Bellarmine · De Potestate Summi Pontificis in Temporalibus · On the Power of the Supreme Pontiff in Temporal Matters, against William Barclay
Chapter 38: The Second Example for the Power of the Pontiff in Temporal Matters Is Defended
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).
Barclay then proposes, in chapter 38, the second example brought forward by us from 2 Chronicles, chapter 23, where it is told that Queen Athaliah, favouring the superstition and idolatry of Baal, was deprived of kingdom and life by the high priest Jehoiada, and King Joash set up in her place. To refute this example Barclay paves his way with a little digression, made up of invented rumours and his usual evil-speaking against the Pontiffs. For he writes that this example was brought forward by me lest I should be accused of negligence or prevarication before Pope Sixtus V, if I had left out what had been noted before by others. But I had written these things, and dictated them in the schools, long before Sixtus V was made Pontiff; then, if I passed over so many other examples which I had read in Sander, as Barclay himself witnesses, why should I have feared the offence of the Pontiff if I passed over this one? And what Barclay adds, that Sixtus V had it in mind to compel the order of the Jesuits to a stricter form of living, and to a certain kind of dress, are the fables of idle men, and it is a wonder that Barclay wished to spend time in reporting even these trifles. But what he adds, that the Bull of the same Sixtus V by which the perpetual rectorship of the university of Pont-à-Mousson is assigned to the Jesuits seems forged or surreptitious, and that although it was truly granted by Sixtus, it ought not to hold, because it was obtained immediately after his election, belongs no longer to fables or trifles, but to calumnies and evil-speaking; as if the same Pontiff could not, in that whole five years in which he held the pontificate, have revoked that Bull, if he had learned that it was forged, or surreptitious, or extorted by fraud.
But these things left aside, to the example of the high priest Jehoiada deposing Queen Athaliah, Barclay answers that that example is not to the point, because Athaliah reigned by no right, but had seized the kingdom by monstrous tyranny, by force and crime. But it is true indeed that the beginning of Athaliah's reign was tyrannical and violent; but since she reigned quietly for six years, it is credible that the people by its consent had approved her reign, especially since it was not known that one of the sons of the dead king still survived, and the report was that all had wholly perished. Nor is it new or unusual that the beginnings of reigns be violent and tyrannical, and yet a little after, the people consenting, the kings be held lawful. Augustus himself certainly, who was held the best of emperors, at the beginning unjustly oppressed the commonwealth, and violently usurped the principality for himself by arms. Otho killed Galba; Vitellius cast out Otho; Vespasian Vitellius; and yet all were saluted as emperors by the Senate and People of Rome. What more atrocious than what Philip did, when he took off the lawful emperor Gordian and seized his empire? and yet he too was held a lawful emperor. I pass over Odoacer the Herulian, the Goths and the Lombards, invaders of Italy, and others almost innumerable, who seized kingdoms by force, and yet afterwards, the consent of the peoples being added, were held lawful kings.
But, says Barclay, the priest Jehoiada did not depose Athaliah by his own authority, but exhorted the centurions and soldiers, and conspired with them against Athaliah; for so the Scripture speaks: Jehoiada the high priest sent, and taking the centurions and the soldiers, brought them into the temple of the Lord, and made a covenant with them. And this is true, but it does not prevent the queen from having been deposed by the authority of Jehoiada. For the priest could not alone accomplish what he had purposed; therefore, having called the centurions and soldiers to him, he laid before them his purpose of casting the queen down from the throne, both on account of other crimes and because she favoured the false religion of Baal; nor would he be content with a simple promise of the soldiers, but entered into a covenant with them, and adjured them to cooperate bravely with his purpose. Lastly, he himself armed the soldiers, handing them the spears and the other arms of King David which were in the house of the Lord; he himself ordered the queen to be killed; he himself crowned the new king; on his authority the whole people overthrew the temple of Baal, and destroyed the altars of the idols, and killed the priest of Baal before the altar itself.