by this exercise of his prerogative to secure her peace or
the overthrow of her spiritual enemies. m He may thus
in case of necessity deprive the established electors of
their privilege and transfer it to whom he will, he may
change the constitution of the empire ; just as indeed
he may transfer or change any other temporal govern
ment, being the representative on earth of the supreme
Arbiter of kingdoms. n The existence of the civil state
is only justified by the presiding presence of the priest
hood, and this authorisation obtains in the west by
that Donation which restored its entire empire to the
pope not only in sovereignty but in actual and immediate
government, so that all the constitutions of its kingdoms
are subject to his ordinance ; P all the worldly possessions
of kings depend from him:[1] the emperor himself can
issue no law without his concurrence. r His is the final
court of appeal of the world. Such in brief outline is
the matured statement of the relation of the pope to the
temporal power, a statement which in no way exaggerated
the pretensions avowed in the papal curia. Growing out
of a confusion of ancient, and a disdain of the lessons of
modern, history it aptly reflects the spirit of a time when
the church had become immersed in the cares and interests,
which she affected to control, of common worldly politics.
- ↑ Thus also Aegidius Colonna (Aegidius Romanus) in an unpub- lished work De ecclcsiastica potos- tate, from which extracts are given by Charles Jourdain in the Journal general de 1 Instruction publique et des Cultes, 27. 122 sq., 130-133 ; 1858. Patet, he says, quodom- nia temporalia sunt sub dominio ecclesiae collata, et si non de facto, quoniam multi forte huic iuri re- bellantur, de iure tamen et ex debito temporalia summo pontifici sunt subiecta, a quo iure et a quodebito nullatenus possunt ab- solvi : Lib. ii. 4 (p. 131 n. 1). It is curious that this Aegidius should have long been regarded as the author of a certain Quaestio disputata in utramque partem pro et contra pontificiam potestatem, printed by Goldast, vol. 2. 9G-107, and strongly hostile to the papal claims. The error is corrected by Jourdain, ubi supra, and bv Dr. Riezler, pp. 139 sqq.
