18 November 1302 A.D. Boniface VIII’s Bull—Unam Sanctam, 1302
Halsall, Paul. “The Bull Unam
Sanctam, 1302.” Fordham University: The Jesuit University of New York. 23 Nov 1996. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/B8-unam.asp. Accessed 18 Sept 2014.
Medieval Sourcebook: Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, 1302
THE BULL UNAM SANCTAM , 1302
The Bull 'Unam Sanctam', in
which Pope Boniface VIII asserted his rights against King Phillip the Fair of
France, is a landmark in the history of the doctrine of Papal Primacy.
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia says: "The Bull lays down
dogmatic propositions on the unity of the Church, the necessity of belonging to
it for the attainment of eternal salvation, the position of the Pope as supreme
head of the Church, and the duty thence arising of submission to the Pope in
order to belong to the Church and thus to attain salvation. - in the writings
of non-Catholic authors against the definition of Papal Infallibility, the Bull
... was used against Boniface VIII as well as against the papal primacy in a
manner not justified by its content. The statements concerning the relations
between the spiritual and the secular power are of a purely historical
character, so far as they do not refer to the nature of the spiritual power,
and are based on the actual conditions of medieval Europe. 'Unam' is frequently
quoted, and misquoted, by anti-Catholics trying to prove that Boniface VIII,
and Popes in general, are arrogant and evil men, intent on extending their own
power."
The following English translation of 'Unam' is taken from a
doctoral dissertation written in the Dept. of Philosophy at the Catholic
University of America, and published by CUA Press in 1927.
UNAM SANCTAM (Promulgated November 18, 1302)
Urged by faith, we are obliged to believe and to maintain
that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We believe in her
firmly and we confess with simplicity that outside of her there is neither
salvation nor the remission of sins, as the Spouse in the Canticles [Sgs 6:8]
proclaims: 'One is my dove, my perfect one. She is the only one, the chosen of
her who bore her,' and she represents one sole mystical body whose Head is Christ
and the head of Christ is God [1 Cor 11:3]. In her then is one Lord, one faith,
one baptism [Eph 4:5]. There had been at the time of the deluge only one ark of
Noah, prefiguring the one Church, which ark, having been finished to a single
cubit, had only one pilot and guide, i.e., Noah, and we read that, outside of
this ark, all that subsisted on the earth was destroyed.
We venerate this Church as one, the Lord having said by the
mouth of the prophet: 'Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword and my only one
from the hand of the dog.' [Ps 21:20] He has prayed for his soul, that is for
himself, heart and body; and this body, that is to say, the Church, He has
called one because of the unity of the Spouse, of the faith, of the sacraments,
and of the charity of the Church. This is the tunic of the Lord, the seamless
tunic, which was not rent but which was cast by lot [Jn 19:23-24]. Therefore,
of the one and only Church there is one body and one head, not two heads like a
monster; that is, Christ and the Vicar of Christ, Peter and the successor of
Peter, since the Lord speaking to Peter Himself said: 'Feed my sheep' [Jn
21:17], meaning, my sheep in general, not these, nor those in particular,
whence we understand that He entrusted all to him [Peter]. Therefore, if the
Greeks or others should say that they are not confided to Peter and to his
successors, they must confess not being the sheep of Christ, since Our Lord
says in John 'there is one sheepfold and one shepherd.' We are informed by the
texts of the gospels that in this Church and in its power are two swords;
namely, the spiritual and the temporal. For when the Apostles say: 'Behold,
here are two swords' [Lk 22:38] that is to say, in the Church, since the
Apostles were speaking, the Lord did not reply that there were too many, but
sufficient. Certainly the one who denies that the temporal sword is in the
power of Peter has not listened well to the word of the Lord commanding: 'Put
up thy sword into thy scabbard' [Mt 26:52]. Both, therefore, are in the power of
the Church, that is to say, the spiritual and the material sword, but the
former is to be administered _for_ the Church but the latter by the Church; the
former in the hands of the priest; the latter by the hands of kings and
soldiers, but at the will and sufferance of the priest.
However, one sword ought to be subordinated to the other and
temporal authority, subjected to spiritual power. For since the Apostle said:
'There is no power except from God and the things that are, are ordained of
God' [Rom 13:1-2], but they would not be ordained if one sword were not
subordinated to the other and if the inferior one, as it were, were not led
upwards by the other.
For, according to the Blessed Dionysius, it is a law of the
divinity that the lowest things reach the highest place by intermediaries.
Then, according to the order of the universe, all things are not led back to
order equally and immediately, but the lowest by the intermediary, and the
inferior by the superior. Hence we must recognize the more clearly that
spiritual power surpasses in dignity and in nobility any temporal power
whatever, as spiritual things surpass the temporal. This we see very clearly
also by the payment, benediction, and consecration of the tithes, but the
acceptance of power itself and by the government even of things. For with truth
as our witness, it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial
power and to pass judgement if it has not been good. Thus is accomplished the
prophecy of Jeremias concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power:
'Behold to-day I have placed you over nations, and over kingdoms' and the rest.
Therefore, if the terrestrial power err, it will be judged by the spiritual
power; but if a minor spiritual power err, it will be judged by a superior spiritual
power; but if the highest power of all err, it can be judged only by God, and
not by man, according to the testimony of the Apostle: 'The spiritual man
judgeth of all things and he himself is judged by no man' [1 Cor 2:15]. This
authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man),
is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and
reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed,
the Lord saying to Peter himself, 'Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be
bound also in Heaven' etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power
thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent
like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since
according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the
beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]. Furthermore, we declare,
we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every
human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.
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