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XXXVIII. Defenditur secundum exemplum pro potestate Pontificis in temporalibus . Proponit deinde Barclaius in cap. 28. se¬ cundum exemplum a nobis adductum ex lib. II Paralip. cap. xxm. Ubi narratur, Athaliam reginam faventem superstitioni et idololatriae Baal a Pontifice Joiada regno, et vita fuisse privatam, et Joas regem in ejus locum institutum. Ad hoc exemplum refutandum sternit sibi Barclaius viam digressiuncula quadam, ex confictis rumoribus, et solita maledicen¬ tia in Pontifices. Scribit enim hoc exemplum a me allatum, ne indiligentiae, aut praevari¬ cationis apud Sixtum V. Pontificem accusa¬ rer, si illud ab aliis antea notatum omisis¬ sem. At ego multo antea quam Sixtus. V. Pontifex crearetur, haec scripseram, et in scholis dictaveram : deinde, si tam multa alia exempla praetermisi, quae in Sandero legeram, ut Barclaius ipse testatur, cur ti¬ mere debui offensionem Pontificis, si istud unum praetermitterem ? Quod vero addit Barclaius, Sixtum Y. in animo habuisse, ordinem Jesuitarum ad arctiorem formam vivendi, atque ad certum vestimenti genus cogere ; fabulae sunt hominum otiosorum, et mirum est Barclaium in his etiam nugis referendis voluisse tempus consumere. Quod vero adjungit, Bullam ejusdem Sixti Y. qua Pontimussanae Academiae perpetuus Recto- ratus Jesuitis addicitur, suppositi tiam, vel obreptitiam videri, et quamvis vere sit a Sixto concessa, valere tamen non debere, quia statim ab ejus creatione fuerit impe¬ trata : non jam ad fabulas, vel nugas, sed ad calumnias et maledicentiam pertinet : quasi non potuerit idem Pontifex toto illo quin¬ quennio, quo Pontificatum gessit, eam bul¬ lam revocare, si supposititiam, aut obrepti¬ tiam, aut fraude extortam vdidicisset. Sed his omissis, ad exemplum Joiadse Pontificis Athaliam reginam exauctorantis, respondet Barclaius, exemplum illud ad rem non facere; quod Athalia nullo jure regna¬ ret, sed immani tyrannide per vim, et scelus regnum occupasset. At verum quidem est, initium regni Atha- liae tyrannicum, et violentum fuisse : sed cum annis sex quiete regnaverit, credibile est, populum consensu suo regnum ejus ap¬ probasse, praesertim cum ignoraretur super- esse adhuc unum ex filiis regis defuncti, et fama esset, omnes omnino interiisse. Ne¬ que novum, aut insolitum est, ut initia re¬ gnorum sint violenta, et tyrannica, et tamen paulo post consentiente populo reges legiti¬ mi habeantnr. Ipse certe Augustus, qui im¬ perator optimus habitus est, rempublicam injuste initio oppressit, et Principatum sibi armis violenter usurpavit. Otho Galbam oc¬ cidit : Yitellius Othonem ejecit :Yespasianus Vitellium; et omnes tamen imperatores a Senatu, Populoque Romano salutati sunt. Quid atrocius, quam quod Philippus gessit, cum Gordianum imperatorem legitimam sus¬ tulit, et imperium ejus invasit? et tamen ipse quoque legitimus imperator hahitus est. Mitto Odoacrem Herulum, Gothos, et Longobardos invasores Italiae; et alios prope innumerabiles, qui per vim regna occupa¬ runt, et postea tamen accedente consensu populorum reges legitimi habiti sunt. At, inquit Barclaius, Sacerdos Joiada, non auctoritate propria Athaliam deposuit, sed hortatus est centuriones, et milites cum illis in Athaliam conspiravit : sic enim Scriptura loquitur : Misit Joiada Pontifex , et assumens centuriones, et milites introduxit in templum Domini , pepigitque cum eis foedus. Et hoc verum est, sed non impedit quo minus Joiadae auctoritate regina deposita fuerit. Sacerdos enim non poterat solus im¬ plere quod proposuerat; ideo centurionibus, et militibus ad se accersitis, . exposuit illis propositum suum deturbandae reginae de solio, tum ob alia crimina, tum quod falsam religionem Baal foveret : neque simplici promissione militum contentus esse voluit, sed foedus cum eis iniit, et adjuravit eos, ut fortiter proposito suo cooperarentur. Deni¬ que ipse armavit milites tradens eis hastas, et reliqua arma regis Bavid, quae erant in domo Domini : ipse jussit interfici reginam; ipse novum regem coronavit ; ipso auctore totus populus templum Baal evertit, et aras idolorum destruxit, et sacerdotem Baal aram ante ipsam occidit. 108 DE POTESTATE PAPiE