“…superior papal authority and dominion is derived from the law of the Caesars.” Lucius Ferraris, in “Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica, Juridica, Moralis, Theologica, Ascetica, Polemica, Rubristica, Historica”, Volume V, article on “Papa, Article II”, titled “Concerning the extent of Papal dignity, authority, or dominion and infallibility”, #19, published in Petit-Montrouge (Paris) by J. P. Migne, 1858 edition.
“…the appellation of God had been confirmed by Constantine on the Pope, who being God, cannot be judged by man.” Pope Nicholas I, quoted in History of the Councils, vol. IX, Dist.: 96, Can 7, “Satis Evidentur Decret Gratian Primer Para”, by Labbe and Cossart.
“Long ages ago, when Rome through the neglect of the Western emperors was left to the mercy of the barbarous hordes, the Romans turned to one figure for aid and protection, and asked him to rule them; and thus, . . . commenced the temporal sovereignty of the popes. And meekly stepping to the throne of Caesar, the vicar of Christ took up the scepter to which the emperors and kings of Europe were to bow in reverence through so many ages.”–American Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 1911.
“Out of the ruins of political Rome, arose the great moral Empire in the ‘giant form’ of the Roman Church.”–A.C. Flick, The Rise of the Mediaeval Church, 1909, p. 150.
“Under the Roman Empire the popes had no temporal powers. But when the Roman Empire had disintegrated and its place had been taken by a number of rude, barbarous kingdoms, the Roman Catholic church not only became independent of the states in religious affairs, but dominated secular affairs as well. At times, under such rulers as Charlemagne (768-814), Otto the Great (936-973), and Henry III (1039-1056), the civil power controlled the church to some extent; but in general, under the weak political system of feudalism, the well-organized, unified, and centralized church, with the pope at its head, was not only independent in ecclesiastical affairs but also controlled civil affairs“–Carl Conrad Eckhardt, The Papacy and World-Affairs, The University of Chicago Press, 1937, P. 1.
Pope Pius IX, in his “Discorsi” (I., p. 253), said: “The Caesar who now addresses you, and to whom alone are obedience and fidelity due.”
[Speaking of the time, about 500 A.D., when the Roman Empire was crumbling to pieces:] “No, the [Catholic] Church will not descend into the tomb. It will survive the Empire . . . At length a second empire will arise, and of this empire the Pope will be the master–more then this, he will be the master of Europe. He will dictate his orders to kings who will obey them”–Andrea Lagarde, The Latin Church in the Middle Ages, 1915, p. vi.
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