Bellarmine · De Potestate Summi Pontificis in Temporalibus · On the Power of the Supreme Pontiff in Temporal Matters, against William Barclay
Chapter 11: On the Comparison of Julius II and Clement VIII
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. XII, De Potestate Summi Pontificis in Temporalibus adversus Gulielmum Barclaium, a treatise of 1610. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
In the eleventh chapter Barclay repeats much of what he had said before, and adds nothing that seems to me to need refuting with a new answer, except when he extols Pope Clement VIII with true praises, not so much to praise him as to carp at Julius II by comparison with him. “Who,” he says, “would not judge the fatherly piety of Clement VIII, joined with the highest prudence, with which he strives to bring back Christian kings and princes to concord, and to keep them in concord, to be infinitely more useful to the Church than the warlike furies of Julius II, by which he impiously and inhumanly strove to set Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the other Christian nations against one another with hostile minds?”
That I may answer this, I wish readers to be reminded that the Roman Pontiffs, who are at the same time also temporal princes of no contemptible dominion, are bound by their office no less than other princes to preserve the things that belong to the Apostolic See, or the Roman Church. Wherefore, as kings and other supreme princes can and ought to wage wars for the defence of their kingdoms or other dominions, and if they need a confederation with other princes for defending them, can by right enter into a league with allied princes and with joined forces drive off the enemy, when they have a just cause for waging war; so also the Roman Pontiffs, as they are supreme princes, can and ought by every right to protect with arms the peoples entrusted to them, and, if the matter so demands, to wage wars against enemies, and also to call other princes to help or to partnership in the war. Nor was Julius II the first who waged wars for recovering the provinces of the Roman Church, or struck a league with great princes. For Pius II long before had an armed army, and waged wars with enemies with praise, as Nauclerus and Platina relate; and before the times of Pius II, Innocent VI, a man famous for prudence and innocence of life, through his legate Cardinal Albornoz most happily recovered by arms the ecclesiastical dominion occupied by various tyrants, as the same Nauclerus and Platina and many other historians write. Clement IV, who preceded Innocent VI by many years, and was held a holy Pontiff, called from France Charles, duke of Anjou, brother of Saint Louis, king of the Franks, to expel by arms the tyrant Manfred from the kingdom of Naples, which is a fief of the Roman Church, and made Charles himself king, with a pension of forty thousand gold pieces imposed, to be paid yearly in acknowledgment of the fief; the witnesses are the same authors and others whom they cite. But before these times Pope Leo IX, famous not only for probity of life but also for divine miracles, and even enrolled in the number of the saints, fought in arms, himself present in the army, against the Normans for recovering the city of Benevento, as Hermann the Lame in the Chronicle and Leo of Ostia in the history of Monte Cassino, book 2, chapter 88, are witnesses. Where that memorable thing happened, that when the Pontiff had been conquered and captured by the Normans, the victors treated the conquered with such submission and reverence that the conquered and captured Pontiff seemed to command and rule over the victors. Further, Pope Leo IV, more than two hundred years older than Leo IX, a most holy man and famous for miracles, as Anastasius witnesses in his life, led an army against the Saracens, who, having landed at the mouth of the Tiber with a huge fleet, desired to take and plunder the city of Rome; and, prayer having first been offered to God, and the army fortified with the Apostolic blessing, he carried off a memorable victory. I pass over the confederation of Zachary, Stephen II, Hadrian, Leo III and other Pontiffs with the kings of the Franks, for the recovery and defence of the provinces and cities which belonged to the Roman Church, against the Lombards and the Greeks. I pass over also the most brave Maccabees, who were both high priests and princes, and waged the gravest wars for the defence of their country. I pass over lastly Moses, a most wise pontiff and prince, who did not hesitate to fight in arms against the Amorites and other disturbers of his people. Julius II, then, imitating these most illustrious and sacred men, and emulating their virtue and diligence, partly by his own arms, partly by the help of allied kings, recovered with great labour the ecclesiastical dominion, almost wholly lost. And whoever would censure this deed will have also to censure the industry and virtue of the holy Pontiffs, and, I add, the warlike virtue of the Maccabees and of Moses himself. Nor is Clement VIII to be taken out of this number, who, as he studied to restore peace among Christian princes, as Barclay says, so also did not neglect to prepare an army when Ferrara had to be recovered by him; and for making war for the ecclesiastical dominion he lacked the occasion, not the will. For it pleased God, in whose hand are the hearts of princes, that that most noble city should return to the Church before the swords of the soldiers were unsheathed. And this praise of Clement VIII Barclay was not ignorant of, but wished to dissemble, that he might censure Julius the more freely.