UMANA
120
UN AM SANCTAM
Umana. Soe Ancona and Umana.
Unam Sanctam (Lat. the One Holy, i. e. Church), the Hull oil pai)al supremacy issued 18 November, 1302, by Boniface Mil during the dispute with Philip the J'air, King of France. It is named from its opening words (see Boniface VIII, Vol. II, 667). The Bull was promulgated in connexion with the Roman Council of October, 1302, at which it had probably been discussed. It is not impossible that Boniface \III himself revised the Bull; still it also appears that ^gidius Colonna, Archbishop of Bourges, who had come to the council at Rome notwithstanding the royal prohibition, influenced the text [Kraus in " (Esterreichische Viertaljahrschrift ftir kath. Theol.", I (1862), 1 sqq.]. The original of the Bull is no longer in existence ; the oldest text is to be found in the registers of Boniface VIII in the Vatican archives I" Keg. Vatic", L, fol. 387; cf. the facsimile in Denifle, "Specimina pala>ographica regestorum rom. pont." (Rome, 1888), tab. 46]. It was also incorporated in the "Corpus juris canonici" ("Extravag. Comm.", I, vii, 1; ed. Friedberg, II, 124.5). The genuineness of the Bull is absolutely estabhshed bj' the entry of it in the official registers of the papal Briefs, and its incorporation in the canon law. The objections to its genuineness raised by Bamberger ("Synchronis- tische Geschichte der Kirche und der Welt im Mittel- alter", XII (Ratisbon, 1851), 442 sqq.; "Kritikheft", 118 sq.], and, following Bamberger, by Mury ("La bulle Unam Sanctam" in "Revue des questions liistor.", XXVI (1879), 91-1.30] and by Verlaque I" Jean XXII, sa vie et ses oeu^Tes" (Paris, 1883), 55] are fully removed by this external testimony. At a later date Mury withdrew his opinion ["Revue des questions historV', XLVI (1889), 253-257].
The Bull lays down dogmatic propositions on the unity of the Church, the necessity of belonging to it for the attainment of eternal salvation, the position of the pope as supreme head of the Church, and the duty thence arising of submission to the pope in order to belong to the Church and thus to attain salvation. The ijope further emphasizes the higher position of the spiritual in comparison with the secular order. From these i)remises ho then draws conclusions con- cerning the relation bet^veen the spiritual power of the Church antl secular authority. The main prop- ositions of the Bull are the following: First, the unity of the Church and its necessity for salvation are declared and established by various passages from the Bible and by reference to the one Ark of the Flood, and to the seamless garment of Christ. The pope then affirms that, as the unity of the body of the Church so is the unity of its head established in Peter
- in(l his successors. Consequently, all who wish to
liclong to the fold of Christ are placed under the (loiuiniiin of P<'ter and his successors. When, there- fore, the Creeks and others say they are not subject to the authority of Peter and his successors, they thus' acknowledge that they do not belong to Christ's sheep.
Then follow some principles and conclusions con- cerning the spiritual and the secular power: (1) Under the control of the Church are two swords, that is two powers, the expression referring to the medieval theory of the two swonls, the spiritual and the secular. This is substani iaicil by the customary reference to the swords of the Apostles at the arrest of Christ (Luke, xxii, ;J8; Matt., xxvi, 52). (2) Both swonls are in the power of the Church; the spiritual is wielded in the Church by the hand of the clergy; the secular is to be employed for the Church by the hand of the civil authority, but under the direction of the spiritual power. (3) The one sword must be subordinate to the other: the eartlily power must submit to the spiritual authority, as this has precedence of the secular on account of its greatness and sublimity; for
the spiritual power has the right to establish and guide
the secular power, and also to judge it when it does
not act rightly. When, however, the earthly power
goes astray, it is judged by the .spiritual power; a
lower spiritual power is judged by a higher, the highest
spiritual power is judged by God. (4) This author-
ity, although granted to man, and exercised by man,
is not a human authority, but rather a Bivine one,
granted to Peter by Bivine commission and confirm<'(l
in him and his successors. Consequently, wli(]c\-er
opposes this power ordained of God opposes the law
of God and seems, like a Manichwan, to accept two
principles. "Now, therefore, we declare, say, de-
termine and pronounce that for every human crea-
ture it is necessary for salvation to be subject to the
authority of the Roman pontiff " (Porro subesse Ro-
mano Pontifici omni humanae creaturse declaramus,
dicimus, deflnimus, et pronuntiamus omnino esse de
necessitate salutis).
The Bull is universal in character. As its content shows, a careful distinction is to be made between the fundamental principles concerning the Roman pri- macy and the declarations as to the application of these to the secular power and its representatives. In the registers, on the margin of the text of the record, the last sentence is noted as its real definition; "Beclaratio quod subesse Romano Pontifici est omni humanae creatura; de necessitate salutis" (It is here stated that for salvation it is necessary that every human creature be subject to the authority of the Roman pontiff). This definition, the meaning and importance of which are clearly evident from the connexion with the first part on the necessity of the one Church for salvation, and on the pope as the one supreme head of the Church, expresses the necessity for everyone who wishes to attain salvation of lielong- ing to the Church, and therefore of being subject to the authority of the pope in all religious matters. This has been the constant teaching of the Church, and it was declared in the same sense by the Fifth fficumenical Council of the Lateran, in 1516: "Be necessitate esse .salutis omnes Christ i fideles Romano Pontifici subesse" (That it is of the necessity of salva- tion for all Christ's faithful to be subject to the Roman pontiff). The translation by Berchtold (see below) of the expression humana creaturcr by "temporal authorities" is absolutely WTong. The Bull also proclaims the subjection of the secular power to the spiritual as the one higher in rank, and draws from it the conclusion that the representatives of the spiritual power can install the possessors of secular authority and exercise judgment over their administration, should it be contrary to Christian law.
This is a fundamental principle which had grown out of the entire development in the early Middle Ages of the central position of the papacy in the Christian national family of Western Europe. It had been expressed from the eleventh century by theologians like Bernard of Clairvaux and John of Salisbury, and b.\- popes hke Nicholas II and Leo IX. Boniface VIII gave it precise expression in opposing the procedure of the French king. The main proposi- tions are drawn from the writings of St. Bernard, Hugh of St. Victor, St. Thomas Aquinas, and letters of Innocent III. Both from these authorities and from declarations made by Boniface VIII himself, it is also evident that the jurisdiction of the sjiiritual power over the secular has for its basis the concept of the Church as guardian of the Christian law of morals, hence her jurisdiction extends as far as this law is concerned. Consequently, when King Philip pro- tested, Clement V was able, in his Brief "Meruit", of 1 February, 1306, to declare that the French king an<l France were to suffer no disadvantage on account of the Bull "Unam sanctam", and that the i.ssiiing of tliis Bull had not made them subject to the authority of the Roman Church in any other manner than
