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against schismatical princes, such as the Greeks and Russians; against pagans, like the Sclavonic tribes on the Baltic; against heretics, like the Vaudois, the Albigenses, and the Hussites (q).

A confusion of ideas generated a confusion of authorities. Heresy, which, if it attacked the law of the State, might be a political crime, was punished with equal severity when it was a religious error. Infidelity to the Church was put on the same footing as rebellion against the throne. The Inquisition secured to the ecclesiastical authority the arm of the secular power, without any right of inquiry or intervention as a condition of its use (r). Meanwhile the territory of the Roman See was, from various causes, largely increased; so also was her wealth, by contributions (annates) from all countries, and her power, from the causes already mentioned, to which should be added her claims to collate to benefices which, under the pretext of rights of concurrence and prevention, she often enforced to the injury of the national prelate (s).

It is true that many of these pretensions, especially the last, were founded upon the decretals of Isidore, now universally acknowledged to have been forged during the early part of the ninth century (t); but it is difficult to deny that they flowed, as strict logical consequences, from the principles on which Rome-who, to borrow the French expression "ne recule pas "--founded, both at this and at a much later period, her authority (u).

* (q) Koch, ib. 136, 137, notes.

(r) Portalis, ubi sup.

(8) Koch, 127, 111.

(t) "It is impossible to deny (Dean Milman says), that, at least by citing without reserve or hesitation, the Roman Pontiffs gave their deliberate sanction to this great historic fraud."-Hist. of Latin Christianity, vol. i. p. 379.

(u) Müller's defence is eloquent and ingenious:-" Wenn die Hierarchie ein Uebel wäre, besser doch als Despotie; sie sey eine leimerne Mauer, sie ist's doch gegen Tyrranei. Der Priester hat sein Gesetz, der Despot hat keins; jener beredet, letzterer zwingt; jener predigt Gott,

CCC. About 1152 A.D., the Decretum, a systematic compilation of the existing canons and laws of the Church, was compiled by Gratian and approved of by the Pope. About 1235 A.D., Pope Gregory IX. caused his chaplain to reduce into a regular order and system the constitutions. of former Popes, including with them his own, and also the canons of the third (x) and fourth (y) Councils of Lateran; these are the Decretals. The Sext or Sixth book of Decretals was added by Boniface VIII.; Clement V. began another compilation, afterwards published, called The Clementines; another was made by John XXII., constituting the Extravagantes Johannis. To this were added, in 1483, other decrees of Popes, the Extravagantes Communes. These celebrated compilations received the most deliberate stamp of the Roman Church's approbation, and were ordered to be publicly taught in all her schools, and to become the law of all her tribunals. The provisions contained in them have never been expressly repealed by the Papal authority which originally sanctioned them; though many canonists hold that some of them have fallen into desuetude.

These compilations constitute that body of Papal Law which is known by the name of Corpus Juris Canonici.

letzterer sich. Man spricht wider die Unfehlbarkeit; wer darf eine Verordnung unweise oder ungerecht nennen, und ihr Gehorsam versagen? -wider den Papst, als ob ein so grosses Unglück wäre, wenn ein Aufseher der christlichen Moral dem Ehrgeiz und der Tyrannei befehlen konnte, bis hieher und nicht weiter!-wider die Personalimmunität, als ob ein grosses Unglück wäre, das jemand ohne Lebensgefahr für die Rechte der Menschheit reden dürfte !-wider ihren Reichthum, als wären die Laien gebessert, wenn der Priester mit ihnen darbt!-wider Steuerfreiheit; die französische Clerisei giebt so viel als die Laien ;-wider Usurpationen, ohne zu berechnen was die Fürsten der Kirche zu restituiren hätten für Kriege, Bedrückungen, Commenden, Pensionen, Reunionen ;wider die vielen Klöster, nicht wider die Vermehrung der Kasernen ;— wider sechzigtausend ehelose Geistliche, und nicht wider hundert tausend ehelose Soldaten."-Müller, Fürstenbund. Werke, B. ix. S. 164, cited by Walter, Kirchenrecht, 41, note.

(x) Held in the time of Alexander III., A.D. 1179. (y) In the time of Innocent III., a.d. 1215.

It is intended to be the law of a Foreign Spiritual Chief for the government of a particular class of the subjects of independent States. To all nations, however, but the Roman States, it constitutes a body of Foreign Law. It is now universally acknowledged that it depends, as well as the jus novissimum, or later Canon Law, for its civil authority, upon the degree of Reception which has been accorded to it by the State.

Now in this body of Canon Law are contained, as will be seen in the following chapters, principles and doctrines utterly subversive of the independence of States, and inconsistent with the first principles of International Law.

CHAPTER IV.

THE CORPUS JURIS CANONICI-THE PRINCIPLES CONTAINED THEREIN, AND IN SUBSEQUENT BULLS, AT VARIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL LAW.

CCCI. THE Decretals which appear to be inconsistent with the independence of Foreign States, are known by the following titles, taken from the words with which they begin :

1. Venerabilem.

2. Solitæ.

3. Ad Apostolicæ.

4. Clericis Laicos.

5. Quod olim.

6. Unam Sanctam and Meruit.

7. Romani Principes.

8. Pastoralis.

9. Si Fratrum.

10. De Consuetudine.

CCCII. The Emperor Henry VI. died in A.D. 1197. The majority of the electoral Princes chose Philip of Swabia for his successor; the minority, Otho of Brunswick, son of Henry the Lion. Philip had been excommunicated by the Pope for spoliating the Church's property. Both Princes were crowned. Innocent III. sent a legate into Germany, ordering the Princes to acknowledge Otho.

Duke Berthold of Zahringen, with the other Princes who supported Philip, sent a complaint to the Pope that his legate had done wrong, whether he acted in the capacity of elector or of judge.

As an elector he had thrust his sickle into another man's harvest, and derogated from the rights of the Princes. As a judge he had decided in favour of one party in the absence of the other, who had not been cited.

Innocent replied to this in a letter which appears as the Thirty-fourth chapter of the Sixth title of the First book of the Decretals of Gregory IX., and begins with the word Venerabilem, and was issued probably in A.D. 1202. This Decretal opens with a recital of the above-mentioned complaints, and goes on to recognise the power of election to be by law and usage vested in the Princes: " præsertim cum "ad eos jus et potestas hujusmodi ab Apostolicâ sede per"venerit, quæ Romanum Imperium in personam magnifici "Caroli à Græcis transtulit in Germanos." The Princes, on the other hand, ought to acknowledge, and have acknowledged, "quod jus et auctoritas examinandi personam electam "in Regem, et promovendam ad Imperium, ad nos spectat, “qui eum inungimus, consecramus et coronamus. Est enim "regulariter et generaliter observatum, ut ad eum exami"natio personæ pertineat, ad quem impositio manûs spectat." The legate had not discharged the office of an elector (electoris) or a judge (cognitoris), but of a denouncer (denunciatoris) of an improper choice. The voters for the improper person had thrown away their votes (a). The unfitness of the chosen was indisputable; "sunt enim "notoria impedimenta Ducis, scilicet excommunicatio "publica, perjurium manifestum, et persecutio divulgata, quam progenitores ejus et ipse præsumpserunt in Apos"tolicam sedem et alias Ecclesias exercere."

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Moreover, the Duke had taken an oath against being Emperor. If it were an unlawful oath, it bound him as the Israelites were bound by their oath to the Gibeonites, though fraudulently procured.

(a) A maxim, it may be observed, subsequently incorporated into English jurisprudence.-Oldknow v. Wainwright, 2 Burrow's Reports,

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