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XI. De comparatione Julii II et Clementis V lil¬ ia cap. 11. Barclaius multa repetit ex iis, quae antea dixerat ; neque aliquid addit, quod mihi refellendum nova responsione esse videatur, nisi cum Clementem octavum Pontificem veris laudibus effert, non tam ut eum laudet, quam ut ex ejus comparatione Julium secundum carpat. « Quis, inquit, non paternam Clementis VIII pietatem, cum summa prudentia conjunctam, qua reges, et principes Christianos ad concordiam redu¬ cere, et in concordiam retinere annititur, infinitis partibus Ecclesiae utiliorem judicet, quam Julii secundi loticati furores martios, quibus Italiam, Galliam, Germaniam, Hi¬ spaniam, caeterasque gentes Christianas ho¬ stilibus animis inter se committere, impie, et inhumaniter connitebatur? Ad haec ego ut respondeam, admonitos lector, s esse volo, Romanos Pontifices, qui simul etiam Principes sunt temporales non contemnendi imperii, non minus ex officio obligari ad ea conservanda, quae Sedis Apo- stolicce, sive Ecclesise Bomanse sunt, quam principes caeteros. Quare quemadmodum reges, et principes supremi caeteri pro de¬ fensione re norum suorum, sive ditionum aliarum bella gerere possunt, ct debent ; et si adeadefe idcndaconfederatione cum aliis principibus opus habent, jure possunt cum sociis principibus foedus inire, et conjunctis viribus hostem propulsare, quando justam belli gerendi causam habent : sic etiam Ro¬ mani Pontifices, qua principes supremi sunt, omni jure possunt, et debent populos sibi creditos armis protegere, et si res ita postu¬ let, adversus hostes bella gerere, necnon ad auxilium, vel belli societatem principes alios evocare. Neque primus fuit Julius II, qui pro recuperandis Ecclesise Romanse provin¬ ciis bella gessit, vel cum magnis principibus foedus percussit. Nam Pius II. multo antea exercitum armatum habuit, et bella cum hostibus cum laude gessit, ut Nauclerus, et Platina referunt : et ante Pii II tempora IN REBUS TEMPORALIBUS 47 Innocentius VI. vir prudentia, et vitae inno¬ centia clarus per Legatum suum Alberno- tium Cardinalem, ecclesiasticam ditionem a tyrannis diversis occupatam , felicissime armis recuperavit, ut scribunt iidem Nau¬ clerus, et Platina, multique alii historici. Clemens IY. qui innocentium YI. multis annis praecessit, et Pontifex sanctus est ha¬ bitus, Carolum Andegavensem ducem, S. Ludovici regis Francorum fratrem, a Galliis evocavit, ut Manfredum tyrannum e regno Neapolitano, quod est Ecclesiae Romanae feudum, armis expelleret, ipsumque Caro¬ lum regem instituit, imposita quadraginta millia nummorum aureorum pensione quo¬ tannis solvenda in recognitionem feudi : testes sunt auctores iidem et alii, quos ipsi citant. Sed ante haec tempora Leo IX. Pon¬ tifex, non solum vitae probitate, sed etiam divinis miraculis clarus, atque adeo in San¬ ctorum numerum relatus, adversus North- mannos pro Beneventana civitate recupe¬ randa pr;esens ipse in exercitu armis decer¬ tavit, ut Hermannus Contractus in Chronico, et Leo Ostiensis in histor. Cassinensi lib. ii, cap. 88. testes sunt. Ubi illud memorabile accidit, quod cum Pontifex a Northmannis victus et captus fuisset, ea submissione, et reverenlia victores erga victum usi sunt, ut Pontifex victus, et c iptus victoribus impe¬ rare, ac dominari videretur. Porro Leo IV. Pontifex plus ducentis annis Leone IX. anti¬ quior, vir sanctissimus, et miraculis clarus, teste Anastasio in ejus vita, exercitum duxit adversus Saracenos, qui ad Ostia Tyberina cum ingenti classe appulsi Romanam urbem capere et spoliare cupiebant ; et oratione praemissa ad Deum, et exercitu Apostolica benedictione munito, memorabilem victo¬ riam reportavit. Omitto confoederationem Zachariae, Stephanill., Adriani, Leonis 111. , aliorumque Pontili cum cum regibus Fran¬ corum, pro recuperatione, et defen ione provinciarum, et civitatum, quae ad Roma¬ nam Ecclesiam pertinebant adversus Lon¬ gobardos, et Graecos. Omitto etiam fortissi¬ mos Machabaeos, qui et Summi Sacerdotes, et Principes erant, et pro patriae defensione gravissima bella gesserunt. Omitto denique Mosis Pontificis et Principis sapientissimi, qui adversus Amorraeos, aliosque populi sui perturbatores armis decertare non dubitavit. Hos igitur clarissimos, sacrosque viros Ju¬ lius 11 imitatus, eorumq ue virtutem , et diligen¬ tiam aemulatus partim armis propriis, partim auxilio foederatorum regum Ecclesiasticam ditionem, fere totam amissam, magno labore recuperavit. Quod factum qui reprehendere voluerit, oportebit etiam, ut industriam, et virtutem sanctorum Pontificum, addo etiam Machabaeorum, et ipsius Mosis virtutem bellicam reprehendat. Neque ab hoc numero Clemens Y1II. eximendus est, qui quemad¬ modum pacem inter Christianos Principes reformare studuit, ut Barclaius dicit , sic etiam exercitum comparare non neglexit cum ei Ferraria recuperanda esset : et ad bellum pro Ecclesiastica ditione faciendum, occasio defuit illi, non animus. Placuit enim Deo, in cujus manu sunt corda principum, nobilissima Civitas ante ad Ecclesiam redi¬ ret, quam militum gladii nudarentur. Hanc vero Clementis VIII. laudem Barclaius non ignoravit, sed dissimulare voluit, ut liberius Julium reprehenderet.