Bellarmine · De Potestate Summi Pontificis in Temporalibus · On the Power of the Supreme Pontiff in Temporal Matters, against William Barclay
Chapter 41: The Fifth Example 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).
The fifth example is that of Gregory II, who forbade tributes to be paid by the Italians to the emperor Leo, excommunicated by him, and so fined him a part of the empire. To the refutation of this and the following examples Barclay prefixes a rather long admonition against arguments which are drawn from examples, forgetful of the arguments which he himself drew from the examples of ancient Pontiffs and emperors, from which he said it was most fully established that there is no power in the Pontiff of disposing of temporal things. But since these are commonplaces, which can be fitted to every disputation, leaving them aside I shall come to the matter proposed. Barclay, then, precisely denies that it is true what the historians hand down, that the Italians were forbidden by Pope Gregory II to pay tributes to the heretical and excommunicated emperor; and his whole reason is that Platina, in the life of Gregory II, writes that when the peoples wished to revolt from the heretical emperor, Gregory resisted, and by his authority held them in faith and obedience to the emperor. And why greater faith is to be given to Platina alone than to the other historians, older and more numerous, he gives this reason: both because Platina wrote the histories of the Pontiffs by order of Sixtus IV, and had at Rome many ancient records; and also because Pope Gregory, being most excellent and most just, would never have ordered, against the Gospel, that tribute be denied to Caesar, who until his death remained Caesar and emperor Augustus.
But this disputation of Barclay is so weak and feeble that it is no wonder that a little before he tried with so long a preface to weaken the authority of examples. For he saw that he could bring nothing firm to refute an example so ancient and so evident. First, then, I say that Platina is not contrary to the other historians, if the times are distinguished. For it is true that for many years Gregory resisted the Italian peoples desiring to revolt from the emperor. For he hoped that by his continual exhortations the emperor would at some time yield, and return to a better mind and sounder counsels; and this is what Platina truly tells. But when the Pontiff saw that he was losing his labour, and the emperor becoming daily worse, he laid the axe to the root, and cast the emperor out of the assembly of the godly, and ordered that the Italian peoples should not obey him as an impious man, nor thereafter pay tributes. This Platina does not deny, and very many historians, Greek and Latin, affirm it, whom I cited in my book. See on this whole cause Cardinal Baronius, volume 9 of the Annals, at the years of salvation 726 and 730. I say second, if Platina says the contrary, the other historians are more to be believed than he; for they are both many, and older, and more diligent, and write the histories of the times, not the life of one Pontiff, as Platina does; and how little diligent Platina was in searching the records of the Roman archives can be understood from this alone, that Onofrio Panvinio in the additions to Platina shows many things of the same Platina either omitted or mistaken; and in the addition prefixed to the life of Gregory II he notes that the empire which the heretical emperor Leo III had in Italy was by right taken from him by Gregory II, the Roman Pontiff. I say third that Gregory, a most holy man, did not sin against the Gospel when he forbade the peoples of Italy to pay tributes to the heretical emperor. For what the Lord says, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, is understood of a Caesar lawfully ruling. But that Leo, who on account of the crime of heresy had been publicly excommunicated by the Supreme Pontiff, and deposed from the empire, was not truly and by right Caesar, but a tyrant and persecutor under the title of Caesar. But, says Barclay, Leo remained in the empire until his death. I answer: among the Greeks, especially heretics, he remained emperor in fact, not by right; among the Latins, and especially the Italians, neither by right nor in fact.