§ 5. LITERARY ATTACKS AGAINST THE PAPACY. 33
the priority of Levi's birth ; from the oblation of the Magi at the manger and from the sentence passed upon Saul by Samuel. He referred the two swords both to spiritual functions. Without questioning the historical occurrence, he set aside Constantine's donation to Sylvester on the ground that the emperor no more had the right to transfer his empire in the West than he had to commit suicide. Nor had the pope a right to accept the gift.^ In the Inferno Dante applied to that transaction the oft-quoted lines : ^ —
" Ah, Constantine, of how much ill was cause, Not thy conversion, but those rich domains Which the first wealthy pope received of thee."
The Florentine poe^Vuni versa! monaroh;^j^_renia,ined qji ideal unreali.zfi4» like the republic of the Athenian philosopher.^ Conception of popular liberty as it is conceived in this modern age, Dante had none. Nevertheless, he laid down the important principle that the government e:?cists for thp p^Qple, and not the people for the government.*
The treatise De monarcliia was burnt as heretical, 1329, b^ order of John_XXIJ. and put on the Index by the Council of Trent. In recent times it has aided the Italian patriots in their work of unifying Italy and separating politics from the Church according to Cavour's maxim, " a free Church in a free state."
In the front rank of the champions of the temporal po^^^er of the papacy stood ^gidius ColonQ,a, called also ^gidius Romanus, 1247-1316.^ He was an Augustinian, and rose to
1 iii. 10, Constantinus alienare non poterat imperii dignitatem nee ecclesia recipere.
2 xix. 115 sqq. AM, Constantin, di quanto malfu matre,
Non la tua conversion, ma quella dote Che da te prese il primo ricco padre ! In the Purgatorio, xvi. 106-112, Dante deplores the union of the crozier and the sword.
3 With reference to the approaching termination of the emperor's influence in Italian affairs, Bryce, ch. XV., sententiously says that Dante's De monarchia was an epitaph, not a prophecy.
* Non cives propter consules nee gens propter regem sed e converso consules propter cives, rex propter gentem, iii. 14. 5 Scholz, pp. 32-129.
D
34 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
be general of his order. He became famous as a theological teacher and, in 1287, his order placed his writings in all its schools.^ In 1295 he^was-iuade^ ar^hbii^op of liaurges, Boniface setting aside in his favor the cleric nominated by Coelestine. jEgidius participated in tlie council in Rome, 1301, which Philip the Fair forbade the French prelates to attend. He was an elaborate writer, and in 1304 no less than 12 of his theological works and 14 of his philosophical writings were in use in the University of Paris.
The tract by which. .iEgidius-ia.ghiefly^nown is his _Pow;er of the Supreme Pontiff — De eeclesiastica sive de summi ponlijicis pote state. It was the chief work of its time in defeijpe of the papacy, and seems to have been called forth by the Roman Council and to have been written in 1301,^ It was dedicated, J:o__Boni face VIII. Its main positions are the following : —
The pope judges all things and is judged by no map. 1 Cor. 2 : 15. To him belongs plenarj poweij plenitudo poteatatis. This power is without mpnmirp,^ wif.lmnf. nn^ttlu^v aud without weight.^ It extends over alLChmtiijus. The pope isabove all laws and in matters of faith infallible. He is like the sea which fills all vessels, like the sun which, as the universally active principle, sends his rays into all things. The priesthood existed before royalty. Abel and Noah, priests, preceded Nimrod, who was the first king. As the government of the world is one and centres in one ruler, God, so In the affairs of the militant Church there can be only one source of power, one supreme government, one head to whom belongs
1 Chartul. Univ. Paris., II. 12.
2 Jourdain, in 1858, was the first to call attention to the manuscript, and Kraus the first to give a summary of its positions in the CEstcrr. Vierteljahr.'ischrift, Vienna, 1862, pp. 1-3.3. Among jT.gidius' other tracts is the " Rule of Princes," — De rerjimine principum — 1285, printed 1473. It was at once translated into French and Italian and also into Spanish, Portuguese, English, and even Hebrew. The " Pope's Abdication " — De renunciatione papoe .five apologia pro Bonifacio VIII. — 1297, was a reply to the manifesto of the Colonna, contesting a pope's right to resign his office. For a list of uEgidius' writings, see art. Colonna ^(fidius^, in Wetzer-Welte, III. 667-071. See Scholz, pp. 46, 126.
* ^gidius quotes the Wisdom of Solomon, 2 : 21.