ject, which ends with the Council of Constance, and enter upon the second, which reaches from that Council to the Assembly of 1682. In this period, of about two hundred and forty years, the authority of the Roman Pontiff was far more explicitly manifested, by reason of the efforts made to diminish its amplitude. The Councils of Constance and Bâle may be said to have demanded the decree of the Council of Florence. This explicit declaration precludes the distinction between the 'See and him that sits in it.' The Council affirms that the plenitude of all power was given by our Lord not only to Peter, but, ipsi in Beato Petro, to his Successor in Peter. This decree is a summing up and declaration of the divine tradition we have hitherto been tracing upwards, century by century, towards its source. The second period may be called the period of contention, in which the authority of the Roman Pontiff has been subjected to a controversial analysis. Many things rendered this inevitable. The revival of the Roman jurisprudence filled the princes and civil powers of Europe with the principles and maxims of ancient Cæsarism.[1] They aimed at supreme and absolute power over all persons and causes, ecclesiastical and civil. In the Pontiffs they met their only obstacle; the only antagonist they could not break or bend. The pride of nationality is easily roused, and they roused it as an ally against the power of faith and the authority of Rome.
A still more dangerous auxiliary soon ranged itself on the same side.
- ↑ Bottalla, 'The Supreme Authority of the Pope,' p. 157 et seq.
