THE BULL UNAM SANCTAM , 1302
On 18 November 1302, Pope Boniface VIII issued the Papal bull Unam sanctam which some historians consider one of the most extreme statements of Papal spiritual supremacy ever made. The original document is lost but a version of the text can be found in the registers of Boniface VIII in the Vatican Archives.
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.
from
The Popes: Every Question Answered [Hardcover]
Rupert Matthews (Author)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Popes-Every-Question-Answered/dp/1626862346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404455238&sr=1-1&keywords=popes+Rupert+Matthews