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XLI. Defenditur exemplum quintum. Quintum exemplum est Gregorii II, qui Leoni imperatori a se excommunicato pro¬ hibuit vectigalia solvi ab Italis, ac proinde eum Imperii parte mulctavit. Ad hujus et sequentium exemplorum re¬ futationem, praemittit Barclaius satis proli¬ xam admonitionem adversus argumenta , quae petuntur ab exemplis, immemor argu¬ mentorum, quas ipse duxit ab exemplis ve¬ terum Pontificum et imperatorum, ex qui¬ bus plenissime constare dixit, nullam esse in Pontifice potestatem disponendi de tem¬ poralibus. Sed quoniam isti sunt loci com¬ munes. qui ad omnem disputationem accom¬ modari possunt, iis omissis ad rem proposi¬ tam accedam. Igitur Barclaius praecise negat, verum esse quod historici tradunt, a Grego- rio II, Pontifice prohibitos fuisse Italos im¬ peratori haeretico et excommunicato vecti¬ galia pendere : tota vero ejus ratio est, quia Platina in vita Gregorii II. scribit, volenti¬ bus populis deficere ab imperatore haereti¬ co, restitisse Gregorium, et auctoritate sua, eos in fide, et obedientia imperatoris te¬ nuisse. Cur autem uni Platinae major fides habenda sit, quam caeteris historicis anti¬ quioribus, et pluribus ; eam causam reddit, tum quia Platina scripsit historias Pontificum jussu Sixti IV. et habuit Romae multa vetera monimenta : tum etiam quia Gregorius Pon¬ tifex optimus et justissimus cum esset, num- quam j ussisset contra Evangelium negari censum Caesari, qui usque ad obitum Caesar, et imperator Augustus permansit. At haec Barclaii disputatio, tam est infirma, ac debilis, ut mirum non sit, quod paulo ante tam longa praefatione exemplorum au¬ ctoritatem extenuare conatus sit. Videbat enim nihil firmum adferre se posse ad exem¬ plum tam vetustum et tam evidens refutan¬ dum. Primum igitur aio Platinam non esse contrarium historicis caeteris, si tempora distinguantur. Verum est enim per multos annos Gregorium restitisse populis Italicis cupientibus ab imperatore deficere. Sperabat enim assiduis cohortationibus suis aliquando cessurum imperatorem, et ad meliorem men¬ tem, ac saniora consilia rediturum : atque hoc est, quod Platina vere narrat. Sed ubi vidit Pontifex, se operam perdere, et impe¬ ratorem quotidie deteriorem fieri, securim ad radicem misit, et imperatorem coetu pio¬ rum ejecit, ac jussit, ut ei tamquam impio Italici populi non parerent, neque vectigalia deinceps penderent. Id vero Platina non ne¬ gat, et historici plurimi Graeci, et Latini affir¬ mant, quos in libro meo citavi. Vide de hac tota causa Cardinalem Baronium tom. ix. Annalium, ad annum salutis 726 et 730. Aio secundo, si Platina contrarium dicat, magis credendum esse historicis caeteris, quam ipsi : nam et multi sunt, et antiquiores, et diligentiores, et historias temporum scri¬ bunt; non vitam unius Pontificis, ut Platina facit : quam autem Platina parum diligens fuerit in perscrutandis monimentis Romano¬ rum Archiviorum, vel ex eo potest intelligi, quod Onuphrius Panuinus in additionibus ad Platinam, multa ejusdem Platinse vel omissa, vel errata demonstrat : et in addi¬ tione praemissa vitee Gregori secundi, admo¬ net, Leoni tertio imperatori haeretico jure ereptum fuisse imperium, quod in Italia ha¬ bebat, a Gregorio secundo Romano Pon¬ tifice. Aio tertio Gregorium virum sanctissimum non peccasse in Evangelium, quando popu¬ los Italiae prohibuit vectigalia pendere impe¬ ratori haeretico. Quod enim Dominus ait, Reddite quae sunt Caesaris Caesari, intelligi- tur de Caesare legitime imperante. Leo vero ille, qui ob crimen haereseos a summo Pontifice publice excommunicatus fuerat, et ab imperio depositus, non erat vere, et jure Caesar, sed Tyrannus, et perse¬ cutor sub titulo Caesaris. At, inquit Barclaius, usque ad mortem Leo permansit in imperio. Respondeo : Apud Graecos, praesertim hae¬ reticos, imperator de facto, non de jure permansit : apud Latinos, ac praesertim Ita¬ los, neque de jure, neque de facto.