Summa de Ecclesia

TO those things which the adversaries say in the fifth place¹ to show that the pope has a superior judge on earth, and that the universal Church has oftentimes corrected, judged, and punished supreme pontiffs whether deviating from the faith or scandalizing the Church by depraved morals: although we could dispatch ourselves in one word by saying that although where law is lacking recourse must be had to the histories of the Church, yet not where laws are not lacking: but there are many and most clear laws saying that the pope has a judge on earth only in the case of heresy even taken strictly: nevertheless in reply we say that what the adversaries say has no truth: since by no example can it be proved that any Catholic Roman pontiff, true and undoubted, however found depraved in morals, was ever deposed or punished by the universal Church or by a universal council, which is clear through all the Roman pontiffs of whose deposition any mention is made in ancient deeds or chronicles. Not indeed Pope Marcellinus who, although by the committed crime of idolatry he had scandalized the universal Church, received sentence not by the judgment of a council but of himself. For as was also commemorated above, when he had confessed his error and submitted himself to the judgment of the council, the council said: Far be it from us that the supreme pontiff be judged by us: thou hast denied, and Peter thy master denied, and what apostle dared thence to judge him? But going forth outside he wept bitterly. Therefore gather thy cause into thy bosom and judge it with thine own mouth. Hearing these things Marcellinus said: For the crime of idolatry which wretched I have committed I judge myself to be deposed. Which deposition nevertheless had no execution but he remained in the pontificate until death, whence in the chronicle of Bernard Gui it is so read: In the time of this pope so great a force of persecution blazed forth that within thirty days seventeen thousand persons of either sex throughout diverse provinces were crowned with martyrdom. Whence Marcellinus was beheaded: from which day amid the persecutions the episcopate ceased for seven years and six months. Behold what it says, that from the day on which he was beheaded the episcopate ceased. Whence it is manifest that before he had not ceased through deposition. Moreover neither of Felix can it be verified what the adversaries say, because although he is read to have been deposed, yet not by the Church nor for his own demerits but because he would not communicate with heretics: nay he excommunicated those communicating with them, Constantine having convoked a council with the Arian heretics: he was sent into exile and in his place Liberius, having become a heretic, was substituted. Likewise neither does it make for the purpose of the adversaries what is read of Anastasius in ch. Anastasius, distinct. 19, and in the Gloss, since although it is there said that certain priests had withdrawn from him because he had communicated with Photinus and Acharius: yet it is not read that he was condemned by sentence of the universal Church: but it is well read that he was struck by divine judgment, and so deposed by God. Furthermore neither does it favor the adversaries what is read of a certain Constantine whom Stephen, a council of the bishops of Italy having been congregated, cast out of the Church: since he was not a true pontiff but a tyrant who being a layman had presumed to invade the apostolic see. Similarly neither does it make for the adversaries what of Christopher of whom they say, who is read to have sat in the apostolic see for six months, was cast out of the papacy, and he having been made a monk Sergius was instituted: since he was not a true pope but an invader of the apostolic see. Likewise neither does it make for the adversaries what is read of Benedict the ninth who succeeded Stephen, who was cast out of the papacy, and was made bishop of Sabina, who was called Sylvester: who since he had been promoted through simony was cast out, and Benedict was restored, who was again cast out and the papacy was given to John the archpriest of St. John before the Latin gate who was called Gregory the sixth: who at length was deposed by the emperor Henry and was transferred beyond the mountains, since those things proceeded in fact either from the tyranny of the emperor or from the insolence of the Romans from whom examples are not to be taken. Nor is that consequence good: it was done thus, therefore it was done legitimately: for we ought not regard what was done in the past: but what juridically ought to be done in the future, as in ch. Cum ad causam, de elect. Likewise neither does it favor the adversaries what is said of John the 12th: for diverse histories narrate the deeds of this John in diverse ways. For in some it is read that he was not deposed but at the admonition of Otto and of the college of cardinals and of the Roman clergy renounced the papacy: and so the deed of this pope is not for the purpose of the adversaries since we do not deny that the Roman pontiff can renounce the papacy. Other histories say that he was not a true apostolic but rather an apostate since he did not enter canonically: for it is said that while Pope Agapitus was still alive his father who was powerful by entreaty and by bribe induced the nobles and powerful Romans, and bound them by oath that on Agapitus dead they would procure his son to be made pope: as was done against ch. Si quis pecunia, distinct. 79. Whence since he according to ch. Si quis pecunia was rather to be deemed an apostate than an apostolic: it is no wonder if provision was made through a council, his most scandalous life especially attended to, and so if this be so true, even the reasoning of the adversaries is not to the purpose. Moreover even it does not favor the adversaries, granted that it be so as has been adduced, that this John the twelfth for his base and scandalous life is read to have been deposed by the emperor Otto, a council of bishops from all Italy having been congregated, and by common vote Leo substituted for him, since this seems to have been done not by law but in fact through the emperor, bishops not of the whole Church but of Italy only having been congregated, nor are such deeds to be attended to, because judgment is to be made not by examples but by laws, C. de sen. Nemo. But that it proceeded in fact not by law is clear: since he after the departure of Otto, received by the Romans, congregated a synod at Rome in which he damned Leo and all his deeds. For as Vincent relates, book 25, ch. 86, in this Roman council it was publicly established by the judgment of all that the synod held by Leo in which Leo himself had been assumed, John deposed, was not to be named a synod but a brothel, and those ordained by Leo himself were degraded, and deordained, commanded also each to present in a charter this writing: My bishop, namely Leo, who had ordained them had nothing himself and gave nothing to me: but yet because the life of John himself was detestable and most scandalous to the Christian people the Lord Jesus Christ no longer suffering His Church to be scandalized brought upon him the sentence of damnation as He who alone had power over him: for when he was delighting himself with the wife of a certain man suddenly he is struck by the devil in the temples, and so dies without penitence: to whom Benedict was subrogated, and then Leo. Likewise neither does it support the opinion of the adversaries what was done at Constance concerning John the twenty-third and Benedict the thirteenth so named in their obediences. Both because neither of them was held an undoubted Roman pontiff by the universal Church. And also because as is clear from their deeds they were among other things damned for heresy and so it does not make for our purpose. From which we have it manifest that what the adversaries say, namely that oftentimes the universal Church has corrected and punished supreme pontiffs whether deviating from the faith or notoriously scandalizing the Church by depraved morals, does not consist in truth, and it is to be wondered that many of the adversaries have not feared to fill their little tracts with such fictions and lies for the deception of the simple.