HOW THE POPE’S SOVEREIGNTY ORIGINATED

New Zealand Tablet, 30 May 1918, Page 23

HOW THE POPE’S SOVEREIGNTY ORIGINATED

The Temporal Power is no new thing (writes* M.C.L.” in the Glasgow Observer'). As Cardinal Gibbons reminds us, though the first Pope, St. Peter, had no personal property, he received from the faithful large donations to be distributed in the relief f want and necessity. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that as many of the faithful as were owners of houses or lands sold them, “and brought the prices of the things which they sold, and laid them before the feet of the Apostles, and distribution was made to every one according as he had need.” (Acts iv.) Such was the confidence reposed in the Bishops of the Church by the first Christians, and such was their filial devotion. During the first, second, and third centuries of Christianity the Popes were unable, generally speaking, to hold property in Rome, for theirs was a proscribed religion, whose followers were subject to violent persecution. In the fourth century peace and liberty for the Church came with the Emperor Constantine, and he endowed it liberally with money and estate, which were added to by succeeding emperors. The Popes expended this wealth in works of charity and religion, in sending missionaries to pagan Europe, and in supporting exiled bishops in Rome, and in relieving the necessities of the poor. The Emperor Constantine transferred the seat of empire to Constantinople ; and the city of Rome, thus abandoned, was attacked by hordes of barbarians, Goths, Huns, and Vandals, who were over-running Italy, unable to obtain aid from the absent emperor, or from his deputy at Ravenna. The Roman citizens turned to the Pope for protection, and not in vain. The city was saved from plundering and pillage and its people from slaughter by Pope Leo the Great, who, unattended by any troops, met Attila and his army as they marched upon Rome and prevailed upon him to retire, one of the most wonderful scenes in history. A second time the same Pope prevailed upon another enemy, Genseric, to spare the people of Rome; and acts such as these were .naturally calculated to attach the Romans strongly to their spiritual Fathers, who proved themselves also wise and fearless governors. In the eighth century the King of the Lombards invaded Italy, and captured several cities, and having appealed vainly to the emperor for succor, Pope Stephen appealed in person to the King of France : this monarch defeated the invaders, and placed the Pope at the head of the Italian provinces, a grant confirmed by Charlemagne, the king's successor, who donated some additional provinces to the temporal domain of his Holiness, and the territory was from that time till 1870 governed by the bishops of Rome. Thus, to quote Cardinal Gibbons, the Pope possessed his temporality by tnree titles which render the tenure of a sovereign honest and incontestable,.namely, long possession, legitimate acquisition, and a just use of the original grant confided to him. The temporal dominion began in the eighth century, and the Pope’s civil authority was established neither by usurpation nor by the sword : he was called to rule by the voice of a grate! people, and the power he possessed bv their suffrage was ratified and sanctioned bv the sovereign act of France. Even the infidel Gibbon admits that the noblest title of the Popes to (he Temporal Power “is the tree choice of a people whom they had redeemed from slavery.” The end and aim of the Temporal Power was to secure for the 1 ’ope freedom and independence in the government of the Church. It follows from the doctrine that the Pope is Supreme Head of the Universal Church that he must be free to teach and guide his entire flock, and ought not to be a subject of any outside authority. As ruler of Christ’s Church, he must be independent, and unless he possesses a territory which is entirely his own he cannot have that independence to the full. He cannot forego his claim to the Temporal Power ; the Popes have always declared that it is the patrimony of St. Peter, not theirs, to give or forego. They are simply its administrators. Though robbed of his territory by Free-

masons and anti-Christians in 1870, the Pope is still independent by his continued protest against that spoliation and outrage, that sacrilegious plunder of the Church which had for its ultimate aim the destruction of the spiritual power held by the Pope as Vicar of Christ. It is urged by anti-Catholics that the Roman people by vote expressed their desire to be annexed to the Piedmontese Government ; which plea leaves unaltered the fact that the patrimony of the Pope was not theirs to give away ; it did not belong to them, for it had been granted to the Popes for the use and benefit of the Universal Church, not merely for the Roman citizens. Another fact, conveniently ignored by defenders of the spoliation, is that the vote took place under pressure, whilst an occupation army of about 100,000 men was in Rome. Moreover, the occupation was an act of injustice, which no vote could justify ; it was an act of violence, and a vote ordered and managed by the perpetrators of the violence could neither justify, alter, nor remedy the violence. The Papal party abstained from voting, in protest, and the vote given by the party of occupation was not even given fairly ; all Italians who entered Rome in the train of the army voted, all foreigners were admitted to vote, and bands of voters went from booth to booth and voted at more than one place. It is easy to show a huge majority when methods such as those are employed > For the rest the Popes received their territory from man, and what man gives man may take away. Rut the spiritual authority of the successor of St. Peter is above and beyond human aggression and spoliation ; no human power can destroy that or take that away. Through Peter Christ still teaches, still feeds His lambs and His sheep, still absolves from sin, and Peter still lives to bear witness until the end of time to the Divinity of the Master Who appointed him Head of the Church, Who founded on a rock that House against which rain and floods and winds beat in vain. No human power, no might of arms, no myriad votes, can render void the promises of Christ or take away what He has bestowed upon His Vicar on earth. “The gates of hell shall not prevail.”