grandes ordonnances qui concernent les grandes affaires de l'Eglise, ou de l'Etat, ou, au moins, les affaires de quelques communautés."-Durande de Maillane, Dict. du Jur. can., voce PRAGMATIQUE SANCTION.

Ducange, Glosse., voce PRAGMA. Пpâyμa is, of course, its origin.